Oh hai - I can has cats in my blog. Read plz!

Lawyers have it, doctors have it, “gangstas” have it, and yep, so do Creative Communications staff and students.

I’m talking about jargon, slang, speak, or any special words or expressions used by a certain group of people that makes sense to them, but is difficult for others outside the group to understand.

If you get accepted into the wonderful world of Creative Communications, or CreComm, you’ll soon pick up on a slew of terms and phrases known only to those special enough to be a part of the “CreComm mafia” – like “streeter”, “auto fail”, “live hit derby”, and “IPP”.

But probably the biggest group of people with their own language are those who text or use the Internet. Both can be convenient, time-savers, and entertaining, especially when used tongue in cheek.

LOLCATS thrives on combining Internet speak with user-submitted cat photos.

But the problem comes when people ignore the usual confines of a particular jargon or “speak” and use it where is it neither appropriate, nor a place where everyone can decipher the code.

In my last post, I mentioned that some people think this less-than-proper use of English is a sign that the language is “evolving”, not “dumbing down”. I beg to differ: when you take jargon and grammatical habits from one environment and use them across the board, it’s just plain inconsiderate.

Over the past few years, for instance, there have been reports from educators of students using text speak and other short hand in formal papers. How about this for an example?:

"My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc." Translation here.

Sound extreme? In some schools, it’s becoming so pervasive that New Zealand had to explicitly remind students not to do it, while in the Scotland, other teachers are bowing down to the pressure.

But enough picking on the students. Here’s a news release I used in an assignment for my editing course where we re-wrote bad headlines. (Click to enlarge photo.)

After some serious searching on Google, I think the normal person’s translation should read something like this: “Nortel makes fastest cell phone call with new high speed tech”.

In CreComm (Creative Communications for you other people!) we’re constantly told to think of our audience and the context in which the message will be received, then communicate appropriately. After all, what’s more important than your audience? Whether it’s a professor, a customer, the media, etc., they’re the ones you’re trying to please, so why not speak properly.

To apostrophe, or not to apostrophe:

It shouldn’t be a question, but some grammar unenthusiasts out there are trying to make it a legal one.

Last Thursday, Lindor Reynolds’ column in the Winnipeg Free Press attacked the misuse of apostrophes, and the backlash (as to be expected) was swift.

In the letters to the editor the following Saturday, a picture of the sign in front of St. Paul’s Square (note the unoffending apostrophe) was printed along with this caption:

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“A sign in Birmingham, England, reflects a recent decision to ban apostrophes in street signs because they are considered confusing, old-fashioned and interfere with GPS systems.”

Interesting, I thought. Confusing? Only to those who’ve yet to master grammar. Old-fashioned? So is most of the English language – doesn’t mean we should ban it. Interferes with GPS? (note for the editors: putting ‘system’ after GPS is unnecessary. GPS means global positioning system.)

That last point stopped me. Maybe the Birmingham city council did have a valid argument after all.

Not so, a spokesperson for TomTom, a satellite navigation equipment manufacturer quoted by CBS News said:

If someone preferred to use a street name – with or without an apostrophe – punctuation wouldn't be an issue. By the time the first few letters of the street were entered, a list of matching choices would pop up and the user would choose the destination.

In other words, not only is the GPS excuse wrong, but if this so-called interference did – hypothetically – occur, it would be because of user error, ie. someone misusing the apostrophe in the name they’re trying to search.

The justification I’ve come across the most in researching this story is that this isn’t a cop out, it’s not our education system dumbing down, it’s the English language evolving. There’s a euphemism if I ever saw one.

However you want to say it, it all comes back to the human in the equation who doesn’t understand grammar. And that’s okay: grammar is a challenge – but that’s not a reason to give up.

Pick up a grammar book; go online; or take a class with Chris Petty – and get cracking.

P.S. For the record, our province isn’t immune to dropping apostrophes either: Birds Hill (named after Dr. Curtis Bird) should be Bird’s Hill.

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Editor= omnipotent?

How much say should an editor have in correcting another person’s work?

That’s the question I’ve been mulling over for the past week which, ironically, was triggered by my work in the Canadian literature course I’m taking this spring (and not the Editing Print and Online Media course I’m also taking, for which this blog is an assignment).

This course has us analysing text written pre-1914 – many of them pre-Canada – and I’ve been introduced to the shocking amounts of liberties editors and publishers back then took with early Canadian explorers’ journals.

Take, for example, Paul Kane: an artist who spent three years travelling what is now Western Canada to capture the lives of the Aboriginals peoples in the area through a series of paintings, sketches, and careful note taking.

Artist he was; wordsmith he was not. Much of the editor’s work seems to have been putting Kane’s scribblings into actual words, sentences, and paragraphs, but where it gets interesting is that his editor/publisher also took consideration to transform Kane from the uneducated, wild, adventure-man that he was into a prim and proper European gentleman.

Kane’s original text (in all its grammatical glory) about his first buffalo sighting reads as follows:

“I saw a band of about 40 cows and they hunters in full chase they ware they first Buffalo I had ever seene I was not long in turning my horses hed in the derection of thy chase after running about 3 miles I came nere up to a cow my hors became afrade after beating for about 2 Miles more I came close enuff for a shot when I found I had no ball I fired shot but without afect.”

Compare that with the published version, and it’s obvious that not only does Kane become a true gent, but in doing so, the course of events change entirely:

“Next day I was gratified with the sight of a band of about forty buffalo cows in the distance, and our hunters in full chase; they were the first I had seen, but were too far off for me to join in the sport.”

Unlike the real Kane, who in his excitement chases after the buffalo only to discover he didn’t load his gun, the published version of Kane never goes near the buffalo at all. Ian MacLaren, the scholar who studies these discrepancies notes that “this droll event is edited out of the book: presumably, no sportsman worthy of the name would have been so careless” (Creating Travel Literature, 90).

Kane's Assiniboine Chasing Buffalo (courtesy of Google Images)

As MacLaren elaborates further, editors and publishers at the time were very conscious of their readers and what their expectations were. Many of them believed in the four-stages theory which put Europeans like themselves at the highest point of civilization and “primitive” indigenous cultures at the lowest.

Because of this, editors worked hard to both elevate the civilized, gentleman-like qualities of the explorers whose work they were editing, and exaggerate (in some cases, fabricate) the uncivilized, barbaric behaviour of the native peoples these explorers encountered (like cannibalism, which MacLaren also discusses).

It doesn’t seem fair, but then again, they were doing exactly what editors (and students taking editing courses) are being told today: make corrections to the text that are appropriate for the target audience.

But when have they crossed the line? Is there a line, or does it fluctuate depending on the editor and the context? How much power can or should an editor wield over your written word?

The art of the business card

That’s right – I put ‘art’ and ‘business card’ in the same sentence. A week ago, you probably couldn’t have convinced me that they could work together so harmoniously. After all, the cards I’d been exposed to until then were nothing more exciting than black Times font on a white card – maybe with an outdated photo of a real estate agent.

But when Tracey assigned us a business card and personal profile as our last layout & design project of the year, my world was transformed. I spent the first hour of class glued to the computer screen as I admired the first 16 pages of beauty on the Flickr group pool “the art of the business card”.

It’s amazing how much creativity you can cram into such a tiny space and the effects you can achieve simply with a few cute graphics or a unique font. Not to say it isn’t hard to do – that’s where the art comes in. In fact, it took me more time to conceptualize and design this little 3.5 x 2 scrap of paper than an 8.5 x 11 sheet, but I loved every minute of it, and can’t wait to make more – the possibilities are endless!

Simple font and colour choice, but the alignment and variation in font size shows it was done by someone who understands design. Elizabeth Maybury.

Love this font; otherwise very simple, but it works. Paper pastries.

Squares instead of rectangles – very cute. Nathaniel Cooper.

I like hedgehogs, but I also like the Twitter/new media vibe this one gives off. Perhaps not as professional as the others, but I like the modern feel of them and the bright, playful colours. Ivan Ricci.

These cards are really creative at first glance, but once you know they were produced for a 3D visualization studio, it’s even more ingenious and effective as it captures the essence of the business in design as well as in print. kpucu.com

Apparently a card for “writers/English professors”. Not sure what wood has to do with writing or English professors, but it’s a neat concept. Duck Arrow Types.

Another neat (and expensive) medium to use: steel, cut with lasers. Pinkograf.com

Pop up cards! Quirky, probably labour intensive and therefore expensive to produce, but nonetheless eyecatching. I’d definitely remember anyone who gave me a business card like this. Emerson Taymor.

Mine!

Yup, it’s official – I’m addicted to business cards.

Video montage: Celle que les hommes pleurent (Mata Hari)

When our TV instructor Dean Cooper first introduced the video montage assignment and told us we’d spend 20+ hours editing it, I, along with the rest of the class, laughed and thought “Sure, Dean.”

A month later, I was spending my third Friday night in a row holed up for 5 hours straight in the overheated edit suite R, and Dean’s words were starting to sound less like exaggeration and more like reality.

20+ hours later, I considered chalking up my time on the wall, but then remembered I wasn’t a criminal – I was here on my own accord.

You see, I’m one of those people who sometimes makes up music videos in their head when they hear a song. I cut between frames, soft and sharp focus, and imagine well costumed actors moving to the beat. When I got the assignment to produce a 2-4 minute montage set to music, I knew exactly which song I wanted to use and what footage I wanted to shoot.

The only problem was finding a way to translate what had been in my head all this time into something real that I could film. All I can say is thank god for networking.

Luckily, one of my friends from high school is a 3rd year piano performance major in music at the University of Manitoba and one of the people I interviewed for a journalism assignment happened to be part of GaiaPente, a tribal fusion belly dance troupe from Winnipeg.

Using the lyrics and story of the song Celle que les hommes pleurent (Mata Hari) by Caracol, my montage tells la petite histoire de Mata Hari, a Dutch exotic dancer from the early 1900s who was executed by the French on suspicion of espionage during WW1.

Not exactly light subject matter to work with, and it made editing a challenge as I tried to explain the above paragraph visually. Now, looking at the final edit, I’m really happy with how it turned out. But while I enjoyed filming and editing (with the exception of those irritating Final Cut Pro error messages), I’m glad I chose not to major in media production next year.

Too much of this project involved me, in a dimly lit room, fiddling with (and occasionally talking to) electronic equipment. Nope, I’m looking forward to a brand new year of persuasive writing, campaigns, and communicating with humans as a public relations major – maybe with some video doc on the side!



Edit: Yet another social media tool I've become a part of due to CreComm: YouTube. Thanks Blogger and TwitVid for spending hours processing my montage yesterday, only to clunk out in the end.

“Bonjour!” et...er, c’est tout.

When I’m asked what my IPP is about and I answer: I’m going to learn to speak French in 4 months using entirely new media and produce an audio documentary about my experience, I get one of two reactions:

Either a look of surprise and a comment on what an interesting and unique idea it is; or an awkward moment of silence before the other person hesitantly inquires: “So... you’ve never spoken French before this?”

Since I pitched my project to the IPP panel (which felt less like Dragon’s Den and more like a job interview) and got the official stamp of approval, I’ve been hit with the realisation that ‘hey, I actually have to do this project now’.

And I admit, lately I’ve been having the same reactions to my project as I think ahead to starting it come September.

I get flutters of excitement when I think about the positive experiences I’m going to have, the people I’ll meet, the events I’ll attend, and ultimately (hopefully) being able to have a basic conversation in French with another francophone at the end of it all.

But – because I like to worry – I also get moments when I wonder if I’ll actually be able to pull it off. Square one to speaking French in 4 months? I’ve got to be kidding myself.

Well, not really.

I don’t expect to become fluent in French. Learning a second language takes time, and is difficult, especially when going to college full time. I’m aiming to be able to make small talk, or light conversation with other French speakers by the end of it, and examine whether new media is an effective way to learn.

This is a project I’ve always wanted to do. I took French language classes for eight consecutive years through elementary, junior, and high school, but stopped because I got discouraged by the strong focus (at least for teaching anglophones, as opposed to moderately francophone students) on writing and reading, as opposed to speaking, French.

Sure, I can speak typical catch phrases and understand French if you talk r-e-a-l-l-y slowly and e-nun-ci-ate clearly.

But when it comes to asking things beyond “How are you?”, “Can I please go to the bathroom?” (ah, junior high) or even understanding what others are telling me when they’re talking at the usual break-neck speed, I’m useless.

After high school, I still wanted to learn French, but going into university, then college, full time, meant it never got to the top of my priority list.

Then came January 2010: the pressure of IPPs, and the magazine project.

For two weeks of that month, I got to interview members of the Fire Pyxies – a local fire dancing group – for our alternative art magazine and two of them were Franco-Manitobans.

Hearing their accent when I interviewed them and how beautiful the language sounds when they spoke to other francophones triggered my memory and I knew I wanted to ‘retry’ learning to speak French.

From L'arbre aux parfums - the first French music CD I bought, and it is amazing, even if you don't understand the language (and even if the music vid is a bit... bizarre.)

With the help of the ever-inspiring Steve Vogelsang, who pointed me in the right direction towards new media, I’ve come up with a three part plan:

1. to learn French: independently, through new media. Podcasts, language CDs, online tutorials, YouTube, Twitter, online communities and games.

2. to test my French: by interacting with other francophones online and in person. Skype language groups, Kijiji, and restaurants, stores, heritage sites in St. Boniface.

3. to make an audio documentary. (self explanatory)


Somedays it feels like I’ll be doing two projects at once, but I’m convinced that if I stay dedicated and passionate about my IPP, it’ll be worth the effort. Learning another language is hard, but I’m hoping this project (and the pressure of “do this right and you’ll graduate”) will provide the motivation to keep going. In fact, after years of waiting, CreComm and the IPPs might be just what I’ve needed all along.

If you can speak French, and would be willing to let me practice mine with you, let me know (coffee/tea/croissants are on me). I can put you in my doc and you’ll become rich and famous!

CreComm Magazine Fair 2010: a photo essay

All photos by me.

This Thursday afternoon was the annual CreComm magazine fair, the big finale of the magazine project which saw students in groups of 3-4 write, design, and produce an original magazine over the course of three months.

Honestly, I had more fun walking around exploring everyone’s booths and taking pictures than hanging around at my own (alt. magazine) table. That’s because although I know we’re all a talented bunch of people in first year, it’s not often that we get the chance to see our skill and creativity all together, all in one place. The effect was overwhelming, and I’m all incredibly proud of our year. Well done everyone: all that hard work definitely showed and definitely paid off!

Edit: Why do photos posted on Blogger look washed out from the originals? Anyone know how to fix this?