Mozayzay

This guide has been written to give a simple explanation of the use of the apostrophe (’). It explains the main rules for its use, and gives examples of commonly encountered problems. I hope it proves useful.

The apostrophe has two main uses

It replaces missing letters when we join words e.g. I can't swim

This is known as a contraction.

It shows ownership e.g. this is John’s book.

Contractions

When contractions are used, the apostrophe replaces the letter or letters that were removed to make a shorter word:

do not becomes - don’t .

The apostrophe replaces the missing letter, in this case the o .

Further examples are:

I will becomes - I’ll

you are becomes - you’re

they are becomes - they’re

Whilst it is important to understand the function of contractions, their use is not usually appropriate in academic writing.

Ownership

Apostrophes are also used to show ownership - they make a word possessive. To make a word possessive follow the three simple rules given below.

1. If the word is singular add ’s

the student’s books - meaning the books belonging to the student.

Further examples are:

the boss’s armchair; the government’s legislation.

2. If the word is a plural but does not end in s add ’s :

women’s rights - meaning the rights of women.

Further examples are:

children’s playground - meaning the playground for children;

men’s changing rooms - meaning the changing rooms for men.

3. If the word is plural and ends in s just add an apostrophe:

the students’ library books - meaning the books belonging to the students.

Further examples are:

the ladies’ football league; the workers’ rights.

Common problems in using apostrophes

The apostrophe is frequently misused. Words that cause particular problems are: its / it’s and whose / who’s.

Its / it’s

Use its when you want to show possession:

the government abandoned its policy.

Its belongs to a group of words that are already possessive. Other examples are: it is hers; it is yours. These words are already possessive; they do not need apostrophes to indicate possession.

Use it’s when you want to shorten it is:

it’s a nice day.

It’s is a contraction of it is . The apostrophe replaces the missing i.

Whose / who’s

Use whose when you want to show possession:

the student whose notes I borrowed.

Whose belongs to the same group of possessive words as its. It does not need an apostrophe to denote possession.

Use who’s when you want to shorten who is:

the student who’s coming to visit.

Who’s is a contraction of who is. The apostrophe replaces the missing i.

Remember: just because a word ends in s, it does not mean it needs an apostrophe! An apostrophe is added to show possession or to replace a missing letter or letters in contractions. If you are unsure when to use an apostrophe, check your use of the apostrophe falls under one of the rules outlined in this guide.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Edu*Rhetor

Rhetoric in Higher Education & Society

A Technical Writer Talks about the Relevance of Rhetoric

"Stairway to heaven," Paris - by Dmitry A. Mottl, June 2007. From Wikimedia Commons.

A popular view of academia is that it is sheltered from the rough-and-tumble of everyday life. Leaving aside the question of whether this view has merit — and my beleaguered friends in the academy assure me that it does not — university students contemplating their future careers might still ask themselves how relevant their studies are to the conditions and vocational demands of the workplace.

For students of rhetoric, this question is especially pointed.

Rhetoric is, after all, a liberal art, with an elaborate body of theory but few, if any, marketable skills. How relevant is it to the 21st century workplace?

In my view, rhetoric is supremely relevant to a professional writing practice in almost any setting. It would also provide a sturdy foundation for a variety of other careers, such as management, law, or politics. But before I go any further in making this case, I should tell you something about my own background and perspective.

I have been a professional writer for almost thirty years. Mostly I work in industry, writing about software, microelectronics, oil and gas, mining, and transportation, to name just a few areas. But I also write on other topics, such as raising children with special needs, and I’m active in an area known as creative nonfiction. I have no particular expertise in any of the technologies I document. I have no professional credential in education or child development, only my nonprofessional experience as a parent. I am a writer, pure and simple, with training in composition, literature, and similar topics. I never studied rhetoric in college, and I have no more than a shallow grounding in rhetorical theory. Indeed, I only stumbled on the topic recently in connection with some research I was doing for my job–but more about that later.

So how relevant is rhetoric to the life of a writer (and non-rhetorician)?

Supremely relevant, as I mentioned before.

Let me explain.

At work, I devote most of my effort to three key areas–research, writing and editing, and building and maintaining the relationships that are crucial to my job. Each of these endeavours lends itself to scrutiny in a rhetorical framework.

Research

Every writing project begins with research, of course. I need to explore the technology I am documenting and learn what it does, how it works, and what purposes it serves. Rhetoricians will instantly identify the first canon, invention, as the relevant theoretical framework. But there is more to research than simply uncovering facts, and the canon of invention is applicable to research in many ways that are not immediately apparent. My search for information quickly becomes a multifaceted exploration of the workplace and the market. Where can I find the information I am looking for? Who can give me the best explanation? These questions are about topoi, or the sources of information.

Soon, I am also engaged in stasis, which I might characterize as a search for information about information. First, I must corroborate everything I learn. Next, I must place the verifiable facts in a framework that will make sense to the user of the product I am documenting. Creating this framework requires a shift in perspective–from my own to that of the user–which in turn prompts a whole new round of questions.

Writing

So much for research and its reliance on sound invention. Now what about writing and editing?

Writing and editing are distinct activities, of course, but they are so interrelated that we can consider them jointly. There is no writing without editing, or rewriting–certainly not if you are striving for effective and polished work. Similarly, there is no editing without writing, for in strengthening and polishing a text, an editor must retrace the writer’s path and confirm or reject each of the writer’s decisions.

Writing and editing chiefly involve the canons of disposition and style. First I must find a suitable arrangement for the material I am going to cover. This arrangement is rarely the classic sequence of exordium, narratio, divisio, etc., but usually some sequential or hierarchical scheme best suited for the situation. Whichever arrangement I follow, I must take my reader’s purpose into account and anticipate his or her own process of discovery. This last requirement means that my efforts at disposition are highly dependent on invention. If I’ve failed at invention–at discovering, selecting, corroborating, and contextualizing my facts–I am unlikely to succeed at disposition.

As I write, I also engage in ethos, pathos, and logos to deliver a persuasive, credible, and authoritative description of the system or object I am documenting. To do so, I must craft a document that is faithful and relevant to the subject matter, that appeals to my readers’ self-interests and sense of identity, and that relies on robust logic to create internal coherence.

Editing

As I progress towards a finished draft, I pay close attention to matters of style. Granted, elegant writing is not highly prized in industry, but I believe style and readability are important aspects of communication, and I work hard to polish my work and make it accessible. In technology, style is closely related to function, so rewriting is less a matter of ornamentation and more a matter of refinement and the removal of all that is excess or extraneous. In this area, too, I find my efforts are highly dependent on invention. Without a deep understanding of the subject matter, it is impossible to make meaningful improvements in style.

This brief analysis is surely incomplete in some ways and perhaps mistaken in others. If I pressed it further, I would probably also find relevance in the canons of memory and delivery. Still, I think the preceding paragraphs make a fairly strong case that the study of rhetoric is relevant to a career in writing.

But what about relationship building? What do relationships have to do with writing, and how does rhetoric help us understand the nature of relationships?

Relationships

Writing, with its need for focused attention, is a solitary activity. Because it springs from interior conversation, writing also depends on a unique state of mind, which is best maintained by temporarily screening out distractions. But writing is also (and primarily) a method for communicating facts and ideas, so it necessarily takes place in a web of relationships.

§ At work, I depend on the engineers who provide me with the raw factual material I use in my documents. I depend on my fellow writers, because we must work together to solve technical problems, to coordinate our coverage of the subject matter, and to maintain consistency in our work.

§ I also depend on people in sales, marketing, and technical support, who work directly with customers, to tell me what I need to know about the end users of our products.

§ Finally, I depend on customers, who provide a demand for my work and the demand for quality that makes me strive for excellence.

So it’s only natural that I value my relationships with my coworkers and with customers–not only because they make my job possible, but also because they make it meaningful.

Of what, then, are relationships made? Need certainly springs to mind–the relationships outlined above all involve need, or an exchange of resources in some kind of system of mutual aid. Some of these need-based relationships are cooperative, but not all–many involve competition over scarce resources. Such a relationship may produce friction, but it’s still a relationship.

But surely there is more to relationships than need. Most of my relationships also involve a dialogue about values, but here again, the relationship can have a cooperative or competitive basis. Sometimes my coworkers and I come together in harmony over shared values, while at other times we clash in disputes over values. All of my relationships–particularly in high technology, where I make a living–involve a flow of information, which creates a dynamic force within our shared social space. Information is my stock in trade, of course, and its utility is indisputable, but what we often fail to examine is the nature of information–how it is defined, created, shared, commodified, and put to use. Thinking of information and its commodification leads me naturally to the subject of power, which is also a parameter in every relationship. Finally, I should mention that I work for a geographically dispersed company, with employees based in several dozen offices, located on virtually every continent. This last fact points to several other factors that impart a character to our relationships, including language, culture, and the technical media we use to communicate, such as the telephone, email, instant messaging, and intranets.

Needs, values, information, power, and communications media–surely all these things are the proper study of rhetoric.

Discovering rhetoric

As I mentioned earlier, I came into contact with rhetoric only recently in connection with some research I have been doing at work. The subject of my research is mental state as a factor in technical communication. I chose this topic because my own mental state, as both a producer and consumer of technical information, is frequently less than ideal, and I suspected I was not alone in this feeling. I also began to wonder how this suboptimal mental state might affect my success as a communicator.

In my search for answers, I typed a fortuitous string into the Google search field, something like TECHNICAL WRITING AND RHETORIC, and this query led to my encounter with rhetoric, the contact with Tania Smith, and a fruitful new line of thought. My research is just getting underway, and I suspect the search will be a long one, because mental state is a complex topic. But how fortunate I am, with so many years of professional activity behind me, to find a field which reminds me that I make a difference, however slight, and provides me with a way to measure that difference.

10 Effective Tips on How to Get a Book Published from Litosaur.com

There is no secret formula to getting a book published. It requires luck and good timing and it doesn’t hurt to know the right people. The traditional route has become more difficult as the industry struggles to evolve. The same names appear on bestseller lists and publishers fight over celebrity memoirs. If you’re not already famous or an established author, it can seem like a closed shop. Yet debut authors get published all the time despite the odds. And many authors succeed with self-published books. It takes patience, perseverance and a thick skin to deal with rejection. But these are qualities most writers have developed after months or years tapping away at the keyboard, waiting for the muse to show up, battling with self-doubt. If you have a completed manuscript sitting on your desk, congratulations. Now for the dirty work ... put the champagne on ice and roll up your sleeves.

The following information was gathered over five years as I researched the publishing world. Sources include countless books, magazines, websites, and conversations with established authors. I also draw on my own experience as a writer and producer, as well as my work in coaching authors in media readiness and book marketing.

10. Write What You Love to Read … And Read a Lot

A few years ago I was having coffee with an author friend and he asked me what I liked to read. I told him my favourite genre was horror. He smiled and asked: “Then why aren’t you writing horror?” Good question. I realized my writing at that point lacked passion and direction. He then set me the task of completing a horror novel in five weeks. I did it, with two days to spare. Writing in an area you already know and love makes sense. Study the work of successful authors in your genre or field and find out what they do that works. Don’t copy them, but learn from them. You must also read a lot to become a good writer. Read contemporary works in your genre as well as the classics, magazines, and newspapers. So get thee to a library, bookstore or online bookseller.

9. Write a Book That People Want to Read

Sounds obvious, but every writer must take an objective look at their work. You may think your book is marvellous but that doesn’t mean it’s publishable. Think from a publisher's standpoint. Their concern is whether it will sell. Is your book commercially viable? Who is your audience? Would they like your book? Is it written for a niche market? Is it genre or literary fiction? A non-fiction book in an already saturated field? Does the content better suit an independent publisher? Do some research. Find out what else is out there. See where your book would fit. Then ask yourself a brutally honest question: “Is my book good enough for this market?” If your answer is, “Perhaps not,” get back to the keyboard.

8. “Murder Your Darlings”

Noted writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch once said: "Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it — wholeheartedly — and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings." Most first drafts are not publishable. I made the rookie mistake of submitting my first book before it was ready. After a lacklustre rewrite I queried an agent. To my surprise they responded within two hours with a request for the full manuscript. You can imagine my disappointment when it was returned along with a rejection letter. I did another re-write, sent it a second time, and got the same response. They loved the idea, story and descriptions but said it was too “dense.” After weeks of pondering the word “dense” I finally got the message. I took an axe to my book and it felt good chopping off the deadwood. So before sending out your work, cut it to the bone. “Get rid of every ounce of excess fat,” as Stephen King puts it.

7. Write Another Book

Start work on your second book right after completing the first. This keeps the momentum going and it encourages you to stick with an established writing routine. As well as being a voracious reader, a good writer should also write every day. Practice really is the key to success. In addition, agents who have expressed interest in your work are sure to ask, “What else do you have?” or, “What are you working on now?” Agents prefer working with writers who can produce more than one book and are planning on a long-term career. Besides, it’s not unusual for writers to finish two or three books before getting it right.

6. Network

Get involved with your local writing community, interact with fellow writers, and get to know published authors. Writing groups often publicize events such as talks, seminars and book signings. Joining a writer’s critique group can also be beneficial. If you have the resources, there are various writing conferences where you can pitch your book to editors. Following authors on Facebook is a good way of connecting, as many writers communicate daily with their readers. As a TV producer I became acquainted with a publicist who knew many New York literary agents. I asked her for a recommendation and she obliged. So make the most of every networking opportunity. Be bold but not brash.

5. Build an Author Platform

It’s crucial for aspiring authors to have a platform. This means building a reputation and gaining visibility. The first step is defining your audience, and then finding the best way to reach them. Anything from speaking engagements, to a Facebook page, blog or active Twitter presence, can raise your profile. With an established platform, especially online, you can easily attract and connect with your followers, subscribers, readers, professional associations, clients and fans. There are so many ways to build a platform. Take advantage of social media and create a website or blog dedicated to your book, genre, or your area of expertise. This demonstrates to agents and publishers that you are serious about self-promotion and marketing. The goal is to become somewhat known before your book is published so you’ll already have a following.

4. Research Agents and Publishers

Research which publishers and agents represent your type of book. Read the acknowledgments of authors in your genre, as sometimes they thank their agent. LiteraryMarketplace.com is a good resource, and provides the contact information you’ll need. Make a list of your top choices. Make sure you stick to the submission guidelines. Some request a synopsis, others may not. Check first and give them exactly what they require. Do you need an agent? This depends on your goals. Big publishers often refuse to read manuscripts that don’t come from an agent. Smaller, independent publishers might welcome an author’s submission, but may not offer an advance. The advantage of having an agent is that they know the market, have established contacts with publishers, and can negotiate book deals for you, both here and abroad.

3. Write a Great Query

I spent three days working on a query letter and it paid off. It was short (one page), I had a recommendation, and I included the highlights of my career as a journalist and producer. My book description was barely a paragraph, but enough to generate interest and mystique, and I also included my genre. I did my homework, scouring every book, website, and article I could find on the subject. I advise you to do the same. If you get a rejection letter, study what it says; it may help improve your craft. If they take the time to offer a short critique, that’s a good sign, as they must find you worthy. Just don’t get discouraged, because it’s often more about market trends than your writing or story. The publishing business is also very subjective, so what doesn’t work for one agent or editor may be perfect for another. Be patient — your time will come.

2. Consider Self-Publishing

Once frowned upon by the industry elite, self-publishing is now a viable option, especially for writers daunted by the prospect of waiting years for publication. There are many options, including e-books and print on demand, where books are only printed when someone orders a copy. Although some self-published books become bestsellers, the reality for most is rather bleak. On average, they sell fewer than 200 copies. There’s no advance either, you pay the publishing costs, and if you want your book edited, you’ll have to hire a professional. However, authors do retain all their rights and receive more royalties. Some have succeeded and profited, but it takes hard work and effort to get your work noticed. If you choose this route make sure you have a strong marketing plan. Get to know your market before publishing, have a platform in place, and connect with your audience. Become a media darling and a ruthless self-promoter.

1. Don’t Give Up

Perseverance is essential. Even the best writers have been rejected, some dozens of times. Do not be disheartened. Imagine if Stephen King gave up after a few rejection letters. The fact is that he and other established authors worked on perfecting their craft and kept going. Be authentic and ask yourself why you write. This will quell the self-doubt. Most people write because they feel compelled to do so. Build your platform as you wait for publishing success, keep writing your books, and write articles and blogs where people can comment. These are your potential readers. Always keep “Dear reader” in mind — you’re doing this for them. Keep abreast of the publishing industry, read writing magazines, check out new books, and explore the work of different authors. Learn from them. Above all believe in yourself and enjoy the journey. Good luck.

Alison Hill is a writer, producer, journalist, and BBC guest commentator, with expertise in media and publicity. She is the author of Media Ready, Media Savvy, The Workbook for Authors, and has written extensively for print, television and online. In 2008 she did promotional work for Bill Brooks, an award-winning author of 23 Western novels, and developed and created a series of media readiness workshops for writers. She also designs, produces and edits book trailers.

Good luck.