----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BETTER WRITING SKILLS NEWSLETTER, March 2008 By Tim North of Scribe Consulting (http://www.scribe.com.au) http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the March 2008 Better Writing Skills newsletter. IN THIS ISSUE 1. Does jargon help a resume? 2. What do "biannual" and "biweekly" mean to you? 3. How should we punctuate this dialogue? 4. Is it okay to write "these ones" and "those ones"? 5. Just for fun Your comments and questions are always welcome. Just send e-mail to: info@BetterWritingSkills.com Cheers, Tim North Perth, Western Australia ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Does jargon help a resume? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My first correspondent this month wrote in with a question about the wording of his resume. (Because he's applying for a job, I'll avoid using his name and call him John.) I have a hyphenation question for you. I'm putting together a resume and am not sure whether to hyphenate "fitness-for-use" in the following sentence: "I worked with internal customers to define fitness-for-use of our products." John, let me take a step back and say that I think that the hyphens are the least of your worries with that sentence. :-) "Fitness for use" (hyphenated or not) and "internal customers" strike me as unnecessarily wordy, even jargonistic. I'd rewrite the sentence in plainer English like so: I helped our staff to better understand the requirements that our products have to meet. I think this is a clearer statement. For the record, I've never believed the claim that resumes have to be full of jargon and buzzwords to be effective. Personally, I think the reverse is true. In reply to these comments, John went on to say: In this situation I'm applying for an internal job where I know the members of the hiring team will understand the jargon. Does that make it any less of a sin to use jargon? The trap here is that you may be assuming that everyone understands the jargon fully, even new staff. Also, if these terms aren't explicitly defined, they may mean different things to different people. I once worked with a group of people who were using a lot of jargon. When I asked them about it, they assured me that "We all know what these words mean". I challenged them to each write down their definition of a commonly used jargon term. Much to their shock (and subsequent amusement), they all defined it differently! That's the problem with jargon. It's frequently just picked up on the job. Jargon and buzzwords are usually not clearly defined. Thus they can be misunderstood or, worse, used to mean different things. In his reply John wrote: You raise an interesting point about whether jargon and buzzwords increase the effectiveness of a resume. I've reviewed a fair number of resumes from job seekers and I think there's a sweet spot. I've certainly seem resumes with so many buzzwords that it turns me off, but I think some level of jargon says, "Hey, we speak the same language and share some common ground." This is a valuable point. I'm certainly not suggesting dumbing things down or being condescending. Here's how I define plain English: Plain English is anything that the intended audience can understand first time they read it. The key here is "intended audience". Plain English for doctors can certainly include medical jargon, just as plain English for lawyers can include legal jargon. The trick is not to use medical jargon with the lawyers or vice versa. Unfortunately, writing at a level that your audience will understand requires you to know what every member of your audience knows and doesn't know. As this is information that we generally don't have, we have to guess at it. Because of our own familiarity with the topic, we usually overestimate what our audience will understand. We thus include jargon, acronyms and technical language that confuse some of them. Aiming to produce plain English will go a long way towards making your writing clearer for others. As a bonus, it will give you a reputation as a great writer. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2008 Tim North: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. What do "biannual" and "biweekly" mean to you? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My conversation with John, above, was an extended and pleasant one. We further discussed the use of plain English and he made these observations: I'll often pick up on these buzzwords and ask for detail in an interview to make sure the person really understands what the term means and he didn't just throw it in there to earn brownie points. [Speaking of jargon, is the phrase "brownie points" used in Australia?] It is, but asking was clearly the right thing to do. Sounds like you're getting the hang of this. :-) You comments have prompted me to review my resume again, especially hyphens. I came across the word "bi-annual meeting" by which I meant a meeting held every two years. I remembered your rule about most prefixes except ex and self not needing hyphens so I was worried about this one. I looked it up in Webster's and was shocked to see that biannual (no hyphen) means twice a year. You've made another important point. Let's say that you research words like "biannual" and "biweekly" thoroughly and can use them correctly every time. Should you? I think we'd both agree that the answer is a resounding "no!". While your research will have given you an understanding of the technically correct use of these words, it's certain that a large proportion of your audience doesn't share that understanding. As Webster's Dictionary notes: The chief difficulty is that many users of these words assume that others know exactly what they mean. It's been fun. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2008 Tim North: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. How should we punctuate this dialogue? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My next correspondent, Margaret, wrote: Is it OK to have this? She jumped onto a stump "I'm the king of the castle and you're a dirty rascal." The issue here is how do we connect the fragment that ends with "stump" to the dialogue that follows? Should they be separate sentences? If not, how should we punctuate this? English is flexible, so there are usually several equally acceptable ways to do things. In this case, using US-English punctuation as an example, we could write: 1. She jumped onto a stump. "I'm the king of the castle and you're a dirty rascal." [Two sentences] 2. She jumped onto a stump and cried, "I'm the king of the castle and you're a dirty rascal!" [One sentence] 3. She jumped onto a stump. "I'm the king of the castle and you're a dirty rascal!" she cried. [Two sentences] Many other similar variations also exist. British English would modify these by moving some of the punctuation outside the quotes. This may end up being the subject of an article in another newsletter. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2008 Tim North: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- Do you know someone who'd like this newsletter? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Do you have a friend or colleague who'd find the Better Writing Skills newsletter interesting? If so, please feel free to send a copy of this issue to them. Alternatively, please tell them they can browse back issues here: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com/newsletter.html Thanks for helping to make this newsletter so successful! ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Is it okay to write "these ones" and "those ones"? ----------------------------------------------------------------- A previous correspondent, Roslyn, has written back asking: Where did the term/s 'these ones' and 'those ones' suddenly come/appear from? I must confess that I stared at this question for some time before understanding the issue. (That's entirely my fault, not Roslyn's.) After some research I discovered that the phrases "these ones" and "those ones" are frequently frowned upon by users of US English. They are rather common, though, in the British English that I use -– hence my initial confusion. Should you use them? In short, it may be best to avoid them if you're using US English, but they seem fairly well accepted in British English. If you'd care for a lengthier discussion of why they're frowned on in some circles, you'll find a helpful discussion of the topic here: http://tinyurl.com/2bckpy Hope this helps. -- (c) 2008 Tim North: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Just for fun ----------------------------------------------------------------- This month a friend, Peter, sent me the following tongue-in- cheek, contemporary Latin phrases: "Sharpei diem." Seize the wrinkled dog. "Domino vobiscum." The pizza guy is here. "Motorolus interruptus." Hold on, I'm going into a tunnel. "Sic semper tyrannus." Your dinosaur is ill. "Veni, vidi, velcro" I came; I saw; I stuck around. Enjoy. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Would you like more help with your writing? ----------------------------------------------------------------- On my Better Writing Skills web site, you'll find my range of jargon-free, downloadable e-books that will help you to become a better writer. These e-books will help you with business proposals, report writing, term papers, technical writing, grant writing, creative writing and more. http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com/ebooks.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- REPRODUCING THIS MATERIAL You are welcome to reproduce the articles that are copyrighted by Tim North, but please don't modify or sell them. Also, please provide a clickable link back to: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com Additional freely republishable articles can be found here: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com/free-articles.html FUTURE MAILINGS You can prevent (or receive) future mailings by visiting this page: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com/newsletter.html This is a GENUINE service, and you will not receive any unsolicited e-mail as a result. You have my word on it. -----------------------------------------------------------------