Ear

Someone recently commented on an old post about the use of “who” and “whom” to ask which of these two sentences would be correct:

He is taller than I.

He is taller than me.

I’ll confess that I didn’t answer immediately because I wanted to think about it for a bit first. Even though I wrote in that old post about linking verbs (of which “is” is one) and how they require that the pronoun be in the subjective case (so “I”), I balked at shelling out that advice, probably because the first sentence just sounds so stuffy, almost as if to use the “I” here would be a hyper-correction.

Usually, I’ll write around such a problem rather than confronting it, since if it makes me pause for a moment, surely it does the same for others. In this case, I might rewrite as “he is taller than I am,” which is more explicit and sounds less stuffy.

Flipping through The Elements of Style today to find inspiration for a post, I ran across a brief article on the importance of “ear” in writing. The handbook is here proscribing the use of fancy words (no need to use “beauteous” when “beautiful” or even “pretty” will suffice) and goes on to suggest that sometimes it’s ok to break the rules if the “correct” usage just sounds bad. One example provided is shifting a preposition to the end of a sentence to avoid awkwardness. Another:

And would you write “The worst tennis player around here is I” or “The worst tennis player around here is me”? The first is good grammar, the second is good judgment — although the me might not do in all contexts.

So there you have it. Even crusty old Strunk and White sometimes allow for divergence from the traditional rules of grammar. Because the pair of sentences offered in that old comment contain a linking verb, the subjective pronoun is correct, but more often than not, the incorrect usage in this sort of case actually sounds less like an error and is ok to discard.

Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/jemsweb/7193106/

Getting in Touch

We’ve talked about the importance of adding an About page to your blog. So, what about a Contact page? Part of blogging and building your audience is about developing a connection to your readers so they come back to your blog over and over again. It’s natural for your followers to be curious about who you are when you’re not sitting at your computer replying to comments or getting ready to hit the big, blue Publish button.

Providing your readers with a contact form enables them to get in touch with you beyond just leaving a comment on your post. This is especially useful if you’re using your blog to build a business or to get started as a paid writer. Additionally, adding a contact form to your site will allow other bloggers and collaborators to get in touch about all those awesome new projects they would love your feedback on. On WordPress.com, we have a great, built-in way to add a custom contact form to your site. You can learn all about the details here.

Using a contact form, instead of writing your email address directly onto your site, helps prevent spammers from finding your email and WordPress automatically filters any spam messages sent through the custom form for added protection. It’s also a simple and clean way to grab all of the information you’d like from your readers to help you better understand your audience. Messages sent through your contact form are conveniently stored in the Feedback section of your Dashboard, in addition to the emails you receive when someone sends you a message.

What should you include on your contact form? Simpler is better here — you don’t want visitors to your site to feel like they’re filling out a loan application instead of sending a complimentary email to their favorite blogger. Name, email, and a section for the actual message is all you really need.

You can also use the custom form builder to create unique forms for a variety of purposes. Don’t believe it? Check out the guide on how to set up an RSVP system with it.

Don’t be Led Astray

No fewer than four times this week, I’ve run across the word “lead” used by smart and even bookish people where “led” is appropriate. This is a tricky one to remember, not least of all because the past tense of “read” is “read.” That is, because “lead” and “read” rhyme and have similar spellings, it’s reasonable to think that the past tense of “lead” would also be “lead.”

That there’s also a legitimate word spelled “lead” (as in the substance) doesn’t make the distinction any easier to remember.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewbain/548574614/

If you’re as fascinated by word origins as I am, run — don’t walk — to your library and feast your eyes on the Oxford English Dictionary’s lengthy entry on the etymology of “read.” (By the way, if you’re lucky, you may have access to the OED online through your own local library; although I own the condensed version of the dictionary, which is about 20 pounds of book and comes with a magnifying glass in a built-in drawer, it’s sometimes easier on the old eyes to get at the info online.) It turns out that “read” is one of a few words in old Germanic languages to form the past tense via a process known as “reduplication,” which means basically that the word form doesn’t change, or doesn’t change much, when its tense changes. In other words, “read = read”.

“Lead” just happens to belong to another class of words that forms its past tense according to a different rule. And we’re the beneficiaries of all the confusion that difference causes.

I take some flak around here from time to time for coming off as resistant to language change (when in fact I’m not). So when I post about a usage issue that trips a lot of people up, I’m sure to take a few hits in the comments. So, just to be clear: Incorrectly spelling the past tense of “lead” isn’t generally going to cause anybody to misunderstand you. At worst, it’ll make the odd grammar geek grind his (or her? their? them’s? dangit!) teeth. And maybe it actually makes sense to begin embracing simplifications like the one made expedient by this tricky spelling rule. But some people do seem to like to know what’s traditionally considered correct. If you’re such a person, know that the past tense of “lead” is spelled “led.”

DailyPost Gets New Duds

Click the handy dandy arrows to navigate among the recent photo posts.

You may have noticed that we’ve recently given the blog a new look. Just in case you missed it, or in case you haven’t given it much in the way of a test drive, I thought I’d point out a couple of the more useful changes.

Our weekly photo challenge is generally the most popular post in a given week, so we wanted to really highlight those posts by adding a slider at the top displaying recent photo challenges. Click the arrows out to the side of the photo to slide to the next or previous photo post.

If you participated in the daily post challenge last year, you’ve probably noticed that we haven’t been dishing up new prompts here at the blog each day this year. That doesn’t mean that daily prompts can’t be found, though. If you still need a little daily inspiration, you can keep your eye on our new footer widget listing posts from the Plinky service. You can also just follow @plinkyprompts on Twitter.

If you like the site’s new look, you might be interested in checking out Linen, which we’re using in conjunction with the Custom Design upgrade to tweak a few things here and there. Of course, we have many other themes available, both premium and free.

We hope you like the new look!

On Creativity

Every week, when I sit down to write my post for the Daily Post, there is one question that always sticks in my mind: where do our ideas come from? While I do not believe in mystifying creativity, it is a unique aspect of the human experience. Why are we compelled to write? And why are we compelled to write about X topic in particular? That’s why I was excited when I came across this interesting talk from John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) on the creative process:

Precisely what I like about Cleese’s talk on creativity is that it makes me think about everything I disagree with. To me, the idea that we need to be isolated to be creative is antiquated and puts creativity in the hands of those with the luxury to spend extensive amounts of time ruminating on life. Being “in the zone,” collaborating with others, seeking criticism, and feeling distracted are all part and parcel of the creative process. Everything we do is sensory input that can later affect our writing and all that we produce.

In my last post, many of you said that you found inspiration from both online resources and from small moments in your daily lives. For me, I find that modern “distractions” are a great resource for new ideas and information that I may not have stumbled across otherwise, but when the time comes for me to actually create, I need to be alone so I can feel completely uninhibited. That said, I also know that my desire to “go, go, go” all of the time is what pushes me to write, to produce, and to criticize the end result.

What’s your process like? Do you agree with Cleese that creativity requires being uninterrupted and solitary? Or do you thrive on hustle and bustle?

Up With Which

There are many variations on a quotation often attributed to Winston Churchill that I first read as follows:

This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.

The apocryphal quotation is said to have been Churchill’s response to an editor’s correction of one of his sentences to keep it from ending with a preposition.

The old rule dictating that you shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition comes to us in English on the basis not of any inherent sense but rather on the basis of the Latin words that make up the word “preposition” — “pre” meaning “before” and “position” meaning, well, “position.” Very literal-minded grammarians a few hundred years ago decided that a part of speech whose name means that it must go before something surely can’t go at the end of a sentence, where there is no other word for it to precede. Most of the grammar and usage books I’ve read in recent years have conceded that the rule is stupid and that we need not worry ourselves over it too much, especially in cases in which shifting the preposition around makes a sentence awkward.

Before we charge ahead, let’s back up for a moment and review what prepositions are. They’re words like:

• before
• ahead*
• back*
• up
• for

I vividly remember learning in grade school that prepositions are words that describe where a chicken might go.

The quotation attributed to Churchill is funny, then, because he’s twisting a big knot in his sentence to avoid ending it with the word “with” for precisely the purpose of showing the pedantic editor how silly such rearrangement can be. Rewritten as most of us would write the sentence, it would go something like this:

This is the type of arrant pedantry I will not put up with.

It turns out that there’s actually something else going on here, though. “Put up with” is what’s called a “phrasal verb” — a verb phrase that includes more than one word and in which the auxiliary word is very often a preposition acting as an “adverbial particle.” In other words, although structurally, the words “up” and “with” here are prepositions, functionally they’re adverbs modifying the verb “put” and thus don’t really need to follow the old rule (even for those who insist on trying to follow it).

We use these all the time. Some examples:

• blow up
• come by (as in “he comes by it honestly”)
• deal with
• decide on
• dry out
• get on with
• hurry up

Imagine leaning over to a friend during the long-winded introduction of a speaker you’re eager to hear and whispering “I wish on with it he would get.”

Generally, mangling your sentences to follow the preposition rule isn’t the best idea — it surely doesn’t result in the clearest sentences — and in the case of phrasal verbs, it’s not just a little absurd, but it’s actually not even called for.

* A reader pointed out to me in the comments that these are not in fact prepositions. I should think my grammar through more carefully before tossing out examples willy nilly.

Inspiration that Clicks

One of the best tips a friend ever gave me for staying inspired was to sign up for the daily newsletter from the American Academy of Poets. Every single day, they send out a poem to their subscribers. The subjects of the poems vary, as well as the styles. I’ve had Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson appear in my inbox right next to contemporary writers.

Since most of my email comes from listservs and various websites I’ve signed up to follow over the years, I delete the vast majority of it. But every day, I make a point to read the Poem-A-Day from Poets.org. It’s a nice way to spend at least five minutes a day stirring up my creative juices.

There are only a handful of blogs and websites that I check each day to get my creative fix. Here are a few of them. (They don’t all have the option to sign up for email updates, but you can always add them to your WordPress.com Reader here):

• Brain Traffic - Good advice from an excellent team on content strategy and writing.
• Brain Pickings - I love Brain Pickings. The easiest way to describe it is as a collection of interesting tidbits on artists, writers, and the way things work.
• Contents - Tips from the pros on content strategy and the future of online publishing.
• Open Culture - Free educational resources on culture and history.
• Longreads - Designed to be read online and at your computer, Longreads curates interesting, quick reads every day.

Taking the time to read either tips or creative pieces by other artists each morning is a great way to build your inspiration up throughout the day. Aside from the Daily Post, where do you go to find tips and fodder?

Eliminate and get rid of all extra redundancies

An added bonus of blogging on WordPress.com at the present time is that occasionally your blog will come under close scrutiny by an Automattic staff member, who may choose to reblog one of your posts at a time when he’s in a rush and short on ideas of his own. He might not even collaborate together with you, choosing instead just to provide sort of an examplum of the point you make in the blog post in question. Of course, one of the basic fundamentals he would need to keep in mind is that when using another blog’s content as a source, it’s polite to refer back to the originating blog.

How many redundancies did you find in that paragraph? Count them and then compare the ones you found to the neat lists Lisa J. Jackson, who writes for the scrutinized blog in question, has written about here and here. Did you find them all? Can you come up with others?

The More the Merrier

I love the idea of guest posting. In addition to exposing your own blog and writing to new audiences, it helps build community and relationships between bloggers. It’s a bit like blogging hospitality: your blog is your home and you can welcome other bloggers you respect into your writing abode.

Likewise, when you guest post on someone else’s blog, it helps you to stretch your writing skills. When you share your perspective from someone else’s platform, you get feedback that you wouldn’t normally receive. For readers who liked your post, you may gain devoted new followers. For those who didn’t, you’ll get some good ideas for how to improve.

If you think guest blogging is something that you’d like to pursue, whether inviting someone to your own blog or vice versa, the best way to get started is by doing some research. When inviting someone to guest post on your blog, give them some context: what do you usually write about? What’s your audience like? What kind of length and deadline are you looking at? When proposing a guest post on someone else’s blog, take a look at their previous posts. While you want to stay true to your style, it wouldn’t make sense to post about a recipe on a blog that deals with politics. You’ll also want to let the blog owner know the timeline you’re thinking of and stick to your own deadline.

Once you’ve gotten all the details sorted, how do you actually get everything set up? You’ll want to be added as or add your guest blogger as a user to your blog. On WordPress.com, this means going to your Users > Invite New page and inviting your guest blogger to contribute. (Full guide available here.) There are a few different types of roles available. You’ll probably only want to add your guest blogger as a contributor, which basically means they can write a post, but you’ll need to approve it, add images, and are the only one who can delete it.

Once you’ve written up your guest post, share it with your own audience. Don’t forget to moderate and reply to the comments. Especially when acting as the guest poster, communicating via comments helps you take full advantage of the experience by interacting with and getting feedback from new readers.

Have you written any guest posts yet? If so, did you find it beneficial?

2012 Badges Are Here!

Are you planning to post every day, or at least every week of 2012? Add a Post a Day or Post a Week badge to your sidebar! (Find image widget instructions here.)

Be sure to have the image link back to http://dailypost.wordpress.com to help spread the word about the challenge!

We apologize that these weren’t available sooner. As for tagging your posts, we’re going to keep it simple this year, so please start using the postaday tag in replacement of postaday2011 or postaweek2011.

To see all the latest posts published by other participants, add postaday as a topic in your reader using the “Add a topic” box in the bottom left corner.

So, what’s going to be different about your blog this year?