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Metaphors and More About Orphans

Hello Ruth,


Here's a metaphor for you: egg on my face. After reading last week's newsletter on my smartphone, I realized that I have taken a face dive into breakfast.


You may recall that I wrote about widow and orphan lines and how they break up content. As always, I previewed the content before sending it. But I didn't preview it for the smartphone. When I looked at it a few days later on my own phone, well, I found enough orphans for a stage production of The Cider House Rules.


I admit I was relieved to see that a scant three percent of these newsletters are read on smartphones. But the thing is, I open a lot of newsletters on my phone. So I should have taken the time to do a mobile preview.


That said, the orphan lines didn't seem as drastic on the small screen as they do on the desktop. Even so, eggs belong in the fridge or frying pan and not on my face!


I hope you have a peaceful and safe holiday. Till next week,


Ruth Ann Monti



Writing Tips


Be careful when you use acronyms and jargon in your content. Are you sure your audience understands them?


If you're writing for a highly informed group, you're probably OK. I still recommend defining the more esoteric words, unless your work is published in a professional journal that's not likely to attract lay readers.


Here's an example: my son just graduated from ASU. His father and sister are also ASU alums. Thing is, my son attended Arizona State University, while Dad and Kal are alums of Appalachian State University.


In our family, "ASU" must be clarified!

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SEO/Content News


Inclusive language can help with SEO, the experts at Yoast report.


"Inclusive language aims to use words that don’t express or imply ideas that are derogatory or excluding towards marginalized groups," Yoast explains in a recent blog.


Inclusive language is most obvious in language that underscores gender. For example, use "police officers" not "policemen" in your content to avoid gender exclusion.


Google recognizes behavior patterns between the content on a given page and bounce rates. An affirmative approach gets its attention and leads more readers to this content style.

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Weezer Proves AI Can't Tweet (or Write)


As all writers suspect, AI can't capture a personality, especially for a musician.


Rivers Cuomo, the frontman for the band Weezer, recently played around with the ChatGPT-3 AI tool to compose his tweets. Fans were immediately annoyed by batches of smarmy, punny tweets, including one about the band's "pawsome new song" I Want a Dog.


Other gems include Rivers' supposedly being "stoked for you to hear the new Weezer album" and using emojis. Tweets were rapidly released in batches of 50. "what the hell is going on [sic]?" one follower tweeted back.

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