Last week we talked about Subjects and Predicates–the very basis of sentence structure.

Today, let’s talk about Compound Subjects and Predicates.

Basically, if there are two or more subjects to the sentence, you have a Compound Subject:

• Running laps, doing push-ups, and eating well are all good for your health.
• Boykin Spaniels and American Water Spaniels are similar dog breeds.
• Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic are known as the Three Rs.

If there are two or more predicates, you have a Compound Predicate:

• Exercise is good for the heart and helpful for weight control.
• Dog breeds can be very different and still have similar characteristics.
• Education is best when it is varied and wide-ranging.

Naturally, you can combine these to have compound subject and predicates in the same sentence! (Oooh! Advanced sentence-assembly. Please be sure to have your protective helmet in place to make sure your brain doesn’t explode.)

• Jogging and dieting have done wonders for my waistline and improved my cholesterol counts.
• Boykin Spaniels and American Water Spaniels may be similiar, but for me there’s no comparison.
• Reading and writing are fundamental to a good education and vital for communication.

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MM: Compounding Interest

What elements do you think are necessary on business cards? Do you even think that business cards are necessary?

Well, let’s think about that.

Your name, obviously.

Your job title/position/description

Contact information, like phone, email, fax number.

Website, if any.

But, what about a company name? Does a freelancer really need a company name? Does it hurt? Help? Make no difference? (Although, if there is a company name, I will say that I don’t think it should be a “cute” one, with so-called clever puns on the word “write.” Because, ugh, unprofessional.)

How about a logo?  Generally, I’d say absolutely yes, but … if you don’t have a company name, chances are you don’t have a logo, either. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a graphic of some kind to add visual interest, as long as it’s a royalty-free image (of course). In this sample, I added my initials in a swirly script watermark in a font I’ve wanted to use for ages.

How about a list of services right on the card?  Or do you feel that is covered by the job title/description?

John Smith
Writer
Copywriting and Editing
Blogging
General business Writing

One-sided, or Two-sided? I think one is enough, though I went for two sides for my Knitting Scholar cards, mostly because I couldn’t decide whether to use the logo, or the cute little icon with the scholar’s tasseled cap, and so I went with both. That was a splurge, though.

Or, maybe this would be a good use for listing those services? Have the name and title on the front, but a list of services on the back? Then they’re there for a prospect to see (which would be handy if they need a reminder of who you are), but it’s not vital information being lost once the card is in a business card holder?

Good card stock, though, is a must. I’ve been printing business cards for my magazine fulfillment company for years, and have yet to find a good business card stock that goes through the printers. Usually, any business card stock you can pick up at your local office supply store is going to be flimsy in the hand, and if you can at all afford it, you’re better off having them professionally printed on decent-weight stock. You can go with your own design or use one of theirs, but just like with photos, unless you have great equipment and supplies, my feeling is that the quality will be better if it’s outsourced.)

(For the record, I was really pleased with my Knitting Scholar cards, and got them from Prints Made Easy. I can’t say for sure that they had the best pricing available since I didn’t shop around too much, but they were fast and I’m pleased with the quality of the cards.)

What else should a good business card have? Did I miss anything?

(And, while I’m asking for opinions on everything else–what do you think of that sample card of mine at the top? Good? Missing something? Other than the phone number, obviously! Or, should I put “Punctuality Rules!” on there, as my “business” name, even though I’m not sure I want it to be my “business” name?)

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Business: It's All in the Cards

Okay, who remembers hearing their seventh grade English teacher blathering on (and on) about sentence subjects and predicates?

Anyone?

Hmm. Only mine, then? Then, in honor of Mrs. Babyock, allow me to remind you:

• The Subject of a sentence is the person, place, or thing that the sentence is talking about.

• The Predicate of the sentence is the action being done by, to, or about the subject.

Every sentence has to have both of these elements in order to be a sentence.

I suppose some examples would be handy about now, huh?

• I knit.
• My dog ate.
• My sister drove.
• My parents smiled.

Short and sweet, but we are talking basics, here.

In each of these very basic sentences, the subject is the person (or dog) being talked about. I. My dog. My parents. My sister.

The predicate is the verb demonstrating the action. Knit. Ate. Smiled. Drove.

Most sentences (I don’t know if you’ve noticed?), usually have just a little more complexity than this.

The subject, for example, might be more complex.

• My friends and I knit.
• My hungry, happy dog ate.
• My good sister drove.
• My loving parents smiled.

The predicate can also be more complex.

• I knit happily away at my new sweater.
• My dog ate his breakfast with a gusto that made me laugh.
• My sister drove for over an hour just to deliver an anniversary present.
• My parents smiled when they answered the door.

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MM: Subjects and Predicates

Please, though, give me your opinion. What do you think?

(No, really, I want to know!)

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Now, Better Customer Service!

Yet, my own Services page is still so very lame, failing in many ways.

Let’s explore that, shall we? Why is it so pathetic when I’ve already shown you that I know better?

No Specific Services.

This is the biggest flaw. I mention that I do “freelance writing and design,” but that’s such a broad statement, it could practically mean anything. Believe me, I am aware of this fatal flaw! The problem, though, is that at this precise moment–the very beginning of what I hope will be a successful writing career–I don’t KNOW what my focus will be. I know there are skills that I have that are better suited to certain types of writing than others, but maybe I’d be good at doing the “others,” anyway? At this point, how can I really be sure?

I was emailing with Gary this morning, and I used this analogy:

It’s like I’m sitting in a boat at a dock, looking at the wide, wide ocean and knowing that I’m going sailing, but not to WHERE. Up the coast to New England? Across the ocean to Old England? Africa? Around the world to New Zealand? Could be anywhere! And all I can really say at this point is that I can handle a boat–even if I can’t tell you that I’d rather be, say, steering than raising sails.

You tell me–How does a newbie freelancer determine what her writing focus should be?

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Poor Service (Or, No Tips for You!)

You may have noticed the very lame Services page I recently added, just to have something there.

How do I know it’s lame? Because, well, have you looked at some of the good ones lately? Like James’ and Harry’s Men with Pens? Melissa Donovan’s Writing Forward? Lillie Amman’s A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye? Julie’s Blogging Roads? Joanna’s Confident Writing? Brad Shorr’s Word Sell?

Yeah. You get the idea.  These are GOOD pages.

Let’s explore some of the elements to the effective Services page, shall we?

• They actually list the available services. Yes, this one seems obvious, but it certainly bears repeating. Simply saying, “writing and design” is insufficient. Writing what? Business articles? Blog posts? Legal briefs? Greeting Cards? Press releases? Letters for Mom? Designing what? A logo? The color scheme for a website? An entire website?
• But don’t go overboard. You might actually have done all of these things at some point or another. (I certainly do hope you’ve written to your Mom at least occasionally.) That doesn’t mean that you’re wanting to focus on all of them. If you’re pitching to business markets, they’re probably not going to be interested by the novel you’ve got on your harddrive, or that you’ve spent 20 years writing limericks for your local card shop. Focus on the services that highlight the direction in which you want to travel.
• Experience/Qualifications. How much experience do you have? Or, if you’re just starting out, how qualified are you? Why should someone want to hire you? Can you at least prove that you can do the job you’re shooting for?
• Testimonials. If at all possible, this is definitely a vital thing to have. If you have satisfied customers (and they have no objections), by all means, tell the world!
• Writing Samples. Especially if you are just starting out and don’t yet have happy clients, at least show them that you can write. Or that you can put together a good design. Or, that you actually have whatever skill you’re trying to sell.
• Contact. Is it obvious that you need to provide an easy way for prospective employers to contact you?

So, you’re asking yourself … if I already know all this, why is my own Services page so lame? Well, that’s another post…

But, in the meantime–YOU tell ME.

What else is vital on a good Service page? What should I do to mine to improve it?

Speak up, folks!

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Service with a Smile

How often do you think about the font you use?

I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately–mostly because I think they’re fun–but like all good things, they can be used well, or they can be used very, very badly.

Fonts, or typefaces, are the actual shapes of the letters you see on your screen, and there are multitudes, thousands of them, to choose from.

The trick is choosing wisely.

I’m not going to go into great detail here, but I wanted to point out two things you should keep in mind.

The Most Important Feature of a Font is Readability. 

As many fun, cool, creative, nifty, artistic fonts as there are out there, they’re no use to anyone at all if you can’t read them. You might be able to get away with a particularly artistic font for something like a logo or a blog header, but for the text on your web page?

Don’t make your readers have to work to read you. Whether it’s a website, a pdf, or an article in Word you are submitting to an editor for publication, think about whether that font is easy to read. Are the letters clear? Are the “e”s easy to pick out? Does the lowercase “a” look too much like a lowercase “s” or an “o”? Would you want to read pages of text in this font? Or would it make your eyes tired? Think about the difference between, say, Times New Roman and that blocky, Old English calligraphy. Comic Sans versus Arial or Helvetica. Some are just more friendly to the eyes than others … and as a writer, you cannot take that for granted.

And, of course, a font that you can’t read rather defeats the purpose, wouldn’t you agree?

Serif vs Sans Serif

Do you know the difference between Serif and Sans Serif? The way it was explained to me in a college lecture was that serifs dated back to ancient Rome, when stone carvers would chisel words into marble, finishing off each line with a little twist of the chisel, to make it look complete. So, any font (like Times Roman, Copperplate, Rockwell, Courier) that has that little extra touch or tweak to each line of the letter, is a Serif font.

Sans Serif, on the other hand, means “without serif”. (I don’t know much French, but I do know “sans”.) For Sans Serif fonts, a line is just a line, no extras, no furbelows. Fonts like Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, Franklin Gothic, Myriad … all of these are simple, clean, basic.

The real difference–from a writing/design point of view–is that in a small font, serifs can make words harder to read, by using up too much white space and making the reader work harder. If you’re designing a form to be filled in, you can squeeze in more in a small space with Sans Serif. On the other hand, serif fonts are usually considered easier for large chunks of reading. If you pick up the nearest book, the odds are very high that it’s printed in a serif font. The theory is that the serifs help your eyes move from letter to letter, word to word.

Additionally, Sans Serif fonts are usually considered more “modern” because they have a cleaner look, no muss, no fuss. Serif fonts are more traditional. So, again, if you’re writing a hip, trendy blog, you might want to avoid using a font like Bookman. (Although, of course, using fonts on the internet opens up a whole other can of worms, because the only fonts you can be sure of using are ones that are on the readers’ computers … almost everyone has Times New Roman, but a font like Adobe Caslon Pro may only be on a handful. But, um, that’s another story.)

What it all boils down to is … take a minute to consider what fonts you use, and how you are using them. Because you don’t want to alienate your readers by choosing something hard on the eyes … not if you want them to continue being your readers!

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MM: Fontastic

Um, yeah. Neither did I. With all the writing blogs I read, you’d think that I would have heard of this from somebody other than one of my knit-blog friends, huh?

Well, let’s recap:

• Aside from That
• Comma, Comma, Comma Chameleon
• Colonoscopy
• Exclamation
• Hyphenation
• Period
• Question
• Semi-Colon
• May I Quote You?

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National Punctuation Day Plus One

Simple question today:

When somebody does something nice for you, do you say, “Thank you?”

It seems such a simple thing, but it is so often forgotten or ignored by those people who feel entitled to anything their little hearts desire, and therefore see no need to thank anyone else for going out of their way to help. Because, of course, they deserved the help in the first place.

If your mother didn’t teach you this simple rule, please allow me. Be gracious. Be appreciative. Be responsive. The world is not here to do you favors, and you make your own luck. And, by all means, when a fellow human does something for you, acknowledge it. It might just be a waiter at a restaurant putting down a glass of water on a hot day. It might be someone driving 50 miles just to deliver something you bought on Craigslist. It could be the person on the other side of the cash register. (That one works both ways.)

It could also be a bunch of people who pitch in with good advice, just because you asked and they want to be helpful.

It’s one of the basic tenets of good manners, this saying “thank you” thing. Right up there with saying “please.” If nothing else, think of it as a good karma–what goes around comes around, and you’ve got to give to receive, and if you receive, you’ve got to give thanks.

So, thanks to all of you, and may you pay it forward!

Post from: Punctuality Rules!

MM: Do You Say Thank You?

I’ve been writing this writing blog for almost a year now. (Wow, that went by fast.) I’ve made a bunch of friends, found a lot of blogs that I wouldn’t otherwise have found, and have generally been having a great time. But … without getting into excruciating detail, our family finances are in dire straits and I need to do something about it.

It’s starting to sound like I’m going to tell you I’m closing down the blog, doesn’t it? But it’s not! In fact, quite the contrary–I need to shift up to a whole, new level.

What I really want–no, need–to do is figure out a way to get some paying writing gigs. Ways to get freelance jobs. Ways to use this otherwise pleasant little writing blog as a springboard for more serious writing (i.e. writing that pays me money).

So … let me ask you folks:

What do you think is the one, most important thing I need to do to make this happen?

There are lots of truly wonderful freelance writing blogs floating about the ether. In fact, I probably spend more time reading them than I really should–time I could be using to, you know, write. The tricky part of reading those blogs, though, is that while they’ve got great information, not to mention helpful things like categories, it’s still hard to find the posts that tell a beginner where to start.

I could (and do) spend hours reading tips about how to bill your customers, or how to find time for a vacation, or the importance of e-mail as a business tool. I’ve got a small pile of books about Freelancing next to my computer, to augment my library on general writing books. I’ve subscribed to online courses for writing for the web. Really, I’ve read so many helpful tips and instructions, I’m drowning under a sea of “Do this first” tips.

But what I really need is for somebody to look at this blog and tell me, “Okay, good. The first thing you need to do now is ____.”

So, this is your chance. How often do I ask you to tell ME what to do? Usually these posts are all about me telling you things like “Don’t mix up your pronouns and verb tenses.” Now’s your chance to give ME helpful tips.

What if you don’t have any helpful tips? Maybe you’re in the same boat I am? Or you’re here because you’re still struggling with when to use “Further” and when to use “Farther?” Well, you can help too. How about some words of encouragement? Affirmations that you believe I’ll figure it all out and write well enough to be able to make this work?

So–here’s the big question of the day.

What do I need to do to (quickly) launch a freelance writing career?

(And yes, I know, split infinitive in that sentence, but that’s a rule for old fogeys, anyway. Just like the rule about starting sentences with “and.” I do KNOW the rules, you know.)

Spread the word! I’ll take whatever (reasonable) advice I can get!

And, if you can direct me to some actual work, that would be even better (grin).

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Soliciting Advice and Encouragement