Author: kate flynn jacobs

Slow down. Pay attention. Read your copy out loud before you hit send. And wear a clean shirt.

Slow down. Proofread. Read it out loud. We are all responsible for our work. It’s not the fault of spell check or autocorrect.

  It is nearly impossible to avoid an internet footprint for yourself. Search your name and see what pops up. Is what you see how you want to be judged? If you have a common name, you might think you can hide behind myriad other namesakes. Don’t be fooled. All someone has to do is…

Be sure what you’re saying is logical and truly conveys the point you are trying to make.

  4:13, 4:21, 4:34, 4:36, 4:46 My marathon times.  I remember the times. Do I remember all the details? What year did I run the 4:13? Had to look that up. So no, I don’t remember everything. I do remember that I can’t brag that I ran fast than I did.  I didn’t run a…

  How tempting is it to try to slide by on half-effort? What if I could skim through the book and still get an A on the book report? What if I could glance at reference resources and think I got the gist of the material to at least sound like I know what I’m…

Read what you write before you hit send and make sure you are saying what you mean and meaning what you say.

To paraphrase Elizabeth Barrett Browning: How do I communicate with thee? Let me count the ways. According to aforementioned Liz, she loved to the depth and breadth and height that her soul could reach. That about sums up our communication possibilities. The depth, breadth and height to which we can climb in order to get our message out are quite expansive. Not quite unlimited, but almost. Communication is an expansive new frontier. And that is why grammar is important. With thousands of communications channels to shoot out our message, it’s more important than ever to pay attention to grammar, spelling, style, and universally accepted rules of writing.