For many, the world of copy editing is by and large a completely unknown entity. What is a copy editor? What do they do? How can I become one? Thankfully, the American Copy Editors Society (ACES) is here to answer all of those questions, along with providing resources like scholarships, conferences, mentor programs and certificates… Continue reading Getting Started in the Field
The English language hangs on the infrastructure of punctuation. Oftentimes, the message we wish to convey cannot effectively be portrayed without the accompaniment of proper punctuation. For example, a question posed without a question mark reads incorrectly. A sentence meant for emphasis, though presented without its exclamation mark, is lackluster. Any collection of sentences without… Continue reading Interro-what?!
It is no secret that language is powerful. Writing and speaking with intention and attention to detail is a critical skill to develop in the communications industry. In my linguistics course, we conducted a study to examine exactly how much power our vocabularies carry. To do so, we asked participants to watch a short video… Continue reading Words as Master Manipulators
On the night of October 9th, 2016, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump took part in the second presidential debate, which took the form of a town meeting. The candidates fielded questions from both the moderators, as well as from citizen participants in the audience. Each candidate was given two minutes time to respond to these… Continue reading Your Words, Your Power
At this point, even the word “buzzword” is a buzzword. Unfortunately, the post-graduation job hunt is increasingly competitive, which explains the sharp influx of LinkedIn users in recent years. With more and more users, it is not surprising that hopeful professionals do their best to set themselves apart in the eyes of companies, recruiters, and… Continue reading Overused = Underwhelming
Writers and public relations professionals alike are especially careful to communicate exactly what they mean. But what happens when the words one uses are misconstrued and consequently misinterpreted? Linguistic ambiguity The English language abides by two major syntactic rules: constituency and hierarchy. Linguistic ambiguity results from a sentence that accidentally breaks either one or both… Continue reading On the Hunt for Ambiguity
No matter the content, author or audience, every piece of writing has some element of style. This is not to say it has pizazz or flair, but rather it follows some set of rules. If the author is well-informed, it will consistently follow one set of rules throughout, thus respecting the audience by promoting readability.… Continue reading AP vs. Chicago: Style Battle Royale
