The Grammar Guru: Are you a jargonaut?Are you a jargonaut?Nearly all of us have been victimized by a jargonaut, one or more people throwing around jargon that few people understand. Jargonauts may appear at social occasions or in business encounters. The result? Eyes glaze over, and listeners drift off or look desperately for escape. Dictionary.com defines jargon as “the language, especially the vocabulary, peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group.” Every specialized field has jargon, its own peculiar language that mystifies outsiders. In English grammar, jargon includes adjectives, dependent clauses and dangling modifiers. Football uses touchback, I-formation and offside kick as part of its jargon.
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"Sent from my Blackberry" may not send the message you hopedMobile Email Signatures Might Not Send the Message You ThinkI have been on a rant this week about the way people have gotten sloppy with business writing in the new social media age. Over use of exclamation points (see this post by The Grammer Guru), run on sentences or posts with no punctuation, and other bad habits have rubbed me the wrong way all week. When someone forwarded me this post about Blackberry signatures, it seemed relevant so I am reposting it here. Now, if I can just remember how to edit my Blackberry signature. (This post was written by Kevin Purdy and appeared on Lifehacker.com)
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The Grammar Guru: How exciting is your life, really?
Online, apparently overstimulated people live unbelievably exciting lives. On their Facebook walls, in their tweets, and in their emails, nearly every sentence is punctuated as if delivered by a hysterical preteen “Twilight” fan being bitten by a real vampire named Edward who looks like Robert Pattinson. “This is so amazing! He is so cute!! This so hurts!!! I am so going to be a vampire now!!!!” A statement of intense emotion, such as shock, disbelief, urgency, or enthusiasm, may be punctuated by an exclamation point. In other words, news that would trigger a sudden intake of breath, fainting, shouting, running for the door, or jumping up and down might -- just might -- be worthy of an exclamation point. When writing an email or social media update, pause before reflexively inserting an exclamation point. Think, “Does this sentence express the emotional equivalent of a gorgeous vampire about to drain my blood?” Before using two or more exclamation points, ask, “Might my life be a bit less thrilling than my punctuation indicates?” Let your words express your emotion. Do not drain meaning from the exclamation point through overuse. (Deb Sturgess is Director of Communications for MyWebTechGurus.Com. You can reach out to Deb at 816-974-8787, Extension 2, or via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Deb owns Influential Expression Consulting, where she does training, coaching, writing and editing.) Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites |
You've seen them before—email signatures that start "Sent from my," and sometimes end with an even more explicit apology for length and typos. One research analyst makes an intriguing argument against them and their implicit you're-not-all-that-important message.
A four-letter word from a prim, pious old lady expresses a rare level of extreme emotion; mouths drop open and eyes turn in her direction. In contrast, profanity from a person who punctuates nearly every sentence with it receives little reaction from regular companions. It is too common to warrant special attention.
LinkedIn Revamps GroupsOver the next few weeks, LinkedIn will be rolling out a complete overhaul to its Groups feature to make creating and following conversations easier and more engaging. When you visit a revamped LinkedIn Group, you will immediately notice that strong emphasis has been placed on starting conversations. In the past, you’d have to click either “Start a Discussion” or “Submit News” to add a conversation to a group. Now both of those functions have been combined via a publisher box that is prominently displayed at the top of the page.
LinkedIn’s follow system has also been expanded. You may not know this, but the business social network actually gives you the option to “follow” individuals if you want to see what they’re saying in different groups, but aren’t his or her connection. That feature is now prominent, not only for people but for conversations as well. If you stumble across a great debate in a group and want to keep tabs on it, all you have to do is click “follow discussion” and it’ll appear in your news feed and in your inbox. There is also a new focus on surfacing quality conversations from influencers. A new feature allows you to scan different conversations and “Like,” “Pass” or “Comment” on a discussion within a group. This information then brings the best conversations to the top of the group. There is also now a “Top Influencers” feature, which highlights quality contributors based on how well they stimulate conversations from other members. LinkedIn told me that they are trying to make the conversations you have on LinkedIn “a bit closer to the face-to-face interaction” you find at conferences or in-person meetings. To do that, they’ve focused their energy on not only increasing engagement (which should keep people coming back to LinkedIn), but on increasing quality engagement. While groups have long been part of LinkedIn’s core structure, we’re willing to bet most users almost never post news or conversations in them — they’d rather place their thoughts on Facebook or Twitter, where they will get more engagement. We’re looking forward to seeing if this redesign changes things. Check out the video below that explains the new features, and let us know what you think of Groups 2.0 on our Facebook Page.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites New Forms Data Reporting OptionsWe are excited to introduce a number of new reporting options for our customers with forms on their Synergy Website. You can choose from one or a combination of the following options effective June 21st, 2010:
If you have forms on your site, you are already recieving the "as it happens" emails. You can keep those or do away with them and add another option. We reccomend the as it happens, with a weekly recap for most clients. To change your settings, please submit a service ticket, or call the help desk at 816-974-8787, Extension 1. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites |
4 Tips to develop your social media strategyAt last year’s Buzz2009 Social Media for Association Leaders, we asked our panel of social-media experts for the No. 1, most powerful tip they would give about social media and developing a social strategy. Despite the many different approaches to social media, the experts came to one conclusion: Keep it simple. Here’s a quick roundup of their top tips:
For more tips from social-media experts on open leadership, risk management and return on investment, check out SmartBrief and SocialFish’s summer breakfast series Buzz2010, starting this Wednesday. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Google Faces U.S. Inquiry Over Wi-Fi Data Collection
After being called out and investigated about the incident in Europe and Australia ( Google argues the data collection was a mistake. From Google’s blog post about the incident:
This explanation wasn’t very satisfying for Germany or Australia, and it likely won’t go smoothly in the U.S., either. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
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Google’s 
