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LET'S COMMUNICATE
CONTENTS The whole NDSU agriculture community should take a bow for a superb job of continuing to communicate during the recent flood problems. Your correspondent was high and dry vacationing in Los Angeles when the storm hit, came home on the weekend to learn about the devastation on campus, and went to work on Monday to discover an amazing job of picking up the pieces and getting on with the job. As always, NDSU staff were much in demand by the news media, getting out information on everything from soggy carpet to flooded fields, and many probably had problems of their own at home. Even with nonexistent phone service and a shaky infrastructure, the information continued to get out. I can't think of a better example of an "engaged university." WRITE THE RIGHT WORD "Even the best writer has to erase." Spanish proverb *** A local newspaper item quoted a city official as saying, "For all INTENSIVE purposes..." The official may have said exactly that and was quoted correctly. The reporter may have made a mistake. But the phrase most likely should have been "For all INTENTS AND purposes..." "Intensive purposes" doesn't make any sense. But really, "intents and purposes," although commonly used, doesn't make much sense either. It's just unnecessary word padding. Your writing, and especially your speaking, will be much crisper if you eliminate empty phrases like this even if you use them correctly.*** A colleague suggested the topic of time-- not how much of it we use doing what, but how to put it in writing, especially how to abbreviate ante meridian (before noon) and post meridian (after noon). The quick answer is: a.m. and p.m. Lower case, periods, no space. But of course you will run into exceptions, especially if you must follow style guides for journals or the like. The Chicago manual says to use small caps. That's fine for publishing, but not always practical for most of us. The CBE (scientific) guide recognizes lower case, small caps or full capitals (without periods) but prefers full caps. Can't imagine why. For virtually all general writing, I'll stick with the quick answer: a.m. and p.m.*** More on the topic of time: --Avoid the redundancy of "8:30 a.m. in the morning." Pick one. --Don't use "o'clock" with a.m. or p.m. --In text, some guides suggest spelling out full, half or quarter hours (nine o'clock; seven-thirty this morning; a quarter to four this afternoon) unless you need to emphasize a specific time (the deadline is 9:30 tomorrow morning). --For general writing, including news, do not use zeroes with times "on the hour" (8 a.m. rather than 8:00 a.m.) in text. Again, this may vary if you must follow a specific style guide. --"Noon" and "midnight" can be expressed in words alone or as "12 noon" and "12 midnight." (Is midnight 12 a.m. or 12 p.m.? Avoid confusion.)TECHNOLOGY TIPS Want to receive regular technology tips by e-mail with not-too- much over-technical information? Then subscribe to "ITS Technology Training News." This weekly or so electronic newsletter comes from Lorna Olsen, NDSU Information Technology Services technology trainer. Each brief issue has a term of the week and a tip of the week. Recent tips have been on e-mail lists, Windows 95/98, the Web and Web browsers. She also includes upcoming training sessions open to staff and faculty. You're all welcome to subscribe to this newsletter. E-mail Lorna at lorna_olsen@ndsu.nodak.edu, including your address and phone number. (Your e-mail signature will probably take care of this.) To see the archives of past newsletters, go to http://listserv.nodak.edu/archives/its-training.html This, and other computer support Web sites, are available on the AgComm Web page at: http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/agcomm.htm LET'S COMMUNICATE If you have questions or comments, or would like to submit information or make a suggestion, contact:
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