The Selves

Selfies have become not only the rage, they're now the norm. Selfies are pictures that are taken of your own self by your own self. While they used to be single-person images, they've grown to include clusters of people. Although that would qualify them to be called "groupies", they're not. That's something completely different.

But as you can see from the opening sentences, the matter of how to use and when to use "yourself" compared with "theirself" or "themself" (complete with spellcheck's squiggly red underscore) can become problematic. Sometimes it's easier to go the long way around and just say "they did it on their own" or "they did it to their own self," which, admittedly, becomes a bit cumbersome. All that work to say something simple about "them."

So here's the skinny from Dictionary.com.

About "Theirself"

According to Dictionary.com, "theirself is the nonstandard variant of (what else?) "themself." Its usage comes from 13th Century Middle England and is an informal usage, i.e., spoken by the common folk; not necessarily proper English. Have we spent enough time on this part of the exercise?

Checking the Sources

It's useful to check the guidelines about use and usage before jumping into the middle of the ocean. After all, you want to know you'll have good footing or an easy way to swim. In this regard, I did a bit of research for you who (like me) were wondering about this and gaining way more gray (which way to spell that, with an "e" or an "a"?) hair than you deserve. With a search string that queried the principles of usage between the two words (themselves compared with theirselves), an avalanche hit me.

These words are considered reflective pronouns. Writing Explained (WE) tells us not only do these reflective pronouns talk about what's being done, they also emphasize who is doing it. (Hint: According to Stack Exchange, it means the speaker is doing it to their own self. A bit like self flagellation, e.g., he was flogging himself.) EX: The class took theirselves to the bistro. Who did this? The class. what did they do? They took themselves, and no one else. (Maybe it was a private party.) One example WE gives is the classic "Please CC myself and Donna on the email." That was one of the grammar lessons from Third Grade. The speaker comes last in the enumeration. Fortunately, that phrasing is noted as being "nontraditional" (ahem) and the correct phrasing (called more graceful) is provided, "Please CC Donna and me on the email."

Now, I'm starting to get confused about which word to use, them or their. So let's just plow (did you know that the "plough" version of this word is British?) through all of this themming and theiring (not real words).

"Theirselves" is more typically spoken and is definitely not correct when written. Okay. Just don't use it. And if you don't speak it, you're less inclined to get confused about what to do when it needs to be (hint: never) written.

Them and Themselves

Grammar Girl is a major guru. She's a member of the American Copy Editors Society (did anyone know such a society exists?) and dutifully stays up to date on all things grammar. She even tracks what AP and Chicago Manual of Style have to say about proper usage. Apparently, this subject has been plaguing the brains of others. But the two monsters of style are at odds. Where AP says, with caution, it's okay to use "themself" but you may want to rephrase your sentence. Why? Because "themself" is considered that naughty of naughties, nonstandard, i.e., incorrect. However, guru Grammar Girl tells us "themselves" is okey-doke.

As for the Tangents

As for all those tangents that (ahem) arose, we'll deal with them on an item by item basis over the coming months.

Resources:

• Themselves or Theirselves – Which is Correct?
  
• ‘Themself’ or ‘Themselves’?
  
• American Copy Editors Society
  
• The Chicago Manual of Style Online
  
• The Chicago Manual of Style Online New Questions and Answers
  
• “them”, “themselves,” or “their selves”?
  

Sponsored Links:

• The Associated Press Stylebook 2017: and Briefing on Media Law
  
• PHR/SPHR Certification
  
• In a Word - CCJP digital subscription
  

All Muddled Up

There are those times when you're trying to dash something off on a social media site and in the back of your mind you sense that the word you're using isn't the right one. In the alternative, something tells you it isn't spelled properly - you're using the homonym for what you really want to say. But there you are trying to dash off a quick response to something. You ignore that instinct that I affectionately call "My Muse" and click Post. No going to Dictionary.com to check the spelling. No tolling the benefits of spell check. Auto-correct! Isn't that a four-letter word!?

So eight different instances of using the term in different posts (and a couple of other terms) that My Muse started nagging you about that are also generously sprinkled about your social media home (still without checking the spelling or usage of the terms), and

lo and behold!

You come upon all of them in a news headline - spelled correctly. And you've been telling people you have perfect spelling and are a quality proofreader. Would you like this plain paper bag to cover your head - and embarrassment?

In the alternative, you wrote it one way. Then you reasoned through whether that was the correct version of what you wanted to say. Let's say the word was about courage and fortitude. You know that sword metal needs to be tempered and tested. Does that, therefore, mean that the character's "metal" is being tested or is the character's "mettle" the subject of the passage. You go with "metal" because the result will be the strongest possible. It would be so much wiser to double check which spelling (thus, which word) is the one that should be used. Two days later you decide to double check. That's when you're reminded about the other homonyms, "medal", "metal", "mettle", and (just for good measure, "meddle"). Are you slapping your forehead with the palm of your hand? Here's an ice pack. Your face has a few blue marks and I don't think they're from an editor's - or copyeditor's, for that matter - pencil.

Maybe you can make an argument about the location of Briton and how it's related to Britain. (And we won't even get into whether either one is spelled with one "t" or two.) Of course, the person listening to the rationale won't tell you that one is a person from the region whereas the other is the region. They'll simply hand you a mental shovel as they walk away with that strange smirk on their face.

Their loss. They don't know about your sharp wit and mounds of awards for public speaking and debate.

Besides, there are all of those new words that are becoming part of our lexicon these days because of global language blending, colloquialisms, and idioms that allow all (global all) of us to speak in emoji and Twitter-speak. Remember those good old days? You know, the ones where we were scrambling to keep up with computerese? That time from the 1980s when computers were becoming every person's language as we evolved from "every man's" language.

Sponsored Links:

• Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8-Inch Tablet (Wi-Fi)(16 GB, Smoky Titanium)
  
• New Original S Pen-Stylus for samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7" SM - P550 ~"BLACK"
  

Dealing with Writer's Block

The subject was writer's block and how to overcome it. It can be a problem when you're on deadline and the right nut-graph just isn't working, no matter how it's revised. Or the wording just isn't coming to you. Or the message of the content simply isn't there.

There are so many explanations for each of these situations. Maybe you're trying too hard on that nut-graph. Maybe you should write it as you would an elevator pitch. Incidentally, write as you think without trying to revise as you do so. That is, write spontaneously. Once you're done simply spray-wording, go back and review what's there. Or just take a few minutes to step away from the thing and then return to it with a refreshed perspective. No, a few days, a few weeks, are simply not what I'm talking about.

There are many reasons for writer's block. Sometimes it's a matter of your brain is trying to process too much information all at one time. Your mind keeps jumping from one subject to another as it darts from one piece of the picture you're trying to paint to another that isn't associated with the first. Then you find yourself with the unenviable task of immediately trying to make to two communicate with one another when in actuality they are quite disparate. You find you're trying to sort through the chaos and there simply is no sense to any of it.

Meanwhile, your fingers are producing little to nothing. Maybe this is the time to simply write down the thoughts. It isn't necessary to make a formal list. Just write down the topics that are popping into your head. Once you've got a good list of those ideas, they can be massaged by organizing them into a logical sequence. And then those bullets can become paragraph headers so that both you and your reader can more easily follow the the train of thought and the message. Remember, it's the message that you ultimately want to communicate. Those sentences are merely little pieces of the message.

At other times, it's a matter of the words simply not coming to you at all.

Just write. Then put it aside. Come back to the content a day or so later and take a peek at it just to see what spilled out. It could be there's something salvageable in all of that stuff. If not, it was a great lesson in journaling. Better yet, you kept the momentum going for putting the words to paper. You were productive. You may even have a list of topics to write about at another time. At least you got those words saved somewhere and you created several starting points.

Another stumbling block is knowing the definition of the word. You want to be absolutely certain it's the right word. You find yourself doing more research about a single, insignificant (in comparison) word instead of writing the message. Or you've used the same word so many times that even you are getting bored with it. It's starting to sound contrived. Is your thesaurus handy?

You know, writing is like a job. You don't want a throng of traffic constantly interrupting you while you're trying to concentrate on what you're doing. So it is with niggling other stuff. Picking up the dry cleaning, paying that bill on time, vacuuming the floors, finding the coins to do the laundry, the appointments that need to be kept - for the entire week. Some of those can be put onto a page in your date minder. Some of them can wait until your work time is over and it's time to take a break. Some of it isn't going to be resolved in the minutes that are distracting you from your current task. Unlike a tsunami, the consequences of ignoring them will not be fatal. So let them wait and simply focus on your "write" time.

Maybe the answer to the situation is to give yourself a writing time allowance - so many minutes (maybe two hours) at one sitting and then off to handle some of those other things until a little later, when you can return to what you were doing with a fresher mind.

Sponsored Links:

• The Writer's Block: 786 Ideas to Jump-Start Your Imagination
  
• Around the Writer's Block: Using Brain Science to Solve Writer's Resistance