Exclamation Nation!

Let’s face it. We love exclamation points. It’s how we express emotion. When we’re excited about a sale or a funny video clip or a great photo, we say, “You’ve got to see this!”

But when it comes to professional copy — especially corporate copy — we must choose our formatting carefully. Reducing the amount of exclamations to one per page is an effective way to ensure that your reader’s eye will be drawn to THE IMPORTANT STATEMENT YOU WANT TO EMPHASIZE. Take this paragraph, for example: The use of all caps, much like exclamatory copy, makes that phrase stand out among the 70 other words here.

Effective copy needs balance in the way the words are formatted. These days, littering your online copy with too many exclamation points (or too much bolding or underlining or italics, for that matter), can come across as spam — especially when used in subject lines, headlines and subheads.

So be discriminate about your exclamations; don’t reduce their power by overuse. Use them sparingly, so that they really pack a punch!

Visit saidandsung.com.

Carla

Spaced Out?

The quickest, easiest way to tighten up your copy is to follow this rule:

Only ONE space after periods and colons.

Back in the day, two spaces after end punctuation was the norm; these days, it comes across as anachronistic. Reducing your spaces to one makes the copy look neater, more streamlined. In a small way, it also is a space-saver — you can squeeze more letters on any given line when you only skip one space after each period.

This especially comes in handy when you’re writing for a newspaper, a magazine, a brochure or anything with fixed columns, and you are trying to avoid having or solve existing widows (more on widows in a future post).

I’ve used two spaces in the sample paragraph below to illustrate:

If I had a dollar for every time I reviewed a document with two spaces in between sentences, I’d be a wealthy woman.  Many people are taught this in school.  They never realized that they could only use one space.  One space not only looks more pleasing to the eye, but it also saves a couple letters per line.  That can be extremely helpful to a designer.  Having to kern (reduce the space in between letters) copy is less necessary with more overall space.  As a copy editor with an eye for layout, I’ve been in the situation many a time when we needed one more letter to make a two-line headline a one-liner.  And skipping just one space makes it that much easier.  One space is now standard practice now.  Venerable publications like The New York Times practice this style.  And so should you.

Let’s look at that same paragraph with one space after end punctuation:

If I had a dollar for every time I reviewed a document with two spaces in between sentences, I’d be a wealthy woman. Many people are taught this in school. They never realized that they could only use one space. One space not only looks more pleasing to the eye, but it also saves a couple letters per line. That can be extremely helpful to a designer. Having to kern (reduce the space in between letters) copy is less necessary with more overall space. As a copy editor with an eye for layout, I’ve been in the situation many a time when we needed one more letter to make a two-line headline a one-liner. And skipping just one space makes it that much easier. One space is now standard practice now. Venerable publications like The New York Times practice this style. And so should you.

The difference is slight (11 lines as compared to 12, because of the widow “you”). This concept especially makes a difference in copy with small columns, as well as large fonts, headlines and subheads.

Got a question or comment? Let me know!

Carla

www.saidandsung.com

About saidandsung.com

Welcome to the blog for saidandsung.com!

My name is Carla, and here is where I’ll share writing, proofreading and layout tips that will make your copy sharper, well punctuated (and therefore clearer) and more concise. Please feel free to add comments and ask questions, as I will be happy to answer them as best I can. Please note that the editing style in which I am most trained — and most comfortable — is that of The Associated Press Stylebook. So those sticklers for The Chicago Manual of Style or The New York Times, please know though that I have used those styles in the past, but I most identify with AP.

My 13-plus years of writing and editing projects have been vast and varied: Web site short-form writing (call-out copy, landing pages and banners) and long-form writing (body copy, help text, FAQs, safety tips and privacy policies), feature articles and sidebars, newsletters, press releases and kits, bios, targeted sales letters, annual reports, tables of contents, formal letters, resumes, TV and radio ads, CD inserts, greeting cards, speeches, songs, children’s writing, capsule and table-of-contents writing, brochures and book editing.

I have a great deal of Web 2.0/social networking experience, having worked in the space for five years, in the areas of user experience/quality assurance, search engine optimization and marketing, blogging and community-building, writing/editing and Web site consulting. When it comes to the Web, I’m big on usability and copy clarity — both of which translate to a more optimal user experience.

If the kind of writing you need is not listed in any of the above projects or areas, ask! I am always up for a new challenge, and have found that my skills are easily transferable.

Thank you for reading this, and I hope to hear from you soon!

Carla

www.saidandsung.com