Cedar Mill Communications

One of the best things about having an annual subscription to the Associated Press Stylebook is its regular updates. I learned how the Christmas Day bomber spells his name, for instance, and how it’s pronounced. It’s Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (OO’-mahr fah-ROOK’ ahb-DOOL’-moo-TAH’-lahb). In my line of work, I don’t deal with terrorist suspects, but I appreciate knowing the info’s there anyway.

Just this week I got another update that made me realize I’m not too technologically challenged – at least in knowing the terms for fast-changing technology. AP has listed nearly 50 terms or words with new definitions that are associated with social media. In fact, the editors have created a whole section called Social Media Guidelines in which the umbrella term is defined: “tools that allow the sharing of information and creating online communities.” I applaud the conciseness. While you could argue you’d have to have been under a rock the past few years not to know about Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, it’s also clear that traditional media reporters have a lot to learn about their online cohorts, whom they do they quote. AP points out (to those gullible few) that “phony accounts are rampant in the social media world.” You don’t say.

The fact that AP just now chose to recognize – and in its way legitimize – social media, says to me that the editors were like most conservative institutions and dismissed friending and tweeting as passing fads, but now have decided, like most of us, to just go with it. Why not get a Facebook page? It’s a great way to keep up with folks and reconnect with old, nearly forgotten friends.

By the way, I ran through the terms just to make sure I knew them all. I did pretty well; only hashtag threw me.

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I had the opportunity recently to be a co-presenter in a media training session. One of the tips we always give prospective spokespeople is to avoid the use of jargon and meaningless tech words.

We have a pretty good list:

• Leading
• Enhanced
• Unique
• Significant
• Solution
• Integrated
• Innovative
• Advanced
• Sophisticated
• E-anything
• Best-in-Class

And, last but not least, the word I’ve found most bothersome of late: Leverage.

Most of the time PR, marketing and sales folks are leveraging leverage to such a degree that it’s meaningless. Whether as a verb, noun, adjective, it’s been misused, overused and tweaked to the point where all relevance and impact is gone. There probably hasn’t been an enterprise hardware or software press release issued in the last 20 years without some leverage, somewhere.

It’s especially popular in headlines:

“Oracle Service Architecture Leveraging Tuxedo”

“IBM reveals Long Term File System (LTFS) to leverage LTO-5”

“Webinar: Leverage Microsoft SharePoint in you Online Marketing”

“Leverage Your Existing EMC Centera Investment with OnBase”

“RIM’s New MVS 5 Leverages Cisco Unified Communications Manager”

Maybe somebody knows what it means to leverage LTO-5 with a long-term file system, but you’ve got me with that one. The point of putting out a press release, for instance, is to communicate information so that it can be understood, not to leave people scratching their heads in confusion. Most of time when I see the word leverage, it’s pretty unclear what going on. Maybe the author didn’t know either.

If you’re a TV watcher, you know that leverage even has it owns series on TNT starring Timothy Hutton. The series is solid, and the use of the word leverage here almost forgivable. Leverage is so vague that you’re not entirely sure what the show is about. As names for undercover spy-like thrillers with a twist go, it’s tough to top Mission Impossible. But I guess Leverage isn’t all that bad.

If you’re producing a hit TV series, I’ll let you off the hook. For everyone else, take a minute and look at your copy or slide deck. How many times are you leveraging something? Three? Five? Ten? Do yourself and your readers a favor and cut that number in half. Or, if you’re truly committed to reform, delete them all. You just don’t need any more leverage.

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First of all, I confess that I don’t go in for Twitter. I’m way behind John McCain on that one. I just don’t feel the need to send off a comment about my breakfast (granola and copious cups of coffee, if you must know) or the dust bunnies under my desk (dog hair, actually). Brian, on the other hand, twitters constantly. Nothing’s sacred, though usually it’s comments about music or work or the dogs. Hopefully not too much in the way of personal stuff about me (gasp!).

I’m more of a Facebooker. I like the give and take of posting to people I actually know and getting feedback. Like the day I noticed there is a variation on raindrops on weather.com. Your basic rainy day rates six drops; a gullywasher, a couple more. We take our rain seriously here; so any time someone else does too, even if it’s only a rain graphic, it’s cause for an appreciative nod. When I noted that on my status, I got some almost instant comments from fellow Northwesterners — a couple of Washingtonians, an Idahoan, an Oregonian, even a Californian.

So, regarding the people who partake in Twitter, here’s my question: What do you call them? As an editor, I need to know this. Those of you out there who do imbibe, so to speak, let me know. I’ll fire off a reply to ex-AP Editor Norm Goldstein who writes for Copyediting magazine and who wrote on the subject recently, sharing my burning question. He’s probably a Luddite like me, so I’ll use old-fashioned email.

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I didn’t go into journalism to edit. When I was in junior high school and deciding on my career path, I was pretty sure I’d travel the world, find quaint villages or gorgeous places to write about for National Geographic. But back in San Marcos, Calif., where I got my first non-school writing job on the local weekly, I had my first brush with a real, live editor. I’ll never forget how appalled I was with what he’d done to my first news story. It was more red ink than black, but liked it anyway (!).

Since then I’ve written for daily and weekly newspapers, consumer and trade magazines and now for public relations agencies. I love the writing process. I love sitting at my computer, cup of coffee at the ready, a warm dachshund in my lap (maybe the other two dogs flaked out nearby) and pondering each word — each a pearl of course, each perfection for that sentence.

But I’m an editor too. And after the pearls have been strung, after I’ve taken the dogs out or gone to the gym, after I’ve let time clear my head, I have to go back and coldly evaluate. That’s when the real work comes in — deciding which of those pearls to pitch, which ideas just didn’t work and, of course, where the commas should go.

Do it wrong and nobody looks good. Do it right and everyone wins.

In a world where an individual’s or company’s first and only impression may be on a screen or a printed page, taking the writing seriously is obvious, but don’t forget the editor. Everybody needs one.

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If you’re new to the Cedar Mill Communications blog and website, you’re probably wondering what that handsome dog is doing in the upper right-hand corner. And you’re probably wondering why Brian is getting all the airtime. Wonder no longer! The dog is Felicity, our mascot and spiritual guide. A Buddhist priest once told me dogs are gurus, and he couldn’t have been more correct about Felicity. She and our small auxiliary dog Frankie will crop up from time to time because our world includes much more than just words.

About the heretofore (isn’t that a great word?) lack of words from the other half of CMC — me — I’ve been mulling over this whole blog business for some time now. I couldn’t decide if I really wanted to join this public airing of thoughts. It can get you thrown in jail in Egypt or fired or just dissed. But I do have something to say now and then, and a blog is a good place to throw out thoughts and elicit comments. So, I’ll likely add thoughts about my editing, writing and other word-related stuff — both written and spoken.

Among the kinds of editing I do through CMC is localization editing. That means I edit documents that have been translated into English. I try to make sure the copy reads as though it was written by a native English speaker. Editors needn’t speak or read the source language, but I think it helps to be able to do that. Maybe that’s because I’m a perfectionist about meaning. From three years living in Germany, I read and speak German well enough (though I need another class!).  I work with a fine German-to-English translator, Hilary Higgins. The two of us fuss over wording so that the German writer’s core message comes through, but in a way an American reader (or sometimes British) can fully grasp.

After nearly six years of doing this type of editing, I’ve learned some valuable (wertvoll) lessons: 

1. Discerning meaning is hard to do, but when you get it right, the ah-ha moment is wunderbar.

2. Translating describes only half the job; copywriting is the other half because clients often want us to make the translation better than the source.

2b. The source could have been better.

3. Working with a good translator makes the job a pleasure.  

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If you’re one of those people who has to look at press releases all day, I’m sure you’re fed up with unintelligible jargon that ends up being passed off as interesting or relevant day in and day out. Apparently jargon-filled documents have a modicum of meaning or they wouldn’t keep happening.

While jargon may come with the territory in some industries, there are certain words that need to stop being used (or mis-used). The most offensive in my book are unique, seamless and leverage. These at one time useful words have been worked into the ground by corporate types so as to be rendered moot. Now we get sentences like “our unique and seamless integration leverages our leveraged integration seamlessly and uniquely.” Huh?

I’m to the point where I edit those words out in every document I see. It is probably a futile effort to ween folks off of them, but I’m not giving up the fight.

For all of use who have launched really technical products, here’s a vid you might find humorous. Jargon to the ‘nth degree.

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