Association Puzzle

The Rules of Edit-quette

One of the rules I live by is this: Behind every great writer is an editor.

These are the rules I think a great editor should follow:  

1) Writing is very personal. If you tell someone their writing is not good, it is like telling them their child is ugly.

2) Do not edit to the point that the writer is driven to despair. A light touch with the blue pencil is usually all that is needed.

3) Do not insert your voice over the voice of the author. It is their words and message, not yours!

4) The secret to great writing is re-writing. A gentle nudge to the writer to rethink their work will lead to a better end product rather than returning a piece covered in red ink or blue pencil marks.

5) Spelling and grammar *are* important. Do not let a writer tell you otherwise. A writer with no respect for words is not a real writer.

6) Do not fall victim to the "changing-happy-for-glad" trap. If the word works, leave it. Do not change a word for the sake of change.

7) Flow changes the impact of written work. Do not be afraid to move an entire paragraph to a different part of the piece. Moving the third paragraph to the first paragraph can be powerful!

Editors may not get the glory, but a strong editor can get satisfaction from knowing they helped make a piece the best it can be. When it comes to your own work, be kind to yourself and follow these rules with your most important writer-client: you! 

Thoughts on Social Media: Shared at the 2008 WIW Conference

Social media is any form of communication that connects people with each other and with ideas or news. For example, the ancient marketplace was a form of social media; that is where everyone went to find out what was going on and to see what was happening with others.

 

The concept of “cafe society,” the idea of seeing and being seen, most popularized by the Parisians is another example of social media.

 

The telephone was an advance in social media; for the first time, people across town or across the world, could be connected. I remember my mother and her friends talking on the phone for hours – it was how they stayed connected when they couldn’t see each other.

 

Now, we have the internet and electronic communication. Email, instant messaging, cell phones – which removed the requirement of being near the phone – online services like LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace, connect not only our voices but our photos and our writings.

 

Age is not a barrier to social media, but we do have to adjust to the new ways of staying connected. It is called “evolution,” and I would pose the theory people ages 35 to 50 are the most adaptable generation. We weren’t raised with computers or technology, but we not only adopted these changes, we embraced them.

 

Associations are organizations that connect people; in many ways, they are the original “social media” as far as being a tool to stay connected as opposed to individuals doing it informally.

 

However, associations seem to be having a tough time adjusting to the newer social media tools. Rather than seeing their usefulness, many are being distracted by their “technology-ness” as opposed to seeing them as an evolution in tools, just like the telephone replaced the marketplace, or neighbors talking over the back fence.

 

Like any tool, social media needs to be chosen for the task at hand and the audience to be reached.

One Word

When I was in the shower this morning, I was singing my heart out like most people do.  I don't know if it's the acoustics or the isolation, but there's something about the shower that makes you feel free to belt out a tune or two with no hesitation.

All this singing got me to thinking about my Dad, who had a beautiful singing voice.  Coupled with his dark good looks, we all believed he easily could have been a singing star like Dean Martin.  Dad never did try his hand at singing professionally, but he never stopped singing.  He sang with friends at parties, working around the house, and driving around in the car --whenever he felt a song coming on he let loose.

He tended to be happy more than sad (although he had his moments like we all do), but overall, Dad liked to have fun and to laugh.  Singing was just an outgrowth of his generally happy personality. 

Dad was a veteran of World War II, so you'd think he might just want to sing war ditties and Perry Como tunes, which were always a big hit at our house.  However, he liked to listen to what was new or popular on the radio, and if there was a current song he liked he would learn it and sing it. 

One of the songs he liked to sing was "Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles.  One day when I was about 9 or 10 years old, I was out with Dad running errands, and he started singing "Eleanor Rigby."  Instead of singing "look at all the lonely people" I noticed that he sang "look at all the lovely people."

I pointed out to him that he sounded good, but the lyrics weren't correct.  He looked at me and said, "I know, but I think it sounds nicer saying lovely instead of lonely."  I realized he was right, and it lifted my spirits. 

I have never forgotten this story because of what I learned:
One word can change an entire message, as well as your outlook, and that of your audience. 

Chain of Words

We use our literacy to find our way places, stay in touch with friends and family, read books that teach us how to do new things, and keep up with the news.  To be literate is to be able to communicate. 

But do you remember learning how to read and write?  As an adult, you take being literate for granted sometimes, don't you?  It seems as easy and normal as breathing, or blinking your eyes.  But there was a time when we didn't know how to read and write, and we had to learn how to do it! 

When I was six years old and attending first grade at St. Margaret of Scotland grade school in St. Louis, MO, my eyes were opened to the power of words.  Our teacher, Miss Alice, spent a lot of time teaching us the basics of reading.  In addition to learning from our first grade reading book, she had us make large chains of individual words printed on small cards, which we had to read and study over and over until we could recognize, spell them, and define their meaning.   

I still remember the first difficult word I learned.  It was "quarrel."  The word "quarrel" was a fascinating case for us first graders because it was the first two-syllable word we came across in our reader.  It was also difficult to say: wrapping our young tongues around the "kwor" sound of the mysterious "qua" sequence took a lot of practice, but we eventually learned that word, and many others. 

Like learning to read, communication takes work, and often it's hard work.  Like the chains of words that we memorized in first grade, we have to put effort into putting together our messages, whether they are written or spoken.   Refining and revisiting our messages so that they have substance and value to the audience is similar to the effort we invested in learning how to read and write so many years ago.

These are the questions I ask when putting together communications:

1) Know your audience: is it the Board of Directors, Chapter Presidents, potential new members, association colleagues?

2) How much time or space do you have to communicate your thoughts?  Is it a 20-minutes long speech, or a 500 word newsletter article?

3) Less is more.  If you can send the message in three words instead of five, use three.  The impact is stronger.

4) Know when more is necessary.  Provide detailed background if it is needed; don't leave your audience confused because you are trying harder to be concise than clear.

5) Make it personal.  Share a bit of your personal experience with the audience; it gets them thinking about their experiences, which helps the audience relate your message to their own lives.

6) Know when to stop.  ;)

Eek!-Mail

We've all done it (yes, you too).  You write a strong email message filled with the conviction of righteous indignation -- knowing you were the wronged party -- and then hit the "send" button. 

Later on, after you cool off a bit, you start to worry and second guess yourself.  Should I have written back?  Maybe the language was too strong?  What is their response going to be?

Your nervousness builds as you imagine the escalating hostility via cyberspace.  This is how wars start!  The wrong thing said at the wrong time to the wrong person and -- BANG!!  All hell breaks loose. 

Keep in mind that World War I started over the assassination of a guy no one even liked.

After you worry for a while about your response, you start to avoid checking your messages.  You don't want to deal with the repercussions of your message, no matter how right you were.  And just imagine the widespread impact of this simple form of communication if the copy list starts to grow . . . and don't even think about how many people are on the "BLIND" copy list!

I refer to these situations as "Eek!-Mail" because it always makes me feel like a stressed-out cartoon character.  After several run-ins with messages like this over the years, I have learned the hard way to be careful in my messaging, especially work-related ones, because really, all the disharmony is not worth it just for the office.  (Sorry, bosses.)

Save the real acrimony for your relatives because your family can't fire you.  ;-)

Seriously, here are some things I keep in mind when writing and responding to email messages, and it helps me keep my "Eek!-Mail" to a minimum:

* Take a deep breath -- maybe two -- if you read something that makes you angry.

* Ask yourself if you are reading too much into the message; your emotions color your interpretation so be clear on your own feelings before responding.

* After calming down, write back a very polite message asking them what, exactly, they mean; sometimes people just aren't clear in the written word and don't know they offended you -- or even had any intention to.

* If you are really offended, pick up the phone and make a call; a "live" conversation can clear things up very quickly, and end the war of words without taking a "byte" out of the relationship.

If you do feel you need to respond strongly -- but professionally -- to an email message, be prepared to accept the consequences of your actions.  When dealing with others, remember what Buddha said: We have nothing to stand on but our own actions.

Your communications, both written and spoken, represent YOU.
How do you want to be thought of? 

Worms v. Snakes

Yesterday, the news broke that yet another computer virus was attacking Microsoft 2000 (I thank my lucky nanobytes that I have XP now).  It's called a "worm," and it's the variety of virus that doesn't need you to do anything to activate.  It works on its own, and it seems to be very busy rebooting computers all around the country. 

When you think of a worm, you think of something warm, soft and maybe mushy, that lives in the dark and really doesn't know which end is it's head.  Snakes, on the other hand, charmed us out of the Garden of Eden and down the sometimes destructive path of knowledge.  The snake definitely seems the tougher customer. 

This reminded me of something that happened years ago, when I worked at the American Academy of Otolaryngology (say that three times fast).  My friend John Rodrigues also worked there at the time as head of the IT department.  Being a hands-on type of guy, John did not sit in his office managing; he got out there with the Academy staff and helped them with their computers, just like the rest of his department.

So, from time to time, John would find himself in my office helping me with a problem.  On one of these occasions, we happened to discuss the "worm" of the moment, but I kept referring to it as the computer "snake."  John thought this was funny, but much more appropriate since the virus was so devious and destructive. 

How many times during the day do you take a moment and choose the best word or the most descriptive word, rather than the easiest word?  The right word at the right time can make the difference between a powerful and clear message and a muddy message that needs explanation. 

The only thing that belongs in the mud are the worms; let's keep our words shining, clear and bright. 

Website Goes Live

After struggling for several months to learn the basics of Frontpage 2000, I have finally finished my website.  It went live yesterday, so I hope you take the time to visit: www.ceciliasepp.net

Like me, it's a work in progress so any comments are appreciated.  I'm working out a few glitches but I'm proud of it considering I had no training and no reference manual!

This experience made me think about all the times I was trying to understand something, or explain something to someone, and then "click" -- it just worked like a light coming on. 

Anyone have a similar "light bulb" experience they would like to share?