Writing Tips
for clarity and concisenessArchive for persuasive writing
“Scare Quote”
Quotation marks sometimes alert readers that the writer is using a word or words in a special or unusual way. The nickname for this usage is “scare quote.”
In the sentence below, the words in quotation marks comprise a scare quote:
Tuesday’s all-night debate was another clear opportunity to end the war, yet Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called it a “publicity stunt.”
At first glance, it seemed to me that this scare quote wasn’t necessary because there’s nothing unusual about the term publicity stunt. On the other hand, as Amy Einsohn writes in The Copyeditor’s Handbook, “…Double quotations marks may also be used to indicate that a word or phrase is being used ironically.”
In that case, the author of the sample sentence above used the scare quote appropriately: to convey his/her view that labeling an all-night debate to end the war as a publicity stunt is absurd.
Cheers,
Tara Treasurefield
Effective Advertising
The measure of effective advertising is how listeners, viewers, or readers respond. Ads that prompt potential buyers to tune out, stop reading, and run the other way are not effective.
A few months ago, an ad began to run on a radio station I sometimes listen to. Now, I rush over to the radio and shut it off every time that ad begins, because it annoys the daylights out of me.
The advertiser introduces the ad by announcing that it’s “in helium”–ultra fast– to avoid boring listeners. For me, the result is both unintelligible and idiotic. Before I began shutting off the radio, I listened to the ad several times before catching the name of the advertiser.
The ad keeps running, so may be getting good results. But it annoys me so much that I don’t trust the judgment of the company’s management. The bottom line is that if I’m ever in the market for the product the company sells, I’ll be sure to purchase it elsewhere.
For more information, visit Treasurefield Communications.
Finding the Right Words
If you have something to sell, it’s crucial to focus on finding the right words. Otherwise, the only thing that will be clear is that your thinking isn’t clear.
The example below is part of a radio commercial:
Isn’t a two-minute call worth protecting your good name?
These few words drove me nuts for days. I understood what the advertiser meant, but I also knew there was something wrong with the wording. As a result, it raised questions for me, instead of winning my confidence and prompting my action.
I finally understood that while the point of the commercial was to advertise a company that protects its customers from identity theft, this part of the message stresses the wrong words.
Here’s how I would have phrased it:
Isn’t protecting your good name worth a two-minute call?
For more information, visit Treasurefield Communications.
