George Jacob is a strategic marketing professional based in Greater Philadelphia.
All tagged writing
As a writer and editor, I've seen many confused acts of punctuation. Without question, the comma holds the title for the most commonly misused mark.
I can trace my path to working with words back to a box of crayons. The 64-count Crayola box with a sharpener in the back.
It starts with a conversation. Analysis. The client is the patient, the copywriter the psychiatrist, listening, nodding, watching, taking secret notes and judging judging judging.
Some storytelling skills may come naturally, or they may develop from upbringing—years of summer camp stories, family barbecues, or long car rides. I also think they can be acquired through conscious awareness, practice, and exposure.
First, let me admit that in my seedy, collegiate youth, I was once an overuser of semicolons. I, like many writers at that level, saw the semicolon as a softer end stop, a two-thirds period. I thought that longer sentences were academic and proof of my writing prowess.
I've said (out loud and unironically), that I'm "tidal." I ride an emotional wave that peaks in optimism and production, and valleys in pessimism and general crankiness.
