Isn’t that a critical part of being a writer? Research:

• answers questions. You’re chatting with friends about global warming. You-all wonder–how much hotter is it
  

  How old are alligators?

  today than it used to be. You jump on Google and find out–the Global surface temperature increased 0.74 degrees in the last hundred years. You read a bit further and find out it’s cooler today than two million years ago. We’re in an ice age. that’s confusing. You either keep reading or put it on your ‘todo’ list for later.

• gives you ‘insider knowledge’ about whatever you choose. when you’re visiting DisneyWorld and the everglades, it’s always good to know that crocodiles have been around for over 200 million years. that means they aren’t likely to become extinct before your trip is over. You think about it and decide they do fit their environment pretty well, even if that ‘environment’ is disappearing.
• Puts you in the driver’s seat–you know stuff no one else does. Everyone has a friend whose debate technique is only one fact deep. When you throw those pesky facts at them, they don’t know what to do. (They either insult your lineage or making excuses.)

Here’s what I’m researching for my new book:

• DNA computers
• Islam
• Homo erectus
• cybercrimes
• cloaking devices–I’m concentrating on ‘metamaterials’

Five Grammatical Errors that Make You Look Dumb

Help!

I didn’t come up with these. This is Part II of Brian’s rant against poor grammar in writing. If you’re a bibliophile or a neologist or any of those types that love words, read on:

by Brian Clark

One thing blogging and good copywriting share is a conversational style, and that means it’s fine to fracture the occasional rule of proper grammar in order to communicate effectively. Both bloggers and copywriters routinely end sentences with prepositions, dangle a modifier in a purely technical sense, or make liberal use of the ellipsis when an EM dash is the correct choice—all in order to write in the way people actually speak.

But there are other mistakes that can detract from your credibility. While we all hope what we have to say is more important than some silly grammatical error, the truth is some people will not subscribe or link to your blog if you make dumb mistakes when you write, and buying from you will be out of the question.

Here are five mistakes to avoid when blogging and writing web copy.

1. Your vs. You’re

This one drives me insane, and it’s become extremely common among bloggers. All it takes to avoid this error is to take a second and think about what you’re trying to say.

“Your” is a possessive pronoun, as in “your car” or “your blog.” “You’re” is a contraction for “you are,” as in “you’re screwing up your writing by using your when you really mean you are.”

2. It’s vs. Its

This is another common mistake. It’s also easily avoided by thinking through what you’re trying to say.

“It’s” is a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” “Its” is a possessive pronoun, as in “this blog has lost its mojo.” Here’s an easy rule of thumb—repeat your sentence out loud using “it is” instead. If that sounds goofy, “its” is likely the correct choice.

3. There vs. Their

This one seems to trip up everyone occasionally, often as a pure typo. Make sure to watch for it when you proofread.

“There” is used many ways, including as a reference to a place (“let’s go there”) or as a pronoun (“there is no hope”). “Their” is a plural possessive pronoun, as in “their bags” or “their opinions.” Always do the “that’s ours!” test—are you talking about more than one person and something that they possess? If so, “their” will get you there.

4. Affect vs. Effect

To this day I have to pause and mentally sort this one out in order to get it right. As with any of the other common mistakes people make when writing, it’s taking that moment to get it right that makes the difference.

“Affect” is a verb, as in “Your ability to communicate clearly will affect your income immensely.” “Effect” is a noun, as in “The effect of a parent’s low income on a child’s future is well documented.” By thinking in terms of “the effect,” you can usually sort out which is which, because you can’t stick a “the” in front of a verb. While some people do use “effect” as a verb (“a strategy to effect a settlement”), they are usually lawyers, and you should therefore ignore them if you want to write like a human.

5. The Dangling Participle

The dangling participle may be the most egregious of the most common writing mistakes. Not only will this error damage the flow of your writing, it can also make it impossible for someone to understand what you’re trying to say.

Check out these two examples from Tom Sant’s book Persuasive Business Proposals:

After rotting in the cellar for weeks, my brother brought up some oranges.

Uhh… keep your decomposing brother away from me!

Featuring plug-in circuit boards, we can strongly endorse this server’s flexibility and growth potential.

Hmmm… robotic copy written by people embedded with circuit boards. Makes sense.

The problem with both of the above is that the participial phrase that begins the sentence is not intended to modify what follows next in the sentence. However, readers mentally expect it to work that way, so your opening phrase should always modify what immediately follows. If it doesn’t, you’ve left the participle dangling, as well as your readers.

P.S. You may find it amusing to know that I, like David Ogilvy, have never learned the formal rules of grammar. I learned to write by reading obsessively at an early age, but when it came time to learn the “rules,” I tuned out. If you show me an incorrect sentence, I can fix it, but if I need to know the technical reason why it was wrong in the first place, I go ask my wife.

I borrowed these from Brian Clark at Copyblogger.

1. Write.
2. Write more.
3. Write even more.
4. Write even more than that.
5. Write when you don’t want to.
6. Write when you do.
7. Write when you have something to say.
8. Write when you don’t.
9. Write every day.
10. Keep writing.

This is why all writers should have at least one blog, a website, a writer’s group and a network in their industry they chat with online.

I had to clean this up and shorten it. For the original version, visit Netlingo.

1. ASL – Age/Sex/Location
2. CD9 – Code 9 – it means parents are around
3. KPC – Keeping Parents Clueless
4. LMIRL – Let’s Meet In Real Life
5. MOS – Mom Over Shoulder
6. NMU – Not Much, You?
7. P911 – Parent Alert
8. PAL – Parents Are Listening
9. RU/18 – Are You Over 18?
10. WYCM – Will You Call Me?

The MIT Guy takes way too long to get to his point, but it’s worth the investment of time:

Fun, isn’t it?

Spread the word about your writing--blogs, wikis, websites, books

The current favorite for getting people to visit your website, blog, whatever (if you don’t have enough friends to spread the word). I’ve read a lot about them, tried the tricks. Added metatags and deleted unnecessary flash and graphics. I’ve become a pro at it, so I’m going to share the ’secrets’. That way, you don’t have to search the internet for days on end like I did. My friends at Buzzle.com put them into a list which I’ve reproduced for you:

Secret #1: Don’t optimize for a single keyword, optimize for a keyword phrase.
When you optimize for a single keyword, more often than not, that word is highly competitive and your chances of coming out on top are minimal. Where you gain a significant advantage is by focusing on a keyword phrase. This actually increases your chances of ranking well and ultimately helps you towards ranking well for the single word you originally chose.

Secret #2: Place your keyword phrase within the first 25 words of text, and the last 25 words of the page. The h1 tag can be used for developing a headline on your page and emphasizing your keyword phrase within the beginning of your page text (search engines love h1 tags). Another suggestion is to use your keyword phrase just after your copyright notice on the bottom of your webpage. This ensures that it is present within the last 25 words of your page.

Secret #3: Place your keyword phrase in your page title and description. Additionally, place the keyword phrase throughout your page – being sure to bold the phrase once, italicize the phrase once, and underline the phrase once. Mention your keyword phrase every paragraph or so. Just make sure that it appears natural. If you stuff the page with your keywords, you’ll potentially turn off browsers who would otherwise find your page valuable.

Secret #4: Get other sites to link to you. There are a number of ways to improve link popularity. Although I won’t recommend a specific link building tool, I will say that there have been a number of good products developed that simplify the process. It still takes time and hard work, but over time, increasing the number of sites linking to your website can pay huge dividends.

Secret #5: Make sure that incoming links are of high quality (sites with a high Google page rank). It’s not only important to have other sites link to you, it’s also important to have quality sites link to you.

Secret #6: Anchor text must include your keyword phrase. When other sites link to you, make sure the link includes your keyword phrase. Sites that link to your domain can help with overall page rank and popularity, but websites who link to you using your keyword phrase (in the anchor text) are what get you to the top of search engine result lists.

Secret #7: Give people a reason to link to your website. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, white papers, free content or tools, etc., but ultimately it comes down to offering something of value. If you do, other websites will give you their “vote”, increasing your link popularity and your search engine results.

In case these don’t make sense (or maybe it’s just too many words on the page), try this video:

Either way, you get the idea. Now go back and finish your novel!

Here’s the rest of them. Twenty words should satisfy your ‘inner geek’.

1. keylogger–short for keystroke logging. A nefarious program that records a user’s keystrokes, like your password
2. poke–to reach out and virtually touch someone. However, while “poking” is a popular way to interact with your friends on Facebook, it can mean different things to different people and it can have a sexual connotation. (If you think there’s room for misinterpretation, it’s safer not to poke at all.)
3. prairie dogging–when someone makes a loud commotion in a cube farm and everyones heads pop up over the walls to see what’s going on. Can you see that mental picture?
4. smart clothes–clothing, such as a shirt, that is woven with optical fibers that can send and receive electrical impulses. The purpose is to monitor vital signs (like heart rate and breathing) for athletes or the infirmed. Smart clothes are also making appearances on Paris runways, featuring fashionable fabrics that change color in response to different lighting
5. stealth mode–under the radar; what you do to avoid your bosses notice
6. technobabble–use all these words together, in one sentence, and it’s ‘technobabble’. Used to overwhelm newbies and give a false sense of superiority to people in the industry who use such jargon.
7. vulcan nerve pinch–Keyboard commands that tax the hand’s ability to reach all of the appropriate keys. They make Ctrl+Alt+Delete look simple

Thank you, NetLingo, for educating me. Now for some entertainment…

I write techno-thrillers, so I’m always reading about computers, technology, the Latest Stuff. Here are some of my

Geeks come in all sizes

favorite Geek Speak words (Computer nerds are so neologistic):

1. alpha geek–the most technologically savvy dude in the company
2. amazonned–amazonized, means you’ve lost a chunk of your business to a dot-com.
3. back hack–when you get hacked, you return the favor
4. beta baby–child born to a high-tech pro after 1995
5. code 18–Used by tech support to disguise when they’re calling a technical issue user-caused. They’re so PC
6. cyberterrorism–terror on a computer
7. digital jewelry–any hi-tech stuff you wear around your neck–ipods, phones, etc.
8. edress–an electronic address (IP, IM, email, etc.)
9. idea hampster–Someone who always has his/her idea generator running
10. inner geek–the techie deep within each of us

Want more? I’ll be posting Part II, or try NetLingo. You’ll find a clever term for everything techie, to satisfy your inner geek (see above).

Every chance possible, I like to use the eloquence of others to make my point.

1. We’re surrounded. That simplifies the problem.  – Chesty Puller, USMC
2. “Luge strategy? Lie flat and try not to die.” – Carmen Boyle, Olympic Luge Gold Medal Winner, 1996
3. “No one comes close.”US Air Force
4. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. – Edmund Burke
5. Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.- Mark Twain
6. “Do not go gentle into that good night.” –Dylan Thomas
7. If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. — Derek Bok
8. My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint. — Erma Brombeck
9. Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result. — Sir Winston Churchill
10. Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler — Albert Einstein

Headline:

Americans Increasingly Skeptical of Obama’s Pledge of Fiscal Discipline as Deficit Grows

With each spending proposal President Obama rolls out, the deficit grows astronomically and the American people are growing more concerned.

The Polls

Despite Obama making this pledge over and over again in past weeks, a series of recent polls indicate that Americans aren’t convinced:

- A New York Times/CBS News poll shows 60 percent of Americans do not believe the president has a strategy to reduce the deficit.

- A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll says 58 percent of Americans want the president to make controlling the deficit a higher priority than a speedy economic recovery.

- A Pew Research Center poll indicates 55 percent of Americans are optimistic the president will eventually reduce the budget deficit, but that’s a smaller number than the 61 percent of people who approve of him generally.

Why?

• $38 billion for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization between 2010 and 2019
• $787 billion fiscal stimulus bill
• $75 billion homeowner stability program
• $125 billion “place holder” of additional financial stabilization funds (if needed)
• $22 billion for Cap and Trade program in 2020