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Monthly Archives: March 2012

Persuade or convince?

09 Mar

I have to admit that I thought there was more of a difference between persuade and convince than there actually turns out to be, but there is some interesting background that we can look at too.

To convince someone of something means to cause them to believe firmly in the truth of something, or – aha – persuade them to do something.

And to persuade someone to do something means to cause them to do something through reasoning or argument; to cause someone to believe something; to provide a sound reason for someone to do something.

So, all very similar. But here’s the interesting bit, and it does come across a little bit in the above explanations … Traditionally, convince is used in situations in which someone’s belief is changed but no action is taken – “I convinced her to believe in the tooth fairy”, whereas persuade is traditionally used in situations in which someone’s belief is changed and action is taken – “I persuaded him to buy the red trousers, even though he usually wore black”. Feel free to keep that distinction going if you want to!

You can find more troublesome pairs here and the index to them all so far is here.

 
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Posted by on March 9, 2012 in Errors, Language use, Troublesome pairs, Writing

 

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Competition results!

07 Mar

Prize!

Here are the answers to the competition I set a month ago

Text 1

you shoul’dnt have gon eto the pub last night, it was a misstake,” She said, “how did i nkow that!’ said him.

14 mistakes:

you shoul’dnt have gon eto the pub last night, it was a misstake,” She said, “how did i nkow that!’ said him.

1 – quote marks at beginning
2 – capital on You
3 – apostrophe mis-placed in shouldn’t
4 – gap mis-placed in gon eto (could be counted as 2 too)
5 – comma after night should have been a semi colon
6 – misstake spelling mistake
7 – She after quote should be she
8 – starting a new quote should start a new sentence, so a full stop after said …
9 – … and a capital for how
10 – capital I
11 – nkow spelling mistake
12 – exclamation mark should be a question mark
13 – single quote mark should be a double to match the others
14 – said he

“You shouldn’t have gone to the pub last night: it was a mistake,” she said. “How did I know that?” said he.

Text 2

We need to concern about the incidences of bad spellling in the document and how they can be made made better. It influences on perception of the text in readers. However it makes it harder to understand. Because clearity is the main aim of all writing unless its v creation.

This is how I would rewrite it:

We need to be concerned about the incidences of bad spelling in the document and how they can be made better. It influences the readers’ perception of the text. Moreover, it makes it harder to understand, because clarity is the main aim of all writing, unless it is very creative.

And the winner is …

Michelle Austin! Michelle got the correct combination of number of errors and a close but clear re-write of the text, including the bit about creativity. Well done, Michelle – your exciting parcel of Libro goodies will be on its way to you soon!

 
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Posted by on March 7, 2012 in Copyediting, proofreading, Writing

 

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What I got up to in February

07 Mar

Yes, it’s that time again when you get to find out what a busy self-employed editor/writer/transcriber gets up to. I’ll carry on writing these while people carry on letting me know they enjoy them!

I’ve had another amazing month in February. I can’t really believe it’s going so well – I have described it as like that expanding foam you put into a space in your house – pff and it’s filled up the space allowed!  My new blog has been useful as an outlet through which to express myself from time to time! So, here’s a snapshot of what I got up to …

The first part of the month was heavily devoted to transcription – the client I worked for just before Christmas came back to me with another international conference to transcribe. My experience with minuting meetings and with non-native speakers of English really helped here, as I was typing out presentations and discussions by people from all around the world. Fun and interesting work, I got to share the work with some colleagues by recommending them to the client, but, my goodness, I typed a lot – I transcribed over 20 hours of conference (remembering that each hour of speech takes several hours to transcribe) and actually wore the letters off some of the keys on my computer keyboard! I put into practice the lessons I learned about avoiding RSI from the last lot, took lots of breaks, went to the gym every day for some heavy sessions on the rowing machine, and got through it fine. I like this client a lot, too, because they always come back to me quickly if I have a query.

I also did more transcription for two other regulars; a writer teaching people about marketing and a journalist interviewing musicians. Those ones were in British English and also interesting to do.

And I did do other things, too (somehow),  writing a library of 42 short articles for one regular client, articles on medical subjects for another, and putting together marketing letters/emails and web text for another.

I edited some texts that had been translated from Polish, Finnish, Dutch and Chinese, and ones written by people with French as their first language.  I edited the Moseley B13 magazine again – I do that for free and enjoy it greatly, finding out what’s going on in my local area and using my powers for good at the same time. I also did a bit of localisation for US and other clients.

There was some of the usual academic work – bits of theses, dissertations and articles. I had some more short essays from my coaching clients, who are all progressing through their Master’s courses nicely – it’s great to see their English improving as they take on board my suggestions and tips.

So a nice busy time of it! In other news, I got back into my giving back and networking, helping at a one-off local Social Media Surgery session, and attending Social Media Cafe as usual (I wouldn’t miss that for the world) although I missed the Central SMS owing to a clash with another meeting. In response to my need to have people to talk to now and then, and after testing the waters, I’ve established a Kings Heath Home Workers group on Facebook and blogged about it.

Coming up – I have some academic work booked in and I’ll be doing more transcribing towards the end of the month. I am hoping to get some time to work on my research project, as I’ll be presenting on my research at the Iris Murdoch Society Conference in September. I’ll be going to Jelly co-working session this Friday – now I’ve been to one and know how they work, I’ll be taking along some draft blog posts to write up.  I ran a competition in my newsletter last month and I’ll be announcing the winner later on today or tomorrow – if you would like to receive a short summary of Libro goings-on and interesting facts and links, do sign up here!

Libro offers copyediting, copy writing, proofreading, transcription, typing and localisation services to other small businesses, individuals and corporations. Click on the links to find out more!

 
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Posted by on March 7, 2012 in Blogging, Business, Copyediting, Jobs, proofreading, Transcription, What Do I Do?, Writing

 

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Infer or imply?

05 Mar

Infer or imply is a classic troublesome pair, especially in the context of academic writing.

And they actually represent two sides of the same story, meaning that it’s important to be able to distinguish them and use them the right way round. But then again, that’s true of all my Troublesome Pairs, isn’t it!

To infer is to deduce from evidence and reasoning.

To imply is to indicate by suggestion.

So the main difference here which needs to be remembered is the viewpoint from which the word operates. The two words can even describe the same situation, but from different sides.

If a person implies something, they are suggesting that something but not stating it directly: “By mentioning the high-priced bath accessories, but not going through the details of the newspaper report, the speaker was implying that the MP was over-claiming her expenses”.

On the other hand, if you infer something from what has been said or written by that person, you infer something from what they say: “Having been told about the high-priced bath accessories listed on the MP’s claims, we inferred that she was over-claiming her expenses”.

So the evidence implies this conclusion, or we can infer this conclusion from the evidence. Different sides of the same story, and two more words that require careful handling.

You can find more troublesome pairs here and the index to them all so far is here.

 
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Posted by on March 5, 2012 in Errors, Language use, Troublesome pairs, Writing

 

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Subsequently or consequently?

02 Mar

These two words are to do with cause and effect (or not), and of Thing B happening after Thing A. But they don’t mean the same, even if people think they do!

Something is consequent when it follows on from something else as a consequence, i.e. as the result or effect of that first thing. “She dyed her brown hair platinum blonde and consequently stood out in the crowd” – so, she stood out from the crowd because she had platinum blonde hair.

Something is subsequent when it merely follows on from something else in time, i.e. not as a result or effect of that first thing. “She had brown hair and subsequently went blonde” – she didn’t go blonde because she had brown hair, it was just the next thing that happened. She could have had black, red or blue hair first; the original hair colour doesn’t affect the outcome.

“She had black hair before she dyed it red, consequently she had to bleach it first before applying the red dye subsequently”. I don’t think anyone would actually ever utter that sentence, but hopefully it explains matters!

You can find more troublesome pairs here and the index to them all so far is here.

 
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Posted by on March 2, 2012 in Errors, Language use, Troublesome pairs, Writing

 

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