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Creating engaging, effective communications!

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With the prominence of spell-checking tools and AI, we don’t focus on spelling like we used to. But it still matters. A lot. In the past two weeks, I’ve encountered several instances so cringe/funny I had to share them.

Kellogg’s Raisin Bran posted: “Where’s the wildest place you’ve gotten fibered up?” However, the original post did not say FIBERED up. It said fingered up. 🫣 Oof. While it was clearly a typo, a second set of eyes might have caught it.

Last week, the White House shared an image of a “super intelligence” document that President Trump signed alongside several other AI executives. Unfortunately, it said “The President of the Unites States.” Not United but Unites.

My local grocery store posted signs welcoming college students. Unfortunately, they spelled our town’s name wrong: Lawrence. The sign said: LawERence.

I know…we all make mistakes. However, when you're sharing something important, you don’t want attention pulled away from the message and focused on a misspelling.

We are all busy, so we put a lot of trust in spellcheck. Yet it's worth taking an extra five minutes to carefully review what you’ve written. Asking a colleague or friend to be a second set of eyes is even better! I frequently Google words because they look odd, or I can’t remember how to spell them. When in doubt, check the spelling. Especially when you are doing artwork for tattoos…

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Walked confidently or strutted?

Sometimes the easiest way to be concise is to use strong verbs. If you use “raced” in place of the verb “ran,” you don’t need to add the adverb quickly. Or you could use sprinted or scurried.

In the book Good Writing by Neal Allen and Anne Lamott, Anne shares this funny anecdote:

“A verb describes what the subject of your sentence is doing: ‘The dog ate our Thanksgiving turkey.’ (This really happened ten years ago.) But Bodhi did not ‘eat’ the turkey. He devoured, gobbled, wolfed down, and inhaled our Thanksgiving turkey. Bad dog.”

Which sounds better?

Increased quickly vs. surged

Walked confidently vs. strutted

Sat down vs. plonked down

Stood over vs. towered

Laughed loudly vs. guffawed

This is my ongoing challenge for myself – spend the extra time to find a more powerful, descriptive verb!

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A MUCH-NEEDED LAUGH!

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INSPIRATION

The southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky is located in “no-man’s-land” territory and has been cut off from supplies by Russian forces. Residents told Ukrainian forces that domestic animals in the city were left to fend for themselves when their owners left, and they feared the animals might starve. The few residents who remained had little food themselves, so feeding stray cats was not possible. (Ukrainian forces have been sending in drones since March that carry food, medicine, and children’s supplies. However, many are shot down and never make it.)

Officers in Ukraine’s 11^th National Guard Brigade created lightweight, drone-transportable cages that could air-transport two medium-sized cats or several kittens. Pilots dropped the cages at visible locations within the city.

A few days ago, a Ukrainian drone performing a nighttime flight spotted heat signatures in one of the cages. A heavy bomber drone was dispatched to the pickup site. Video recorded by a night vision camera and published by the 11th Brigade showed a resident loading a cat and kittens into the container. The resident gave the hand signal “Lift!” to the drone pilot, and the drone transported the cats.

One adult cat and five kittens arrived after a ten-kilometer trip from Oleshky to the left bank of the Dnipro River, where Ukrainian forces were stationed. The animals were “unharmed but understandably frightened.” The Brigade headquarters named the air evacuation “Operation Tiger.”

A Brigade statement said it would find homes for the evacuated cat and kittens.🩷

Ukrainian units have been folding animal rescues into these aid efforts for months. In June, an operation named Meow-Meow carried a cat and five kittens from the front. A separate flight carried a dog and cat to safety in April.

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There is a lot of bad news in the world right now, but reading stories like this reinforces my belief that there is so much good in the world! A huge thank you to Ukraine’s 11^th National Guard for helping rescue pets.

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