A couple years ago, I participated in the much-touted and much-maligned National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This annual event happens in November and is designed to inspire writers (and regular people) who struggle with procrastination, fear, distraction and time management in their quests to craft the next great American novel. I was a “winner” my first time out, meaning I completed the NaNoWriMo quest of cranking out 50,000 words in one month. Go me! 

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I just left the DMV in midtown Manhattan. Let’s place my current emotional state somewhere in the sixth circle of Hell (Heresy), smack dab between Anger and Violence.

In truth, it wasn’t as dreadful as you might imagine. With facilitators armed with tablets to constantly update customers on their expected wait times and plenty of city bureaucrats to process paperwork, I was in and out in around 45 minutes. But during my time there, I must have signed my name 15 times, each scrawl looking a little less legible and feeling less like a stamp of authenticity and more like an excessive burden with little meaning in a digital world.

So I ask: is the signature dead? What relevance does your John Hancock have in today’s wired society? 

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The Language Ninja is back, answering your burning grammatical questions. Of course, if the burning persists post-answer, see your doctor.

Q: What’s the difference between “who” and “whom,” and does it matter?

A: Well, the difference matters as much as any non life-threatening issue matters. The Ebola virus certainly doesn’t give a damn.

But, for those of you who either possess a high degree of intellectual curiosity or grammar-specific OCD, the who/whom distinction could be a weighty issue.

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Rake up the excess on your old blog, and rake in new connections.

Ah, fall: my favorite time of year. I’m not a full-fledged drive-thru maven in yoga pants with an uncontrolled addiction to #PSLs, but I do love a touch of fall flavor. Interestingly, autumn is really a season of decay in some senses: the leaves wither and fall, the air turns colder, and warm ovens turn the harvest’s bounty into pie after pie.

Even though this season is about things falling away, it’s still impossibly joyful for many people. Perhaps it’s our collective recognition of the fact that when things wither and die, they will come back renewed after a winter of rest. Whatever it is, we can’t get enough of fall. And perhaps the world of business writing, copy, and marketing could use a touch a pumpkin spice.

Here are a few lessons we can all glean from some of fall’s most cherished pastimes and traditions. This is an excellent time of year to do a bit of “cleaning house,” just as we pack away the shorts and bring out the sweaters with October’s first chill.  

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If you have any hipster sensibilities, you may be familiar with New York-based rock band Vampire Weekend and one of its most widely known hits: “Oxford Comma.” The very NSFW lyrics, from which I pulled the title of this post, don’t actually take a side in the classic grammatical debate of “to serial comma or not to serial comma?” However, it’s definitely a catchy tune. Though it may reveal the band’s decidedly ambivalent stance on the Oxford comma question, the song also serves as evidence of this debate’s pervasiveness. Who ever thought a grammar question would become part of American pop culture?

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In the wonderfully wacky world of online content and blogs, there are an array of competing opinions and disparate styles. What often lacks in the majority of business blogs is a unique “voice,” that essential yet somewhat misunderstood aspect of writing that makes it sound different from everything else. Developing a unique voice for your company’s online content is a sure-fire way to set your business apart from the competition and give readers (potential customers!) a little taste of what you’re really all about.

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Phew. It feels good to get that off my chest.

I feel I’m bit of a fraud. I’m a writer and a wordsmith; I was raised to love words and the complex emotions, ideas, and concepts that they can convey. And yet, I believe I am an active participant in a trend that is contributing to the destruction of not just the English language, but written language in general. What is this scourge in which I am a willing (if guilty) participant? It’s the cutest scourge EVAR! Emojis.

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So you’ve decided your company or client needs outside help with content creation: what now?  Knowing you need help and bringing in the Pros (see what we did there?) are excellent steps, but do you know what defines high-quality outsourced content?  Here are a few important qualities to look for when seeking outsourced content creation and professional writing for your company or one of your web design clients.  Content with these qualities will keep your clients happy and customers clicking.

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When the online realm is your workspace, you’re always chasing after some idea of “cool.” The constantly shifting Internet landscape means fads, ideas, slang, and even Fortune 500 companies flash hot for a brief moment and then burn out just as quickly.

As professional writers making the online realm our office space, we think a lot about what defines cool. But we also think a lot about words themselves — their definitions, what makes one more

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The new, more globalized international economy means more and more processes are outsourced and automated. We’re growing increasingly accustomed to Bangalore-based telephone customer service agents and cheaply made garments manufactured in foreign factories with dubious health and safety standards. With globalization also comes mobilization; larger and larger varieties of services are available online from desktop computer or mobile devices. These shifts toward a more technologically empowered service sector are often exciting, but some of us in the writing and editing fields are dismayed at and distrustful of the growing prevalence of computer-generated copy and automated editing systems.

Should we be worried?

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