Re: Can style trump grammar rules?

Subject: Re: Can style trump grammar rules?
From: Julie Stickler <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 10:50:38 -0400

I just want to share one example of how "marketing style" and being a
hipster can hurt your business.

I was contacted earlier in the summer by a marketing intern for a
translation vendor. Her brochure about why I should hire them not only was
in all lowercase, but she failed to properly spell and capitalize her OWN
company's name. I fired back an e-mail to her, and CC-ed the company's
sales e-mail, with exactly why they had failed to impress me: I expect a
translation vendor to be concerned about my company's branding. If they
can't even brand their own company correctly, why should I trust them with
MY company's brand? And I expect a translation vendor to recognize
acronyms and to know that "iso9000" should be capitalized.

Attention to details matter. In this case, it lost her company any chance
at my business.


On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 10:22 PM, Janoff, Steven <Steven -dot- Janoff -at- ga -dot- com>
wrote:

> Just to show that it's an acknowledged idea, but it's more of a design and
> marketing/branding decision.
>
> http://www.philosophy.com/
> http://www.philosophy.com/about-us/about-us,en_US,pg.html
>
> Note that on the About page, the style is continued even with the
> founder's proper name and "u.s.a."
>
> And under "our heritage," note this:
>
> "our lowercase writing and children's photos remind us to live life with
> curiosity, wisdom and abundant joy."
>
> If you want to experiment, great, but be prepared for pushback. And if
> you don't get it, then enjoy it. :)
>
> Steve
>
>
> On Wednesday, July 30, 2014 6:41 PM, Gene Kim-Eng wrote:
>
> My wife used to be a legal secretary. She would have been grinding her
> teeth and grabbing one hand with the other a la Dr Strangelove to hold
> herself back from choking the life out of your GF.
>
> It's not just technical writer thinking.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
> On 7/30/2014 9:07 AM, Kyle Simmons wrote:
> > She was doing all the addressing, and I noticed that she was writing
> > in all lowercase. Lowercase names. Lowercase street addresses.
> > Lowercase state abbreviations. I was horrified.
>
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Read about how Georgia System Operation Corporation improved teamwork,
> communication, and efficiency using Doc-To-Help | http://bit.ly/1lRPd2l
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com -dot-
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
> http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and
> info.
>
> Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online
> magazine at http://techwhirl.com
>
> Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public
> email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
>



--
Julie Stickler
http://heratech.wordpress.com/
Blogging about Agile and technical writing

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Read about how Georgia System Operation Corporation improved teamwork, communication, and efficiency using Doc-To-Help | http://bit.ly/1lRPd2l

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives


Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: Can style trump grammar rules?: From: Kyle Simmons
Re: Can style trump grammar rules?: From: Gene Kim-Eng
RE: Can style trump grammar rules?: From: Janoff, Steven

Previous by Author: Re: LinkedIn invitations - accept "unpersonalized" ones ?
Next by Author: RE: Can style trump grammar rules?
Previous by Thread: RE: Can style trump grammar rules?
Next by Thread: Re: Can style trump grammar rules?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads