Contributors are, universally, the bane of every newsletter editor. Yet, they are essential to the production of most newsletters because:

1. They (usually) save the editor time.
2. They help to ensure that you have covered all of your bases, and have not left out any important news.
3. Political viability.

Yet, by not getting their articles in on time; not writing the article you wanted; writing articles which are too long or too short; or, worst of all, complaining bitterly (or threateningly) if you change a single comma, contributors can be a pain in the behind.

Usually, the reasons for these problems are easy to understand, discover and solve. Newsletter contributors become a pain most often when they:

1. Don't know how to start.
2. Don't have time.
3. Fear criticism of their writing.

Techniques to Make Better Contributors

When contributors are given too many decisions to make on their own, they quite naturally invest a lot more of their time, effort and ego into their article than would be preferred. That's why the best approach is to give your contributor specific written instructions which include:

1. The topic of the article.
2. What point you want them to center the article around.
3. The general writing style you want them to use (news, feature, opinion).
4. How long you expect the article to be (for example, a typical newsletter page can handle 450-550 words, so if you want them to fill a page, tell them to write no more than 500 words).
5. Whether or not you expect them to provide illustrations or photographs (or at least ideas on how to acquire them).
6. The deadlines for first draft, review, second draft and final edits.
7. A note that he or she should not worry too much about the nitty-gritty style issues because you are going to edit the article to "fit our newsletter's style."

If they pay attention to the instructions (which they will if you adopt the editor attitude), your contributor will invest much less of himself or herself into the article. Consequently, your contributor will be much less anxious about changes you make and much more likely to get the article in on time. Most importantly, in step #7 you have set their expectations correctly -- the article will be edited.

If your contributors don't take to this technique (or the technique doesn't help), try these three methods (in order of seriousness of the problem):

1. When you edit the article, show it to the contributor prior to publication, but include two important statements:
   a) Please check this for accuracy.
   b) Everyone else I've shown this to has liked it, so you did a great job. Thank you.
   
   Point #a sets the tone -- you are not asking for a critique of your style, grammar, punctuation, logical order or appropriateness changes... just the facts.
   
   Point #b subtly suggests that others (possibly higher up in the food chain than your contributor) have seen your edited draft and liked it. Plus, the compliment should satisfy the contributor's ego.
   
2. If you still have trouble getting the articles on time or with editing the articles once you do, start asking the problem contributor for information instead of articles. If you can get a rough bulleted list of the most significant facts, you will find that the story will write itself. Often, it is faster and easier to write the article yourself from provided information than to try to edit a problem contributor's work.
   
3. Don't be afraid to turn articles back to writers with notes explaining what you need changed. Not only does this save you time, but it helps the contributor, adds to your reputation as a no-nonsense editor and gives you a good excuse to exclude the article from the newsletter if the contributor doesn't get you the revisions quickly.
   
4. For the really recalcitrant: circulate periodic updates on the newsletter to all of the contributors and others involved in the approval process, making particular note of the deadlines and who has missed them. In short, shame them into being timely!

When your frustrations are about to get the best of you, just remember what Michael Joseph said, "Authors are easy to get on with -- if you like children."

When do readers derive a benefit from a table of contents? The short answer: never on a four-page or shorter publication, sometimes on a six-pager, and almost always on anything eight pages or larger.

Yet, since we're never ones to leave a rash generalization to stew in its own simplicity, here's the long answer...

Readers need to find clues at hand within a few seconds of looking at the front page of your newsletter in order to decide whether or not to spend time reading it. If your newsletter's nameplate doesn't provide enough clues and if you are hell-bent on having only one story on the front page, you'll need an "inside this issue" box.

A complete, well-designed nameplate (see January/February 1996 edition of the Nameplate Supplement) and a good mix of stories on the front page can snatch your readers' attention well enough to make them take the plunge without the aid of a table of contents.

he publishing industry has no firm, widely accepted definition of "newsletter," "journal," "bulletin," "magazine" or "newspaper." Most people just know one when they see one from its format or page count.

However, while format and page count distinctions often alert readers to changes in content -- terse bulletins are smaller than newsletters -- it is the content that matters.

The following definitions fit the needs of organizations wishing to communicate with interested parties. Professional publishing pundits would doubtless disagree with some points, but they are not writing this article.

Bulletins

Intended for posting on a bulletin board, bulletins contain quickly digestible information appropriate to the needs of people standing up, sipping coffee or chewing on a snack. In just one or two pages, they must pack in as much what, when, where and, maybe, who as possible, but should ignore how and, definitely, why. The content must be limited in scope to items that have direct, practical meaning to the actual readers, who should be closely related (members of the same club, employees of the same company, etc.). The writing style is concise and fact-oriented.

For example, when we publish the San Jose State Alumni Association Bulletin, we include announcements from chapters, an events calendar and major alumni-related news from the school.

Newsletters

Real newsletters not only add why to the mix of what, who, when and where, but give it top billing as well. As a result, a minimum of four pages is required and medium-length articles with a why angle are given the most prominent positioning. "Fundraiser at 8 p.m. in the gym" doesn't cut it in a newsletter. "Fundraiser for new gym floor mats" is a more appropriate start of a newsletter article.

Newsletter content should educate an audience with similar interests on a very specific range of news topics -- the organization's new service, upcoming event or competitive advantages. Developments in the organization's industry are OK when they are relevant, but newsletter editors must guard against including information that readers can find more easily and better in other publications.

Except for brief tips or Q&A, newsletters should shy away from how. For example, articles such as this one cannot replace the information available in a workshop or from actual experience. Newsletters should get readers to think and to act, not attempt to completely satisfy their information needs.

The best newsletters use a serious, newsy, journalistic writing style overall, mixed with some humorous, folksy and/or opinionated content. They came to be called "newsletters" because they mix the best of both worlds -- the value of "news" with the friendliness of a "letter."

Journals

Journals are published for sophisticated audiences who want very specific details -- mostly how and, when appropriate, why -- on closely related topics. Long articles that explain their topic using very specific facts and terminology dominate the content in a journal. However, the topic needs a limited enough scope to be explained in an article. For example, "how to train customer service personnel to be more courteous" is an article. "A complete guide to customer service" is a book.

Because of the size of their articles, journals tend to have covers that function as graphically elaborate advertisements for the content (some include the full table of contents) and normally fill between 16 and 96 pages. Like newsletters, journals should contain a variety of writing styles and article lengths. For example, a 48-page quarterly we produce for Xilinx is called a journal because of its 20+ pages of "design tips and hints," but the other material provides a lot of valuable information as well (without discussing how, just why, what, etc.).

Journal writing should follow the golden rule of journalism -- get the point of the story into the headline and the lead paragraph -- but can follow that with a discussion of the topic organized logically or thematically rather than chronologically or in order of news value.

Magazines and Newspapers

Both magazines and newspapers cover much broader areas of interest for wider audiences than bulletins, newsletters or journals ever would or could. As a result, even magazines about very specific topics (such as quilting or cat ownership) must cover a lot of ground to meet the needs of an audience large enough to interest advertisers. Well-crafted bulletins, newsletters and journals exude a sense of "this is the most important, interesting and sophisticated information on this subject" that no broad-circulation magazine or newspaper could ever match.

A Quick Guide to Bulletins, Newsletters and Journals

Content Conflicts

Even when you send a publication to a very welcoming, familiar audience, success depends on quickly communicating the answer to the questions, "What is it?" and "Why should I care?" That's why coordinating your content, tone, page count and format makes such a difference. Very few people want to read a four-, six-or eight-page bulletin.

Mixing the journal and newsletter formats causes the biggest problems in practice. A publication's readership expects a certain level of detail and complexity according to its preconceptions about whether it is reading a technical journal or an informational newsletter. For example, although this article is very long by newsletter standards, it fits in a newsletter because it is discussing what is appropriate for different publication formats, using everyday language.

The audience makes the difference. If this article was going to be read only by other newsletter publishers, it would have included words such as folio, quarto, Mencken, buried lead, neologism and would have had a more sophisticated point to make.

At Ruddle Creative Inc., we often have to deal with the problem of a newsletter contributor who has the job of writing, "here are the main features and benefits of our new product" and who instead writes, "here's everything you didn't want to know about how we decided to make this product and how it works." In this situation, explaining the difference between a newsletter and a journal usually provides the most polite means of getting either a new article or permission to rewrite the old one.

Newsletters can provide a taste of the rich details and sophisticated expertise available for the asking, but it takes a journal to make a meal.

Supporting a newsletter through advertising can spell disaster. Yet, if you must, consider these guidelines:

• Newsletter readers have a generally low tolerance for ads, so keep the ratio of ad space below 35 percent. That is, a three-column, eight-page newsletter with 10 inches worth of copy space per column should allow no more than 84 column inches (that is, about a 2.8 pages out of eight) of advertising.
• No ads on the front page!
• Try to bunch ads together as much as possible. A page full of ads across from a page of articles looks better than two pages split 50/50 articles to ads.
• Base your rates on your budget and what similar publications charge. Most advertisers look at cost-per-contact and the value of your audience. That is, a highly targeted audience of subscribers deserves a higher fee than a general audience reading a free publication.
• General circulation, paid publications usually charge $30-$50 per thousand contacts for a full page ad. Most trade publications charge $100-$150. Some association newsletters get away with charging as much as $400.
• Price ads according to a matrix that provides incentives for buying larger ads more often.

 Example

One advertising-based newsletter we produce has these rates for members:

Remember, another issue is coming. Use it to your advantage when your contributors write amuck. Most verbositators of uncuttable, looooong articles are flattered when you serialize their verbal carnage over two or three issues. Label the first installment as "part one of..." and end it with an "in the next issue..." paragraph.

When you have too many articles and must hold the least-time-sensitive (or else add pages -- the worst possible solution to a verbiage crisis), include them in a teaser box entitled "In the next issue" placed anywhere other than the front page.

Consistency both in frequency and page count are the most important factors in the success of a newsletter. It is much better to apportion what you have across several issues than risk printing too much in one issue and too little in another.

We have anecdotal experience and quantifiable data that confirms the need to make timeliness your top newsletter priority.

Anecdotally, the comments we hear from interview subjects and hear about from our clients on the 31 out of 50 newsletters we publish that are distributed in a timely manner (if you do this for a living, you know that 62 percent timeliness is excellent) are not only more positive than the others, but also more knowledgeable about the newsletter itself.

We are much more likely to hear, "When I receive it every month I always read the technology corner," on a timely newsletter. We have heard compliments for sporadically published newsletters such as, "Yeah, it's usually interesting," but never anything really specific.

When we interview people at companies for which we publish a timely newsletter, they know who we are, what we are talking about and, often have ideas for articles.

When we call people for information at companies that just can't seem to get on a regular publishing schedule, they grill us about who we are and say, often, "what newsletter?"

Statistically, we have two sources of information. First, our timely clients always get a better response to their newsletters. Over and over, we have seen what we call the "third issue phenomenon" where the response to a newsletter just explodes after readers have received three issues at a regular interval. Obviously, the readers are watching the quality of the information conveyed in the newsletter most of all, but timeliness makes the difference. We have published newsletters with excellent information content that fell flat on their third issue because it was published months later than originally planned.

Second, we have tracked the results to Newsletter Nameplate for more than six years. When we have published regularly, our response (including both hot and warm) has averaged 3.5 percent. When we have been sporadic, it has dropped to 1.5-2 percent. When we are regular, we receive comments such as, "What an excellent newsletter! I read every issue cover to cover!" When we have been sporadic, we have received comments such as, "what newsletter?"

We operate on the theory that the subtle message of on-the-ball-ness that readers receive from a timely newsletter can do just as much to promote the image of an organization as the content within the newsletter. Sometimes it means publishing something in an article that is not as up-to-date or perfect as possible, but wouldn't you rather have readers get 99 percent of the truth on time than 100 percent of nothing they will bother to read because it's late?

You would think that professional communicators could at least communicate with each other. Yet, while broad swathes of editors agree on the meaning of headline, body copy and indicia, ideas vary on caption, pullquote, subhead, gutter and other terms we toss around like salad, but don't always define correctly.

In past issues of Newsletter Nameplate, we have defined a variety of headline styles (Summer 1994) such as read-in, hammer and side head, as well as the difference among bulletin, newsletter and journal (May/June 1996). But what do you call the second, smaller part of the headline to this article? Several terms, and the confusion over them, are described below:

Masthead
Most important, please remember what the masthead is NOT. The title on the top of the front page (usually) has many names (see below), but masthead ain't one of 'em. The masthead normally appears on page two or the back page and lists publication information such as the editor, contributors, frequency, policies, contact information and so on.

Nameplate
Not long after newsletters achieved their current high level of popularity in the late 1970s, editors became consensed enough to agree that the title artwork on the front page should be called a nameplate. Newspapers prefer flag, but use nameplate and banner on occasion. Magazines have tended to prefer logo over banner, nameplate and cover title, but all four are used. Like most jargon, it depends on whom to talk to (sorry, it depends on to whom you talk).

Anecdotal experience tells us that it depends on when and how you entered the profession as well. Veterans of journalism tend to use the terms that were in vogue when they left. Desktop publishers without the benefit of any journalistic training tend to call it the masthead like most of the laity (though training is no guarantee -- we once had to correct the Wall Street Journal on the proper use of masthead).

The real question today has become what nameplates comprise. In "Editing Your Newsletter" and elsewhere, author Mark Beach agrees with us, more or less, that the entire title section is called the nameplate (although what we call the title, he calls the logo, and what we call the slogan, he calls the subtitle). For this newsletter, we consider everything from the dateline up to be a unit called the nameplate. Our company logo and motto (sapere aude), the title (Newsletter Nameplate), the slogan ("Tips to Help Editors Make Reluctant Readers Take Notice"), the dateline and price are all part of the nameplate.

Likewise, Barbara Fanson in "Producing a First Class Newsletter" and Poppy Evans in "Graphic Designer's Guide to Faster, Better, Easier Design and Production" agree with our definition (although Evans confesses her own eight-year-long confusion on the matter).

In "Creating and Producing the Perfect Newsletter," on the other hand, Patricia Williams defines the nameplate as just the title. Oddly, Thomas Bivins in "Fundamentals of Successful Newsletters" refers to the nameplate as the banner and calls the slogan (Beach's subtitle) the nameplate. (Bivens admits that others use nameplate instead of banner, but unlike Ruddle Creative Inc., he avoids judging those who disagree, which is just the sort of wimpiness that led to the confusion in the first place, but let's not rant.).

Subdeck Headtitle
Of the experts surveyed, we, Evans, Williams and Bivins agree that a smaller, usually longer, headline that follows the main headline is called a deck or a deck head. We prefer deck head because of the newspaper habit of calling a two-line headline a two-decker, three lines a three-decker and so on. Fanson refers to it as a subtitle (but uses deck and, oddly, tag line, elsewhere). Beach avoids naming it directly, although we choose to infer from other information in one of his books that he would call it a minor head. Because most desktop layout programs call it a subhead (just larger than the normal subheads that are used within stories to divide sections and add visual interest), that term is starting to take hold as well.

Cutline Caption
Most editors either use caption and cutline interchangeably (that is, according to personal preference) or have never heard of a cutline. As you might expect, cutline has specific roots in printing. It refers to the text that describes the contents of a cut (i.e., an illustration etched into a printing plate -- as was necessary in the days before photolithography). Caption has a much longer heritage (mid-14th century), but is also synonymous with headline and title. Hence, when you see a stand-alone photograph with a headline above it and a caption below it, you could accurately (but unusually these days) call the headline a caption and the caption a cutline. (This is a good spot to thank Kathleen Watson of The Word Works who suggested this article by writing us in December with a ¿qué?stion about caption versus cutline.)

Pullquote Billboard
Most editors refer to an excerpt from an article printed in larger type with the article (a.k.a. the body copy) running around as a pull quote (although we use the spelling pullquote). Some newspaperites would call it a billboard or blurb (an even more elastic term than caption since it refers to any short scrap of text). Magaziners might use blurb, outquote or excerpt, but, like their ink-stained brethren, tend to use pullquote like almost everyone else. Beach prefers (and Bivins acknowledges) blurb. Strangely, Fanson uses pull quote, but also refers to something very similar as a surprint, a new term for us.

Making Up New Rules
Lines are called rules in the publishing business (and rules are called policies and policies are called missions, but those are other fried fish). For some reason, a few experts feel the need to fancy up their rules.

A rule placed in the alley between columns of body copy is called a column rule by Fanson and Williams, but a floating rule by Beach. A rule that separates articles is called a cut-off rule and a rule across the top of the page is called a printing rule by Fanson. Why?

Folio Folia
Originally, a folio just meant a bunch of papers folded together to make a booklet or other multi-page document. From there, to folio came to mean numbering the pages of a document. Once book took over most common uses of folio, it has come to mean page number (though not the page number itself, but its representation on the page, if you can follow the ontology of that). In the newspaper world, it was enlarged to refer to the date and any other information that accompanies the page number as well.

For example, Newsletter Nameplate's folio includes the publication's page number, title and date, as well as our company name, phone number and e-mail address. Bivins, Fanson, Williams, Evans and Beach all limit themselves to the book publishing definition (that is, just the page number), but that just shows why you can't trust all experts. As far as the other folio information goes, Evans and Beach call it the header and Fanson calls it the running head.

Mailing Address Area
We have always referred to the area of a newsletter reserved for the mailing label, return address, indicia and, perhaps, teasers, as the mailing panel. Fanson agrees, Williams adds a bit (self-mailing panel), Bivins subtracts (mailer), Evans changes one way (mailing area) and Beach changes in another (address panel). According to Bob Dole, "whatever.'

Why Did I Read This?
Don't allow terminology to stymie your editorial efforts. Newsletters borrow a bit from just about every other faction within publishing -- books, newspapers, magazines, pamphleteering... even memoranda. As long as you know what you mean and others do too, everything will be just fine. Although don't let that stop you from continuing to send in ¿qués?tions about cutline versus caption, and so on.

In the tense atmosphere of a corporate merger, the in-house newsletter can be a balm to salve the wounds of the acquired workforce, or it can be a salvo thrown by a barmy editor (or editor's manager) that will explode in the faces of take-overers and take-overees alike. From all of the merger publications (or "murder" publications as some wags term them) we have produced, we have gleaned these tidbits of wisdom:

Tidbit Uno
Communicate more, not less -- Because of the rapidly changing atmosphere, many editors put their newsletters on hiatus while they wait for things to calm down. Big mistake. Even vague, repetitious articles help calm people down. Lack of communication makes people tense.

Not only should the normal publishing schedule be maintained for existing newsletters, merging companies should create special newsletters that address nothing but merger-related issues. Give the merger newsletter a new name that emphasizes openness, cohesion and security (e.g., Welcome or Interchange). Avoid names that use the words "merger," "acquisition," "new" or those starting with "re-" (don't remind people their jobs are threatened).

One caveat -- Mid-merger communications should be reviewed by managers at both companies, and by at least one member of the team orchestrating the merger, to ensure that a miscommunication doesn't make things worse.

Tidbit Dos
Include everybody -- That may seem obvious, but it's easy to forget about during the tussle. Any division, plant or department not mentioned in the company newsletter will take that as a bad omen, especially if it is part of the acquired company. In fact, editors should work hard to give extra play to articles about workers at the acquired company.

Tidbit Tres
In big mergers, revamp everything -- If the acquired company is at least half as big as the blood-thirsty raider taking it over, and if there will be layoffs of redundant workers (a.k.a. "rationalizations"), then it's time to rename and redesign the employee newsletter. It will make the newly acquired workforce feel less like strangers at a party who don't get all of the inside jokes, and will remind the other workers that they must accommodate the needs of their new compatriots.

The readership success of newsletters is devilishly difficult to track. Like most things, the better the answer you need, the more time and money you need to find it.

For example, at the top of all three scales – time, expense and accuracy -- you could call (or hire someone or some company) to call a representative sample of your readers to conduct a readership survey (that has been prepared by or vetted by a professional market researcher or poll taker).

Since the fate of the free world rarely rides on the readership success of any newsletter (unless it was the Nuclear Launch Code News), most editors must comfort themselves with lesser efforts. Self-selecting readership surveys inserted once a year or so are fine, especially for subscription newsletters.

However, newsletters intended to market some company, product, service or event have a different agenda. They need to know how many potential buyers are likely to be motivated by the newsletter.

The best means we have discovered for tracking that result is to devise a superior offer available only to newsletter readers. It must be something better than and different from offers available elsewhere to get a decent result. For example, companies that routinely offer 10% off their products for certain consumers, could offer 12% (or heavens forfend*, 15%!) to readers. The different offer doesn't have to cost more. It could just be phrased differently or include a different contact method (a unique phone extension, fax number or Web address, for example).

Needless to say (but here it is anyway), using a special offer means tracking the offers mentioned by customers when purchasing or inquiring for information so that you can separate out details about when, where and how readers made contact.

*Yep, "forfend" is a real word (unlike other free-form English found herein). Look it up. It can also be spelled "forefend," but neither one exists in our spellchecker's dictionary.

10. Eye Yam Iraq
 Now that we're at war, a few things worth noting...

War news has dominated the cable news channels and the regular network news programs since "Operation Iraqi Freedom" began, so it may arise as a newsletter topic, either because of internal discussions over various war issues or because of accommodations that have been made for Reservists who have been called up to active duty.

A few points:
First, newsletters are not appropriate venues to discuss national news. If there is a local angle, such as a new contract signed with the Defense Department, or a staff member who has been called up or whose child is fighting overseas, an article that sticks strictly to that local subject might be in order. Bland reminders of patriotism, such as a U.S. flag, are OK, but blatant expressions of personal opinion about things that are unrelated to one's organization are out of place in a newsletter, even when clearly labeled as such. In addition to the damage done to the newsletter when it's purpose is perverted to serve an unrelated cause, there are legal issues involved when readers get the impression that the "house rag" is telling people what to think.

Second, if the war does merit coverage, it might be worthwhile to review a few relevant style rules and facts about the area for those who are unfamiliar:

• Muslim is the term preferred by adherents of Islam, not Moslem.
• Islam is an "Abrahamic" religion, meaning Muslims consider the Old and New Testaments to be works of scripture, but they give primary importance (by far!) to the Koran, the holy book which is considered to be the revealed word of God (Allah) to the prophet Mohammed in the 7th century.
• Although Islam is the dominant religion in the Arab world, not all Arabs are Muslim, and not all Muslims are Arab.
• The English transliteration of Arabic terms varies because of differences in pronunciation from region to region. So, Al Qaida, Al Qaeda, al-Qaida and al-Qaeda are all correct. The editor's job is to pick one and stick with it.
• Not long after the founding of Islam, an argument over Mohammed's successor led to a schism between the Sunni and Shiite sects, with Sunnis today comprising roughly 85 percent of all Muslims.
• Over time, the two groups have come to differ in their use of terminology. Both use the term sheik roughly the same way Christians use the term reverend, but sheik can also be a secular title of respect or nobility as well. Sunnis call their top clergy by the title mufti, while Shiites use the term ayatollah. Mullah refers to a lower level of clergy. To Sunnis, imam always refers to a prayer leader at a mosque (church), but Shiites capitalize the term when referring to 12 historically important religious leaders. Just like priest, reverend, bishop, etc., these terms are all lowercase except when used as part of a person's name or as in the Shiite use of Imam.
• Sunnis are a majority in most Arab nations, as well as in the non-Arab nations of Egypt, Turkey, and Afghanistan, and the regions known as Palestine and West Africa. Shiites are an overwhelming majority in Iran, and make up a very large percentage of the populations of Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain.
• Although the most important holy sites for Islam are the cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, Shiites have many important religious and historical sites in central Iraq. The Shiite's preferred successor for Mohammed -- his son-in-law, Ali -- ultimately died in a battle at Karbala and is now buried in Najaf, areas of recent war fighting.
• The term Middle East refers to southwest Asia west of Pakistan and Afghanistan (which are both considered to be just plain Asian nations), the Arabian Peninsula, Cyprus and northeastern Africa (that is, Egypt and Sudan). Some misguided writers use the term Mideast, which is technically acceptable, but impractical because of its similarity to Midwest. 

Finally, it's amazing to see how a news organization's biases come out during times of national crisis. Whether one thinks the media is generally too liberal, too conservative or completely impartial, it's curious how some news groups use the Pentagon code name "Operation Iraqi Freedom" as the logo for their coverage, while others pointedly use a variation on "War With Iraq" to avoid the Pentagon label. Then there's the incidental graphics that accompany stories in newspapers or which lead TV news in and out of commercial breaks -- some use patriotic images such as flags and eagles, some try impartial images such as maps, while others use wounded civilians or other images meant to convey the costs of war. Noticing these differences is mainly of interest to newsletter editors as an example of how easy it is to allow what one personally thinks or feels to bleed over into how one presents information that -- ostensibly at least -- is meant to be impartial.

The triumph of desktop publishing over the typesetting/paste-up technique of newsletter, newspaper and magazine production (bulletins were almost always typewritten) has ushered in a golden age in which nobody seems to give a damn how long their articles run or understand why a five-page, typewritten manuscript can't be squeezed onto half a page of newsletter.

Of course, this is a silly accusation -- amateur articlizers have never cared if their 1,500-word essay went a bit over the 250-word limit requested by the editor. However, word counts are still one of the editor's most potent tools for working with contributors -- as long as you know how many words to ask for. Consider this: the typical line of word-processed drivel will contain 10-12 words. A double-spaced page will contain 28-30 lines -- that is, about 300 words.

A three-column newsletter page typeset in 10 point type with 12 points of leading and a half-inch margin top to bottom can fit about five words per line. At 60 lines per column, you could jam-pack 900 words onto a page. If you allow for 30-35 percent non-jam-packedness for headlines, photos, pullquotes, etc., that gives you a maximum count of about 600 words.

So, a two-page, double-spaced (not 1-1/2 spaced!) page of word processing can (if 10 point isn't too small for you) fill a jam-packed newsletter page.

Rough Word-Length Comparison Table

Chart assumes a three-column format using Times Roman (contains 30 column inches when jam-packed; 20-22 inches with headlines, graphics and white space):

If reading Newsletter Nameplate proves anything, it's that professional writers can easily use two, three, four or more times as many words as necessary before their fingertips even start warming up. Unless you throw a joke in now and again (How many writers does it take to change a light bulb?), readers will emulate a drunken surgeon (that is, "lose patients" ha ha ... our apologies to the alcohol-impaired MDs in the audience).

A good article answers all of the pertinent questions it raises. So, to train an article to fit into a predetermined length, you must avoid asking any questions you have no space left to answer. For example, if you're writing about, say, Joe Smith, the new vice president, and mention his family, you have to name his wife and children. If you don't have room for Mrs. Smith and the kiddies, don't mention that Joe has a family.

The longest article on our list (a technical feature) would have to be wrapped up in about two doubled-spaced word processor pages. What if your technical subject demands more than 600 words? Split it into two or more articles. Readers are much more likely to look at a main article and two sidebars than one really long story.

For example, your company has a new chip that works in 3.3 volt as well as 5 volt devices. Rather than have one big, 750-word article, you could write a 550-600-word "Hey, It Works With 3.3V Devices!" article, along with a 150-200 word "But 5V is OK, Too" sidebar.

By the way, it just takes one writer to change a light bulb, but he doesn't introduce it until the seventh chapter.

Every article has a karmic ideal length.
Here's a rough rule of thumb guide:

The top banana in your organization (or other people symbolically referred to by fruit) may have a cute column, all dressed up in a sharp little costume, hair slicked back, and wearing a big grin, but don't be fooled. Even the best, most boisterous, show-stealing Letter From The President is strictly page two material. As a rule, all opinion-oriented stories should appear inside.

No, the real star of the newsletter show must make the entire audience (or at least most of it) cheer, weep or think. Of all the possible stories an editor and, perhaps, a passel of contributors, can think of writing, the one that deserves to go first, earning the coveted title of "lead story," is the one that will interest the most readers.

Remember, it's the essential audience, not the potential audience that counts. For example, say a manufacturing company develops a new product line that will create new jobs, facilities and opportunities. That is clearly a good lead story candidate for a newsletter distributed to all customers and prospects. However, a newsletter geared exclusively to users of a different type of product produced by the same company would have no reason to consider this story for the front page.

Even the editor of the company's internal newsletter would have to think twice. If, say, the benefits department had recently made a major change in the company's health care plans, that story might take precedence over the new product line because it will affect everyone on the staff right away.

Newsletter audiences are comprised of constituencies. For example, a non-profit organization's newsletter typically must address the concerns of donors, clients and volunteers. A subscription newsletter about arts funding will have museums, theatres, orchestras, and dance companies to consider. Business-to-business marketing newsletters have to consider different types of potential buyers by size, product interests and location.

The best lead story will either cover a topic that affects a majority of the audience constituencies, or find a way to bridge them all. For example, the arts advocacy newsletter could lead with a story about National Endowment for the Arts funding. The non-profit newsletter might discuss the agency's new building (or capital campaign to build the building). The business-to-business newsletter would find success with a lead about a change in payment terms policies or a quality assurance program.

Finally, consideration for what interests the audience also means keeping your options open. That non-profit organization might find that a soupy feature story about one of the organization's clients would be most interesting. The business-to-business newsletter could lead with a dramatic success story about how the company saved a client's rear end. An interview with the new CEO might be an appropriate lead for that internal employee newsletter.

It's not writing style (news, feature, etc.) or fiscal importance that makes a lead story -- it's whether the readers have a reason to applaud at the end.

What should an editor do about the mondo- gigantico article that goes on for page after page? Well, of course, ruthless editing never hurt anybody. (Sorry, that cliché really isn't appropriate here, is it? Ruthless editing hurts writers -- feelings, and sometimes editors -- noses. But the readers come out unscathed.)

Once your overly large article has been pared down to a reasonable size, your main tactic for making it seem shorter is to cut a few sidebars out of it. Most long articles include passages of background information or specific case studies which can stand alone (usually in a box) next to the main article.

For example, in Digital Printing: Putting Strippers Out of Work, a couple of early paragraphs go off on the tangent of printing plates you can make using your laser printer. Those paragraphs could have been grouped under a sidebar entitled "Polyester Printing" (or whatever), and placed off to one side. The main article would have flowed more smoothly and readers who were intimidated by the length of it would have had an easier chunk to start chewing on.

People pay attention to and remember stuff that happens not stuff that is. Effective headlines deliver (or at least promise) action. Readers must also understand essentially what the story is about and why it should interest them. So, how do you write an interesting, informative headline in less than a paragraph?

Look for two things: the verb and the key word -- that's really all you need. You don't have to spell everything out in the headline -- that's what the story is for. If you can evoke an image or idea in a reader's mind, your headline has done its job.

For example, let's say your company has introduced an organized program to provide better customer service. The plan includes extensive training for front line personnel, empowers them to take extraordinary measures when a customer has an extraordinary problem, and rewards them for receiving good marks on service surveys the company conducts later. Without question, the most common headline that typical newsletter editors would write is:

New Customer Service Program Introduced

Yes, it has a verb (just barely!). Yes, it describes what the story is about. Does it give any reader any reason to care? Yes, but only the person who wrote the story and the manager of the customer service department. Many editors are aware of the need to hook readers by giving them a reason to care about the story, but they attack the problem with verbosity and pomposity instead of eloquence.

Such an editor might write this headline for an internal newsletter:

New Customer Service Program Introduced
Training, Empowerment and Rewards Provide Incentives to Customer Service Representatives

Or, the same sort of editor might write this headline for an external newsletter:

New Customer Service Program Introduced
Training, Empowerment and Incentives for Customer Representatives Help to Improve Service

Zzzzzzzzzzz. What? Oh, are we still writing an article? Wow, those headlines would mellow out a rabid pit bull (if rabid pit bulls could read). What's missing from this process? Yes, action.

Following the verb and key word approach, the editor of an internal newsletter would emphasize what the employees are getting:

Power and Prizes
Company Revamps Customer Service

As an employee, wouldn't you be interested in power and prizes? Besides the alliterative use of the letter 'p,' this combination of words was carefully chosen to sound exciting and fun. "Power" evokes freedom, while "empowerment" sounds like the ability to sample any bush or fire hydrant along the walking path set by your master.

Likewise, "prizes" sound like things a person might actually want, as opposed to "rewards," which is usually a euphemism for more responsibility at the same wage level. More importantly, "empowerment and rewards" could be about the company itself, a department or a manager, but "power and prizes" clearly sounds like it's about workers.

The verb doesn't appear until the second deck, but that's OK -- it's all the same headline. Notice that an active verb format makes all the difference. The headline doesn't wimp out; it assigns responsibility. There is a cause (the company) and an effect (a revamping). It's not talking about some ephemeral "program" wafting through the company; it's talking about change taking place!

An editor of an external newsletter who followed the verb and key word approach would focus on what the customer is getting:

Service Excellence
Customer Representatives Trained and Empowered to Get the Job Done

Even though "service excellence" as become a cliché, this headline uses that to its advantage. Customers know that "service excellence" means the company is trying to emphasize service (and perhaps fix problems with it). Everyone knows that price, quality and service can't all be a company's first priority, so "service excellence" sets a tone in the reader's mind that, at least for the moment, service is on top.

As in the previous example, the meat cooks in the second deck. Customers reading the full headline know that the program being introduced (yes, readers can surmise that obvious point on their own) is going to build better service starting at the bottom with a financial commitment (training costs $$$) and more trust of employee decision making (which shows that intelligence and maturity exist at the top). The dénouement, "get the job done," isn't just for vocabulary variety. It evokes the idea that real service means solving problems. If a reader thought the program in question was about providing better excuses or more effusive apologies, the article might not get read.

Many people have perfected the skill of comprehending unfamiliar words and phrases by examining the context. Knowing that, check your writing for words that might be misconstrued.

For example, when an NPR reporter recently said, "There isn't much comity in those budget negotiations," even the experienced Daniel Schorr had to ask, "That's with an 'ity' and not an 'edy,' right?"

What do you think many readers would make of these sentences:

• Ted Bundy received the warden's approbation for his good work in the library.
• Mr. Bundy complained about his prostrate position.
• Bundy was the most officious referee of the game.
• Bundy had trouble finding his victim abroad.

Writers at times use incorrect words that sound correct in context. For example, "While reviewing the restaurant, I disgorged myself on the food in the buffet." Consider the difference between, "I need to ensure we're not damaged by poor market conditions" and "I need to insure we're not damaged by poor market conditions." A small switch from "e" to "i" and, suddenly, instead of implementing better financial management procedures, you're buying a bunch of insurance.

Fortunately for the bleary-eyed among Newsletter Nameplate readers, apostrophes don't (see, there's one -- oops, two -- of them now!) need nearly as much room to be commented upon as hyphens did in our November/December 1997 issue.

First, every literate person knows that apostrophes are used in place of omitted letters (for example, don't instead of do not, 'til instead of until, 'gator instead of alligator, fishin' instead of fishing, and won't instead of wo not -- just kidding on that last one). By the way, using contractions in a newsletter ain't gonna hurt nobody, so long as they sound right and you don't use too many of them.

Second, most literate people can make credible use of apostrophes to indicate possession. The mark goes before the s with nouns that don't end with an s themselves (for example, newsletter's nameplate, women's movement, New Year's Day and writer's block). When dealing with nouns ending in s, the mark stays put, but there's no need for another s (for example, walrus' tusk, readers' patience, Socrates' syllogism). Don't allow singulars and plurals to confuse you (note that the men's room is plural and adds an s, while the canvas' frame is singular and does not add an s). Just look for the s.

The possessive apostrophe has been under attack for many years. Writers had to make the possessive it's into its because the contraction it's (meaning it is) had a more effective lobbyist in Congress. Proper nouns such as Barclays Bank, Harrods and Pikes Peak sometimes do without an apostrophe. However, for the record, the department stores at your local mega-mall are Macy*s, Sears, JC Penney, Montgomery Ward and Nordstrom. They are not Macy's, Sear's, J.C. Penney's, Montgomery Ward's and Nordstrom's.

(Please note that those rascally devils in the Macy*s advertising department use an asterisk in place of an apostrophe -- as if they think they are better than the rest of us -- ha!)

Third, and finally, even English majors disagree about using apostrophes to pluralize words that would be awkward to pluralize by just adding s or es. It's mostly a matter of style. We suggest, for example, that you use an apostrophe with p's and q's; do's, but not don'ts; S.O.B.'s, but not SOBs; keeping up with the Jones's, Holmes's and Columbus's, but not with the Smiths; at 6's and 7's, but not during the 1980s or '90s, et cetera.

Extra finally, please remember that apostrophe usage, like many a grammar rule, changes over time and according to custom. As a result, what you think is right may depend on when you went to school and what country you're from (the English use far fewer apostrophes than we Americans do). In the end, the most important rule is to decide how you want to use apostrophes and then make sure you stick to your own preferences consistently in your own publication.

Fight lazy grammar! The trend of replacing the generic "he" or the awkward "he or she" with "they" is just wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

First, there are more sophisticated pronouns such as "one," "who" or "any" and generic labels such as "person," "reader" or "physician." Second, most sentences that start out with "he/she" problems can be rewritten to avoid the question altogether.

For example, the last sentence of the first paragraph of "Attribution: A Real 'Who Dun It?'" started out as, "Readers have no reason to believe a writer unless he is a credible authority (and includes his byline) or attributes his information to reliable sources."

Well, of course, while grammatically correct, such a sentence just wouldn't cut the cheese these days. Yet, the he/she alternative would have been horrendous: "Readers have no reason to believe a writer unless he or she is a credible authority (and includes his or her byline) or attributes his or her information to reliable sources."

That's how we ended up with the he/she-free sentence that actually appears (Yes, go read it, if you haven't already... we're not going to waste a lot of space by repeating it here!).

The pronoun used for companies and collective nouns is "it" not "they." The Internet seems to have made this error more prevalent (as in "I like Adobe; they have a nice Web site." used instead of the grammatically correct, "I like Adobe; it has a nice Web site.").

As with the he/she/they problem, the correct usage strikes many people these days as strange or unfriendly. Simplify the sentence to delete the pronoun (as in "Adobe has a nice Web site") or use a more sophisticated reference (as in "A company I like, Adobe, has a nice Web site.") whenever possible.

There are two kinds of hyphens -- the "link hyphen" used for compound words such as "co-opt," and the "break hyphen" used to split words to keep the ends of lines of text from looking too awkward.

Unfortunately, link hyphenation is generally underused (yes, you technical writers, the correct phrase is "high-performance device"), while break hyphenation (as anyone who uses a word processor can attest) is overused.

In his 1990 book, Hyphenation, Ronald McIntosh wrote, "A brutish word-break is a frontal attack on the sensibilities of the ordinary reader." So, when hyphenating, your goal is to irritate your readers as little as possible.

Rules Regarding Break Hyphens

There are seven rules that you should follow regardless of text alignment:

1. Don't worry about hyphenation on your first draft. Once your proofreading and review process has gotten to the point where things are pretty stable, have one proofreader go through every article in search of the hyphenation problems listed below.
2. Check the automatic hyphenations made by your software to ensure that they are grammatical (that is, that they fall between bona fide syllables). In American English, legal hyphens may appear only between phonetic syllables ("des- / po- / tism"), not according to word structure ("des- / pot- / ism") as in British English.
3. Never allow more than three lines in a row to end with a hyphen (even with compound words and phrases).
4. Never allow the last full paragraph line to end in a hyphen.
5. Avoid hyphenations that spell unintended words (for example, don't hyphenate "demonstrate" as "demon- / strate" or unintended as "un- / intended).
6. Do not allow compound words or phrases to hyphenate anywhere except on their natural hyphen (for example, avoid rendering "fifty-six" as "fif- / ty-six").
7. Check hyphens to ensure that you haven't added one that changes the meaning of the word ("re-form the band" is quite different from "reform the band").

Ragged Right Rules

In addition, when it comes to ragged right type, you have no good excuse for these break hyphens in these cases:

1. With fewer than three characters (just because you can break "a- / round" or "ec- / stat- / ic" it doesn't mean that you should).
2. In proper nouns or names.
3. With web sites (www.rud- / dle.com) -- use a space after one of the periods or slashes instead (www.ruddle. / com).
4. For any word that doesn't need to be hyphenated.

Rather than use excessive hyphenation to keep the right-hand margin from looking too jagged, you can often achieve the same result by forcing words earlier in the paragraph down to the next line.

For example, unadjusted text:

Ragged right type is flush to the
lefthand margin only. Justi-
fied type, on the other hand, is
flush to the left and right mar-
gins. Good justification algo-
rithms use a combination of hy-
phenation, letter spacing and
word spacing to be smooth.

Adjusted text:

Ragged right type is flush to
the lefthand margin only. Justi-
fied type, on the other hand,
is flush to the left and right
margins. Good justification
algorithms use a combination
of hyphenation, letter spacing
and word spacing to be smooth.

Justifiable Hyphenation

When using justified type, hyphenation rules should be relaxed a bit. For attractive type, spaces between words should be no larger than double that of a normal space. Letterspacing should not be stretched by more than 10 percent. As a result, you often must hyphenate words you would normally keep intact.

Again, the big rule of typesetting is to avoid irritating or distracting your readers. Rivers of excess space and stretched out words distract readers more than correct-but-ugly hyphenation.

Even when forced to hyphenate, look for eye-and-brain-pleasing breaks. For example, use "Calif- / ornia" instead of "Cal- / ifornia" because "Calif." is a common abbreviation for the state name. Use "Jan- / uary" and "Nov- / ember" for the same reason. Choose "Arch- / ibald" over "Archi- / bald" because the second choice sounds like you are saying that a famous cartoon character has no hair.

A Few Words About Link Hyphens

As any editor can attest, remembering which word combinations need hyphens can be one of the more frustrating proofreading tasks. For example, common words such as without, today, tomorrow, houseplant, businessman, and nationwide used to be link-hyphened (i.e., to-day, to-morrow, with-out, house-plant, business-man, and nation-wide).

Hyphen usage changes with the times. Ten years ago, nearly everyone wrote "health care" or "health-care." Now, "healthcare" seems to dominate. It took "reengineer" just a couple of years to replace "re-engineer" (despite the general preference against double vowels).

Dehyphenating happens with technical terms, too. Once, all computer journals used "50 MHz" or "50-MHz," but "50MHz" is gaining. Medical journals used "50 mL" or "50 mL." More and more, editors are using "50MHz" and "50mL."

Normally, hyphens drop away when words reach a certain level of commonness (don't even try asking where the dividing line lies). For example, the Associated Press still says to hyphenate "Mexican-American," but not "Latin American."

For many writers and editors, the compound modifier rule is beguiling. Anyone who has passed English 1A should remember that when two or more words are used together to express a concept or to modify a noun, they should be linked. For example,

• State-of-the-art technology
• Easy-to-use device
• Well-worn cliché
• First-quarter results
• Full-time job

The compound modifier rule applies even when the modified noun is just implied. For example, "I modified the set-up." The object noun of the previous sentence is implied. However, how many editors have seen their blue pencil flinch upon reading, "I will set up the stereo," because they have instinctually come to assume that "set-up" is always hyphenated, no matter what.
Normally, a hyphen can go away if the modifier comes after an active verb ("she works full time" or "that cliché sounded well worn"), but not after a form of to be ("the job is full-time" or "that cliché was well-worn").

Finally, the Associated Press also believes that hyphens are not necessary after very and words that end with ly because "readers can expect them to modify the word that follows." However, it would seem like pointless nit picking to criticize an editor for using "highly-educated" or "very-astute."

A recent reader comment (now, is that a recent reader or a recent comment?) about an earlier hyphen article prompted prying into a punctuation polemic. Is non-hyphenated hyphenated? If you are an anti-hyphen grammarian, would you leave out the hyphen?

Some hyphenation depends on style, when you went to school, and where you were born. Both the folks who publish Webster's and the Oxford English Dictionary agree that American English generally favors the no hyphen rule with prefixes like anti-, co-, dis-, non-, pre-, re- and un-. British English generally favors using the hyphen. But they do not agree on which is more correct. Oxford specifically states, "There are no hard-and-fast rules."

Like dictionaries, style manuals differ wildly. The Associated Press likes hyphens much more than the Chicago or Washington Post style manuals, for example. However, all of the sources eventually agree on five points. Use prefix hyphens:

1. To avoid awkward juxtapositions of letters (e.g., anti-intellectual,
   co-worker), depending on what you think is awkward
2. To distinguish your prefixed word from an already familiar word (e.g., re-cover, co-op)
3. With repeated prefixes (e.g., sub-subdirectory, re-repeat)
4. With capitalized words or numbers (e.g., pre-Columbian, post-1945)
5. When they are still part of common usage (e.g., pre-paid, post-mortem), which changes from day-to-day

Other than that, the only rule is to be consistent. If you believe in living a non-hyphenated lifestyle, then always spell it "nonhyphenated."

Many words change their meaning according to context. Most people would clearly and easily understand the meaning of, "The pitcher had to stand down from his wind up when the wind came up and made the stands pitch back and forth," even though it's not even trying to make sense.

However, when you see, "The meter currently reads 2.4 volts," don't you have to wonder whether "currently" means "now" or "electrical current"?

How about, "The falling boulder had a real impact on Mr. Pancake." Did a guy get smooshed or did he just make a note about a thunderous event?

What about the phrase, "Send that art to the printer." Should you take it to the print shop or print it on your ink jet?

Or perhaps, "My car is tired." Or with cliché confusion, "Mr. Suburban hit the roof when he discovered that his Christmas tree was too tall."

For best results, have a proofreader check your work to ensure that most words are used in the sense of the first, primary, most common, everyday definition.

It takes at least four wildly different people (or personalities) to do a good editing job. Even if you don't turn the world on with your smile, envisioning yourself in the WJM-TV newsroom might help.

When reading an article for the first time, imagine yourself as Lou Grant, thinking about the big picture. Does the idea behind this story make sense? Is this really what we want to say? Like Lou, don't be afraid to say, "This stinks!" and crumple it up in a little ball. At this point, don't correct small stuff like grammar. Just check the quality of the ideas.

Once you're satisfied that the article doesn't stink, put yourself (as painful as it sounds) in Ted Baxter's powder blue blazer for a second read. Check that even a dim bulb like Ted, reading the story out loud off cue cards, wouldn't stumble over awkward phrases, excessive punctuation and double meanings. You don't want the Teds of the world to think your story about the Polish economy is really about saving money on car washes. Repeat after Ted: "On a scale from 1 to 10, I'd give that a B+!"

Sue Ann Nivens notwithstanding, Mary Richards had the best sense for style and consistency in the newsroom. Say a couple of "Oh Mister Graaannntt"s to get yourself in the mood to read the article a third time to ensure that it fits with all of the other articles in how things are phrased and arranged. Really. Mary was the one who would notice if a.m. and p.m. were written AM and PM by mistake. She would also have noticed if Gordy was called a sportscaster in one paragraph and a sports writer in another. However, Mary would not have wasted her time checking to see if Ted was "moronic" or "moronical."

Once you have nailed those three parts, you are finally ready to put on Murray Slaughter's fedora to examine grammar and spelling. Even though Ted sometimes surprised him (by pronouncing Pope as "poppy" or some such thing), Murray always wrote clean copy.

By the way, Wendy Slaughter, a Ruddle Creative Inc. designer, is no relation to the fictional character played by Gavin McLeod.

This note comes directly from a fascinating conversation we had a few weeks ago with Sue Adams, one of our clients. We were lamenting that an event would be taking place at the same time her readers would first see the article about it in her newsletter. She said, "perhaps we should have written this article to avoid any reference to verb tense."

Wow. What an idea. How is that possible?

Consider this example:

"The festival, planned for September 9, will be sponsored by our company, and one of our executives will give the keynote address."

If production delays mean that your newsletter will be mailed on or after September 9, the normal solution to a soon-to-be-inaccurate-article crisis is to replace it (if you are lucky enough to have something ready) or rewrite it in the past tense:

"The festival, held September 9, was sponsored by our company, and one of our executives gave the keynote address."

Sue's suggestion would be to rewrite the sentence into the present tense:

"The September 9 festival, sponsored by our company, features a keynote address by one of our executives."

---

No, not "moronic quotes," like Vice President Dan Quayle's "We are ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur."; actress Brooke Shields' "Smoking kills. And, if you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life. "; President Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Things are more like they are now than they ever were before."; or General William Westmoreland's "Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind."

In past issues (e.g., in answer to a ¿qué?stion in May/June 1998), the difference between American and British usage of quotation marks in combination with other punctuation has been explained. However, Brits and Yanks have at least three other quote mark differences that underscore (another oft misunderstood grammar tool) the reasons why we celebrate our
two-century-plus separation every July 4th.

First, the British call them "inverted commas," which is completely misleading for obvious reasons.

Second, most Brits have used ‘single' quotes since the 1950s, while Americans mistake single quotes for specks of dirt, and so still prefer "double" quotes (which was also the original mark used when the practice started in the 1800s).

Third, the two doyens of English follow opposite rules regarding quotes within quotes. ‘British writers use "double marks" for the inside quote.' "American writers use ‘single quotes' instead." What would a Brit say about a quote within a quote within a quote? Probably the same thing an American would: "Don't write the sentence that way." (Although the Brit would use single inverted commas, of course).

Are such as and like the same thing? Can you say, like, you know, like to mean for example the same way you can with such as?

No.

Like means "similar to, but not including." As a result, this sentence could be true:
"Many newsletters like Newsletter Nameplate are lame." because the word like means that Newsletter Nameplate is not in the group of lame newsletters being referred to. The careless speaker of the above sentence has said that Nameplate is similar to some lame newsletters, but may or may not be lame itself.

However, the sentence "Many newsletters such as Newsletter Nameplate are lame" is most definitely not true because such as means that Nameplate is included in the group of lame newsletters. You are, like, most welcome.

Courses purporting to teach power or concise writing often suggest omitting as many relative pronouns such as that, which, who and whom as possible. A few zealous writers, keen on reductio-ing themselves into absurdium*, perform thatectomies by deleting every use of relative pronouns.

Obviously, some thats and whiches (especially on October 31) are necessary for readers to understand the meaning of a sentence. Consider a few examples of thatlessness:

"The computer froze made me lose my work."

"The proof read poorly because of a thatectomy was thrown out."

A less that-phobic proofreader would know the first sentence should read, "The computer that froze..." But the second sentence could have a that in two locations, "The proof that read poorly" or "a thatectomy that was," with opposite meanings.

*For logic and/or Latin lovers (¡arriba!), reductio ad absurdium means (as you might expect) "reducing to absurdity," and normally refers to attempting to smuggle rules, ideas or procedures beyond the borders of the Kingdom of Common Sense.

Writers who sat in the front row during English 1a may remember the formal, H.W.-Fowler-and-William-Strunk-approved, official distinction between that and which. For everyone else, here's the lowdown:

That and which are often used at the beginning of adjective clauses, which describe nouns. The choice comes in deciding whether the clause is restrictive (and so uses that) or nonrestrictive (and so uses which).

Use a restrictive clause when you must draw a distinction. "The typo that appeared in the headline caused an uproar." (That is, no one complained about the other typos.)

A nonrestrictive clause simply adds detail to the description. "The typo, which appeared in the headline, caused an uproar." does not exclude the other typos. "The typo caused an uproar." has the same meaning. As you can tell, this sentence would have to occur after you had specified the exact typo in question.

Comma Chameleon

Did you notice the comma before the which? Here is the point where many grammar practitioners (including Nameplate) differ from Fowler and Strunk.

For all practical purposes, it is the comma (or parenthesis) that makes all the difference, regardless of the particular pronoun (if any). If a clause is separated from the rest of the sentence by commas, it is nonrestrictive. No commas... it's restrictive. Use either that or which. The comma will tell the reader what you mean. In fact, many excellent writers purposely change up pronouns for the sake of variety. Consider this sentence:

"The typo that was in the headline caused an uproar because that word should be capitalized."

The first that is a relative pronoun, while the second that is an adjective. Rather than use that twice, the sentence could read, "The typo which was...." As long as there is no comma the clause is restrictive.

Furthermore, front-row dwellers may recall the rule against sharing thats among clauses. Well, pish posh. Clarity is the key. Both of these sentences mean the same thing, but one is easier to read:

"Grammar is a subject I write about, but don't always practice perfectly."

"Grammar is a subject that I write about, but that I don't always practice perfectly."

The second sentence is infected with parallel construction. While it may be more correct in a formal sense, the first one makes more sense.

A Person Ain't No Place or Thing

The words who and whom should take the place of that or which in an adjective clause when the subject of the sentence is a person, distinct people or a personified animal. Here are a few examples:

OK -- "Henry Ruddle, who writes about grammar, doesn't always practice it perfectly (duh!)."

NOT OK -- "The writing staff of Ruddle Creative, who writes about grammar, is not a distinct group, so the who should be a which."

OK - "Teddy, who is Henry's sister's cat, can write better articles."

NOT OK -- "Cats, who can't really write, don't get a who."

So now you know that when Dr. Seuss referred to "all the Who's in Who-ville," he meant you.

When devising newsletter names, our clients often worry about infringing on another publication's rights (it's a fear-of-lawsuits motivation, not altruism). If it were possible to trademark Weekly or Insider or Communicator or Communiqué or Highlights or Partners, a lot of newsletter editors would have trouble trouble trouble. However, while it is possible for "Hi-Lites" magazine to trademark a particular spelling, appearance and purpose, "highlights" as a word is safe.

Trademark law exists to keep competitors from ripping off your image or ideas by passing off their stuff as yours or by taking the credit for your masterworks. As a result, much depends on whether your use of a similar symbol, logo or phrase will create "public confusion." Obviously, you may not start up a daily newspaper called the New York Times. However, if you want to publish an events schedule called, "New York Times -- a schedule of plays, concerts and sporting events" you have a good chance of winning if the Grey Lady decides to sue.

The three big factors are: money, market and appearance (sorry alliteration fans!). If your newsletter is free, you have little to worry about. If your readers are not likely to subscribe to any commercial publications with exactly the same name, you have less to worry about. If your nameplate looks completely different, you have nothing to worry about.

No one in your "public," that is, your readers, will confuse your newsletter with the trademarked publication in question.

How do you know if there is a trademarked publication in your field? Check the ones you know about for a "TM" or "®" next to the nameplate. A copyright notice protects the articles, photographs and illustrations, but not the name or design of the publication itself. Chances are, if you have never heard of a direct competitor with the same name, you are OK.

If you are still worried, there are Bacon's Media Directories for magazines and newspapers, as well as the "Oxbridge Dictionary of Newsletters" -- all three available at most libraries. Bacon's is very comprehensive for larger publications. Since we can't even begin to know all of the tiny newsletters published all over the country, Oxbridge does about as good a job as anyone could expect, with about 15,000 subscription newsletters listed.

Nobody is completely original. As every term paper writer learned in school, the difference between "plagiarism" and "citing sources" is defined by a ruler whack from a nun on the knuckles. In the real world, you will borrow ideas. Remember that even though most non-commercial copyright infringement goes unchallenged, any infringement can be dangerous and costly.

Copyrights in the United States are governed by the Copyright Revision Act of 1976, which grants a copyright on a published work for a term of 50 years after the author's death. Works published before 1976 are covered by the old law, the Copyright Act of 1909, which granted a 28-year copyright, and one 28-year renewal. Since most 28-year copyrights were never renewed, many creative works published before 1970 are now in the public domain. Between the two laws, everything published in the last 28 years is protected. That is, if it fits the definition of what is copyrightable: "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression."

A lot of things can't be copyrighted. To ensure protection, you should apply for a copyright. You can also check with the Copyright Office to see if the copyright is active for something you want to plagiarize. Regardless, include a proper copyright notice on your work. Even though it doesn't guarantee protection, it will help if you have to sue.
Copyright notices must include either the copyright symbol© (preferred) or the words "copyright" or "copyr.," along with the first year of publication (if you revise the work later, add the revision date beside the original date) and the name of the copyright owner. For example, "©1998 Ruddle Creative Inc." A revision of this work a year later would use "©1998, 1999 Ruddle Creative Inc."

As the definition indicates, the work must be original and include authorship (that is, require at least some creativity). So, common objects; "utilitarian works," such as an unadorned dress or building; government works and plagiarism can't be copyrighted.
You also can't copyright ideas, systems, methods of operation or discoveries. Common sense is required. Obviously, a copyright does not extend to every tangible representation of the work. A novelist can't prevent a book buyer from showing off the book on the coffee table. The writer of a front-page newsletter article can't prevent the publisher from using photos of the cover of that issue to advertise for subscriptions.

Who Gets the Glory
Artists working alone clearly own the copyright to their work. Artists who "work for hire" usually do not.

Employees who produce creative work within the scope of their employment automatically cede the copyright to their employer. Independent contractors lose their rights only if the work is 1) specially commissioned, 2) there is a written "work-for-hire" agreement, and 3) the work is a contribution to a collective work (e.g., an article for a newsletter, illustrations to go with an article, a movie script).

For editors seeking permission to reproduce a copyrighted work, the question of ownership is quite important. It doesn't do any good to ask for permission from or pay a licensing fee to the original author if the copyright belongs to the author's employer. Likewise, just because a magazine says it's OK to reprint an article, you should still inquire as to whether the writer was working for hire.

Safe Borrowing, Fair Use
When you decide to make use of an article, photograph, cartoon, etc. for which someone else owns a copyright, you have only two practical options: request permission or make it qualify as "fair use."

If you plan outright verbatim theft, request permission. Some copyright holders will require a citation, but no fee. Others will also require a one-time license fee, usually varying according to the particulars of the publication that wants to reprint it. The editor of a typical newsletter could expect to pay $100 or so for an article or cartoon reprint. Either way, get the agreement in writing. Verbal copyright agreements carry no legal weight. Same goes if you own the copyright.

Fair use is defined in Section 107 of the copyright act. It lists various "fair" uses, such as criticism, comment, parody, summary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. The law specifies four tests to determine whether the use is "fair":

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
   A free newsletter with an educational purpose would probably qualify easily. Newsletter Nameplate would have a harder time since it is sold by subscription.
   
2. The nature of the copyrighted work;
   Copying part of an article about the benefits of contributing to a 401(k) plan is more likely to be considered "fair" than an article naming specific stocks to buy for the subscribers to a high-priced financial newsletter.
   
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole;
   Use common sense. There is no absolute number of words, lines or paragraphs that may be excerpted, but you can't take so much as to render the original work useless to its audience. Printing a photograph in which a copyrighted painting hangs on the wall behind your subject is probably fair, while a photograph of the same painting alone is not.
   
4. The effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
   As you might expect, money is the real bottom line. If your action does not affect the value of the copyrighted work, your use will probably be considered fair. If your readers are major potential buyers of the work you are copying from, watch out.

Although you should always cite the source of the copyrighted material you are using, that will not protect you if you did not obtain permission and your use was not fair.

Since we live in a consumer culture, it should come as no surprise that many common words -- such as band-aid, fudgsicle and kitty litter -- are not really words at all... they are trademarks (and, hence, should have been written Band-Aid, Fudgsicle and Kitty Litter -- shame, shame).

The January/February issue of the Columbia Journalism Review included a "trademark checklist" from the International Trademark Association (INTA), which brought this subject up. (Aha. That "up" is a good case for end-of-sentence-prepositionism. "Brought up this subject" would have sounded as if the INTA had raised the subject from a pup.)

Admit it. You thought a Dustbuster was a buster of dust, Krazy Glue was just some crazy glue, and a Hula-Hoop was just a hoop to which you hula'd. Heck no. The INTA calls that sort of thing "genericide."
Here are a few tips the association suggests to avoid aiding and abetting those dark forces in the world that seek to destroy trademarks by misusing them:

1. Spell and capitalize it correctly. For example, we mentioned JCPenney in the last issue, but spelled it "JC Penney" (that is, with an extra space). Tsk tsk. Even though it may hurt your editorial muscles, the INTA suggests capitalizing even all-but-generic terms such as Kleenex, Frisbee, Lycra, Mylar, Post-it, Xerox and X-Acto.
2. Use the generic term with it at least once per article. For example, write "Jeep all-terrain vehicle," "Jell-O gelatin," "Lucite paint" and "Wonderbra brassiere."
3. They are not nouns, so do not pluralize them, make them possessive or convert them into other nouns. Modify the generic term, not the tradename. So, "Ski-Doos" is bad; "Ski-Doo snowmobiles"
   is good. "Oreo's creamy insides" is bad (not to mention bad for you); "Oreo cookie's creamy insides" is good (aren't they though?). "Rollerblader" is bad; "Rollerblade skater" is good.
4. They are not verbs, either. Do not "Cheez Doodle your co-worker's hair"; instead, "rub
   Cheez Doodles in your co-worker's hair" (if you dare).
5. Don't worry about tradenames. Tradenames are nouns. Buick is a tradename. Le Sabre is
   a trademark. America Online the company is a tradename. America Online the Internet service is a trademark. "There are no Jiffy Lubes in my town" is OK, but "I've been giving my car Jiffy Lubes" is bad.

For more detailed information and to peruse the association's checklist of commonly misused trademarks, visit INTA's Web site at www.inta.org. (Or, go straight to the checklist.)

In this hot and heady era of the Information Superhighway, many writers and editors have forgotten about the Information Super Geniuses staffing the reference desk at their local library.

To answer the question in the headline, we called the reference desk at the San Jose Main Library (408-277-4815 for local Nameplate readers) to ask for the name of a good rhyming dictionary and discuss the whole Albania issue.

After 2:38 minutes, the helpful Information Professional on the other end of the line had compiled a list of several good dictionaries according to usage -- for song writing, for poetry, and so on.

We decided that Whitfield's was the best bet. After another 1:13 minutes, she had reeled off a list of exact rhymes. Total time commitment: 3:51 minutes.

Next, we dialed up our Internet Service Provider (ISP). Da de da de dum. After clicking "no thanks" on two on-line solicitations, we linked to Excite, a search engine. Under "query," we typed, "rhyme dictionary." Do de do de do. Among the first 10 of the 215,305 total matches to our query, only two seemed promising.

The "Merriam-Webster On-Line Rhyming Dictionary" link was an advertisement suggesting we buy the hard copy version. No help.

Yet, "Research-It!" (www.itools.com/research-it/research-it.html) turned out to be just what we were looking for. That page offered several on-line dictionaries, including a link to www.link.cs.cmu. edu/dougb/rhyme-doc.html. The Semantic Rhyming Dictionary at that location gave us virtually the same list we had received from the patient public servant at the library:

• 3 syllables: mania, zenia
• 4 syllables: compania, Germania, Romania, Rumania, Sylvania, Tanzania, Tasmania
• 5 syllables: dromomania, Lithuania, Lusitania, Mauritania, Pomerania, Ruritania, Transylvania
• 6 syllables: megalomania

Now we can write a song!

If we include the 1:37 minutes we spent waiting to see if Excite would link us to Amazon.com to see what sorts of rhyming dictionaries are on sale (we were hoping to answer the "What's a good one to buy?" question, but had to give up waiting), our total time commitment was 12:49 minutes to get our answer.

Internet schminternet.

As it appears that inflation (or our economy's stubborn lack of it) continues to squeak into the news between scandals, and because of Newsletter Nameplate's irrational exuberance for articles about numbers, numbers, numbers, this seems like a good time to ask that nagging question of millions of perplexed grandchildren the world over, "Did bread really just cost 10¢ a loaf when my grandmother was my age, or is she just makin' stuff up?"

FYI: Inflation 1913-1998
Using seasonally adjusted and nationally averaged figures for the Consumer Price Index, we can estimate the approximate cost of a loaf of bread since 1913 (depending on what kind you like and where you shop and what was going on in agriculture that year and yadda yadda yadda):

So, the good news is, your grandmother was telling the truth (assuming she was your age in the '20s or '30s). However, she does have a tendency to exaggerate the fact's significance (but she's your grandmother, so what the heck!).

For you own amusement, try multiplying the numbers in the chart by 20,000. You will see that someone earning $26,200/year in 1998 ($1.31 x 20,000), would have been earning just $2,000/year in 1933 (10¢ x $20,000).

The bad news is, grandma has already infected you with paranoia about the many ways your whole generation is being ripped off by supermarkets and bakeries.

For students of history and numbers, check out the fact that bread cost 10¢ a loaf in 1917, too. In the return to stability after World War I, consumer prices shot up 20 percent a year for the three years before settling down during the low inflation "bull market" of the 1920s (hmmm.... just like today). Then, geez... whop bang boom, some minor unpleasantness called the Great Depression knocked loaves back down to 10¢ apiece.

SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov)

Most members of your newsletter audience will have a well-developed skepticism about things they read. The general news media learned long ago that the only way to convince readers of the credibility of your printed words is to attribute them to someone or something that is (or sounds) reliable. Readers have no reason to believe the writer unless the article carries the byline of a person with a reputation (or a job title) that smells credible.

If you want your readers to believe the assertions in an article, it either needs attributed quotes (preferred) whenever any non-obvious statement appears or a credible byline. Consider these three possible ways of reporting a non-obvious fact:

Sales Boom in 3Q
Sales of widgets were up 30 percent in the third quarter. The increase was due to the fact that our widgets are the best in the world.

Sales Boom in 3Q
Sales of widgets were up 30 percent in the third quarter. "Our widgets are the best in the world," said Dr. Augustus Knowzmuch, CEO. "The market recognized their superiority and rewarded us for it."

Why Did Our Sales Boom in 3Q?
by Augustus Knowzmuch, CEO
Sales of widgets were up 30 percent in the third quarter. The increase was due to the fact that our widgets are the best in the world. The market recognized their superiority and rewarded us for it.

While the second and third examples are clearly more believable than the first one, wouldn't you have been even more convinced by one of these two possible examples:

Sales Boom in 3Q
Sales of widgets were up 30 percent in the third quarter. "Knowzmuch Inc. makes the best widgets in the world," said Faith Fulcustomer, president of Buys Much Inc. "We recognized their superiority right away."

Sales Boom in 3Q
Sales of widgets were up 30 percent in the third quarter. "We discovered a new process for manufacturing our widgets that makes them lighter, faster, more reliable and less expensive," said Dr. Ima Genius, director of the Knowzmuch Inc. testing labs. "We want them to remain the superior product on the market."

(Of course, you might point out that we almost never attribute any of the bald assertions we make in Newsletter Nameplate, but that's because we know everything -- especially when we're abusing the use of the royal "we.")

To help readers keep your articles in mind, consider using a rhyme of any kind.

• Short: "Lee to Be VP";
• Sweet: "John Smart -- Manager With a Heart";
• Elaborate: "The sales team was quite impressed. They're sure it will prove a market conquest.";
• Neat: "Not Them, IBM."
  

Remember: conciseness through context.

Many unnecessary, convoluted sentences are written to make up for a lack of logical flow in newsletter articles. Outlining the facts of a story in the most logical order prior to writing can help avoid wordy transitions.

Some writers feel satisfied with, "The traffic signal changed to the red light position to indicate ‘stop.' As is usually the case, after a short interval, the red light turned off and was replaced by a green light. As a result, the light no longer indicated ‘stop.' It now indicated ‘go.'"

A logical writer would have rendered that, "After a few seconds, the red light turned green to indicate that the drivers could proceed." A more artistic logical writer's interpretation might have been, "Red light. Stop. Wait... Green light. Go."

Both of the logical writers took the knowledge of the reader into account. The logical writer juxtaposed the red and green lights to eliminate the need for two verb phrases. The second writer allowed the readers to infer the verb phrases.

Below, a logical 83 words replace a muddled 201!

1. Smooze Sales Inc.
2. New vice president of marketing
3. Sales off 50% last quarter
4. Ready to introduce new service
5. Elmo I. Wongo is new vice president
6. BA Stanford; MBA Bahama Tech
7. Most recently vice president at We R Smoozers Inc.
8. Plans to advertise new service on TV
9. CEO Buddy Putterthere said, "I think Elmo is a great salesman and will really help us functionalize our mission critical prioritizations."
10. Relocating from Paradise, NM with wife and kids.

Smooze Sales Inc. is proud to announce its plans to hire a new vice president of marketing. The combination of sluggish sales and the company's plan to introduce a new service make the move necessary.

The new vice president of marketing, Elmo I. Wongo, earned his bachelor's degree from Stanford. He later attended Bahama Tech, receiving his MBA degree there.

After graduating from Bahama Tech, Wongo went on to a post at We R Smoozers Inc. He eventually worked his way up to the position of vice president. Wongo was working in his capacity as vice president at We R Smoozers when he was hired by Smooze Sales.

Wongo's first decision as vice president will be to advertise the new service the company plans to introduce. For the first time in company history, the service will be advertised on television.
The decision to go with television advertising prompted Smooze Sales CEO Buddy Putterthere to say, "I think Elmo is a great salesman and will really help us functionalize our mission critical prioritizations."

Receiving immediate praise from his employer makes it that much easier for Wongo to relocate his wife and kids to this area. They had been living in Paradise, NM.

Rearrange the list of facts into this order...

1. Smooze Sales Inc.

2. New vice president of marketing

5. Elmo I. Wongo is new vice president

4. Ready to introduce new service

8. Plans to advertise new service on TV

9. CEO Buddy Putterthere said, "I think Elmo is a great salesman and will really help us functionalize our mission critical prioritizations."

7. Most recently vice president at We R Smoozers Inc.

3. Sales off 50% last quarter

6. BA Stanford; MBA Bahama Tech

10. Relocating from Paradise, NM with wife and kids.

... and write a more concise story:

Smooze Sales Inc. has named Elmo I. Wongo as vice president of marketing to prepare for the launch of a new service. Wongo immediately began planning a television advertising campaign.

This aggressive thinking and focus impressed CEO Buddy Putterthere, who said, "I think Elmo is a great salesman" and that Wongo's reputation as vice president at We R Smoozers Inc. made him the right person to reverse last quarter's sales slump.

A Stanford graduate, Wongo and his family will relocate from Paradise, NM.