Deborah Burstyn Blogs Now

Urban Dictionary and American Business Customs

dburstyn — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:02:46 +0000

I write for an international business newsletter. It’s geared to business people who want to learn American business English and customs. Here’s a recent article in which I cited the website Urban Dictionary as an example of how to steer clear of American orneriness:

Americans by nature tend to be an ornery bunch. Even newcomers to our shores seem to rapidly assimilate this trait. Get too pushy or bossy with an American, and it will most likely produce the opposite effect to the one you desired. They will dig in their heels and not do whatever it is you wished them to do (unless of course, you are the person who signs their paycheck. Money talks, as we say here).

I recently found one good example of this trait in the amusing website Urban Dictionary, a constantly updated glossary of new terms and expressions. Be warned; many of these are really more like jokes than they are real expressions used by the American workforce. But one of these, defining a term “email courier” seemed to describe orneriness as an unintended consequence of a co-worker’s actions.

Email courier

An individual who approaches someone’s desk or workstation in a work environment almost immediately after sending them an email, usually to confirm that the email has been received.

Bill: I just sent you an email. Did you get it?
Mike: Probably, I haven’t checked.
Bill: Can you check?
Mike: Uh yeah, looks like I got it.
Bill: Thoughts?
Mike: My immediate thoughts are you’re an email courier and a (unpleasant word that we will not repeat here.)

Although we do not suggest that you use the term “email courier,” we do concur that you should not hover at an American’s desk or work station unless the matter is extremely urgent. Likewise you should not repeatedly phone or send the same email. Otherwise your request may be ignored and you will be considered a pest.

Give an American colleague a day or two to respond to a request or message. If the matter is urgent, be direct but polite.

Bill: Mike, I know you’re busy and I hate to bother you but could you please take a quick look at that proposal. It’s due tomorrow and I’d like to be able to incorporate any changes you suggest.

Hint: Don’t play this card too often.

Posted in business writing, language, slang, writing fun Tagged: American business customs, business communications, editing. communications, language

A Wooden Leg Named Smith

dburstyn — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:12:12 +0000

Watching the strangely addicting Mary Poppins mash-up Expialidocious on YouTube, it suddenly dawned on me that a pivotal plot point in the film has grammar as its hinge. The conversion of Mr. Banks from stuffy uninvolved father to fun-loving adoring daddy (But who’s going to pay the bills and all those servants’ salaries now? Just how far is Mrs. Banks willing to go for women’s rights? All the way to the office as the family’s breadwinner? But that’s quite another matter.) is signified by his sudden appreciation for a joke told to him by his two cute kids after they learned it from Mary Poppins’s posse. It goes like this:

I know a man with a wooden leg named Smith.
What’s the name of his other leg?

As soon as Mr. Banks sees the light, he too finds this grammatical glitch hilarious. And so does the head of the bank who we’re told dies laughing at it.

What all these characters find so uproariously funny is just a misplaced clause. The sentence ought to state: I know a man named Smith with a wooden leg.

So the hidden moral of the story is this: review what you write. Do you have any wooden legs named Smith running around your sentences? Be on the lookout for misplaced clauses. And of course, always laugh at jokes told to you by children.

Posted in business writing, grammar, how to write, language, writing style, writing tips Tagged: business communications, business writing, expialidocious, grammar, how to write, how to write better, language, Mary Poppins, writing

New Speak

dburstyn — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:04:26 +0000

Business trends are influenced by youth culture and the entertainment industry. Language is no exception and newer slang expressions are making their way into everyday business use. Here is a selection of new words and phrases now in use in American English.

1. Whassup? or ‘sup? – “What’s up?” or “What are you doing?” – an informal greeting instead of “Hello.”

2. Green – product or business practice that is good for the environment

3. Greenwashing – A deceptive way for a business to give the appearance of being environmentally-sensitive when it is not.

4. Hot – very exciting, successful, attractive or popular; i.e. “I saw the new product prototype. It is totally hot.” Or “Have you seen Jim’s presentation? It is so hot.”

5. Hissy fit – A slang term for hysterical fit, meaning a negative reaction expressed in an outburst. “Now don’t have a hissy fit, but our internet isn’t working and we will not meet our deadline. Brad had a hissy fit over the order mix-up.”

6. Over the top - Overdoing it, too much. “We needed some new furniture in the office, but this designer Italian sofa is over the top”.

7. Smoke – To defeat by a wide margin. “We are going to totally smoke the competition.” Or “They tried to come in with a lower bid, but we smoked them.”

8. Whatever – This is a term used to close a conversation, especially one in which there is some disagreement. It means, “I do not agree but I accept your decision and I do not wish to discuss this matter further.” Example, “But we have to eliminate this project from our budget this year.” “Okay. Whatever.”

9. I’m outta here – I am leaving.

10. Okay, let’s do this. – To begin with enthusiasm and expectations of success

11. Give a shout out to – To convey public thanks and appreciation to

12. props – Give praise

(more next time)

Posted in business writing, content, grammar, how to write, language, slang, writing fun, writing style, writing tips Tagged: business communications, business writing, how to write, language, writing, writing for the internet, writing style

Down So Long It Looks Like Up

dburstyn — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:47:45 +0000

“I’m down,” the Beatles sang. “I’m really down.” They were not singing about their agreement with where to go after the recording session. Down, in post-beat generation sixties parlance meant, depressed. This derived from the meaning of the word as going in a lower direction and spawned other depressing terms such as down in the mouth, down at the heels and down and out. Then the hippies turned any experience that might cause one to feel down into a downer. A downer could be a bad LSD trip or the rent being due. Years later Saturday Night Live introduced a character called Debbie Downer (no relation), a glass half-empty kind of gal.

Now down’s fortunes are looking up. In the 21st century the word has taken on yet a new meaning. We say, “I’m down,” when we mean, “Yes, I will do that” or “I’m down with that” to indicate “Yes, I agree.”

That’s the magical thing about language. It is always changing. And I am so down with that.

Posted in business writing, content, ezra pound, grammar, how to write, Uncategorized, writing style, writing tips Tagged: Beatles, business communications, business writing, computer writing, how to write, language, usage, writing, writing style

Sentence Diagramming – Every Picture Tells a Story

dburstyn — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:07:23 +0000

Sometimes when I’m snarled in the tangled fishing lines of my writing process, I need a little visual clarity. If I’m not sure about tense agreement or whether something should be singular or plural, I may just grab a pen or pencil and diagram the sentence. A diagram arranges the parts of a sentence like a picture in order to show the relationship of words and groups of words within the sentence.

Suddenly, once I’m forced to put my noun on the line, draw a line perpendicular to it and put my verb on the other side and then draw diagonal lines stemming from each with adjectives, everything becomes clear. Now I know what needs to agree with what.

So I was shocked but not really surprised when my 7th grade kid, who’s grasp of grammar and spelling is what’s to be expected of current California public schools, told me she had never learned how to diagram a sentence. She didn’t volunteer this information, mind you. The conversation was probably more like this: Me (reviewing a piece of her writing, a rare occurrence due to my responses) – Umm, honey, did you ever learn how to diagram a sentence?

I volunteered to teach her and she promptly declined. Can’t say that I blame her. I would have said no if my parents had offered to teach it to me. But no one offered. My teachers in elementary school just taught it to us. We learned it. No choice in the matter.

Sentence diagramming won’t make you a good writer but it will make you a clear one. And that’s pretty darn near the same thing.

(Here’s a great example of a mega-sentence diagrammed down to size:

Posted in business writing, how to write, writing style, writing tips Tagged: business communications, business writing, how to write, how to write better, writing, writing style

Grammar Update – I Appreciate Your Returning

dburstyn — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:42:23 +0000

Hey, I really do. I appreciate your returning to this lil ol’ blog. What I appreciate is the fact that there is indeed a returning going on here. And it just happens to belong to you. Isn’t that nice? It is also possessive. Not me. You. It is your returning. So that means it is not correct to say, “I appreciate you returning.” Who knew?
Janis Bell knows. She’s a dynamic expert at grammar and punctuation (they are, in fact, two separate and distinct things!). I took a workshop with her last week and now have some fresh new concepts to share with you here. Janis moves like a dancer and jumps onto the desk, flails her arms and makes jokes all for the goal of helping her students understand the finer points of writing the English language. Her book “Clean Well-Lighted Sentences” is fun. But she’s more fun in person. She teaches at Golden Gate University.
One more example of our grammar concept for today: She doesn’t like him coming on to her like that. Wrong! She may not like him but it is the unwanted flirtation that she finds objectionable in the sentence. And it’s his. Correct: She doesn’t like his coming on to her like that.
Simple. Now go have some fun. And remember. I appreciate your reading this. I really do.

Posted in business writing, content, grammar, how to write, web writing, writing style, writing tips Tagged: business communications, business writing, computer writing, grammar, how to write, how to write better, language, writing, writing style

Green Day Dawns

dburstyn — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:26:16 +0000

Grammar sometimes seems like a moving target. It is a reflection of language. And language, like the humans who use it, changes with time. When a change in language becomes so complete that we no longer think of the word or phrase any other way, it becomes what grammarians call “accepted usage.” And so it is with the term green. Once upon a time not too long ago, green meant a color. And sometimes, because it was the color of money, green meant money. Then when concerns about global warming reinvigorated the enivronmental movement – not to mention Al Gore – green became shorthand for environmentally friendly products and practices. This green was set in quote marks as “green” to indicate that this was a new nickname for all things eco. Things change. We read and write so much about all things environmental now that we’ve dropped the quote marks. Green is the new green. It means that we’ve accepted the need for a quick buzz word for what we mean when we talk about sustainability. And that means we’ve accepted the need for environmental sustainability itself. In this case, change, as they say, is good.

Posted in business writing, content, how to write, web writing, writing style Tagged: environment, grammar, green, language, sustainability, usage, writing

Blue Boy

dburstyn — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:10:59 +0000

To hyphenate or not to hyphenate? That was always a question I couldn’t answer. Now, thanks to “Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences” by Janis Bell, I can. There’s a simple test. (I love a simple test when it comes to grammar, don’t you?) You just ask yourself, “Can either word stand alone?” If the answer is no, then hyphenate away. Her example: a blue-eyed boy. Can he be a blue boy or an eyed boy? Well, unless he’s a painting by Thomas Gainsborough, no. His description needs hyphenating. I’s that simple. Learn about Janis Bell and her book at www.janisbell.com.

Posted in business writing, content, grammar, how to write, languate, Uncategorized, web writing, writing fun, writing style Tagged: business communications, business writing, clean, computer writing, how to write, how to write better, janis bell, language, well-lighted sentences, writing, writing for the internet, writing style

Alone or Together? The Apostrophe Tells All

dburstyn — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:59:36 +0000

This is one of those grammar tweaks that just makes so much sense when you know about it. So now you’re going to know about it. When stuff in a sentence belongs to two people, where you put the possesive apostrophe tells everyone whether the stuff belongs to both of them together or they each have their own. For example, Jan and Dean’s surf songs were hits in the sixties. So were Dylan’s and Donovan’s folk songs. Get it? Jan and Dean recorded their hit songs together. Dylan and Donovan did not. That’s probably a good thing. But it doesn’t have to be people, just the subjects of a sentence. If they share something, only the second one gets an apostrophe. If you say, “The dog and cat’s toys need to be washed,” that means they share the toys. But if you say, “The dog’s and cat’s toys need to be washed,” that means they don’t share. And that’s probably a good thing, too.

Posted in business writing, content, how to write, Uncategorized, web writing, writing fun, writing style Tagged: donovan, dylan, jan and dean

We’re All Poets Now

dburstyn — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 04:42:53 +0000

Best advice I’d give to an aspiring writer today would be to study poetry. Modern poetry. And only the stuff that makes sense. From these one can learn how to pare away excess words and distill language down to its most powerful essence. If you text or tweet, you need to convey potent meaning with as few words as possible. If only Ezra Pound or Sylvia Plath were around today. Just think what great tweeters they’d be!

Posted in business writing, content, ezra pound, haiku, how to write, languate, poetry, sylvia plath, web writing, writing fun, writing style