Eats, Shoots and Leaves
At the end of a rather wet and windy Weymouth bank holiday weekend, the sun has come out just in time to put fingers to keyboard to type set this week’s Blog.
As usual, I got diverted when I started reading this newsletter article in World Wide Words, to which I subscribe: http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/kfty.htm#N5
The content in this article took me back to Lynne Trusses book that I had been reading over the last May bank holiday Eats, Shoots and Leaves. She eloquently describes punctuation as being the art of separating the parts of written composition so that the meaning can be readily understood.
The value of sharp punctuation, in sales copy, cannot be over estimated. It does not necessarily have to follow the grammatical rules. Indeed, in advertising copy, quite often the position or exclusion of punctuation accentuates wit.
“A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.”
Another of the quotes I love from Lynne Trusses book; “punctuation points up – rather in the manner of musical notation – such literary qualities as rhythm, direction, pitch, tone and flow.”
If you want your copy to be read in the way that you wish, then you must punctuate accordingly to let your sentences contain a pleasant rhythm.
This is superbly illustrated by Dean Martin and Victor Borge? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7L02tCNi0I Enjoy!
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May 31st, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I think I just deleted my response. so here it is again, although it won’t be the same, because doing things the same way twice in a row is like being specific all the time: boring.
You are right that sales copy would, on the whole, benefit from clarity. But I like the idea of ambiguity in pretty much everything. Ambiguity is like art and music. The first time I listened to Mahler’s 2nd symphony, I thought it was about a vast army of colourful and majestic tribes arriving in triumphal processions on an endless plain somewhere in Africa. Then I read the sleeve notes and discovered it was a musical representation of the resurrection.
No two people interpret works of art in exactly the same way. I like to think of words as half way between mathematics and art…they can go either way.
One of my favuorite pastimes is making up ambiguities….for example, here is an extract from a newsletter,
“….have you ever noticed how wouldchips, like other chips, often lead to big Butts? Actually, I wood have finished this week’s newsletter sooner, butt I was busy redecorating my hallway with wouldchip paper. I would have been more successful but I was frightened of failing. I would have come up with something more obvious, but sometimes I like to make my clients do the work because they learn more that way”
In hypnotherapy, ambiguity (phonic ambiguity…e.g. ‘would’ and ‘wood’, and syntactical ambiguity…e.g. ‘a woman without her man is nothing̵
is really useful because it temporarily confuses the subject, allowing the therapist to slip suggestions in to the unconscious mind without the subject’s conscious mind noticing, thus avoiding resistance to change. Using imprecise punctuation is also useful in creating ‘embedded commands’. This is a technique used extensively in sales and advertising to hide messages which, given too obviously, would meet with buyer objections. I guess it is a process of sublimation. Used ethically it is very positive. But not all sales organisations and advertisers are ethical.
Derren Brown is a past master at embedded commands, to the extent he can get jewellery salespeople to accept blank pieces of paper for diamonds, thinking the paper is real cash.
As entertainment I think this is fine. As a business strategy I think it sucks and in any event, it doesn’t work long term. People suffer buyer remorse and don’t come back. I still think successful sales is primarily about honesty. A little ambiguity may just make people think a bit more, or even laugh. Too much clarity may result in a ‘nah, don’t want it’ response before the prospective buyer has had a chance to get inside the experience of the potential purchase.
I am ambivalent about it.
I am ambivalent about pretty much everything.
If all politicians were more ambivalent, would there be wars….? Don’t get me started.
June 4th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Oh, how life is so complicated by us all being different, yet this chaos must be what keeps us all going. Would some people be so pedantic about English (and therefore maintain its quality) if others didn’t demonstrate errors in grammar. If we didn’t have some people who tend to cause havoc in society, we wouldn’t have strong structure of law, would we? The more ambivalent some people are about things, the more others have to fight to keep the status quo. It’s all so fascinating. How ambivalent would be all be about Stonehenge, unless someone challenged it’s right to be a wonder of the world?
June 5th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Excellent responses! And a lively debate in each of your idioms? Lets have some more …
Did either of you click through to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7L02tCNi0I - it kinda takes the seriousness out of it all?
To clarify my take - gramatical errors are only such, if they result from a lack of knowledge rather than from deliberate choice. Ambivalence has nothing to do with it. Happy to argue the toss on this for those of you intersted enough!
June 5th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
If for ambivalence we wrote ‘not bovvered’ would it make it more plain that lack of knowledge can be a deliberate choice?
June 5th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Oh, I’ve always thought Dean Martin fantastic and funny - did once see him live, I think (Las Vegas), though rather late in his career and definitely appeared like he’d been drinking! Victor is perfect for keeping a straight face in the video!
June 8th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Not sure that anyone can really claim that lack of knowledge is a deliberate choice? Let’s argue on with that point … please?