This is why education is so important.

I can only hope this is a satire, because if not, the person who marked it up was far too generous. It got me thinking. Not only is proper grammar important in formal writing, but it is also important in social media and text messages when possible. We have to get in the habit of communicating clearly. And after all, isn’t that the design of English grammar?

This is my favorite illustration of this point. The comma placement tells us which the dependent sex is.

1. Woman, without her man, is nothing.
2. Woman, without her, man is nothing.

I feel I am a pretty good writer, but it’s because I’m a hard worker. People are not born with it. It’s a learned skill. I am constantly checking myself. Here are a few of my secret tips and favorite resources.

• I defer to Associated Press (AP) style in all of my writing because it is a standard for my industry, public relations. I think it’s important to consult the style book for whatever is accepted for your industry, whether it is APA, MLA, ect.
• I use Google to search for answers frequently, especially if I’m not sure if something is hyphenated.
• I eliminate wordiness and repetition when I can.
• I read grammar books like The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, The Art of Styling Sentences, and The Associated Press Guide to Punctuation in my spare time. It’s never easy to remember all of the rules, but you’ll find the more you dive into it, the more you’ll remember.
• Never take anything for granted. Even if you think you remember a rule, if you’re at all unsure you should check.
• Read, reread and then reread it again. This is the biggest mistake people make. They write something and don’t read it to themselves before passing it along to someone else. You have to look at your work with a fresh set of eyes. Pretend like you’ve never seen it before. If you aren’t on a deadline, it’s recommended that you revisit your paper the next day. One of my professors in college said you should proofread a paper 10 times. He also suggested reading it line by line from bottom to top.
• Find your personal grammar guru. Everyone needs someone to turn to as final authority or a last resort. I’m fortunate to work with many people I can turn to for this. But if it’s not easy to find someone in your work circle, reach out to a friend.

I take pride in what I do. I love to try my best for my clients, my employer, but most importantly for myself. Shouldn’t we all?

For now, I’ve been combing through my online identity to try to convert things. I hope this will make the task less daunting in the future when Mahony (that’s right folks my new name is Rebecca Mahony without an e) is officially my name.

I’ve been changing my name on my personal and professional email signatures. Just when I thought I had it taken care of, I realized I didn’t change my signatures for my emails sent through my Android.

So far I’ve changed my name on my personal Facebook page, Twitter, LinkedIn. I’ve not gotten around to updated my RM New Media Facebook page. Oh no! And now I have to update my hyperlinks to my LinkedIn and Twitter pages on my Facebook page. Don’t even get me started with my website. I have to now go and change all the hyperlinks to my social media accounts because I’ve changed my permalinks as well. Not to mention I have to talk about my recent name change on my about me page, which I have yet to do.

I have to change my Twitter handle on every singe widet I use. I will have to fix the code for the Twitter feed widget on my website. I promise I will have broken links for a while. After all, I do have a day job.

There’s so much to think about outside of the normal legal steps to change your name. It’s insane! Please don’t think I’m complaining. Rather I’m marveling at the complexity of a process that was probably already complex 30 years ago.

I’d love to hear from any survivors, especially if you could provide advice.

The Takeaway

Life’s complicated. Changing your name adds to the confusion.

firm

–noun
1.  a partnership or association for carrying on a business.
2.  the name or title under which associated parties transact business: the firm of Smith & Jones.

a·gen·cy

–noun, plural -cies.
1.  an organization, company, or bureau that provides some service for another: a welfare agency.
2.  a company having a franchise to represent another.
3.  a governmental bureau, or an office that represents it.
4.  the place of business of an agent.
5.  Indian agency.
6.  an administrative division of a government.
7.  the duty or function of an agent.
8.  the relationship between a principal and his or her agent.
9.  the state of being in action or of exerting power; operation: the agency of Providence.
10.  a means of exerting power or influence; instrumentality: nominated by the agency of friends.

However, we don’t get a good sense of the difference in firm and agency from these definitions. This semester Dr. Jay Rayburn, an associate professor for Florida State University’s School of Communication, asked my public relations management class to figure out the difference. For me, it has spurred a semester long quest for the right answer, but until two days ago I didn’t have a clue what that was.

Finally, I asked him to give us the answer. This is what he said: a firm represents their clients and an agency spends their client’s money. A public relations firm, much like a law firm, represents their clients. While a PR firm also spends its client’s money, a bulk of its work is not to purchase advertising space. PR firms are advocates for clients, coming up with strategic solutions and innovations. Many of the strategies PR firms implement are aimed at earned media opportunities. Ad agencies also come up with strategic solutions to image construction and branding, but they buy media space.

According to this model of thinking, do you work for a firm or an agency?