The Fate of Punctuation

This past week, the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary folks announced they had added over 150 new words, including hashtag and selfie—words increasingly used by many people in social networking—to the classic volume. Even though a word may have become popular in usage, it takes a while for it to make it to the big leagues and the dictionary. You might say this also applies to spelling. But the same doesn’t go for punctuation or English usage. Their acceptance comes from continued correct or incorrect usage. The more they’re used, the sooner their use becomes acceptable by the public. But the process can take a long time.

The French have their National Academy, which acts as a watchdog over their language. For anything, including punctuation, to be used in the French language, it must first be approved by the National Academy. Unfortunately, the United States doesn’t have any such watchdog institution.

Every profession has rules and writing is no different. To be successful at writing—and for many that means getting published—you need to know and follow the rules, and that includes the rules for punctuation.

Some beginning writers feel they need to ignore these as a way these as a way of developing their own style. But every artist, including writers, starts by learning the basics. The unique thing about writing is that it’s a language art. And in order for everyone to communicate clearly, every language has usage rules, including those for punctuation. While you may be communicating in English, the same would apply if you were writing in Spanish, French, German, or any other language.

However, many beginning writers are led astray by the blatant ignoring of basic rules by published professionals, all in the name of style. Many big name writers do this to attract attention to their work. And their publishers go along with it because these writers make lots of money for them. In these cases, ignoring the traditional rules of punctuation is profit based rather than language based.

What some famous writers don’t realize is the effect their work has on writers who look up to them. They don’t see that they have a responsibility to all those that follow them to present their work in the best possible light.

So how did all this miss-use start? Email seems to be the culprit in most cases. Since its inception, there have been no rules governing how anyone writes anything in their messages. Originally used by academics to exchange notes, Email quickly evolved into the message medium for college students, who saw this it as a way to defy the rules of the English language which they had to adhere to in their studies. Soon this ignoring of the rules spread downward to high school students. And the problem got worse since Email had no rules, communication with it became an “anything goes” concept. Even today, most people still aren’t sure if they should adhere to good English usage or just do whatever they want.

Punctuation—or the lack of it— soon became a problem in other types of writing. Some Email users used no punctuation while others wrote in phrases instead of coherent sentences. Both came about because student users and soon everyone viewed Email as a personal communication medium in which both the sender and receiver knew each other fairly well. Soon all users adopted a casual style to Email.

But then something began to happen. That same casual style used in Email messages began to appear in articles, stories, and even books. If a lot of people used this style in their Emails and in online forums, many writers assumed it was okay to use it in their work. But in many cases it isn’t okay because not using the right punctuation, for example, can prevent clarity and ease of reading. Good examples include using two forms of punctuation at the end of a sentence when only one will do (?!) or (!!!!!) or using punctuation marks incorrectly, such as using an ellipse (...) outside of quotation marks to trail off the end of a sentence. While the latter may not be confusing to the reader, the former certainly is.

Developing a PR Plan

It used to be if you were an author, your publishing house would promote you and your books. Today, with tight budgets and the competition from ebooks, many publishing houses leave the promotion of books up to you, the writer. And if you’re going the ebook route, then promotion is all up to you. Whether you’re a book author or another type of freelance writer, you’ll have to come up with a public relations plan if you want to make your books and such a success.

Developing your own public relations (PR) plan is an important ingredient in your total marketing mix. It helps expand your reach into other areas, reinforcing any advertising you may have done or are planning to do. Your PR plan doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should lay out some basic directions for you to follow.

A PR plan should be a well-developed part of your ongoing work as a freelancer. Good public relations requires organization, discovering who your target market is—in other words, the public in your public relations—, and how you can be of benefit your target, and how you can best tell them about what you have to offer. Your target will shift depending on what you’re trying to promote. If you’re promoting your work as a magazine writer, then your target will be magazine editors. However, if you’re promoting a new ebook, then your target will be your readers since you’re offering your book direct to them.

Use your own enthusiasm and energy to not only create your plan but keep it together.  The first step is brainstorming. Think of all the usual groups that you might approach—college students and teachers, teenagers, religious groups, art groups, service clubs, social service agencies, etc. You’ll no doubt come up with many others, such as government officials, Chambers of Commerce, social groups, study clubs, senior citizens, ethnic groups, professional organizations, even friends of your local library. After you've made a list of targets, combine them with your objectives to develop your own unique strategy.

Basically, any thoughtful campaign you use to make your abilities known to a new market or to remind an editor of your talents, will have three objectives: promoting good will, supporting ongoing  publicity about yourself and your skills, and obtaining new and better assignments.

Examine the situation as you would any writing project. First, analyze what you think would best suit your objectives. Once you know that, research your markets for overlooked areas and contacts. Thoroughly check details and statistics involved before you make your pitch. And finally, consider your resources and how best to apply them. Naturally, your objectives must be geared to the results you wish to obtain and how much you can afford to spend in time and money to get them.

If you’re promoting yourself to magazine editors, for example, create a schedule for reminding them that you're still available. You know the old saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.”  Occasionally, send a copy of  an article you've published to other editors simply for their enjoyment. You never know when one of them may ask for permission to reprint it. Create a “What’s New” page on your Web site and send out E-mail announcements with a link to it.

If you’re writing and publishing books, try to get your book reviewed—hopefully, a positive one—and send the review to editors or other interested parties. Stories about you in newspapers and in online blogs are a great form of free PR. The same goes for speaking engagements. Keep copies of letters or emails thanking you for your good work at conferences or other speaking venues. Also post them on your Web site, so visitors can read what others are saying about you.

Keep up-to-date background material about your work circulating everywhere. Never assume information about you gets to the right or helpful source without your guidance.

And finally, a PR plan is only as good as its effectiveness.  Note what works and what doesn’t, then adjust your plan accordingly.

Staying Afloat Without a Paddle

As important as the quality of your writing is to freelancing, so should your financial base. Too many beginning writers only daydream about how wonderful it would be to strike out on their own and get paid for their writing. In order to stay afloat while freelancing, especially in the beginning while you’re opening markets and gathering clients, you must have money to pay your bills.

If you’ve ever bought a house, you know how careful you have to inspect it. Once you sign the sales agreement, you’re stuck with it, no matter what problems may arise. The same goes for severing the financial cord to your fill-time job. By doing thorough research and planning carefully, you’ll be able to concentrate on your writing and not have to worry about how you’re going to buy food or pay for heat and fuel for your car.

When I began freelancing, I decided that if I had to work part-time at any point in my freelance career that I would only get a job at something related to what I was doing. I figured that if I working thinking and working with writing or any of the subjects I wrote about then I might also gain some knowledge or insights to help me in my writing. I wrote about travel and tourism, so I worked as a travel agent. I wrote about the Internet and technology, so I learned to design Web sites for small businesses. I even did public relations writing—I got plenty of press releases and learned to write good ones from them.

But the job that has offered me the most opportunities was teaching what I loved to do best—writing. No, I didn’t teach in public school or college. Over the years, I’ve taught continued education courses at a number of colleges and universities as well as community evening schools in my area. I knew that I really couldn’t write all day and all night, so I scheduled my classes during the evening hours. No course is longer than eight weeks and each session runs for two hours. I work as an independent contractor, thus setting my own schedule and creating and writing my own courses. Once a course is “in the bag,” I just have to reap the profits.

The experience I gained teaching writing courses propelled me into an even more lucrative sideline—business writing workshops. I earn more in a six-hour day doing this than writing two or three articles. But instead of presenting these workshop constantly, I’m selective and only do them occasionally.

Another sideline related to my course work is lecturing. I’ve amassed loads of information on a variety of subjects, as well as photographs of the same. I began assembling these into one-hour lectures that I present at retirement centers and at conferences. Again, once a lecture is all assembled, it’s easy to draw from my inventory and reap the profits.

When, do you ask, do I have time to write? Believe it or not, I have a lot of time because I set my own schedule. All my teaching venues know that if something comes up, I may need to cancel a class and make it up later. All have been very accommodating. Plus, I get all sorts of ideas when teaching others.

My Web design business kicks in when times are slow. It takes a lot to put a good site together, so I take on only one client at a time. The pay is usually worth it.

During the recent economic downturn, my ability to turn a profit with my other ventures has paid off handsomely. All of these ventures come under the umbrella of Bob Brooke Communications, my brand name and the company I created.