Category Archives: paralegal

Will You Favorite the Meme About Global Warming . . . or is it Climate Change?

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Copyright: / 123RF Stock Photo

Although The Gregg Reference Manual is my style guide of choice (and the grammar resource for NALS’ certification exams), I do enjoy seeing what the other style guides are doing. It could very well be a forecast of changes the other style guides will be making. The new Associated Press Stylebook is in the works and I recently saw an article on the Grammarly Blog about a few interesting changes AP is making in the new edition.

  • The social media terms “favorite” used as a verb and “meme” have been added to the AP Stylebook.

To “favorite” something on the Internet is to bookmark the link of a website address so you can return to that page quickly in the future. You have favorited proofthatblog.com, right?

According to Dictionary.com, “meme” is “a cultural item in the form of an image, video, phrase, etc., that is spread via the Internet and often altered in a creative or humorous way.” Examples are the posts of people lying down in public places (called “planking”) and videos of people dancing to the Harlem Shake. Digital posters, on the other hand (which I suspect are the ecards with different sayings using the same image that show up over and over again in your Facebook feed), are not memes (according to Wikipedia) at least “until it reaches approximately the same level of mass recognition as required for a person to be considered a celebrity.” I assume that The Most Interesting Man in the World who started out in the Dos Equis beer commercials and Grumpy Cat “digital posters” are now considered Internet memes.

  • The terms “global warming” and “climate change” are now interchangeable.

Although it sometimes makes things difficult trying to keep up and encouraging others to do the same, I love that most style guides stay current with language trends. The English language is ever-changing and it is important that we keep up with the changes. As things continue to change and younger people become our readers, it is incumbent upon us to “speak” through writing in a language that they understand (within reason of course!).

Are there things you think should be changed? Leave a comment with your predictions for future style guide updates below.

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Grammar Giggles – Happy Baseball Season!

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With the start of the official baseball season last week, these Grammar Giggles are just on time. The first is from my son, who is a Cubs fan and has been his whole life. We spent many a spring training game day at Mesa’s Hohokam Stadium watching his Cubbies. Below are a few of the graphics that were used in the intro package that led into Chicago ABC 7’s broadcast of a recent Cubs game.

Looks like you left a letter out here . . .

and replaced a letter here . . .

but added an extra one here . . .

and then there’s this one. San Franscisco? Not only is the name of a major U.S. city misspelled, but I know very little about sports and even I know the Mariners are from Seattle.

This is shameful. This was part of a television presentation seen by potentially thousands of people and just goes to show that not a lot of care went into it.

The second baseball related Grammar Giggle is from my sister. This Hostess ad is just ridiculous.

Of course, Hostess claims it was intentional. Their marketing department said “The ‘Touchdown’ line was intentional; it’s fun and aimed at young audiences who are in on the running joke — which, of course, is the goalllll.”  Uh . . . riiiiight!

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Grammar Giggle – Lawyer Or Criminal?

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I found this yesterday on Twitter. It reminded me of the “check to see if you any words out” meme, but this is actually worse and one of the hardest parts of proofreading. You know what it is SUPPOSED to say. Just be careful you’re not reading words into your work that you know should be there . . . but aren’t.

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Email Is Correspondence Too!

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16117895_sEmail is not just a method of communicating with others over the computer. It is a reflection of you and your firm when you are using your company equipment to send emails to others—whether regarding work subjects or not. Email is just the same as sending a letter or any other type of communication. You need to make sure your message is clear and error free.

Keep these things in mind:

  • Never EVER use text-speak in business emails. Take the time to spell words out. People who don’t text much or who insist on grammatically correct texts will have trouble reading the email when it contains those kinds of abbreviations. Take the time to turn “R U ready for me to snd the ltr?” to “Are you ready for me to send the letter?”
  • Email was once considered a very informal way of communicating. Things are very different now. Think about how many times a day you use email to communicate with attorneys in your own office, clients, opposing counsel, and other professionals. Email has really become a primary business correspondence and, thus, is formal communication. Treat it that way.
  • When you are using email to forward some kind of document, you need to make sure both the email and the attachment are proofread and are an accurate reflection of you and your firm and the quality of your work. I personally love that our Outlook Office Professional Plus 2013 is picking up when it looks like you intended to attach something but haven’t attached it before you hit send. But even if you don’t have that version of Outlook, before hitting send, check your email for accuracy—that it is going to the correct person (don’t trust your email program’s autofill) and that your attachment is correct AND attached.
  • When you are sending an email—particularly one going outside the firm—don’t trust the “send” spellcheck. You know which one I mean. You press send, it tells you words it thinks are spelled wrong, fixes them the way you tell it to, and sends it off into cyberspace. Were words that were spelled correctly still the wrong word? It is entirely possible. If you type “The client doe snot have any comment to your revisions,” it is all spelled correctly, but is it what you really meant? Take the time to read your emails and actually proof the email before you press send.
  • When you are using your firm’s email mail system and the email address reflects the firm/company name, you are the company. To the reader of the email, you are representing your firm.
  • When you are using your firm’s equipment or software to send email, the mail belongs to the firm. They have the right to set up templates or give direction for how they want emails to look and what they want them to contain. Find out if your firm has those standards set out somewhere.
  • Each email outside the firm should have a signature block just like every letter would. And just like every business correspondence, if you are not a lawyer, make sure your signature block contains your title. Otherwise, the reader may automatically assume you are a lawyer and are giving them legal advice.
  • Be careful when responding to email and choosing “reply all.” Does everyone listed on the email really need the information? In today’s law firms, people can easily get over 200 emails a day, so any that they don’t have to have will put one less email in their box. However, don’t assume people don’t need to be included. If the subject has changed or someone has indicated they can be dropped from the email chain, that is one thing, but be careful making the assumption that people don’t want to be included. When in doubt, include everyone in the original group.
  • Make sure the subject line of your email is accurate. Even if you are responding to an email chain, if the subject has changed, change the subject line. It not only makes it easier for the reader to sort information they really need to deal with at any particular time, but it makes it easier to search later.
  • You never know who will read your email. Forwarding emails is far too easy to rely on the idea that only the addressee will ever read your email. Will it end up as a trial exhibit? Will your addressee forward it to someone you may not even know? Will it end up in your personnel file? Will the addressee post your email on the Internet for anyone to see? In the end, always be professional, always be accurate, and always be nice. The last thing you should think before you hit send is “Do I want your mom to read this?”

Who knew email was so complicated? It really isn’t complicated, it is just good common sense. And it is good business sense to make sure your email represents you and your firm in the best way possible.

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Grammar Giggle – Hey Batter, Batter . . . I’ve Got a Little Something For You!

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This was sent to me by a reader last season. This is something that spell check might not catch. Don’t just rely on spell check! Obviously, newspaper editors don’t pay enough attention as headlines seem to be a constant source of Grammar Giggles!

Baseball

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PS: I Don’t Need to Use a Postscript

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I got this question from a reader:

My boss used a lot–and I mean a lot–of postscript messages in his letters. They range from one paragraph to 4 or 5. These paragraphs are lengthy. What are your thoughts on the use of postscript in a business / legal correspondence?

My initial thought is that in today’s electronic world, postscripts (or a PS at the end of a letter) are completely unnecessary because if it is an important part of a letter, it should be included in the body of the letter. I understand the need for a postscript in a handwritten multi-page letter where you might have forgotten something, so that you could add it at the end without redoing the entire letter, but not in a computer generated business letter. But what do the experts say?

The Gregg Reference Manual says that effective use of a postscript will emphasize an idea that was deliberately left out of the body of the letter and will bring special attention to it. On the other hand, your reader may feel that your letter is poorly organized. Think about whether that is a chance you want to take.

To me, I visualize the use of postscripts as a list on a piece of paper and then one Post-it note with an addition to the list, and then another Post-it note, and another until the list is obliterated by Post-it notes with extra information.

If you’re going to use a “PS” for a particular purpose, leave a blank line between the copy notation and the PS and include a colon and one or two spaces after the “PS.” By the way, it is not “P.S.” (with periods) anymore since “postscript” is now spelled as one word.

Do you have a nagging question that you would like answered? Leave it in the comments below or send an email to [email protected] and I will do my best to answer your question.

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Grammar Giggles – Office Sign

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This sign was sent to me by a faithful blog reader. She saw this sign in an office where she works. There are so many issues in these few lines. First, I’m not sure why it goes from regular first letter cap in the first word to all caps for the rest of the entire message. Next, the word “copy” is misspelled. Then, for some reason, the abbreviations for identification and driver’s license only have one period instead of two. Finally, the word “control” should be “controlled.” Personally, I think this person’s ability to make any more signs should be “controlled.”

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