sherrymims.com » Bonnie

#NaNoWriMo

Sherry — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:46:36 +0000

National Novel Writing Month officially started yesterday, and with the help of my bestie, Jess, we typed out more than 3,000 words combined.

Because we know we will fill our time up with other stuff, which in my case means Florida Press Club all day every day, we team up together.

On the nights I don’t have to work, we pick a time to start, type for an hour and then compete to see who wrote the most words. (I won last night!)

Though I almost never watch emailed videos, I did end up watching the video, thanks to Bonnie, on what the NaNoWriMo staff do. Check it out!

Art of trolling — grammar

Sherry — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:27:33 +0000

see more The Art of Trolling

(H/T Bonnie)

Grammar’s Dirty Little Secret

Sherry — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:08:19 +0000

Bonnie, my longtime friend and honorary Florida Press Club member — you might remember her as my arm candy at the 2010 banquet — sends along this Wall Street Journal blog post, which pretty much tells grammar freaks to chill out. (You trying to tell me something, Bonnie?)

Listen, we’re going to let you guys in on a little secret: You can really put your commas anywhere. Grammar’s all a big sham.

Now, being a copy editor, I can’t completely agree with the premise. You should use proper grammar. People will judge you if your writing is full of errors and doubt your expertise.

While thinking less of someone for using a serial comma, for example, is completely silly, I have to know the correct rules. It’s my job. However, I’m not going to freak out if I read something with a comma before “and” unless someone’s asked me to edit it. Even then, I won’t freak out. I’ll just remove the comma.

Still, rules change. As I mentioned in the previous post’s comments, cellphone and smartphone are written as one word again per AP Style. The stylebook may change a word or go back to an original use. You have to pay attention.

Until the Wall Street Journal’s prediction comes right —

English will eventually evolve into a language without vowels, as they will be entirely replaced by the letter h: Sthrt prhcthchng yhhr vhwhl rhmhvhl skhlls nhw hnd hmprhss yhhr frhhnds.

I will do the best I can to bring grammar back into vogue.

And if all our vowels disappear? I will be one step closer to reading Hebrew.

More quick tidbits

Sherry — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:05:46 +0000

More quick bites:

Our intern put the winners online: http://www.floridapressclub.org/Contest/win2010-1.html.

Jennifer wrote a very sad resignation letter for our front page.

I camped in Melbourne Beach over the weekend with my lovely college friends and met some new friends through them during our annual celebration of my friend Bonnie’s birthday (You might have seen her sitting by me at the banquet). The weather was cold and wet, but company like that keeps the fire going. Literally. We all took turns collecting firewood!

I am planning on attending the Managment World Americas conference, the industry’s leading communications management conference, through the Florida Press Club this week. I’m really looking forward to it. More on that later.

I’ve been taking notes on who e-mailed me when about Florida Press Club plaques, so you will get your award depending on when you contacted me. I found that would probably be the fairest way to distribute the awards. I’ve still got five giant boxes of plaques sitting in my living room, so please be patient.

FPC banquet concludes, and NaNoWriMo begins

Sherry — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 19:51:06 +0000

Yours truly had a very fun (but exhausting) weekend with the Florida Press Club, so brevity is essential at this point. I went straight to work after my drive from St. Pete Beach, and today I had to pay our plaque guy and organize receipts before going to work again.

In no particular order:

Thank you to Jennifer Cason, Ruth Oneufer, Megan Stokes, Paul Stokes, Amir Fleminger and Bonnie L. Baker for their hard work and support

Lucy Morgan, our speaker, gave great advice (and a pep talk) on how to do investigative journalism in this media environment

Winners and directions on how to get your award(s) — should you not have attended the banquet — will be posted on the Florida Press Club website very soon.

A couple people expressed interest in volunteering, so the Florida Press Club may still be around next year if they follow through

Also, National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) begins today. Anyone else taking the plunge?

Jumpy copy editor

Sherry — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:07:15 +0000

My friend Bonnie, who deserves her own tag now because she sends me the coolest links, sent me a link in an e-mail with the subject line of “I will remember this the next time i see you…want you to be your best!”

Throw small projectiles at your copy editor now and then. A jumpy copy editor is an accurate copy editor.

Huh. So that’s why we used to throw those Florida Press Club stress balls at each other all the time!

AP Stylebook Quiz: How well do you know it?

Sherry — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:42:02 +0000

The AP Stylebook changed a great deal in a short time. This is the one year that I really will have to go out and buy a new one to keep myself up-to-date. Not only did Web site finally become website but also social media terms have come into play. State names are also spelled out now, which caused a bit of consternation in our newsroom when we first saw the datelines changed on stories that came through the wire.

I scored 10 out of 10 on Poynter’s “Take the Quiz: AP Stylebook or Fake AP Stylebook?”

Then I read how those changes came about in this column. (I’m with her until she argues that e-mail should be email. Ugh, just writing that looks wrong!)

H/T Bonnie for the AP Stylebook Quiz and Dr. Wilber for the press release about the new Stylebook. Coincidentally, both published those links on social networking giant Facebook.