SmithWriting Blog

freelance (n.):

1. A person who sells services to employers without a long-term commitment to any of them.
2. An uncommitted independent, as in politics or social life.
3. A medieval mercenary.

Huh?

A freelance is a medieval mercenary? As in, a soldier who fights in a foreign army, motivated solely by a desire for money? So THAT explains the email I got last week from the Hessians …

When it comes to freelance writing, I do not consider myself a “medieval mercenary.” Sure, I am a soldier in the army of good copy, fighting the evils of the dangling participle and run-on sentence. Protecting the world from unnecessary capitals and misplaced semicolons.

But I’m not motivated solely by a desire for money. Of course, money is important, and SmithWriting aims to make a lot of it. However, I would never take a job that I am ethically opposed to (sorry, National Crack Dealers Association), no matter how high the pay. Nor would I take any money that I did not earn fairly and honestly.

What motivates me is the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with writing clear and informative copy for clients I respect. Whether I’m working on an ad, a marketing brochure, or a Web site, I’m inspired to write it well to satisfy my clients and keep them coming back for more.

What about you freelances out there? What motivates you? What army do you fight for?

Filed by rebecca at 12:50 pm under The freelancing life
9 Comments

Last week, my sister’s boyfriend sent me an article from the New York Times Magazine about the capitalization of the word “I” in English.

Being the grammar goddess (geek?) that I am, I really enjoyed the article and ultimately found myself asking, why DO we capitalize “I”?

Who’s the first person who said, “I find myself so important that I’ve decided to capitalize every single written reference to myself. God does it, why can’t I?”?

According to AP style (which, of course, the Times follows): “In general, avoid unnecessary capitals.”

Hmm … is capitalizing the word “I” really necessary? Would people be totally baffled by a lowercase “i”? Would the word lose its meaning? This writer says no.

Apparently, a small company called Apple agrees with me. They market devices known as the iPod and iPhone. Perhaps you’ve heard of them? Well, from what I understand, Apple has sold a few of these gadgets—despite the fact that their names begin with a lowercase “i”. I guess some people don’t think that capitalizing the word “I” is necessary after all.

note: When I tried to lowercase the word “I” for effect in this post, Microsoft Word automatically capitalized it (and the program did not recognize either “iPod” or “iPhone”). Quite a clear distinction between Mr. Jobs and Mr. Gates on the “I” issue, don’t you think?

Filed by rebecca at 9:05 am under For the love of words
10 Comments

This past weekend, there was an article in The Boston Globe about the suffering semicolon. Apparently, semicolon usage has dropped dramatically over the past few hundred years. To make matters worse, there are people out there saying some mean and hurtful things about these defenseless punctuation marks, calling them “girly,” “hermaphroditic,” and (gasp!) “utterly useless.”

Before this gets entirely out of hand, let’s take a moment to learn about the proper usage of the semicolon:

Use semicolons to link independent clauses sharing the same general ideas.

A semicolon indicates a longer pause than a comma and a shorter pause than a period:

It was dark and quiet out yesterday; I was very productive.
Our hike was long and arduous; moreover, it was 90 degrees out.

Use semicolons between elements when items in a series contain material that is set off by commas.

In this case, the semicolon acts as a “supercomma”:

This summer, I visited many cities: Hudson, Wis.; Shelton, Conn.; Newport, R.I.; Boston, Mass.; and York, Maine.

What’s so girly and useless about that?

Filed by rebecca at 12:14 pm under Grammar guide
10 Comments

So there I was, making great progress with a large Web site I’m writing for a client, when all of a sudden …

CAW CAW CAW. CAW CAW CAW. CAW CAW CAW.

Well, there goes my train of thought.

Thanks to a murder of crows (yup, a group of crows is called a murder) apparently engaging in battle outside my office windows, now I’m completely distracted from my writing task.

Those of us who work from home realize that as a trade-off for the wonderful flexibility (and occasional PJ wearing) we enjoy, we face our fair share of disturbances. Here are some of the many distractions I’ve encountered while working at home:

telemarketers
Seriously, does the Do Not Call Registry mean nothing?

lawnmowers, weed wackers, hedge trimmers, chainsaws, etc.
My neighbors really love their yards.

crows and blue jays
These birds are pervasive, aggressive, and LOUD.

thunderstorms and my dog
Like many dogs, Riley gets really scared during thunderstorms. She usually paces and pants uncontrollably around—and under—my desk. (And occasionally we find her in the bathtub. Poor thing.)

police training exercises
This is random: One day I looked out into my quiet suburban yard and saw two policemen dressed in head-to-toe black with a police dog running around a large bush on our property. At first I thought there was an escaped convict hiding in the shrub, but the kind officers assured me that they were merely conducting a drill. At noon. In my yard. With very large guns.

It’s a wonder I get anything done at all.

What about you? What distracts you from working at home?

Filed by rebecca at 11:54 am under The freelancing life
16 Comments