I found myself very much over-reacting to his over-use of quote marks. He’s wrapped them around anything and everything. On one page alone there are nine instances of totally unnecessary inverted commas. And the very fact I’ve bothered to count them shows I’m over-reacting, and that these seemingly innocuous little punctuation marks are indeed controlling me.

I find them distracting. They force me to pause and emphasise the framed word in a particular way and with a very particular voice in my head that I heartily dislike. So that (and counting the marks) means my productivity is slowed right down: the total opposite of the book’s point.

So when and where should quotation marks be used?

When to use quotation marks

Quote marks, also known as speech marks and inverted commas are used around:

• direct speech
• titles of books, chapters in books, magazine articles, films, TV and radio programmes etc
• an unfamiliar word or phrase, or one that’s used in a technical context – as if you were highlighting it. However, you only need to do that once to introduce it.

They are not used around colloquial or slang words and phrases. According to the Oxford English Style Guide that would be like using them to replace a ‘rather sniffy so called’. This is the example it gives:

“They have cut down the trees in the interest of ‘progress’.”  But I also think they are used as a replacement for ‘so called’ in lots of other, less sniffy instances, and it’s that usage that really irritates me as you’ll find out later in this post. If you choose to read on of course!

Which type should you use?

There are two types of quotation marks: single and double.

The Oxford English Style Guide says that British practice is to enclose quoted matter between single quotation marks, and to use double marks for a quotation within a quotation.

It goes on to say that this style is preferred in academic books but is reversed in newspapers and in the US. I must admit I prefer to use double quotes for anything I quote from a book and single marks for anything quoted within that.

While either is correct you must use whichever style you choose consistently.

Here are some examples.

Direct speech

“Too many quotation marks make my eyes spin and my head ache,” said Elaine in an irritated, irrational kind of way.

You could write that statement indirectly without the quotation marks, like this:

Elaine said that too many quotation marks make her eyes spin and her head ache.

Titles

‘Wind in the Willows’ by Kenneth Grahame is one of my favourite books (it’s just gorgeous. Give yourself a treat and dig it out if you haven’t read it in a while).

I can’t wait for the next series of ‘Spooks’ (but if they kill-off Lucas, I’ll never watch it again).

For quotations

If you are quoting something from a book or other source, you need to put inverted commas around the quote. You should also name the source.

“Though it was past ten o’clock at nigh, the sky still clung to and retained some lingering skirts of light from the departed day; and the sullen heats of the torrid afternoon broke up and rolled away at the dispersing touch of the cool fingers of the short midsummer night.” (Chapter 7, ‘Wind in the Willows’ by Kenneth Grahame).

How not to use quotation marks

Now this is usage that really gets to me.

(My inverted commas are in red and I’ll tell you why I’ve used them in a minute).

“Even those who are not consciously “stressed out” will invariably experience greater relaxation, better focus, and increased productive energy when they learn more effectively to control the “open loops” of their lives.”

Using quote marks around words like this means they are implied or a concept. Imagine the phrase ‘so called’ in front of each of them. Now imagine reading so called in front of nine words or phrases on a single page!

In the above example there is no reason to use quotes around ‘stressed out’ as it’s a well-known and accepted phrase.

The inverted commas around ‘open loops’ are valid at this point because the author is introducing it as a concept. However, once he’s introduced it, he should ditch the quote marks. He doesn’t.

Here’s another example (and a very pertinent one at that!):

“What most “bugs” you, distracts you… or in some other way consumes a large part of your conscious attention?” (mmm, let me think).

Again, there’s no reason to wrap the word ‘bugs’ in quotes. So why have I done that in the last sentence and around so called and open loops earlier? And why have I used double quotes around the two examples I’ve given you?

My double inverted commas show that I’ve lifted the quote from a book. They’re not my own words. I should also tell you the name of the book and its author, but since I’m criticising him, I’m not going to – sorry.

The quotes around so called and bugs avoid confusion by separating them in the sentence. I’m highlighting them, if you like, as the reason for having them in the sentence may otherwise be lost.  An alternative is to put them in italics, as I’ve done here.

I suppose ironically, (and yes it really is ironic) although the plague of inverted commas in my be more productive book distracted me, ultimately they have made me more productive. After all, they did prompt to write this blog post.

“It’s like rain on your wedding day

It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid

It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take

And isn’t it ironic … don’t you think?”

Well, no actually I don’t. Bad luck – yes. Ironic – no. So when should you use the word ironic?

But Alanis Morissette isn’t the only person to have misused the word ironic. She just did it very publically and loudly in her famous song. Misuse of irony and ironic happens all the time.

It’s a favourite of football commentators most weeks as they describe things on the pitch that are simply coincidences or not even that. Take this for example. ‘Carlos Tevez struggled to score for Manchester United. So it’s ironic he’s just scored two against them wearing a Manchester City shirt.’ Not ironic at all. Just very, very annoying. Sorry if you hate football, but you get my point.

So when and how should we use ironic?

Here’s a nice simple definition of irony from the Penguin English Pocket Dictionary (which, ironically, is too large to fit into a pocket):

Meaning one: the humorous use of words to express a meaning opposite to their literal meaning. This definition is the favourite of satirists of course.

Meaning two: incongruity between actual and the expected results of a particular event or course of action.

So, let’s say my next newsletter is all about the importance of getting your newsletter out regularly, and by the date you’ve stated. Then I don’t send out another issue for three months. That would be ironic. And very bad practice of course.

Here’s another example of irony. Some friends of ours moved house recently. The van they hired from the, as it turns out, dodgy local van hire firm broke down in a blizzard. They waited hours for a rescue truck, freezing cold with nothing to read to while away the time. And packed away in boxes in the back? Loads of insulation material and their book collection.

The final example involves the same friends. They finally got to their new home and plugged in their TV. They’ve never been able to get Channel Five on this particular TV. In this house they can’t get any channel except… yep you’ve guessed – Channel Five!

England and America are indeed “separated by a common language.”

My first work-related exposure to the differences between American and British English came when I was a technical writer for an accounting software company. Because our product was sold in English-speaking countries worldwide, we had to accommodate spelling differences, such as check vs. cheque, and the –ize vs. –ise words (economize/economise, recognize/recognise).

Those differences can be jarring at first. But, like a pianist, you can learn to “transpose.”

The real fun comes when you encounter concepts that have entirely different words, or words that mean entirely different things, depending on which side of the pond you’re on. I’ve known for years that a car’s hood is a bonnet in England, and our wrenches are your spanners. And thanks to the Harry Potter books I know all about jumpers (sweaters), skiving off (playing hooky), and that delightful verb, snog, which sounds like more fun than making out.

Some of the differences are just confusing, like talking about that scrappy player on the football team. In the U.S., that’s a compliment; in the U.K., not so much. Asking for a sherbet will get you two different things, and suggesting that something be tabled in a meeting has the opposite result, depending on where you say it.

Then there are the words that can lead to embarrassment. We Americans shouldn’t ask for help with our bangs from a British hair stylist (they’re fringes, if you please) just as you shouldn’t tell your American friends that you’ll knock them up in the morning, or ask if you can borrow a rubber.

But despite the potential for confusion, unintentional humor, and downright embarrassment, I wouldn’t want to see our two “languages” become homogenized. Eliminating the differences would make things as dull as dishwater.

Sorry. Make that ditchwater.

Roy Jacobsen says that everyone can learn to write clearly and powerfully. He’s a freelance writer, editor, and writing coach, and the dictionary is his toy box.

Roy blogs at Writing, Clear and Simple

Keith Gravell of Cambridge Web Projects knows Microsoft products inside out. And unlike me, he doesn’t see Microsoft as the ‘Evil Empire’.  So I emailed him for advice.

Straight away, he told me something I didn’t know (not difficult!). Apparently, the language is set separately for each document.

That means you can set your computer, and Word, to UK English, but if you get a document from someone who hasn’t done this, their US default will override your UK setting.

It doesn’t make any sense to me. I would expect my computer’s settings to dominate, but that’s Microsoft for you I guess. (Stop it Elaine. They’re not evil dictators. Really they’re not).

Because there are now so many versions of Microsoft Office in use, the best thing to do is go to the Help menu in your version of Word. Or click here to find out more about managing languages.

Detect language automatically feature

Word does have its good points (ouch that did hurt). Keith told me that, Word 2007 has a detect language automatically feature. So if you start typing in any language you’ve set before, within a few words, it will switch automatically to that language.

He told me, “I’ve set Word to UK English, but if I type five or six words in French (which I also use), Word will switch to that language automatically.

“It doesn’t work immediately for pasted-in text – you have to start typing in a language to trigger the change.”

Here’s a Microsoft article on how to set the detect language automatically feature in Word 2007.

And here’s how to do it in Word 2003

Setting the language in style templates

And there’s more.  You can also set the language in each of Word’s built-in styles. The steps below apply to Word 2003, and certainly to Word 2007 for Mac. The standard document template in this version is Normal.doc or Normal.

To change the language for this template:

• Go to Format in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
• Select Styles and Formatting.
• Click on the drop-down options for Normal and choose Modify.
• Select Format in the bottom left-hand corner of the box and you’ll see the Language option.

Click this and the choices will be displayed.

As Keith says, “It may be a pain having to set language choice at both machine and style sheet level within Word. However it does mean you can easily switch between languages or dialects when writing for two markets  – particularly useful if you have a US market.”

It’s all a lot more complex than I think it ought to be but I hope this helps a little.

Guest post by Kate Walker, career transition consultant and CV expert

Did you know that on average a busy recruiter spends only 60 seconds reading your CV? Sad but true. Especially when you think of the blood, sweat and tears you spent writing it.

Let’s take a moment to consider what your CV is for. Well, it is the first personal marketing material that a recruiter sees. You want it to get you into the yes pile during that 60 second review. You need it to whet their appetite, make them read on and, ultimately want to meet you.

So how can you make sure yours gets you noticed and increases your chance of landing the interview you really want? Well, first you must make sure that all your best bits are at the top.

Begin your CV with a clear, concise four to five line summary statement or personal profile. This should capture the essence of YOU and what you wish to be known for. For example:

Highly driven and quality conscious Human Resources Business Partner. Extensive HR experience including management of organisational development and change initiatives. Excellent track-record of strategic and operational achievement at regional, national and global level.

Next, bullet point three to four key skills. For example:

• Lateral thinking when problem solving
• Strong relationship building, responsive to needs of disparate clients
• Inspiring, organising and influencing teams across cultures to deliver against demanding goals

You will have filled about one third of your first page. This is a recruiter’s main focus area. So don’t be modest. Sell yourself!

‘Without publicity a terrible thing happens: nothing’

PT Barnum

In the current economic climate a  well-written, standout CV is even more important. For every national press advertisement placed, some 300 applications are received.

You need to stand out from the crowd. All too often people let themselves down in the silliest ways. It’s easily done. I’ve seen some howlers.

A colleague spelt his name wrong on his CV and hadn’t noticed. I could forgive this but it was the first thing I read at the very top of the page. And it wasn’t a name that was difficult to spell!

Furthermore he claimed in his profile to have excellent attention to detail. Somewhat shooting yourself in the foot, I think.

Now here are some more basic principles to think about when writing your CV.

Choose the right format for you

There are several different kinds, with pros and cons to each.

Consider which of the following two would best showcase your career history and achievements. And also which best meets your personal career aims.

INDENT Reverse Chronological and Functional

Reverse Chronological – most commonly used. Lists experience in reverse chronological order, most recent work first. This works well if you:

• Are applying for a role in a traditional organisation/industry
• Are looking to stay in a similar function/industry
• Have worked for prestigious companies
• Want to show a steady career progression

Functional – more  skills-based. Rolls together skills and experience under job function headings, e.g.: Leadership, Change Management, Recruitment and Selection. This works well if you:

• Are making a significant career change
• Have been employed by the same company for a long time
• Want to draw attention to skills you have not used recently

Be a solution to the problem

Read the job advert carefully. Every word is in there for a reason.

What does the job description say? What does the person specification say?

Most people fail to match the skills, achievements and experience they offer, to what the employer wants. You can do a bit of matchmaking here on your own behalf.

Show that you understand what they are looking for by mirroring the essential and desirable qualities. Consider your audience. Are you applying to a  forward-looking, creative company or a more traditional, staid and professional one? Using their language shows you are on a similar wavelength and indicates your likely fit with the company.

This is about correct pitch. It also helps ensure you only apply for roles which closely match what you offer. Why waste time sending off 50 applications when two or three will do?

Using power words

Although it is always best to keep your writing simple, many CVs can be dry and repetitive. Read one and you’ve read them all. You can stand out from the crowd by varying power words to strengthen your writing:

For planned use centralised, programmed, positioned, structured

For provided use executed, formulated, represented

For improved use enhanced, optimised, transformed

Achievements

Where possible always include HOW you have done things rather than list duties and responsibilities. This brings your CV to life more than anything else. Adding specific results and successes gives context and backs up your key skills.

For example:

• Increased sales force headcount by 20% in Q2 2008, driving up quality of new hires in notoriously difficult inner London areas.

Always keep your master CV up to date, adding more and more achievements. It should be a constant work in progress. I review mine every three months.

Presentation

Some of the best CVs I have seen fail to impress for basic reasons. Keep it simple and easy to read for us poor overworked recruiters.

Here are my top tips for good presentation:

• Use bullet points, margins and leave plenty of white spacing.

• Keep to two pages.

• Stick to one tense – past tense preferred.

• Avoid jargon and abbreviations.

• Use good quality white or cream paper and matching envelope.

• Don’t overdo colour, lines, boxes, capitals.

• Use a crisp, clean typeface such as Arial, Verdana, Tahoma.

• Use font size 11/12, no smaller.

• Always get someone else to proofread before sending out.

• Avoid “I, me, we…” (I know that Elaine may disagree with me here!). It’s considered more formal and professional to write in the third person, whereas personal pronouns give a more informal, conversational feel.

• Once again, consider your audience. Certainly a biographical sketch or profile in the first person can be useful when networking.

And finally, think quality versus quantity

Be brief. Use short sentences. Think telegram not novel.

‘There’s a great power in words, if you don’t hitch too many of them together’

 Josh Billings 1818-1885

You can contact Kate Walker on 0208 287 0158 or 07980 473151.

Email: katewalker136@googlemail.com

Hot on the heels of my post about straplines, here’s a BBC News online article speculating on the sound-bite Cameron will use to close the Tory conference.

As with straplines, a lot of thought and care has to go into political party soundbites. Yeah, I know. Hard to believe when you hear some of them. Some sound as though they’ve been scribbled on an expenses chit in the back of a limo, on the way back to that second home. Others reek of a slick advertising agency.

No matter how much effort goes into them, politicians’ sound-bites always end up sounding like empty rhetoric. Perhaps because that’s exactly what they are.

The BBC article makes a very good point about the influence of the internet and in particular, Twitter, on the length of future sound-bites. Twitter forces users to write their Tweet in 140 characters or fewer. A challenge indeed for verbose politicians.

Sound-bites and slogans have been getting shorter for the last few years. Compare Labour’s 1997 slogan – New Labour: Because Britain deserves better’ to the 2005 slogan ‘Forward, Not Back’. As the BBC report says, the latter makes the former sound ‘like an essay’. Both are equally empty as it turns out. And that’s the thing about slogans, political or corporate, the last thing you want is one that comes back and bites you on the bum at some future date.

I love the suggestions for a new Conservation slogan in the comments below the article. Why not have a go at making up your own? You never, know, you could see it up there in lights come the next election!

And the picture of Ryan Giggs? Sorry but I just couldn’t face having a picture of David Cameron on my website.

It perfectly illustrates the power of words when used well and creatively. The message is the economy of the Blue Motion range and it’s reflected by wonderfully economic copy.

The crossed out copy is readable (and in fact curiosity makes you want to read it) so all the technical stuff is there.  However, it’s the words that are left that you notice and read first. They give a very simple and clear message: Blue Motion saves you money.

They’ve even crossed out most of the letters in Volkswagen to leave VW.

The strapline, ‘another example of VW efficiency’ sums up the ad as well as the Blue Motion range. Clever.

It was created by DDB London – VW’s UK ad agency for quite some time now. They’ve given us some great TV ads over the years but I think this poster campaign is up there with the best.   I just wish I’d written it!

Want to find out more? I asked website designer and developer, Robert Games of Pad Media, to help me put together a basic guide to keywords. And here it is.

The basics

Keywords are the words or phrases people use when searching for information on the internet. If your website doesn’t contain keywords related to your business sector, it’s unlikely people will find you.

Each page on your site should be individually optimised so people can easily find what they are looking for.  Start with some core keywords; words that identify and categorise the content on your site.  Make sure the words and phrases you list are relevant to the content on each page.  Taking my site as an example, and looking specifically at the pages that cover websites I’ve written   the content for, my list could look something like this:

website content
writing for websites
copywriting for websites
website copywriting
website copy

More than a bunch of words

However, finding keywords is about more than coming up with a list of words and phrases connected to your business.

A list of five to ten search phrases will not bring the amount of search engine traffic needed to make a website successful. But that list will be a vital tool when determining which phrases to use.

To be successful, the keyword list should contain descriptive terms and phrases related to the content. The phrases should receive a significant amount of searches.  And that’s why keyword research is so important.

Keyword research – why it’s important

The more precise you can be, the more chance you have of being found. But you need to be realistic. So choose words and phrases a potential customer would use when searching for information relating to your area.

Not everyone restricts themselves to a single word when searching online. Phrases of two, three or even four words are often used. These generally result in a more detailed search.

Ideally, the terms and phrases used should have little competition from other sites. The more you can achieve this, the higher your ranking in the important search engines.

In markets with thousands of sites, for example business training, and consulting, everyone is competing for the same keywords and search terms. This makes it even more important to discover one or two words or phrases that few others are listing.

You are looking for phrases that people are likely to key in to a search engine to look for the service you offer. However, say you are a marketing consultant.  There’s really no point choosing ‘marketing’ or ‘consultant’, or even ‘marketing consultant’ as your keyword. The chances of people, who keyed those terms into a search engine, flocking to your site are practically zilch.  Why?  Because there are just too many other sites competing for those terms.

So should you find keywords that no-one else has ever used then?  Taking our marketing consultant as an example again, how about ‘marketing consultant who wears six inch stilettos’?  Surely that would do it?  Er no.

It has to be a term that someone would use in a search and that means there is likely to be some competition. Don’t worry though, that’s a good thing. Because if there’s no competition it’s unlikely anyone is going to use the term in their search.

We are also looking for terms that will have high conversion rates because they precisely describe the product or service you are selling.

Now this is where we get to the clever bit.  What you are looking for are the keywords that lie in between lots of searches and competition, and not many searches and little competition.

Can I do the research myself?

Yes, you can. Here are some online tools to help you.

Wordtracker
Google AdWords
RankSense

You will need to devote quite a bit of time to research, and like everywhere else, experience counts for a lot in the SEO world.

Why invest in professional research

Profitable search engine optimisation takes years to learn and getting a professional to do it for you is worth the investment.  Think of it just like any other advertising or marketing cost.

Keyword analysis and research is vital if you want to attract traffic to your website.  It’s the first step to any search engine marketing campaign, whether that’s search engine optimisation or pay-per-click services.

Studies show that over 60% of users follow the links on the first page of their search results. Without SEO, your website will not show up on the first few pages.

About 80% of all website visits originate from a search query so search engines are the main way to drive people to your site.

While there are hundreds of search engines to choose from, there’s not much point being ranked on an engine that no one uses. Focus on the top high-traffic search engines such as AOL, Ask.com, Google, Live Search and Yahoo! They account for about 93% of all search engine use.

Most searchers look at only one or two pages of search results before clicking on one or abandoning the search.

So what will a researcher do that I can’t?

Of course you will be paying for the researcher’s time but more importantly, you’ll be paying for their knowledge. Experience, and an insight into how search engine algorithms work means they will get you the best results.

It’s not just about keywords

OK. Here comes the techy stuff. While keywords are important, there are other elements involved in optimising a website.  For example developers use W3C compliant coding to make sure search engines such as Google can index sites more effectively.  W3C stands for world wide web consortium and it sets the standards for how different code should be written.

Semantic mark-up is part of W3C compliancy and is a way of separating the page up into headers, sub-headers and paragraphs. It lets developers give certain content more importance.

Good developers also use other techniques such as search engine friendly URLs. These are URL structures that contain the page titles, and meta titles.

Other SEO bits to think about

Here are some other online marketing elements you need to look at if you really want to be up there in the rankings:

•        Pay per click
•        Link building
•        Affiliate schemes
•        Banner advertising
•        Online PR
•        Email marketing campaigns

Search engine optimisation takes a lot of time and hard work. It’s a continuous process that shouldn’t be taken for granted. It could be months before you see some improvement in your page rank. But the traffic you will get on your site makes it well worth the effort.

I was telling someone at an Athena networking lunch about my wardrobe crises that morning.  I knew what I wanted to wear but couldn’t find it. In a fit of temper I threw everything out of my wardrobe, and tipped the contents of two drawers onto the floor too. 

Didn’t help.  Almost everything I have is black and so was the thing I was looking for. it was a bit like finding a black needle in a black haystack. 

Anyway, I was trying to say I’d had a tantrum but it somehow got mixed up with having a paddy. So that’s how pantrum was born AND it’s a portfolio word to boot.  Well, it’s more of a word than web 2.0 – the supposed one millionth word to appear English. 

As well as describing what I did,  think it sounds like how I felt, ie pants, and it perfectly describes what the black mountain of screwed up things looks like on my floor – also pants.

It actually feels good to say too  – especially if you do it with a bit of intent. Give it a try!

Still Business for Breakfast is worth it. It’s a great group of people with good, solid businesses and its very supportive too. When I was first invited as a guest it sounded like the kind of networking group I swore I would never join.  I really didn’t get the idea of talking to the same people every other week.  But I really enjoyed my first meeting and met someone who needed my copywriting services on that first visit.

We meet every two weeks and you don’t need a letter from your mum if you can’t make it.  Of course we’re encouraged to introduce new members to the group and to make referrals but not in a pressured way.

I now absolutely understand the benefits of seeing the same people every fortnight. You get to build relationships and establish trust.  It’s a dynamic group so we always have guests as well as regulars.

As well as making good contacts it has another very positive side for me.  I hate doing 60 second pitches and get irrationally nervous.  Having to do them on a regular basis really makes me think about what I’m saying.  While keeping to my main message, I try to add something a little different each time to grab people’s attention.  I also managed to do a reasonable 10 minute Spotlight presentation about my business a couple of months ago without fainting, having my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, or forgetting who or where I was, or that I was a copywriter.

Athena is another networking group that works well for me.  It’s a women’s networking organisation and I belong to the Kingston group.  We meet once a month for lunch at Warren House (I’m becoming a Warren House groupie but it is a fab venue). Like B4B, I find it very useful and supportive.  I’ve met some lovely people as well. Athena gives a lot of support to its members, including Athena Connect, the organisation’s social networking site. There are workshops and teleseminars too.

So a great start to the day and a positive end to the week.