The Lack of

There are so many descriptive words that indicate lack of awareness, skill, or intelligence. Not all of them mean the same degree of deficiency. Not all of those conditions are necessarily the same.

Here's a little teaser to demonstrate how different words may seem the same but in actuality, the intent of the word conveys a different concept from what could be considered its synonym. Try your hand at inserting what you feel is the correct word [highlighted in bold type] in the following sample, based on what you believe the subject/protagonist status is:

Frankie did an amateurish job of the project. It was a first attempt with no instruction and no assistance. Those who viewed the result felt embarrassed. Others felt sympathy for Frankie. Still others wondered why Frankie was selected instead of someone with at least an introductory awareness of the desired outcome.

As for Frankie, he wasn't certain if he should admit his ignorance, talk about his stupidity, or just end all conversation and say he was dumb.

Yes, Frankie was experiencing that emotion called shame. The shame drived from a lack of knowledge.

A woman who was doing work for the first time in a new industry shamefacedly told her supervisor she did a poor job because she was dumb. Now "dumb" indicates several things. However, her supervisor took the time to explain the difference between being "dumb", being "stupid", and being "ignorant". Each is different. In her case, it was a matter of the fact that she'd not had exposure to the particular circumstances nor awareness needed in order to do that particular project. Therefore, her lack was a type of ignorance, not stupidity or being dumb.

There are different circumstances that gave rise to the results for Frankie. Care to talk about why you chose the word you did? We're all ears.

Resources:

• The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow
  
• Capabilities for Talent Development: Shaping the Future of the Profession (What Works in Talent Development)
  
• Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace
  
• Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach
  
  
• If you enjoy writing and want a place where you can be challenged while receiving constructive feedback on your expressions, consider joining WordWizards, an international writers community (requires Yahoo email address).
  

Engagement

Telling a story involves having a subject, attracting your audience to the narrative, and making them glad of the experience (generally speaking).

So what can the subject be? Sometimes it's a person and what they experienced. Then the question becomes why should anyone be interested in the story of Joe or Jane Doe? There needs to be some unique matter about the person (or their experience) that causes curiosity about them, a type of intrigue that creates a hunger to know what happens next.

At this juncture, hearken to the post image. It's merely an athletic tote. Or maybe it's a travel bag. You know, there's a possibility that it's merely a storage bag filled with nondescript items that puff it out and make you wonder what's inside. Just image if it's an unclaimed item for sale at a public storage facility. Maybe it holds the stash that was part of the 1938 bank robbery. That one's not plausible because the bag wouldn't be made of synthetic fiber. Then again, maybe that old lost stash got transferred from the leather bag into the synthetic because (for some reason) the leather needed to be replaced with a more sturdy material. (See how that goes?)

The key is creating engagement with the audience. They may see the image but something needs to be added to the recipe to entice them to discover more - and keep learning more as the the story unravels.

So what's the story associated with the tote?

You May Be Interested:

• New-Book-Plots-Constructing-Storytelling
  
• The Storytelling Edge: How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming into the Void, and Make People Love You
  
• Hone your skills in WordWizards
  

Purposeful Writing

When it comes to writing, there are some things that require clarification in order to attack the mission with purpose and make it effective. In particular, it's important to recognize the differences among the many genres. The communication may be excellent but misses the target because it conveyed too much, not enough, or the argument wasn't sufficiently substantiated.

In particular, there is a difference between an article and a blog post. Those two mediums are definitely very different from a report, letter, white paper, memo, or email. Their basis and intent are not on the same level.

A Blog Post

What's your definition of an article compared to a blog post? That distinction has been on my mind since June 21 of this year. Perhaps the blog post is an evolved, digital version of an article whereas an article will always be published in a magazine or newspaper. Time to return to investigate by considering those early days when blogging first came on the scene. It was more like a journal entry. It captured the various thoughts the writer had about a particular subject. It seems to have evolved over time to being somewhere between a journal entry and an editorial. Still, it exists as a thought piece. The research that substantiates the conclusions helps to support them. If the research also becomes bibliographic information to accompany the post, some will assume the bibliography is not proof of the conclusions but free research put at their complete disposal.

Back to the distinction between a blog post compared to an article. For that matter, what about those special-interest news programs? Are those merely stories, articles or reports? Sometimes they seem to be entertainment for the sake of helping the viewing public distracted from the tedium of daily life rather than news per se.

Some are quick to call a person a hobbyist because they blog. True enough, there are those who blog about news and endeavor to report the news. They even call themselves journalists and reporters although they have no training in journalism, reporting, and copy editing. Many times they have good communication and writing skills. Some are even paid to blog, compared with write articles. These activities get us into making certain we're using the right term when referring to the writer.

The term for a non-journalist reporter blogger (that is, one who has no formal training or background in reporting or journalism) is a "citizen journalist." There are several opinions expressed about who and what qualifies as citizen journalist as well as the benefits that accrue to that status. Over the course of time, those who have more capitalistic leanings will spot the needs and avail themselves of filling the void. Thus, putting the term "citizen journalism school" into a search engine will result in many options.

An Article

As with any other type of writing, the article (no matter what the medium) needs to be engaging. It needs to tell a good story and make the reader feel it is relevant to their being better informed, better able to make good choices, and live a better existence because of the reliability of the information they used. The same principle holds true with all good writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, business or scholastic, oration or recreation.

Then we move into who is qualified to write the magazine or newspaper article. It's typically a reporter who writes up the information and submits it to their publication. This is the more narrow role of someone who is a journalist. There are certain responsibilities that attend to each capacity that in many instances do not attach to the citizen journalist who blogs about something that happened.

It's important that the journalist and reporter provide as factual an account in their informative disposition as is possible. Their biases need to be put aside or at least admitted so that there's as little slanted reporting and undue influence. Otherwise, it isn't journalism as much as it is editorial and opinion.

The Good Journalist

Providing a good, unbiased, informative article requires the ability to speak up and the courage to push back if the logic isn't sound or the concept is too novel for carte blanche authority. These attributes are also true of the good lawyer, as well as the fact-finding professions that are grounded on getting the best information possible to serve their clients. The accuracy is critical. Working on assumptions, and with little to no exposure nor appreciation of the driving elements of the situation simply is not an effective way to deliver quality. You need to speak up when something isn't clear. It's essential to ask good questions - even during the writing process.

Which leads me to some additional thoughts. Is it mandatory that a good journalist, whether citizen journalist or reporter, be a member of a journalistic organization? Should they be compensated for their time and effort in providing their services? What constitutes eligibility to be a member of any of these formal organizations or even a writers union?

Just a closing aside. Remember to use the style guide appropriate to your vehicle.

Resources:

Citizen Journalism

• Pros and Cons of Citizen Journalism, Crystal Lombardo, Vision Launch (June 2, 2016)
  
• The pros and pros of 'citizen journalism', Jason Stverak, Online Journalism Review, USC Annenberg (March 12, 2010)
  
• Citizen Journalism Pros and Cons, apecsecadmin, Asia-Pacific Economics Blog
  (Apr 18, 2015)
  
• Understanding Citizen Journalism: The Power and Perils of Independent Reporting, Tony Rogers, ThoughtCo.com (Updated February 05, 2018 )
  
• Blogging vs. Journalism: The Ongoing Debate, Jacob Friedman, The Next Web (Aug 18, 2010)
  

Journalists and Reporters

• What Is the Difference Between a Journalist & a Reporter?, Scott Knickelbine, Chron.com (Updated July 01, 2018)
  
• What is journalism?, American Press Institute
  
• What is the purpose of journalism?, American Press Institute
  
• Understanding Bias, American Press Institute
  

Journalism Organizations

• Professional Journalism Organizations
  
• The National Press Club
  
• Society of Professional Journalists
  
• Associated Press
  
• National Writers Union
  
• Online News Organization
  

Additional Resources:

• The Elements of Journalism, Revised and Updated 3rd Edition: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect
  
• Associated Press Guide to News Writing: The Resource for Professional Journalists
  
• Read Consultant's Desk on Kindle
  

The Importance of Bibliographies

Many bloggers do not use bibliographic notes appended to their posts. Perhaps that's because most blog posts are simply thoughts of the writer rather than researched articles. Perhaps the bibliographic notes are missing because the writer doesn't realize the "why" of creating that reference point. Either way, the bibliography (sometimes called a resources list) serves a very meaningful purpose. It isn't a bunch of cross links to other sites in order to promote a friend's or colleague's website or blog.

For a lab report, a research paper, or an article, the standard is universal. A reference list or bibliography is used in order to show that there was research done to support the thoughts being put forth in the writing. The facts can be proved; anyone who wants to check them has a list of the resources relied upon to develop and support the ideas.

There are those who attempt to detract from the writer's credibility. Some criticisms amount to saying that the list is nothing more than a bunch of links that were thrown in as an afterthought. Chances are, those critics aren't even aware of the resource list and have not visited any of the references in order to learn more, much less verify that they support the theory being proposed.

No, the reference list is not a gimmick to make the article appear long or increase the word count or make it impressive because of mass. Its purpose is to provide substantiation of what is contained; the author's words provide the substance of the proposition based on how well the arguments are formed. The reference list shows what was examined. Because the list is held up to scrutiny,

it is wise to actually read the source in order be conversant about what it contains. It's also important to read the entire source (unless, of course, it's a very lengthy book or treatise that requires an inordinate amount of time to consume) in order to be certain that it doesn't start by making one proposition that will be disputed and proved wrong or different at the end. Know the content. If the original proposition is different from what is being argued, find one that supports the proposition that is being made. In the case of the treatise, it's better to examine the chapter or section that directly deals with the subject of the writing. There is the matter of overkill when researching a subject.

It's also useful to double check resources to be certain the theory or principle is still the same. In law, some principle will be cited in the pleading (or brief). Woe to the lawyer who doesn't Shepardize their case law or legislation to be certain it is being maintained in their jurisdiction and that it is still good law. Even if it isn't law that's being discussed in the paper, make certain the propositions are supported by evidence or facts (or both) in order to make certain the arguments are as strong as possible.

Citation Styles

There are a number of citation styles. The more standard are Chicago, Associated Press (AP), and Modern Language Association (MLA). The style that is used is primarily based on where the writing is going to be published and its purpose. If it is for journalism, it's wise to determine whether the publisher prefers (or defaults to) the Chicago style or AP. There are differences between the two. Better to have your writing submitted under the correct style rather than have the writer's credibility questioned because the wrong style was used without regard to the quality of the content. It means the publisher will have to be doubly careful about scrutinizing the content because there's first impression evidence that the writer doesn't pay close attention to details.

But there's no wiggle room for legal writing. The rule of thumb is to follow the Harvard Blue Book of Citation.

No Matter What

Suffice it to say, it's wise to create and list the sources used to support the proposition being discussed in the paper. If nothing else, the reference list provides evidence of having looked into the matter rather than just blowing off a bunch of gibberish intended to flimflam the unsuspecting reader. It's also wise to use a reference list to help keep track of what was used as the paper is being developed. Most importantly, the reference list is not the paper; it supports the paper's proposition.

The next time you're discussing something more than the latest reality show and there's a difference of opinion, an assertion that the current topic is flawed, ask for what shows otherwise.

Resources:

• Citations and References
  
• Citing sources: Overview
  
• Why Citations Matter
  
• Documenting Your Research
  
• In Text Citation in APA Style
  
• How Citation Machine Works
  
• About Documentation Styles
  
• Research and Citation Resources
  

Sponsored Links:

• The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition
  
• MLA Handbook
  
• Associated Press Stylebook 2015 and Briefing on Media Law
  
• The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation
  

That Niggling Little Symbol

What is it about the apostrophe? _'_ It isn't all that important. After all, it's only a symbol. Oh, but such a useful symbol.
Please don't confuse it with one of its cousins, the quote mark _"_ (twin apostrophes, if you like).
Also don't confuse it with its other distant cousin, the comma _,_. The apostrophe is above all that ground work. It has loftier functions.

Nope. The apostrophe is one of those tools that fills in when things are omitted in order to make the syntax less robotic. Let's look at a few examples.

You want to write (or speak) about a period of time, say the Hippie Era. Would you refer to it in a formal way and reference it as the 1970s? (Incidentally, ignore that silly Word squiggly red line. It's wrong!) I think not. Nope, you'd abbreviate the reference and speak of the '70s. Hmph. There's that apostrophe barging its way into this conversation. What's going on here? Oh-h-h. I see! The century-defining preface is omitted so the apostrophe is standing in to let us know that something's been omitted.

Come to think of it, even as this post is being composed, there are nine instances where the apostrophe has already been used in this this manner and in this post. Can you find them? Why are they in there?

They're serving as stand-ins in order to create contractions. You know about contractions. Those instances where you have two words but you've turned the second one into a blended form of the first word and omitted the vowel. So you have words such as

• "it's" which is the contraction of "it is"
• "don't" which is the shortened way of saying "do not"
• "Let's" is another way of saying "Let us"
• "There's" is actually "There is"

In each instance, the apostrophe has stepped in for the vowel that was omitted. The two words were blended to create the slurred contraction that allows a faster pronunciation of the intended message rather than the choppy sounding out of each and every word and each and every syllable.

So we've covered the beginning and the middle. What else could there be? Why, the end, of course. Yes, the apostrophe even has a function in that area as well. You know those times when you're speaking colloquially (informally) and the last letter of the word isn't pronounced? Yep. Good, old Apostrophe comes along to clue us in that the informal version of the word (and pronunciation) is being used. So we wind up with catchy little instances such as

• Keep on Truckin'
• beatin' the daylights out of
• beggin' forgiveness
• biscuits that are finger-lickin' good

We haven't addressed other colloquial expressions such as "whatcha gonna do," which represents a hybrid slur and blend for "what are you going to do." Instead, we'll leave that consideration until another time. This is for bite-sized thoughts and a little guidance.

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