Copywriting – who knew?

Posted on June 3, 2012 by Ed Battistella
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This week in the History of Publishing class, we had a special guest speaker. Samantha Niemeyer is an SOU alumn from 2011 and is currently working as a copywriter for Fire Mountain Gems.I had never heard much about what copywriting entailed. Samanthat gave a definition.

Copyright: writing with the purpose to sell.

I was surprised when I heard this definition (the one I gave is shortened), and immediately began to consider the different ways that writing and marketing can converge under such parameters.

According to Samantha, the most enjoyable form of copywriting is called Editorial Copy. This kind of copywriting includes: articles, tutorials, blogs, types of writing that teaches potential customers how to do somehting, and usually shows a customer how to use the product and convince them it is worth buying.

Samantha also shared some details about the logistics of her work. Apparently, Samantha and several other writers receive writing assignments (prompts) from their boss, who provides some detail and factual information. From there, the writers are expected to craft an article that will be published under their boss’s name.

At this point in her presentation, I asked Samantha what the differences are between copywriting and ghostwriting. In my mind, they seemed like the same basic thing. Samantha said that the real discerning feature between the two types of writing is their expectations. For example, people expect marketing and copywriting to be deceitful to some degree. Otherwise, how could anyone sell anything? So, people have to assume a degree of dishonesty is somewhere in the recipe when they are chewing on copywritten things. Ghostwriting on the other hand does not have the expectation of dishonesty. People understand that ghostwritten things are not meant to sell something necessarily, but are mostly informative and written by a hired helper.

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Listening is not the Same as Reading

Posted on June 2, 2012 by Ed Battistella
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Audio books are popular as ever, and they make for great entertainment, but as far as I am concerned, it’s not reading. It drives me crazy when someone says they have read a particular book, when in reality, all they’ve done is listened to it. I mean, society as a whole doesn’t consider watching a movie based on a book as reading, so why should listening be much different?

My main argument is simply this: reading and listening are different skills. In all my teaching classes I’ve been told when making a lesson plan to be sure to address the four different skills; reading, writing, listening and speaking. I’ve found too that this also applies when learning a second language. And while there is certainly some crossover between the aforementioned skills, each one is its own animal. Take learning a foreign language for example. Just because you can look at a word and recognize its meaning (aka read), does not mean that you will understand the word if you only hear it and vice versa.

When it comes to audio books, many argue that it should be considered reading because you still have to apply critical thinking to what you are hearing, as well as understand the spoken words and make meaning from them. However, there are many holes in this logic. For one, by this philosophy, a simple conversation could then be considered “reading”. However, no one would ever even think of conversations as reading.

The dictionary definition of reading is “to look at carefully so as to understand the meaning of something written or printed” (Dictionary.com). By this definition, to read something is to look at the written component of a language and create meaning from the symbols. When you listen to an audio book, there is nothing to look at and infer meaning from…unless you want to count looking at the case cover.

Don’t get me wrong, audio books are great. Just don’t tell me it’s reading.

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Non-words for May

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Ed Battistella
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Here are the non-words for May and today we begin month six! And thanks to Leroy Fulwiler, Kim D C Harper and Wilkins-O’Riley Zinn for their non-word contributions.

As you know—or maybe don’t—I try to curate the non-words by looking up the possible non-words to see if they are already in use as words. One of the surprising benefits of this has been to learn about some words that I didn’t know existed. Among them are tain, swelt, adject, smatter, inutile, acquittance, cessant, and wakelessness (this last one used by Emily Dickinson).

tridecadedication is a long non-word made up to recognize Steve Larvick and doug Kirby on their 30 years (each) of service at Southern Oregon University. I made an effort this month to add some very short non-words and to include an auxiliary verb. And I used thecal even though it exists as a botantical term; the allusion was too good to resist.

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    fetonyms, n. words or meanings joined by folk etymology, such as May Day and mayday (from the French word for “help”). 1 May

    shoedoo, n. the sticky film that gets on your shoes when you recycle cans or bottles ( w/ apologies to Andy Williams). 2 May

    unpalate, v. to cause something to be distasteful, unsavory or unpleasant (backformation from unpalatable). 3 May

    sesquipediment, n. a very long word that you have to stop and look up. 4 May

    fiesta résistance, n. the ultimate Cinco de Mayo celebration [from pièce de résistance, w/ thanks to Leroy Fulwiler]. 5 May

    ish adj. A separated affix meaning about; also, ishness, indicating a state of uncertainty (from Kim D. C. Harper). 6 May

    sult, v. to offer one’s unsolicited, uninformed opinion (a clipping of insult plus consult). 7 May

    humong, v. to make something much much bigger, to supersupersize (clipping of humongous). 8 May

    malastute, adj. lacking shrewdness or perspicaclty about one’s own concerns. 9 May

    intimatum, n. a final statement of demands or conditions made by a partner, spouse or other very close friend. 10 May

    enfact, v. to assert something untrue, illogical or dubious amidst a cloud of real facts. 11 May

    incurate, v. to allow a project to take a life of its own and proceed without acitve tending (from in + curate). 12 May

    matrimatrix, n. the biological substance out of which something is formed and by extension a nurturesome environment. 13 May

    verkle, v. to expel something from one’s throat, such as a hairball or piece of stuck food (from verklempt). 14 May

    nat, v. to begin to natter but catch yourself after the first natterance. 15 May

    fauxobey, v. to pretend to obey a rule or law you disagree with while actually ignoring or subverting it. 16 May

    myriaddled, adj. having a thousand things to do and not knowing where to begin. 17 May

    bafflefog, n. dense cloud of doublespeak, bureaucratese or other incomprehensible language (from Wilkins-O’Riley Zinn). 18 May

    whomligan, n. one who misuses the word “whom” where “who” is required grammatically. 19 May

    explosition, n. a bursting forth of words, without regard for the conventions of rhetoric or composition. 20 May

    deconcile, v. to mutually chill a once amicable relationship. 21 May

    wusta, auxiliary verb [woostuh] should have and would have if I had thought of it (“I wusta offered you a ride”). 22 May

    philantrophy n. the recognition one receives for a large donation to a building project. 23 May

    thecal, adj. of or relating to a master’s thesis. 24 May

    roly, adj. obsessive, proselytizing religiousity (shortening of “rolling holy”). 25 May

    happenstand, v. to be minding one’s own business when something happens in the immediate vicinity. 26 May

    envoguerate, v. to revive a flagging brand; also re-envougerate, meaning to rerebrand. 27 May

    commemory, n. a shared recalling of national or group significance, especially embodying sacrifice. 28 May

    lococo, adj referring to any contemporary low-brow art which mimics the look of the late Baroque period. 29 May

    tridecadedication, n, enduring comitment and dedication to a thirty-year endeavor or enterprise. 30 May

    smot, n. a pattern of mottling or a series of irregular spots on fabric or on one’s skin. May 31

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An Interview with Bill Gholson

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Ed Battistella
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Bill Gholson is a professor in the English and Writing Program at Southern Oregon University, which he joined in 1994.  Dr. Gholson studied English as an undergraduate student at Eureka College. He received an MA in English and a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Oregon.  Dr. Gholson has edited and published many of his own works through different presses and online journals, including book chapters, personal essays, and poems, and these range in subject from famous 20th century authors to rhetorical pedagogy.  He also gives some “heads-up!” tips on working with small publishing companies, and the meticulous and lengthy process publishing actually takes.

KM: What kinds of things have you gotten published, and if you can, be as specific as possible on details (where/who published them for you, when it got published, how long the process took, etc.)?

BG: I’ve published two book chapters on Kurt Vonnegut.  These were part of a collaboration of Vonnegut scholars who each took a part of Vonnegut’s work to write about.  I was invited to write these chapters based on my dissertation work.

I met other scholars at conferences or in other work and was invited to write.  These were published through Suny Press in New York.  They publish academic titles for the most part, although they also want the work directed a little toward non specialists.  These chapters took between a year and a year and half to go through the process.  This is not including original writing time.  The work had to be submitted and go through a peer review process which means it was read by three anonymous readers.  I then made corrections and additions based on their suggestions.  The main editor of the book also had some suggestions.  That part of the process took awhile.

I published an edited book through the University of Oregon Press.  It was called Componere and was a publication of the graduate school at U of O.  It was my first official publication.  It was a historical book about the history of composition and rhetoric instruction at the U of O in celebration of one of the founders of the program.  It took about a year of research and about three months to go through the editing and formatting process.  I was chosen to write the history while a graduate student.

KM: What do you look for in choosing a publisher?

BG: I have published a number of short works–personal essays and poems in online journals and some small presses.  These have all been submitted according to the thematic topic of the journals and whatever I had written.  I have published about five short essays and maybe 10 poems.  The time on these varies.  Sometimes it might be over a year after I have submitted something.  I think one has to have patience with small presses.

I’ve also published a few essays on pedagogy, focused on rhetorical pedagogy.  These have all gone through the peer editing and review process and have taken between a year to two years for publication.

I think it is a good idea to look for as many possible places as possible to publish.  Online publication makes it possible to have new and broader audiences.

KM: What bit of writing has given you the most satisfaction?

BG: I think what gives me the greatest satisfaction is the feeling of work that comes from putting pen to paper, the physical act of attempting to bring something out of nothing.  I like the routine and I like the feeling that I have really thought about something if I have made a genuine attempt at it.

KM: What advice would you give to students today who want to become professional writers?

BG: I would advise writers to live the life of a writer.  By that, I mean that if students want to be professional writers, they need to understand that it is tough work.  If one wants to write a work of fiction or poetry it requires discipline, the ability to put other things aside while writing.  Endurance.  Fortitude.  I would say go for it.  Give yourself an amount of time to accomplish what you want and then stick to it.  Writing is one of those things that requires lots of dedication and the willingness to live in solitude a great deal of your life.

KM: If you could write about anything at all, what would be it?

BG: What a question.  Of course, I would want to write the great American novel.  My real answer is that I would either like to give up or finish a book I have working on about teaching.  It is tentatively titled Vertigo I can never seem to get it to a place that is satisfactory to me.

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