Friday Fix: The Power of Parallelism

Today's Friday Fix is not so much a "fix" as it is a suggestion for improved writing. It also works great in verbal communication situations. And "it" is...

Parallelism!

Oh yeah, baby, this little gem is used for emphasis, making your audience sit up and take notice. It provides sort of a cadence of familiarity while driving home a point.

So I'm sure you're saying to yourself by now oh, Friday Fix Lady, please share how to use parallelism so that I, too, can emphasize my insights and drive my points home to my readers and listeners.

But of course.

Parallelism is simply using parallel structure. It can occur within a single sentence, among several sentences, or even throughout paragraphs. "We came; we saw; we conquered" is more memorable than "We showed up and saw what was going on and then we kicked some butt." Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech makes beautiful use of parallelism throughout, giving each "I have a dream that one day..." segment progressively more power with each repetition as he builds momentum for new, vivid ideas.

Consider this excerpt from the most recent post on the Olive Branch:

If anger is our issue, I can assure you that God wants to help us deal with that because we’ll be a lot happier if we’re not honked off all the time.

If being offended is our issue, I can assure you that God wants to help us with that because we’ll be a lot happier if our feelings aren’t hurt all the time.

If fear is our issue, I can assure you that God wants to help us with that because we’ll have a happier life if we learn to trust God instead of living in a state of worry all the time. (Thanks for your permission to use this, Missy!)

See how each sentence is structured the same way? By the time we read the beginning of the second point, we sense the repeated cadence and tune in a little closer. By the end of the third sentence we feel a sense of completion as all the ideas are unified through parallelism.

Do ya get it? Don't ya love it? Won't ya use it?

A lot of great quotes ranging from historical to pop culture are memorable because of parallelism. I'd love to see you leave a comment of any that come to mind! Let's have a parallelism party; post below! Whoot Whoot!

Halloween '09

Halloween '09 saw some pretty great characters!

Here's poodle skirt girl, otherwise known as Rizzo (cleaned up and innocent of course with nary a cigarette or Kenicki in sight).

And here's Indiana Jones. I know I'm a little biased but I think he could replace Harrison Ford.


And here's miss zombie cheerleader. If you remember last year's post, Mais has a knack for changing her mind at the last minute. And this is what she decided to be at the last minute using stuff we already had at home instead of the vampiress costume she BOUGHT a month and a half ago. Maybe she'll wear it next year? You know, when she plans to be Big Bird.


Indy crackin' his rad whip.


Lex, Mais, and Olivia, our trick-or-treating buddy and famous Wabash Valley's Got Talent top 12 finalist!


Here's my crew heading to the first house of the night. We always hit the neighbor's before heading into town. The kids passed out 100 Jesus Loves You slips with pixie stix. It was a great night!

Friday Fix: Literal vs. Figurative

Overheard: "I was so sick! I literally puked out my guts!"

Ew. Hope not.

Presenting...Dictionary.com's definition of literal:
"adjective 1. in accordance with, involving, or being the primary or strict meaning of the word or words; not figurative or metaphorical: the literal meaning of a word."

Now, contrast that with the definition figurative:
"adjective 1. of the nature of or involving a figure of speech, esp. a metaphor; metaphorical; not literal: a figurative expression."

Let's have a literal round of applause for Dictionary.com! Er, wait. That means we'd be clapping our hands in a circular pattern. You know what I mean!

What the word violator--whose guts are no doubt still firmly intact-- meant was, "I was so sick that I figuratively puked out my guts!" Or "I was so sick that I felt like I was puking out my entire guts!" Or even, "I was like a fly, dizzy from spinning through the air, only to land on a potential morsel on which to expel my innards." Or not.

Okay. So now we see why most people (incorrectly) go with the first option, eh? Even though we speak figuratively all the time, we don't throw that word around like we do the word literally. It just doesn't hit the ear the same way. (Did you catch all that figurative language? Literally, did you?)

So it's okay to say that you were so sick you felt like you puked out your guts, but if you describe the action as literal, don't clean it up yet. I'll be right over to see for myself.

Friday Fix: An Everyday Problem?

This Friday Fix is brief but necessary.

Every day should be two words when you mean that something occurs on a daily basis: Please take your vitamins every day.

The one-word version, everyday, is an adjective: I'm going to change from my church clothes into my everyday clothes. Aaahhh, that's better.

(Psst...here's a bonus tip you won't find in text books. Just a lil summ summ from me to you. If the word "stinkin'" makes sense between the every part and the day part, take the two-word form. As in, I make my bed every stinkin' day. --Shyeah! Like, who does that?)

Quiz time:
Which are correct?
1. We'll have to meet everyday this week to get ready for the event.
2. I'll be glad to get back to my everyday routine.
3. I've told you every day for the past year that your everyday shoes are the brown ones!
4. Leave the good china in the hutch! We'll use the every day dishes.


If you said 2 and 3 you are correct! Muchos kudos!

Don't you wish Friday Fix was an everyday post? Or would it just be another thing to read every stinkin' day? :-) Peace out, Wordlovers.

Exiting Moment!

*Squeal!*

I was just over at Office Max getting office supplies and on a whim thought I'd go into Books A Million to see if they carry the devotionals. Guess what? Not only were they carrying them, but the books were actually facing cover out, side by side, four deep.

I got a little nervous twitter in my tummy. It was a thing of true beauty.

That was so cool. :-)

(They're retailing for $12.99 not including tax--or shipping if you order online. I can get them for you for an even $12 per book if you're interested. Just let me know by Oct. 28)

Friday Fix: I or Me?

We had it drilled into our heads so much as students that we revert to it when in doubt: Always place another person before yourself in sentences! For example, “Daisy and I are sick of English lessons.” (At least Daisy and the speaker are grammatically correct in their utterance, so maybe they’re just bored.)

The use of “I” above is correct because it’s part of the subject of the sentence. Just as it’s correct to say “I love hugging trees,” it’s correct to compound the subject and say “Bill and I love hugging trees.” (I'll bet they also love hugging each other out in the trees, but I digress.) That’s why teachers harped and harped on it—to get hillbillies like me to stop saying, “Me and Bill love huggin’ trees.”

Where things get problematic is when the compound is not the subject, but the object. After being hit on the hand with a ruler—or even just kept inside from recess enough times—we decided it was just easier and less painful to automatically spout out “Barthalomew and I” regardless of where it occurs in a sentence. In fact, people do it so often (I remember hearing both presidential candidates do it while campaigning last year!) that it almost doesn’t sound wrong anymore. Almost.

Quiz time. Which is correct?

Be sure to buy Illini sweatshirts for Shane and I.

Be sure to buy Illini sweatshirts for Shane and me.

(Think subliminally—Christmas isn’t far off!)

If you chose the second one, you are CORRECT, my friend! The test you can always use until you become comfortable saying it, is to remove the other part of the compound and see how it sounds. I wouldn’t say, “Be sure to buy Illini sweatshirts for I.” But I would DEFINITELY say, “Be sure to buy Illini sweatshirts for me.”

And that’s a great thought to close this thing out…
:-)

My Dear Blog,

I know I've neglected you. Yes, I DO realize that I post something weekly on the Olive Branch and that you're lucky to get one post a month. What can I say? I committed to posting every Friday there--whether I write the devotion or not--since God entrusted me with managing it.

No, you're NOT chopped liver! I guess I just have a harder time being as committed to you because I can write about anything here. The purpose isn't so focused, ya know? And you know my struggle with keeping focused. Maybe I need to define it a little better, you know... work on me.

And yes, I know I've brought someone else into the mix with the whole Examiner thing, but honestly, I've treated it about as badly as I've treated you. No need for jealousy there unless I get my patootie in gear.

Wha...what? Facebook?

Well...er...you see, it's like this. Um, you may have a valid point there. It's just so much easier to post a one-liner than to commit to lengthier fodder on you, okay?! Sheesh! And I get to see what my friends are up to. Yes, they are TOO real friends!

Maybe you should just back off and quit being so demanding!

I'm sorry. I didn't mean that.

You're always here whenever I feel like posting and I do appreciate that. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm going to commit to a once a week post here too. Maybe that will even motivate me to to post more frequently than once a week; who knows? But here's what I'll commit to that I should be able to continue, given that words are kind of a hobby of mine: Friday's Fix.

Each Friday I will blog about a way to "fix" a common mistake in writing or communication in general. It might be a word that is often misused, mispronounced, or misspelled. It might center on punctuation (I KNOW--that's TOO exciting!). It might deal with more effective ways to communicate. Regardless, it will be a short little lesson geared towards improvement.

Sound okay, Blog 'o mine? So I'll see you Friday, if not before. ;-)

Swine Flu Vaccine...Food for Thought

I saw this headline today:

Obama urges Americans to get swine flu shot.

Hmm...I don't like to get "political" but this really bothers me for some reason. He's pusing an agenda for government involved healthcare reform while also pushing for a vaccine that may do more damage than the very illness it's supposed to prevent.

See this link for problems related to the swine flu vaccine and decide for yourself.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/01/Swine-Flu-Shot-Linked-to-Killer-Nerve-Disease.aspx

Top 10 Things About She Speaks, 2009

***This top ten list is really in no particular order as that would require WAY more mental energy than I can churn out right now. All I can say for sure is that number 1 truly is number 1. :-)


10. The introduction of the "Just Hangin' Out" track. Melissa Milbourn executed perfect role modeling for aspiring chillaxer-encouragers.

9. Riding through the rain in a certain someone's (very P31 high profile...think presidential, even) Chick-fil-A-mobile with my homey. Holly GOOD lives up to her name--what a sweet, dear woman.

8. Our front desk man Shawn ensuring our hotel guest needs were not only met, but exceeded expectations.

7. The hotel room! Why, oh why, did we not take pictures. It was SUCH the bomb.

6. Missy's late night concert via computer. I heard some amazing songs from this friend I never knew existed. The prayer meetin' rocked too. ;-)

5. Lunch with Wendy Pope as I watched her become indoctrinated into the "just hangin' out" track. She's now its biggest fan and promoter.

4. Getting to speak with four publishing professionals about my book and series idea! Three of them expressed that there is a definite need for this work. Nobody sugar-coated anything or made pie-in-the-sky promises, but they all left doors open for submission when I get it to that point. (And in this publishing season of NO unsolicited submissions, that is huge.) I was also able to introduce myself to the acquisitions editor at Revell and tell her I have devotions in two of their books coming out this fall. We chatted and she was so excited about the finished products--that was way cool and I really can't wait to see them now!

3. Reconnecting with buddies! There was Lisa Morrone, who blessed me by praying over me right before a meeting with a publisher. I met Lisa at my very first She Speaks in '06 and we've been friends ever since. And there was Sanya who was in my speaker evaluation group two years ago. Sanya, it was truly a blessing having dinner with you. You ministered to me as we broke bread together.

2. Seeing Mary DeMuth every time I turned around and helping her distribute her book Daisy Chain to all the lucky ladies in her session, AND receiving a copy myself! WOO HOO! Utterly stoked about reading it.

And the Number One thing about She Speaks, 2009 is...

1. Being continually amazed by God in about 1001 different ways as He showed me gift after gift. The main sessions were stellar and humbling. The breakout sessions were informative and practical, while tapping into heart matters. Lord, this simple little two word phrase can't being to capture the humongous feeling in my heart, but please accept it as a sacrifice and act of worship: THANK YOU. Thank you. Soooo grateful...

I Wish I Had a Devotional Book That...

A book packager is looking for some ideas with regard to theme for a devotional series. The demographic is women, ages 30 to 50 (ish). So if you've ever found yourself saying, "Man! I wish I could find a good devotion book that focuses on _______" now's your chance to say it with the possibility that it could actually materialize!

How would YOU fill in the blank?

See My Wordle? Thanks, Nicole!

image designed at www.wordle.net

My Talk at Bella Rosa

Hi All! Some of you were interested in seeing the video from the banquet on Saturday. It runs about 20 minutes, so grab a cup o' joe and put your feet up. :-)