Would you read—or discard—a book based on its first paragraph?

Posted on May 18, 2016 | Leave a comment

I do it all the time.  I figure if a writer hasn’t put enough thought into hooking me, then maybe the writer hasn’t put enough thought into maintaining my interest over 200 or more pages.

These days first paragraphs and first pages of a story need to attract.

Table first paragraphs of books

To prove this to my students, I read to them the first paragraphs of a dozen or so novels, histories and biographies.  I asked the students to record why they would or would not continue reading.  Only after they had written their comments did I tell them the names of the books.

Under “I wouldn’t continue reading” the students wrote

  • No action
  • Boring
  • Not interested in topic
  • I don’t get it

Under “I would continue reading” the students wrote

  • Action, adventure
  • Humor
  • I want to find out more about something

Rejected books include The Great Gatsby, Hatchet, Johnny Tremain, Bridge to Terabithia, Anna Karenina, North to the Orient, Little House in the Big Woods, Stuart Little, Walden, and For Whom the Bell Tolls.

 Books which hooked my fourth through seventh grade students include Superfudge (“I want to know what the big news is.”), John Adams (“I like the description of the winter.  I want to know why those men were out on such a cold day.”), To Kill a Mockingbird (“I want to know why Jem’s arm got broken.”), Ronald Reagan (“It’s funny.  Why does it help to be a dummy?”) and Angela’s Ashes (“Why did Margaret die?”)

Only one book sparked keen interest by every single student, and that was Juliet by Anne Fortier.  Its first paragraph is four words:  “They say I died.”  “Why do they say she died?”  “She must not have died or how could she be telling the story?”  “How did she almost die?”  “I want to know more.”

Juliet is the most recently published book (2010) of all the ones I read, and John Adams and Ronald Reagan, two others which attracted, were published in the past 20 years.  Most of the rejected books were published some time ago.

So what?  I can tell students how important a beginning is—to a story, to an essay, to any kind of writing.  But now they know from their own experience.  Their homework assignment is to write a compelling first paragraph.  Stay tuned.

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Posted in hooks, Introductions, narrative writing

Universal English spelling is American English spelling

Posted on May 11, 2016 | Leave a comment

Not sure what English to use on the internet?  Use American English.

When it comes to spelling color / colour or ton / tonne on the internet, American spelling dominates around the world. Research shows that 80% of the English spelling on the internet is American spelling.

In past years, English writing directed at a particular national audience would have deferred to that nation’s preferred way of spelling.  “Recognize” would be used for US audiences and “recognise” for British, Canadian or Australian audiences.

But with the internet reaching audiences on all seven continents—and with more than half of all internet content written in English—tailoring websites or blogs to particular English-speaking groups is no longer practical.  And so, in most cases, American English has become the default English of the internet.

 

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Posted in spelling

All the same emoji are not the same

Posted on May 4, 2016 | Leave a comment

Did you know that the smiling emoji you send out on a google phone is not the same emoji that is received and published on Facebook?  Or that the smiling emoji you send as part of a text message on your iPhone is not the same one received on a Twitter account?

grinning face with smiling eyes1

GroupLens Research at the University of Minnesota

In fact, these various smiling emoji can be interpreted as not smiling at all.  They can seem angry.  Some “grinning face with smiling eyes” emoji show teeth.  Some mouths are turned up while others seem straight or even turned down.

Research being conducted by Hannah Miller and Isaac Johnson at the University of Minnesota shows that because of the various ways the same emoji is shown on different platforms, the message of the emoji can be misinterpreted.

Not only that, but an emoji sent from one phone to an identical phone (the same emoji sent as received) can be misinterpreted by the receiver.

Emoji are supposed to reduce ambiguity of emotions in written communication.  They are supposed to increase the likelihood that the sender’s emotional content will be understood by the receiver.

But they don’t.  😦  So be careful when you send emoji with your written content.

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Posted in emojis

How to be better understood on the web

Posted on April 27, 2016 | Leave a comment

Readers from the US, Pakistan, India, Australia, Georgia and Norway have visited this blog today.  I assume many of them are not native speakers of English.

How do I (and you) write for an international audience so that our writing is clear?

  • Eliminate idioms. Idioms don’t easily shift from one culture to another.  They might be taken as literal by people who have learned English as a second or third language.

Thomas Jefferson thinking about words to use in Declaration of Independence, with a modern-day child suggesting a word

  • Use a simplified vocabulary. Even if you know many synonyms, stick to common words, not rare ones.
  • Stick to standard English. Eliminate dialects or colloquiums.
  • Eliminate texting shortcuts. GTG is far from universal.
  • Keep your grammar simple. If you use complex sentences, limit yourself to one dependent clause per sentence.  Make sure pronoun antecedents are easy to figure out.  If they aren’t, repeat the nouns.
  • Use short sentences. Give yourself an upper word limit per sentence of 15 to 20 words.
  • Use American spelling.  It is the most common spelling of English words used on the web.
  • Assume your readers might not be fluent in English. Assume they might be ignorant of nuances of language that you take for granted.  Their English vocabularies might be rudimentary or restricted to one field of study.  Write accordingly.
  • Eliminate cultural bias. Pay attention to the connotations or double meanings of words.
  • Eliminate allusions.  So many references which well educated Americans use in writing are to the Bible, to Shakespeare or to pop songs.  Many readers will not understand them.
  • Use emojis.  Emojis can say in one picture what takes many words.

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Posted in clarity, complex sentence, composing text on computer, emojis, grammar, sentence structure

Do typos matter? How about grammar errors?

Posted on April 20, 2016 | Leave a comment

Suppose you are a young adult looking for someone to rent a bedroom in your house or apartment.  You receive the following email:

Hey! My name is Pat and I’m interested in sharing a house with other students who are serious abuot there schoolwork but who also know how to relax and have fun. I like to play tennis and love old school rap. If your someone who likes that kind of thing too, maybe we would mkae good housemates.

Would you rent to this person?

According to the University of Michigan, which studied how volunteers responded to such inquiries, emails containing typos and grammar errors lowered the chances of a prospective housemate. Typos had a more negative effect than grammar errors.

Moreover, researchers found that extroverts reading the emails were more likely to ignore typos and grammar mistakes when deciding whether to rent, while introverts were more likely to judge the prospective renter negatively.

So what?  How does this research affect you and me?

  • Typos can usually be found with spell-check. A writer who doesn’t bother to change typos might be judged lazy or not careful.
  • Grammar errors can be harder to detect and so might be excused. On the other hand, knowing how to spell “their” and “you’re” correctly is an elementary school skill.  Adults are expected to know these grammar skills.
  • Your response to typos and grammar errors says a lot about you. Does your skin crawl when you receive an email which contains errors from a friend?  Do you judge that person based on such errors?  Should you?

Years ago, before spell-check and even word processors, I had a job requiring me to proofread a weekly newspaper before it was printed.  One day a highly respected man in our community let me know he had found an error in the latest issue, an error I had not detected.  I could see that this man no longer held me in the same esteem as before.

You never know who will be reading your writing or what impact your writing could have on your future.  If your emails are error-free, people are not likely to notice that.  It’s expected.  But if your emails contain errors, that will be noticed.  And even though polite people might never tell you, some could hold those errors against you.

For more information on the U of M study, go to http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.014988.

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Posted in grammar, research on writing

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