How Do You Accept an Award? Tips on How to Give an Acceptance Speech

by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Accepting an award is like walking a tightrope. You need to be gracious, grateful, and humble -- but not so humble or self-deprecating that the audience thinks you are trivializing the honor. The warm glow of the occasion can suddenly turn chilly or sour with a few ill-chosen words.

One gentleman I was coaching was due to receive an award from an organization with more than 100,000 members. Two thousand people would be in the audience.

"I want to be funny," he told me, "so I'll start by saying how desperate they must be to give me this award." I persuaded him that he'd be insulting the organization and everyone who had ever been honored. We worked together to come up with a gracious acceptance speech, still funny, but one that would leave everyone present feeling great about the evening, the award, and the organization.

Sooner or later, you're probably going to be presented with an award. It may be a surprise, or you may have time to prepare. Use your answers to the following questions to weave a warm, wonderful story that will leave everyone with a big smile (and maybe a tear.)

Who nominated you?

Who invited you to join this group or encouraged you to get involved in this project or event?

What is your connection to this group?

How do you feel about the people and the organization's goals?

Why are they giving you this award?

When was the first time you attended a meeting and what were your experiences?

Have you seen someone else accept this same award? People will not remember all the details of what you say, but they will remember the stories you tell. Include a memorable vignette or incident, something entertaining or touching about your connection.

Dan Maddux, executive director of the American Payroll Association, received the "Meeting Partner of the Year" award from the National Speakers Association. His four-minute acceptance speech was one of the highlights of the convention. First, he said he was honored. Second, he said what his audience loved hearing: "I consider professional speakers to be my partners and my best investment in the success of my conventions." He told a story about a much-loved NSA member, Jeanne Robertson, and how she had educated him, revealing that nearly all popular speakers have more than one speech. Whenever he liked a speaker and his audience related to them she told him, he could keep bringing them back to do other presentations. He reenacted their conversations, imitating her southern accent. One of Jeanne's claims to fame is her stature; so Dan, a tall man, pretended he was looking up at her. That brought the house down.

Show-biz can provide wonderful examples of great acceptance speeches. When Russell Crowe won an Oscar for The Gladiator (2000), he dedicated it to "everyone who has seen the downside of disadvantage." Then, he got the 2002 Golden Globe Award for A Beautiful Mind. First, he gave credit to the characters in the film, offering special thanks to "John and Alicia Nash, for living such an inspirational love story." He added, "A Beautiful Mind is just a movie, folks, but hopefully it will help us open our hearts . . . to believe that something extraordinary can always happen in our lives."

It's okay to be excited. Sally Field's joy when she won the 1979 Academy Award for Norma Rae has never been forgotten: "You like me! You really like me!" And when she won the 1987 Oscar for Moonstruck, Cher said, "I know this does not mean I am somebody, but I am on my way to become somebody." I quoted her, when I won the 1996 Cavett award, the highest award offered by the NSA.

Action-star "everyman" Harrison Ford was honored with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2002, for "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field" -- or more specifically, 35 movies over four decades, including Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Witness, The Fugitive, and Patriot Games. "In anticipation of tonight," he said, "I wrote two speeches, a long one and a short one. I'll give you the short one: 'Thank you.' But it seems there might be enough time for the long one as well, which is: 'Thank you very much.'"

Whenever you have some advance notice, be sure to ask how long you are expected to speak. The shorter your time slot, the more you will need to practice! When the time comes, look directly at the audience. Never read your remarks. You can walk up on stage with notes, but they should consist of a few bulleted points.

Whenever you are involved in leadership in your professional organization, your company, your community or in philanthropy, you are likely to get an award some day. It's better to have a few well-crafted remarks ready just in case than to be caught speechless. Or worse, saying the wrong thing. Be gracious. Be modest. Be prepared!

* * *
Professional speakers and executives will learn effective communication skills, how to overcome the fear of public speaking, PowerPoint training, and leadership skills from award-winning motivational speaker and executive speech Patricia Fripp. Thursday and Friday March 6-7, 2008, San Francisco Bay Area, Corte Madera, California. Also, visit http://www.fripp.com/speakingschool.html.

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE, is an award-winning speaker, sales presentation trainer, and executive speech coach. Meetings and Conventions magazine calls Patricia "one of the country's 10 most electrifying speakers." Kiplinger's Personal Finance says, "Patricia Fripp's speaking school is the sixth best way you can invest in your career." Website: http://www.fripp.com/

Writers can earn income and gain exposure by publishing content in any format on any topic

Associated Content now issues specific requests for content on a variety of topics and in various formats, via its new Call for Content(TM) functionality. More than 80,000 people in the United States alone are already benefiting from contributing to this diverse library of completely original content since its launch in 2005.

"With this new Call for Content feature we are able to offer our Content Producers new ideas on topics to help them build their personal library and increase their income and exposure. When we issue a Call for Content, there is normally an upfront payment to the Content Producer as long as the content meets our quality criteria," said, Luke Beatty, Founder and President of Associated Content. "We have thousands of Content Producers earning income from the work they are producing, simply out of a passion for their subject. Now through Associated Content they find an instant audience and community to support them."

Associated Content contributors, or Content Producers, have been benefiting financially and gaining an audience through the content-driven economy, which rewards people for their user-generated content.. Content Producers range from passionate amateurs to subject "experts," and even established media professionals. They offer advice, information and recommendations on every topic imaginable. Content Producers also create how-to videos and local news reports. Associated Content is the media company that stores, holds and categorizes this information, all of which is accessible through online search tools.

Associated Content monitors all content published on the site for its suitability, and ensures against copyright infringements. With more than 10 million unique visitors to the site per month, Content Producers are compensated for providing quality content at rates based upon the popularity of their topic.

Website: http://www.associatedcontent.com/

New Research Helps Teachers Boost Boys' Reading Test Scores

New research published in the January/February 2008 edition of Principal magazine finds that teachers can significantly improve boys' test scores in reading by using boy-friendly instructional strategies.

"In every age group, boys have been scoring lower than girls annually for more than three decades on U.S. Department of Education reading tests," said Bill Costello, author of the research. "The longer boys are in school, the wider the reading gender gap becomes. For example, the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that the gap at age 9 is 5 points, at age 13 is 10 points, and at age 17 is 14 points."

According to the research findings entitled "Leveraging Gender Differences to Boost Test Scores," there are four strategies teachers can use to bolster boys' reading test scores: use brain research to inform gender-based instructional strategies, offer boy-friendly reading material, provide single-gender reading activities within the classroom, and increase the use of male role models for reading.

Costello said: "Teachers who use brain research to inform gender-based instruction strategies have a better understanding of the reading problems that boys face and tailor their practice accordingly. Offering boy-friendly reading material is one of the best ways to motivate boys to read. Single-gender reading activities provide concrete learning experiences that help to reinforce what boys read. Increasing the use of male role models for reading helps boys view reading as a masculine activity. These four strategies will help schools raise test scores and avoid the penalties that result from failing annual yearly progress."

Source" Making Minds Matter (http://www.makingmindsmatter.com/)

'w00t' is the word of the year?

Merriam-Webster OnLine, the leading source for English language reference on the Web, has revealed the results of its Word of the Year online survey for 2007. In 2006, the site's users were asked to submit their personal picks for word of the year, and an overwhelming majority voted for "truthiness" -- a word introduced by Stephen Colbert on the debut of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. This year, users were asked to choose from a list of twenty words culled from both frequent lookups on Merriam-Webster OnLine and from user-created submissions to one of the site's most popular features, Merriam-Webster's Open Dictionary. From the thousands of votes submitted, the company's online community has chosen the word "w00t" to take top honors as Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2007.

The interjection "w00t," defined by Open Dictionary users as "an expression of joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word 'yay,'" first became popular in competitive online gaming forums as part of what is known as "l33t" ("leet," or "elite") speak -- an esoteric computer hacker language in which numbers and symbols are put together to look like letters. Although the double "o" in the word is usually represented by double zeroes, the exclamation is also known to be an acronym for "we owned the other team" -- again stemming from the gaming community.

"What's interesting about the selection of w00t is that it is taking language in a new direction," said John Morse, President and Publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc. "Given the inefficiency of texting with a numeric keyboard, people look for self-evident numeral-letter substitutions: 0 for O; 3 for E; 7 for T; and 4 for A. This is simply a different and more efficient way of representing the alphabetical character."

The winning "w00t" is one of three words in this year's Top Ten coming from Merriam-Webster's Open Dictionary -- a real-time chronicle of new words and definitions not yet found in regular dictionaries, and based entirely on user submissions. Second place in the 2007 list went to "facebook," a verb meaning to add someone to your list of friends on the Facebook.com Web site or to search for a person through this popular online directory. Taking fifth place is the newcomer "blamestorm," which is used to describe a group discussion on why a deadline was missed, a project failed, or who is to be blamed or to take responsibility. The most popular word found in the Merriam- Webster Online Dictionary was "conundrum" (coming in third), "a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun, or a question or problem having only a conjectural answer."

For the complete list of Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year 2007, including definitions, please visit http://www.merriam-webster.com/.

Writing Effective Copy for your Company's Blog

Weblogs, more commonly known as blogs, are spreading feverishly across the Internet. According to Robyn Aber of Cisco Systems Inc., about four million blogs populate the Web. Though most private individuals maintain blogs, many companies are beginning to launch company blogs to communicate and interact with their clients, customers, and the public.

How can you create a company blog that outshines and outlasts every other blog? And how do you hypnotize readers to keep coming back? This article provides tips to write effective, attention-arresting blog copy and shows how you can develop reader and customer loyalty.

1. WRITE CONVERSATIONALLY.

The most engaging blogs speak to their audience in a casual and conversational tone. A big benefit of a blog is its ability to speak to readers in a way that is personal, candid and straightforward. Write your blog the same way you'd speak to your audience, face to face. The personal element is almost always what attracts people and keeps them coming back to your blog.

Amy Joyce of the Washington Post says, "Web logs—or blogs—started as a way to talk about new technologies, vent about life and interact in a no-holds-barred forum. Since blogs became the next big thing, an increasing number of companies have come to see them as the next great public relations vehicle—a way for executives to show their casual, interactive side. But, of course, the executives do nothing of the sort. Their attempts at hip, guerrilla-style blogging are often pained—and painful."

To avoid this pitfall, simply be yourself. The best blogs reveal the interests, opinions, and personality of the writer. Your perspective, personal and professional, is unique in all the world. Let it shine through, and your blog will automatically be one-of-a-kind. An interesting blog will bring back customers again and again and will generate priceless interest in your company.

2. TELL STORIES.

Readers want to know things they already don't know about your company. They want to know what the products, services, people, challenges, and innovations in your organization are really like. If you give them a glimpse of the inner workings, express your opinions boldly, and tell engaging stories, you will foster reader interest and loyalty. In a biography, both interviews and quotations usually are the most intriguing parts. Think of your company blog as a business biography. Personalize it with your unique thoughts and perspective.

3. MAKE IT PERSONAL.

Write about what you know. Draw from your expertise to inform the public about the finer points of your business. Detailing development ideas, setbacks, successes, and reactions reveals the human element and engages the reader. It's fine to talk about new products and innovations, but blogs devoted mostly to marketing and promotion are the most boring and least popular of company blogs. Make these topics more appealing to readers by framing such announcements with personal impressions and insights. Customers want to feel a kinship with the brand. Letting them in on the details of your business will make them feel part of your company culture and increase the chances of their lifetime loyalty.

4. UPDATE FREQUENTLY.

Once you have established a good reader base, offer new insights regularly to reward surfers for coming back. Not only does this provide more information and exposure, but it also reflects that your company is active and on top of things. Link to current articles from other sources to keep readers abreast of developments in your sector. A rarely-updated blog feels stale and tired. This is not the reputation you want your company to have!

5. ADHERE TO COMPANY RULES.

You are personally responsible for whatever material you publish on your company blog. Respect the confidentiality of your organization and employees. Though you may express disagreements or concerns, do not make personal attacks or use the blog to air petty complaints. Do not reveal proprietary information; and avoid discussing revenue, share price, or other financial statistics. Observe copyright law, and quote sources as you would in any other document. Make sure what you write in the company blog reflects the company's goals. Keep in mind the ultimate goal of most company blogs is to increase visibility and promote the exchange of information. While most companies allow and encourage blogging on company time, you should avoid letting your writing time interfere with your regular workload.

6. WRITE GRAMMATICALLY.

Finally, make sure that what you write is grammatical. Your blog entries reflect your company, and you want to give the best possible impression of the organization and its personnel. The Internet is rife with bad English. Though blogs tend to be relaxed in tone, it is no more appropriate to ignore standard English than it is to wear flip-flops and swimming trunks on casual Friday. Use a program like StyleWriter or WhiteSmoke to find and fix embarrassing grammar mistakes and help you write like a pro.

A company blog is an excellent tool for promotion, communication, and information. The tips outlined here will help elevate your blog and generate traffic and interest. Good luck, and welcome to the wonderful world of blogging!

Read more articles about how to write better.

Better Business Writing in the Workplace

If there's one important reason why you need to write effectively in the workplace, it is this: the quality of your writing imprints a lasting impression on the reader. This reader may be your boss, a client, or a person who is ready to make a billion dollar business deal with you.

Have you ever read a poorly-written document that made you lose interest right away? It was so poorly-written that you lost trust in the author and asked yourself why the author was wasting your time? How about those junk e-mails that sneak into your junk box like annoying cockroaches? You know the ones I'm referring to: the ones pitching vitamins, software, and sex aids. These e-mails are the biggest showcase of writing blunders, stricken to death with grammar mistakes, misspellings, and sloppy sentences. I doubt these e-mails pull a sale because their poor writing style immediately alienates the reader.

What impression does your writing leave on your boss, clients, or co-workers? Does your writing alienate readers, cause you to lose sales or clients, or cost you job promotions? Or does your writing build streams of loyal readers, increase sales for the company, and help you earn six figures a year at your job?

Whatever type of writing you do in the workplace, always know this reality: readers believe the quality of your writing reflects your skills, work ethics, and integrity as a person. If you write eloquently, clearly, and lively, the reader trusts you and you are able to build rapport quickly. If your writing is sloppy, disorganized, and riddled with errors, the reader assumes the rest of your work is flawed, your work ethics are flawed, and perhaps as a person you are flawed. Why should this reader waste his time reading the rest of your junk or even do business with you?

This article provides fail-safe strategies to help refine your writing and help you to communicate with clarity, simplicity, and impact so you will never write junk again. You will learn five masterful steps to guide you in planning, writing, and refining an article; and you will learn how to avoid common writing mistakes.

AIM! FIRE! FIRE!

To become a superb writer, your first task is to establish your aim.

Yiddish novelist, dramatist and essayist, Sholem Asch, once said, "Writing comes more easily if you have something to say."

What message do you want to convey with your writing?

To establish your aim, ask yourself:

1) "Why am I writing this document?"
2) "What do I want to communicate?"
3) "Do I want to inform, educate, report, persuade, challenge, or entertain?"

Developing your aim will help you to adopt the best writing style for your reader. For example, an educational document will likely be more formal than one written for entertaining.

CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS

To write effectively, you need to connect strongly with your readers. Ask yourself:

1) "For whom am I writing this? Will I be writing for colleagues, my supervisor, my team of employees, or our clients?"

2) "How much information do my readers need?"

3) "How familiar are my readers with the topic?"

4) "How much time do my readers have? Would my readers prefer a short, succinct presentation of facts and statistics, or more narration and exposition?"

Knowing your audience will allow you to write content in a way that appeals to your readers.

SHAPE YOUR DOCUMENT

You know your aim. You know the people who will likely read your document. Now plan your document. What information will it contain? What information will most likely grab the reader and hold their interests? What points do you need to get across? Start with a rough outline of ideas. Then go through the outline and add more information and more detail. An outline will create the structure for your document. Soon enough your writing will come more easily, quickly, and with greater clarity.

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW BEST

At this stage, read over your outline and write the first draft. Establish the main idea of the document and support your argument throughout. If a blank white page glares back at you like headlights, just start writing on whatever topic you know best. According to American novelist Jack London, "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." Don't worry about the sequence if the ideas come to you out of order. You can cut and paste later.

WORDY WEIGHT LOSS

If you have time, step away from the document. Come back to it later with a fresh mind. Now add material where needed. Trim away unnecessary sections. Refine the text to communicate what you want to say. Remember: less is more. Try not to repeat ideas. Repetition, unless necessary, is tiresome for the reader. Keep the piece moving along. Use a lively pace. Progress through your points efficiently.

The following sections address some of the most common writing problems. Use these tips to write more clearly, effectively, and lively.

I.) PUNCTUATION

a) Apostrophes

Do not use an apostrophe in the possessive form of "it."

Incorrect: Our department submitted it's reports for 2005 last week.
Correct: Our department submitted its reports for 2005 last week.

Do not use apostrophes in the possessive forms "his," "hers," and "ours."

Incorrect: The window office is her's.
Correct: The window office is hers.

Do not use apostrophes in plural nouns.

Incorrect: How many new computer's are we getting?
Correct: How many new computers are we getting?

b) Commas

Do not connect two complete sentences with a comma.

Incorrect: The meeting was cancelled, I finished my work early.
Correct: The meeting was cancelled, so I finished my work early.
Correct: Since the meeting was cancelled, I finished my work early.

II.) MECHANICS

a) Split Infinitives

Do not insert words between "to" and the infinitive form of a verb.

Incorrect:I was told we needed to slightly tighten the deadline.

Correct:I was told we needed to tighten the deadline slightly.

III.) SPELLING

a) "A lot" is always two words.

Incorrect: I have alot of work to do.
Correct: I have a lot of work to do.

b) "To" is a function word often used before the infinitive form of a verb (to go).

c) "Too" is an adverb that means "excessively" (too difficult).

d) "Two" denotes the number 2.

Incorrect: This file cabinet is to heavy for me to move.
Correct: This file cabinet is too heavy for me to move.

e) "There" is an adverb indicating a place (over there).

f) "Their" is a possessive word that shows ownership (their computers).

g) "They're" is the contraction form of "they are."

Incorrect: There results for this quarter were excellent.
Correct: Their results for this quarter were excellent.

Incorrect: Their working very hard today.
Correct: They're working very hard today.

IV.) STYLE

a) Sentence Variety

To write more lively, vary sentence structure. Use alternate ways of beginning, and combine short sentences to create different sentence lengths.

Before:

I organized the files for all the new accounts this week. Then I created a more efficient labeling system. I color-coded everything. I made sure all paper files had been documented electronically. I put these files in the empty file cabinet.

After:

This week I organized the files for the new accounts and created a more efficient color-coded labeling system. After I documented all paper files electronically, I put these files in the empty file cabinet.

V.) ACTIVE VOICE vs. PASSIVE VOICE

The English language has two "voices": active voice (the subject performs an action); and passive voice (the subject is acted upon). In business communication, all good writers write in active voice. Lazy writers write in passive voice. Writing in active voice shortens your sentences and makes your writing sound more direct and formal.

Examples:

PASSIVE: The recipe book is read by her.
ACTIVE: She reads the recipe book.

PASSIVE: The radio announcement should be listened to by everyone.
ACTIVE: Everyone should listen to the radio announcement.

PASSIVE: The photo is being taken by the photographer.
ACTIVE: The photographer is taking the photo.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

To learn more about fixing common writing mistakes, check out The Electronic Writing Course ( http://www.ElectronicWritingCourse.com ). It's a program that teaches the basics of good writing and editing. If you want to check your document against 36,000 style and usage mistakes, check out StyleWriter ( http://www.stylewriter-usa.com/ ). It's a style and usage Plain English checker. If you want to write more lively and creatively, check out WhiteSmoke Software ( http://www.whitesmokesoftware.com/ ). It's a program that fixes and enriches your text.

If you follow these guidelines, you'll stop yourself from writing lousy in the workplace. Your writing will be lively, clear, and concise, and you will build rapport with readers. Perhaps it's now time to e-mail your boss a perfectly-written e-mail requesting a salary raise?

Brian Konradt has been a professional freelance writer for over ten years. He is founder of http://www.freelancewriting.com/ and http://www.literacynews.com/ .

Corporate Bloggers Launch Blog Council

The Blog Council, a professional community of top global brands dedicated to promoting best practices in corporate blogging, officially launched today. Founding members include the leading companies from a diverse range of business sectors: AccuQuote, Cisco Systems, The Coca-Cola Company, Dell, Gemstar-TV Guide, General Motors, Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Nokia, SAP, and Wells Fargo.

The Blog Council exists as a forum for executives to meet one another in a private, vendor-free environment and share tactics, offer advice based on past experience, and develop standards-based best practices as a model for other corporate blogs.

"Major corporations use blogs differently while abiding by the same rules and etiquette," said Blog Council CEO Andy Sernovitz. "Individual and small-business bloggers don't face the same issues. For example, we still need to deliver a responsible and effective corporate message, but we need to do it in the complicated environment of the blogosphere. We have to speak for a corporation, but never sound 'corporate.' And we have to learn to do it live, and in real-time."

Representing thought leaders from corporate departments as diverse as corporate communications, global communities, marketing and customer service, the Blog Council's advocacy role functions as a collective voice in support of responsible, ethics-based corporate blogs. Other issues the Council will address include:

How do global brands manage blogs in more than one language?

What do you do when 2000 employees have personal blogs?

What is the role of the corporate brand in a media landscape increasingly geared toward consumer-generated media?

What is the correct way to engage and respond to bloggers who write about your company?

"Every major corporation is struggling with the question of how to use blogs and engage the blogosphere the right way," said Sean O'Driscoll, General Manager, Community Support Services for Microsoft. "The Blog Council brings together precisely the people who need to explore these issues together, in a productive and private networking environment. We can work together to develop model policies that set the standard for corporate blogging excellence."

Website: http://www.blogcouncil.org/

Top Trends in Search for 2007

Yahoo! has released the Top Trends in Search, as told through the billions of searches in 2007 conducted by millions of Yahoo! searchers around the globe. Yahoo!'s Top Trends in Search reveals a portrait of a culture on the brink of political breakaways, celebrity breakdowns, technological breakthroughs, environmental action, sporting errors and final farewells to popular icons.

"Searches can give us insight into a culture in motion and Yahoo!'s Top Trends in Search in 2007 reflects the world's fascination with crossroads and breakthroughs. People weren't just buzzing about celebrity. More than ever they sought to be environmentally responsible, were using the Web to find out about food and product safety and getting the scoop on the latest gadgets," said Heather Cabot, Yahoo! Web Life Editor.

Top Trends in Search in 2007

News Stories – top 10 news stories

1. Saddam Hussein

2. Iran

3. Iraq

4. President George W. Bush

5. Oil and Gas prices

6. Barack Obama

7. Hillary Rodham Clinton

8. San Diego Fires

9. Afghanistan

10. Virginia Tech

This year, the availability of footage of Saddam Hussein's final moments caused searches for him to soar making the late Iraqi leader the most searched figure in the news of 2007. In addition, the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan propelled buzz throughout the year. With the ongoing diplomatic situation with Iran and visit from the Iranian president, Yahoo! users searched for more information on Iran than Iraq this year. Among the Presidential hopefuls, who embraced the Web in larger numbers this year, Democratic contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton once again drummed up a large number of searches.

Grass is Always Greener – top 10 environmental searches

1. Recycling

2. Global Warming

3. Freecycle

4. Earth

5. Pollution

6. Al Gore

7. Environmental Protection Agency

8. Live Earth

9. Hybrid Cars

10. Solar Energy

2007 may go down as the year people stopped talking about the climate crisis and actually did something about it. Yahoo! Searches found that people searched for ways to help the environment, on a global and personal level. Al Gore's, "An Inconvenient Truth," won an Academy Award and brought global warming to the fore-front. Also, "Freecycle.org," a social networking approach to local recycling, emerged as a hit to consumers that sought to exchange used goods in their neighborhoods. 2007 saw searches about global warming and energy-saving cars reach their highest levels ever.

Celebrity Downslides – top 10 troubled stars

1. Britney Spears

2. Paris Hilton

3. Anna Nicole Smith

4. Vanessa Anne Hudgens

5. Nicole Richie

6. Amy Winehouse

7. Rosie O'Donnell

8. Tara Conner

9. Michael Vick

10. Owen Wilson

This year, Yahoo! searches kept up with the twists and turns of troubled Hollywood stars with Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith at the top. Traffic violations drove socialites Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie to jail, and Lindsay Lohan went to rehab numerous times. The story of Anna Nicole Smith and her unexpected death resulted in a great spike in searches and Vanessa Ann Hudgens, the Disney star of "High School Musical", became even more popular following her photo scandal.

The Year of I, You and Wii – top 10 in tech

1. YouTube

2. Wikipedia

3. Facebook

4. iTunes

5. iPod

6. iPhone

7. Nintendo Wii

8. Xbox

9. Sony PlayStation 3

10. Guitar Hero

In 2007, a cell phone had people camping on the doorsteps of local wireless stores. Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, introduced the iPhone at MacWorld in January. From that moment on, searches on Yahoo! soared as people clamored for the latest gadget from the company who also brought us the infamous iPod. Nintendo's Wii had a similarly seductive quality. The game console debuted in late 2006, amidst predictions of a stiff competition from the Sony PlayStation 3 and the new Xbox. However, gadgets and games weren't the only things pushing tech to its limits - 2007 was also the year that presidential candidates en masse appealed to their citizenry through the Internet. Technology wasn't so much breaking new ground, as it was entering into a new maturity.

Tag, You're It – top 10 on del.icio.us

1. Design

2. HDTV

3. Games

4. Music

5. Web 2.0

6. Video

7. Ubuntu

8. Travel

9. Photography

10. Mac

Creativity and creation marked the 2007 searches on social search and bookmarking site, del.icio.us (http://delicious.com), which serves as the "shared Web memory" for millions of technologists, librarians, journalists, and others who enjoy staying on the cutting edge of what's new and interesting in technology and society. The pursuit of design took the top spot among the millions of del.icio.us users, who shared and tagged Web pages and articles on how to groom a website and tinker with typography for maximum effect.

Recalling the Recall – top 10 consumer call-backs

1. Pet Food Recall

2. Fisher Price

3. Thomas the Tank Engine

4. Dog Food Recall

5. Menu Foods

6. E. coli

7. Food Poisoning

8. Toy Recall

9. Peanut Butter recall

10. Topps

In early spring of 2007, reports of poisoned dog food spurred frantic searches about the pet food recall. For weeks, pet owners examined every brand of food to gauge its safety, and some resorted back to homemade recipes just as a precaution. Toy recalls, bearing the likeness of Thomas the Tank Engine and Fisher Price, suddenly spiked in searches due to the discovery of lead based paint in their products. Ultimately, the commanding search of food safety-related searches such as Menu Foods, E. coli, and Topps, surged to the top in an effort to stay informed. As companies' spot-testing measures and governmental agreements worked to restore consumer confidence, searches of these issues and additional recall announcements continued.

Elementary Deductions - top 10 searches on Yahoo! Kids

1. Games

2. Animals

3. Dinosaurs

4. Math

5. Hannah Montana

6. Solar System

7. George Washington

8. Halloween

9. Sally Ride

10. Global Warming

This year, kids ages 7–12 showed their environmental consciousness as they searched on topics of global proportions and endangered animals. Global warming was among 2007's top 10 searches on Yahoo! Kids. Although math topped the list of the most-searched school subject, science was also popular, with related searches on dinosaurs and the solar system remained high on the list among both boys and girls.

Hits, Runs and Errors – top 10 sports news

1. NASCAR

2. Maria Sharapova

3. Boston Red Sox

4. David Beckham

5. Serena Williams

6. Chicago Bears

7. Christiano Ronaldo

8. Super Bowl

9. Ronaldinho

10. Ashley Force

2007 featured several buzz-worthy sports searches, with Nascar at number one, continuing to be an American favorite. Searches showed that Maria Sharapova was very hot this year, and Serena Williams' triumph in the Australian open after a series of injuries made her a favorite of Yahoo! searchers. In a final ode to joy, the Boston Red Sox capped the year with a fantastic finish to the baseball season.

Final Farewells – top 10 send-offs

1. Harry Potter

2. Anna Nicole Smith

3. The Sopranos

4. Rosie O'Donnell

5. Gilmore Girls

6. The OC

7. Barbaro

8. Richard Jeni

9. Iwao Takamoto

10. Captain America

In 2007, we said goodbye to a number of favorite characters, both real and fictional. Harry Potter, Hermione, and Ron, the creations of author J.K. Rowling, all of which whom earned the most fare-thee-well searches of 2007, and making it the final chapter of the young wizards' adventures. Anna Nicole Smith's tragic passing intrigued many fans to search for her throughout the past year. In that curious intersection of real and fictional worlds, the assassination of comic-book character, Captain America, who was gunned down after defending his civil liberties, was too laden with symbolism to ignore. His death provoked a strong search reaction, although plans for his legacy continue to be in the works.

To find out more about the top trends in Yahoo! Search go to http://buzz.yahoo.com/toptrends2007 or search for "Top Trends 2007" on yahoo.com.

How To Write Better Ad Copy for Clients

A successful marketing plan relies heavily on the pulling-power of advertising copy. Writing result-oriented ad copy is difficult, as it must appeal to, entice, and convince consumers to take action. There is no magic formula to write perfect ad copy; it is based on a number of factors, including ad placement, demographic, even the consumer’s mood when they see your ad. So how is any writer supposed to pen a stunning piece of advertising copy -- copy that sizzles and sells? The following tips will jumpstart your creative thinking and help you write a better ad.

KNOW THE BASICS

All good advertising copy is comprised of the same basic elements. Good advertising copy always:

Grabs Attention: Consumers are inundated with ads, so it’s vital that your ad catches the eye and immediately grabs interest. You could do this with a headline or slogan (such as VW’s “Drivers Wanted” campaign), color or layout (Target’s new colorful, simple ads are a testimony to this) or illustration (such as the Red Bull characters or Zoloft’s depressed ball and his ladybug friend).

Promises Credible Benefit: To feel compelled by an ad, the consumer must stand to gain something; the product is often not enough. What would the consumer gain by using your product or service? This could be tangible, like a free gift; prestige, power or fame. But remember: you must be able to make good on that promise, so don’t offer anything unreasonable.

Keeps Interest: Grabbing the consumer’s attention isn’t enough; you have to keep that attention for at least a few seconds. This is where your benefits come into play or a product description that sets your offer apart from the others.

Generates Action: This is the ultimate point of advertising copy -- it must make the reader react in some way. This doesn’t necessarily translate to buying the product immediately or using the service. Your ad could be a positioning tool to enable the reader to think about you in a certain light. Speak to your audience, or the audience you’d like to reach, and you’ll be surprised how frequently they come to you in the future.

KNOW THE MEDIUM

How you write your advertising copy will be based on where you will place your ad. If it’s a billboard ad, you’ll need a super catchy headline and simple design due to the speed at which people will pass. Online ads are similar; consumers are so inundated with Internet advertising that your ad must be quick and catchy. Magazine advertising is the most versatile, but this is solely dependent on the size of your ad and how many other ads compete with yours. If you have a full page ad, feel free to experiment; more page space gives you more creative space. If the ad is tiny, you’ll need to keep things as simple as possible.

KNOW THE STYLE

Advertising copy is a unique type of writing. Its point is to balance creativity and readability into something persuasive and entertaining. Keep the following points in mind when you write your copy:

Be Succinct: There are few things more damaging to an ad campaign than messy wordiness. Use short sentences with as many familiar words as possible; save the thesaurus for a thesis or dissertation. Always make sure to use precise phrasing (why use five adjectives when one good action verb would do?); and eliminate any redundancies, such as “little tiny” or “annual payments of $XXX per year.”

Talk To Your Audience, Not At Them: Though you are announcing the availability of a product or service, avoid being clinical or overly formal. Write as if you’re talking to your ideal customer; use a style they’d use, words they’d be familiar with, slang they’d probably know. But be absolutely certain that you’re using these terms and phrases correctly. A recent McDonald’s campaign attempted to reach a certain audience by using the phrase “I’d hit it” in reference to a cheeseburger, unaware that the phrase is almost always used as a sexual reference.

Avoid Clichés: It’s easy for writers new to advertising copy to fall into this trap, but it’s a trap that can severely damage the writing. Clichés fail to ignite the imagination; and consumers so numb to the phrases will often skip right past them, effectively ruining the succinct element of your ad. If you find yourself tempted to use a cliché, think about the message you want to convey with that cliché and try to rephrase it in a more imaginative, personal way.

Always Proofread: It’s an obvious point, but you’d be surprised how many ads run in a magazine or on a billboard with an error of some sort. Go through your advertising copy carefully to make sure that every word is spelled correctly, the grammar is impeccable and the punctuation is dead on. Even the best ads can be ruined by a misplaced comma or dangling modifier. Use a program like WhiteSmoke or StyleWriter to help you write better.

Partnership with John Wiley & Sons Inc. adds 7,000 new online dictionary entries

The web site YourDictionary.com has partnered with the world-respected publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc. to bring the latest definitions, synonyms, usage examples and etymologies from Webster's New World® College Dictionary, Fourth Edition.

YourDictionary takes advantage of the dictionary's up-to-date practical and easy-to-use information, providing users with accessible entries about the English language and our world. Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition provides an outstanding reference site that meets the needs of our age of instant global communication. The fourth edition includes more than 7,000 new entries, including new words, new Americanisms, and new biographical and geographical information. All of these entries are integrated into a single alphabetical listing.

Unsurpassed for more than half a century for its reliability, clarity, and precision, Webster's New World College Dictionary provides the most accurate and current information available to scholars, writers, and students, as well as millions of business users worldwide

In addition to adoption of Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition as its core reference, YourDictionary has also added synthesized speech to the site so that every headword in the dictionary can be heard, as well as seen. This is very important for a user who is encountering a word for the first time or who is using English as a second language. A future enhancement by Your Dictionary will result in audio reading of every definition in the Webster's New World College Dictionary.

Website: http://www.yourdictionary.com/

Writing Utility for Teens

Solutions for most, if not all, writing problems that teens face are a click away at HelpWithYourEssay.com. Featuring interactive tutorials and a writing contest where teens can win iPhones and savvy school supplies, the site is bound to get book-marked as it makes its way through the social networks.

"I'm happy that I finally have something to help me write my essays," says Nate, 15, of Sherman Oaks, CA. "My parents don't want to pay for tutors. They want me to learn from class and the internet. Now I have something free and really useful."

The site provides step-by-step interactive guidance for the skill of writing that all American high-school and college students must learn. Teens can produce a thesis statement, outline and rough draft, all emailed to them automatically. They can find tools to overcome writer's block, and they can polish their style with tutorials about transitions and using the active voice. And, of course, there are prizes to be won for good writing.

"I'm looking forward to seeing the results of the writing contest," says Linda, 16, with a smile. "Even if I don't win, I'll see what the winners did to win when I get the newsletter, and then next time I'll try again."

Teachers will find HelpWithYourEssay.com an indispensable tool for their student writers. Parents will enjoy the extra money they save from extensive tutoring. And students will delight in the ease and convenience of a utility that gently guides them through the otherwise daunting writing process.

Website: http://www.helpwithyouressay.com/

How To Write A Better Business Letter

Writing business letters is a forgotten art. The Internet has made us lazy writers. With a few keystrokes, we can kick off a short e-mail without thinking much about content, much less formatting. Have you ever reviewed your own e-mails and discovered misspellings, incomplete sentences, formatting mistakes, and grammatical errors? Usually we think nothing about how our lazy writing negatively affects our e-mails; other people e-mail us the same type of junk all the time. But, still, writing lousy e-mails should not give us the excuse to be lazy writers all the time, online or offline.

Writing business letters may be one of the best skills a business person can possess, especially during these times when few people possess it. The following tips will help you to construct better business letters. You can also adapt these principles to write better business e-mails, in terms of both format, style and tone.

COMPONENTS AND FORMATTING

All business letters are comprised of the following elements, in this order:

Date
Recipient's name and address
Salutation
Opening paragraph
Body
Closing paragraph
Closing
Your name and address

The style of formatting will dictate how these elements are situated on the page. The three most common formatting styles are:

BLOCK: Each part of the letter is left-justified, and the text is single-spaced, except double-spaced paragraph breaks.

MODIFIED BLOCK: The opening, body and closing paragraphs are left-justified and single-spaced, but the date, closing and salutation are center-aligned.

SEMI-BLOCK: Exactly like modified block, except each paragraph is indented, not left-justified.

Regardless of which style you choose, you'll also need to consider the font; your choice is important, as fancy fonts are sometimes unreadable. The most commonly used and widely accepted font is Times New Roman, size 12. It's readable, professional, and universally used for business letters. It's not outside the realm of possibility, however, to take liberties here; you can really use any readable font (Arial, Verdana, Helvetica), but always consider what your recipient would like to see.

OPENING PARAGRAPH

Since the principle point of your business letter is to grab and keep the reader's attention, you'll need to focus on the opening, the first (and sometimes only) opportunity you have to grab the recipient's attention. The opening also sets the tone for the entire letter, so it must be as strong and characteristic as possible.

DO get straight to the point. Your recipient doesn't need a bunch of unnecessary info., especially not right up front. If it doesn't pertain to or bores them, they'll just stop reading.

DON'T start with cliché phrases like "I am writing because..." or "With regards to...". This simply appears that you don't know where to start. The real message won't start until after those phrases, so why not eliminate the unnecessary and uncreative words?

DO use strong, active verbs. This keeps the focus on the reader and makes the letter far more interesting. For instance, instead of writing "this offer is being extended to you for a brief period of time," try "we're briefly extending this offer to you." See how much easier that is?

DON'T get longwinded. Keep the opening short and to-the-point, use the best words possible, and never make the reader work for the point of the letter.

BODY

This is the meat of the letter, where you'll fully explain the ideas introduced in the opening. It's easy to lose momentum here, but this part must be every bit as strong as the opening.

DO write like talk. This doesn't mean using informal slang or profanity, but why lapse into business speak when it's trite and boring? Chances are, you aren't a 19th century British gentleman, so don't write like one! Use a conversation, yet respectful, tone and try to phrase things similarly to how you'd actually say them.

DON'T lose the point. Save the digressions for a face-to-face chat. You've got a short time to hold the reader's interest here and off-point sentences will simply give your reader time to yawn and put the letter down. List the points you need to make prior to writing, and stick to them.

DO keep related information together. Don't move on to another point until you've finished the last, and resist the urge to scatter topics haphazardly. Anything less and you'll appear to be rambling with no sense of focus.

DON'T get pedantic. Sure, it's nice to show off our vocabularies, but that big word has little point if a smaller word would be more effective and readable. Put the thesaurus away and use familiar language.

CLOSING PARAGRAPH

This paragraph is the last string of sentences your reader will see, so it needs to be as strong as the rest of the letter.

DO keep it short. The closing paragraph can be the briefest part of the letter as you're simply restating, in simple language, what you've already written. Restate your point and sign off.

DON'T fizzle out. It's tempting to let the closing paragraph sort of die quickly or be an exact replica of other sentences simply because you've already worked so hard on the rest. Resist that urge -- keep the ending strong, and hold your conversational tone.

DO be clear about your intentions. If you're looking for an email response or a business meeting, make that clear. The point of your letter will be lost if the reader has little idea what you want from them or how to proceed from here.

DON'T get trite. Avoid typical cliché endings like "Thank you in advance..." or "Please do not hesitate to call..."; this ends the business letter on a weak note. Be as direct and creative as possible without falling prey to typical business language.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Konradt has been a professional freelance writer for over a decade. He is A contributing writer to http://www.lousywriter.com/ and http://www.freelancewriting.com/.