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Volume I, Issue 6

November 11, 2007

Dear Readers,

I am pleased to announce Word-wise's first ever writing contest!

The 2008 Word-wise Short Writing Contest is designed to spotlight up to three previously unpublished authors and their winning pieces. Based on the motley readership Word-wise enjoys, I can't help but predict the winning pieces will be quite a varied sampling as well. The idea is for this to be fun for readers and writers alike!

Have a great idea already? By all means start thinking about that first draft now, but don't feel compelled to rush; submissions will not be accepted before January 1. See complete contest details and rules.

I know choosing the winning pieces will be a big job and probably not a simple one, but this is a very exciting development for Word-wise just the same, and I am glad to know you readers will be there to savor the winning selections...or to enter them yourselves!

AM signature Happy writing!

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Usage Tip

than vs. then

Than always indicates comparison of some kind. Then has two uses: consequence, or consecutive action. In some contexts, then may be understood rather than stated.

Comparison:

Phil is a faster runner than Gene.
Jim can make pancakes faster than his sons can eat them.

Consequence:

If the guests will provide desserts, then Aunt Sue will cook the remainder of the Thanksgiving feast.
[Then] The company will immediately install wheelchair ramps if Harold Jackson is hired.

Consecutive action:

First prepare the soil, then sow the seeds.
[First] Call the prospect, [then] tell him about the new products, [then] field his questions, and [then] close the sale.

To keep them straight, remember the if/then and first/then pairs. When neither of these pairs works correctly, chances are than is the appropriate word.

Try it! Determine whether than or then is the correct word.

Sheila achieved $10,000 in sales much faster ___ I did.
If it rains tomorrow, ___ the company picnic will be rescheduled.
Take the car to the dealer, ___ present the recall notice to receive free repairs.
Apples rather ___ peaches are the crop of choice in this region.

Answers: 1) than; 2) then; 3) then; 4) than

Not-so-idle Musings

Struggling to Make Time

So often I hear or read the expression, "If it matters to you, you'll make time for it." People who say this mean the things we care about most should be the ones that take first priority in our lives and schedules. The savviest planners among us may appear to make every item fit, regardless its relative importance. Of course that is an illusion. What the outside observer does not see in this neat schedule is the process of pruning the planner had to employ to get there.

So yes, the concept of "making time" is clear enough. Yet the casual tossing of the saying makes me inwardly squirm. There's something humiliating there. Who is this person, I think to myself, to judge such a thing? That I don't have time to do something does not equate to my believing it unworthy of being done. "If it matters to you" carries with it the underlying assumption that, indeed, it must not matter to me. And under that is the further implication that it ought to.

Unlike commodities that are renewable, time is frustratingly limited. Regardless how much something matters, we can't manufacture an additional week or day or even hour. We have to be selective in which activities get a cut. If we're wise--and perhaps just a little lucky--we make those choices carefully enough to have few regrets later.

But the bald truth is that, in an attempt to "make" more time, what we too often do instead is rob ourselves of critical elements of well-being. Acknowledging our needs means alloting a regular portion of every day to sleep, nourishment, hygiene, and recreation. Yet many of us guilt ourselves into sacrificing those things in favor of freeing time for something else, usually work. Very few are innocent of this self-torture. How many people do you know who have never skipped lunch in favor of meeting a deadline? Never stayed up too late finishing a project that could have waited until morning? Never spent an hour or two attending a seminar or workshop that, in the end, really didn't deliver the enlightenment it promised? That kind of "created" time, on closer examination, is actually wasted time. And it can't be recaptured.

For many of us, the fall-winter holidays are packed with family and religious events that are close to our hearts. But the preparations can be overwhelming. Making time for the minutiae that turn these occasions into chores shouldn't be part of the agenda. Why not ease the frantic pace, just for the next month or two, and refocus our time on what's really important to us--the people and ideals behind the details.

And let's not feel guilty for that: there's a vast difference between avoiding responsibilities and balancing them with our human needs. Declining to "make time" and instead enjoying life once in a while is not shirking--it's healthy.

Kudos!

In the past fews weeks, I've come across an unusual number of interesting media. Two are worthy of mention here. Enjoy!

The Feast
Mr. Verb

Language Corner

Did You Really Mean That?

There I was innocently reading an otherwise entertaining novel when an ill-turned phrase ruined it all. A scene that had until that moment been suspenseful turned hopelessly comic as the author described the protagonist discovering another character "literally crying her eyes out." Immediately my attention wandered from the plot...has this bizarre medical event been documented? This condition needs an appropriately fancy name. Spontaneous lachrymal optectomy?

And so an article is born. At the risk of being branded just another linguistic peevologist, I will address several recently-misused terms for well-informed writers to hunt down and eliminate.

Literally
By definition, literally is an adverb meaning "in actual fact" or "exactly." It is the opposite of "figuratively." Its use typically indicates a context in which a figurative interpretation would ordinarily be applied and calls the reader's attention to the distinction that in this particular case, that use is NOT intended. This may happen when a colorful phrase or saying is applied to a less-fanciful usage:

The coach flipped his lid when his defense allowed the rival team to score its sixth unopposed touchdown.
The stove became so hot so fast that the boiling kettle flipped its lid.

In the second example, the reader or speaker may correctly choose to insert the word literally to emphasize that this dramatic and unexpected action really did, in fact, occur. But to insert literally in the first example would be almost slapstick, indicating that this caricature of a coach dons a lid before game time and tosses it in anger when his team fails.

Some dictionaries acknowledge that literally is sometimes intended to draw attention to the meaning "figuratively," but why introduce an opposing meaning? Simply leave out the word when it isn't specifically necessary to avoid any question of meaning. (Sharp-eyed grammarians may add that literally, like its fellow adverbs hopefully and thankfully, is just as often misused even in the first context. However, that grammatical question is far beyond the bounds of this usage discussion.)

360 Degrees
Geometry teaches that a complete circle is 360 degrees around. A writer will sometimes make the logical leap, then, that a complete *anything* can be measured, figuratively speaking, in 360 degrees. But in some nonmathematical cases, 180 degrees would more meaningfully describe completeness. Take this example:

Though Arthur once enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle financed by criminal activity, he has now turned around 360 degrees.

Chances are, this writer means to express that despite his wayward past, Arthur is now an honest man who lives modestly. The 360 degrees phrasing, however, suggests instead that poor Arthur had a momentary change of heart only to return--as in a 360-degree circle--to the exact place he started: that is, he's once again nothing more than a rich swindler. Simply changing the phrase to 180 degrees will clarify that Arthur's current ways are in direct opposition to his former path.

Babysit/Babysit for
Increasingly writers and speakers have fallen into the habit of using for with babysit even when it is not indicated, which unintentionally changes the scenario. Consider the difference in these two sentences:

Next Friday, Janie will babysit the Zellers.
Next Friday, Janie will babysit for the Zellers.

In the first sentence, it is entirely clear that the Zellers are the children who will be in Janie's charge. In the second, the Zellers are the big people who have hired Janie for the evening, not the little people she will be supervising. The frequency with which for is attached to babysit suggests that this may be an example of a usage shift in progress rather than a simple usage mistake; time will tell. In the meantime, however, writers and speakers would be well advised to be alert to the possible misreading that tiny word can cause.

Word-wise Challenge

Answers to October 7 Challenge:

n. a heavy, durable woven natural-fiber fabric; or v. to examine closely and exhaustively = CANVAS
n. a monetary unit of Ireland; or v. to propel a boat by means of a long pole = PUNT
v. to conduct preliminary testing; or n. in a window, a loosely woven barrier against insects and debris but through which air may pass freely = SCREEN

The next Challenge will appear in the December 16, 2007, issue.

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