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6+1 Traits: Word Choice — A Writing & Business Power Tool

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Word Choice Reveals Things About Us

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Hugh Prather says, We cannot talk without talking about ourselves. Word choice is where our bias shows.

Difficult, arrogant, clever, brilliant, resistant, creative, out-of-the box, genius, spoiled brat, misunderstood, having a bad day, playing with you, smartass, ambitious, valuable, disruptive.

I heard all of these words said by different people to describe the same exact behavior by a single individual.

Each person chose a different word. The word for them described the behavior, but even more it described their mindset, the filter through which they see the world.

Words reveal the mindset of a company culture too.

Does your company choose nice words to talk about inanimate objects and violent ones to talk about people? Does it seed catalogues and grow the business, but target customers and kill competition?

Word choice is a powerful thing. It communicates our unconscious thinking. At first we think it’s just a habit, but imagine for a second. What if we said “seed and grow customers”? How would that change the way we think and what we do?

What if Google called us customers? Would Blogspot bloggers have more service? What if Technorati called us partners?

Word choice is a power tool — both in writing and in business. [Read more…]

Net Neutrality 6-28-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

The pretense of knowledge by Patrick Ross

We are only beginning to understand on how subtle a communication system the functioning of an advanced industrial society is based — a communications system which we call the market and which turns out to be a more efficient mechanism for digesting dispersed information than any that man has deliberately designed.

When F.A. Hayek spoke these words more than thirty years ago in accepting the Nobel Prize for Economics, he was referring to the market as a communications system, a reflection of the increasing role of information as a driver of the economy. But these words also speak to the global communications system we call the Internet or cyberspace. While the individual elements of the Internet are designed by man, its growth and evolution has been almost organic, not unlike the development of the market Hayek described. Hayek devoted his career to championing markets over government planning, and his 1974 speech in Stockholm was no exception. His words ring true today as we hear of plans to impose limitations on this modern communications system, this market if you will, by the government in the form of network neutrality regulations.

Net Neutrality: The Mainstream’s still unconscious

The newspaper of record in our nation’s capital, The Washington Post, correctly observes that the rhetoric around net neutrality “has concealed more than it has illuminated.” However the reporter, Jeffrey Birnbaum, parrots elements of the carrier’s arguments in his column, “No Neutral Ground in This Internet Battle.” He fails to provide both sides of the argument in full, suggesting repeatedly that the carriers’ are the aggreived parties.

Let’s begin with his definition of net neutrality:

Net neutrality, which is shorthand for network neutrality, is one of two possible answers to the following legislative question: Should cable and telephone companies be allowed to charge add-on fees to others for access to their networks.

Under a net-neutral system, the answer would be “no.” If net neutrality were to lose, the answer would be “yes.”

A very different definition of net neutrality than mine: . . .

State governments push for Net neutrality laws

As a U.S. Senate panel prepares for a vote on Net neutrality legislation this week, state attorneys general in New York and California are joining Internet companies in saying that network operators must not be permitted to prioritize certain broadband content and services.

In a letter sent Friday to the leaders of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, urged the adoption of a proposal called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. This is the first time that state officials have entered the Net neutrality debate.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

The Mic is ON. It’s Thassos Island, Greece!

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It’s Like Open Mike Only Different

Here’s how it works.

The rules are simple — be nice.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. . . . Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.

Some things we might talk about could include

  • our favorite words.
  • whether anyone’s putting email on their blog(s).
  • whether you’ll ever do a podcast.
  • what your biggest blogging problem is.
  • why Liz had to find her own photograph.

AND THE EVER POPULAR,

What are the code-writing donkey and the drinking moose doing tonight?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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The Mic in ON in Tuscany!
The Mic Is on in New York City!

Open Mic Tonight 7pm Chicago Time

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Tuesday Open Comment Night

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YES, the mike will be open again tonight. So start collecting your thoughts. Remember, you get to bring what you want to talk about.

The rules are simple — be nice.

We met lots of new friends last week as we always do. If you missed it, stop by this week, and we’ll meet you.

Some things we might talk about could include

  • our favorite words.
  • whether anyone’s putting email on their blog(s).
  • whether you’ll ever do a podcast.
  • what your biggest blogging problem is.
  • why Liz had to find her own photograph.

AND THE EVER POPULAR,

What are the code-writing donkey and the drinking moose doing tonight?

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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The Mic in ON in Tuscany!

9 + 1 — The Sequel — When Big Words Go Bad

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Big Words Are Wonderful

Thank you, to everyone who read and took time to comment on 9 + 1 Things Every Reader Wants from a Writer. The post and the discussion became much of what I personally think is the appeal and the addiction of blogging — learning by an interactive, rolling dialogue.

One point in particular seemed to get several comments. It was this one.

Set aside your expensive vocabulary. Don’t use big words, when perfectly good little words communicate easily. I don’t read with an online dictionary, and I don’t want to.

It seems folks were worried that I don’t like big words at all. I love them. I like the way they sound and the way that you can find one that will precisely pinpoint the idea that you’re going for. The point up above that I didn’t make clearly — yeah I’m unclear too, go figure — is that I was writing the 9 + 1 post in the voice of average readers, who don’t have time to go looking up words that might get between them and your message.

El Hakeem pointed out that some folks DO like big words and enjoy learning them. Starbucker is one in particular. He reads William Safire for that very reason. They’re right, you know. If your audience shares your love of vocabulary and finds new words delicious, I’d never ask you to take that away from them. I don’t expect that you would, even if I did.

I was talking about folks who use big words to make themselves or their writing sound smarter. Using vocabulary that way isn’t authentic and readers can tell.

Tony Lawrence left a story in a comment this morning that is a perfect example of how a guy can get caught doing just that.

Many years ago I had a partner who sometimes liked to brag about his education. I think he liked it all the more because I am mostly self educated – I dropped out of high school the moment I was legally able.

Anyway, Don (we’ll call him Don because that was his name) had prepared a new company brochure and was presenting it to me and another partner. As I was reading it, I came across an interesting sentence:

‘We provide simple pneumonic phrases to help you remember the commands.’

“Don, what the hell is a ‘pneumonic phrase’, I asked (not all that pleasantly).

Don nearly preened himself. “Well, if you had the benefit of a college education, you’d know that a pneumonic is a memory aid.”

I shook my head. “I am an autodidact, you fatuous ass, but I know how to spell and I know that the word you were thinking of is ‘mnemonic’ and that YOUR word is more usually found in conjunction with plagues”. I wrote ‘MNEMONIC’ out in large letters as I said that.

‘Benefits of a college education’ indeed.

Thanks, Tony, for letting me share your anecdote. (That qualifies as a big word.) You did what I couldn’t do and you did it artfully. I probably would have had readers screaming, “Liz, the darn horse is dead.”

By the way, my favorite word is despicable. It sounds like it should have punctuation inside it. What’s yours?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz’s help with your writing, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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6+1 Traits of Effective Blog Writing
FIOTB–Tool 1: Content Development Tool
See the Customer Think and Writing Power for Everyone series on the SUCCESSFUL SERIES PAGE.

Net Neutrality 6-27-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

How can we keep the Bells from committing net-neutricide?

How do you detect when the Bells are committing neutricide? It can’t be as simple as measuring throughput. There’s a host in China that I can’t reach from my ISP in London because of an incorrectly configured router at Sprint. That’s stupid and painful, but it’s not the same thing as anti-neutral. Distinguishing stupidity from malice from outside is going to be very hard.

One thing we don’t want is something like the SEC’s anti-insider-trading rules. Network neutrality rules won’t have much practical use if the only way to get them enforced is to convince a bureaucrat at the FCC to raid AT&T’s sales office, seize its files, and investigate your suspicions of wrongdoing. . .

Hyperbolic neutrality nonsense

Netflix founder Reed Hastings wants to move his company’s video distribution system off the postal system and onto the Internet, where it would become a major consumer of bandwidth. He’s worried about traffic-sensitive pricing, so he invokes the all-singing, all-dancing Wonder Principle, “net neutrality”, on the opinion pages of America’s most credulous newspaper:

Today, forces are at work to stake out future control of Web site traffic and eliminate the Internet’s longstanding openness. . . .

. . . While I can sympathize with Mr. Hastings’ desire to have Fedex service for the price of a first class stamp, I’d rather not be the one to pay the difference.

EXCLUSIVE: AT&T CEO’s political donations to net neutrality opponents

As AT&T continues its battles with net neutrality proponents on Capitol Hill this week, I thought it would be interesting to see where AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre has been spending his own money this campaign and election cycle.

I went to Opensecrets.org, and checked under “Whitacre.” . . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE