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Some Copywriting Suggestions For Documents You Submit — Sept. 2016

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There are some recurring errors I see in documents which are easy to fix but take my time as website Editor. Avoiding them will make my job a lot easier and make your content more readable. These are rules I follow as a professional copywriter and are consistent for the companies paying me for my work.

 
– There is no such date as November 22nd or October 13th. The “nd” and “th” are possessives, and only used if you say “the 22nd of November” or the “13th of October”. Please just use the month and day, and avoid the possessive form. If I see it I remove it.
 
– The same thing goes for using a possessive form such as “RV’s” versus “RVs.” The form “RV’s” means something belonging to the RV, rather than simply saying there is more than one.
 
– The old days of adding two spaces after a period, or full stop if you prefer, are over. That was a carryover from typewriter fonts where two spaces were needed to see the end of a sentence. Web content is clear with only a single space, and the double space after a sentence is not needed. All those extra spaces add time to your day, so you don’t need to use them.
 
– Run-on sentences are subjective, but a general rule to use is end a sentence and start a new one if you want to place a comma there. This is particularly true if the two phrases separated by the comma can stand alone.
 
– Web pages are more readable with shorter sentences, and use only three to four sentences per paragraph. Readers will ignore your efforts if you publish long paragraphs.
 
– Capitalize names like Board and Committee to recognize words describing a group, but Fund, Statement, Meeting, and other words like that do not need nor should they be capitalized. Capital letters should be used for official terms such as Finance Report or Balance Sheet if the terms are used to describe a particular document, but “we looked at a balance sheet of the Committee” is appropriate otherwise. Another example would be “we attended the Finance Committee meeting” not “we attended the Finance Committee Meeting.” Over-capitalizing words makes your documents hard to read.
 
– Spell out the days of the week and the months of the year. Filling a document with Jan., Mar., Nov, Mon., or Fri. makes them harder to read.
 
– We live in La Casa, not LaCasa or lacasa.

More Product Recall Information — Aug. 2016

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Last month we showed you a couple of sites which can help you keep track of product recalls. There’s a lot of information out there, so we thought we would add a few more sites you can review for recalls of different types:

US Food and Drug Administration Recall Information — http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/default.htm

Food Safety Recalls (Dept. of Health and Human Services) — https://www.foodsafety.gov/recalls/recent/

Consumer Product and Safety Commission Recalls — http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/

National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration Recalls and Defects for Vehicles — http://www.nhtsa.gov/Vehicle+Safety/Recalls+&+Defects

Child-related Recalls — http://www.safekids.org/product-recalls

Recalls.gov Generic Search Site for Recalls — http://www.recalls.gov

 

There are many more sites you can find by doing an Internet search, but these and last month’s should offer a good range of recall information. Stay safe!

— The Editor

Keeping Track of Product Recalls — June 2016

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This content is restricted to La Casa Residents who are registered and logged in.

You hopefully noticed the emergency notification banner we ran here last week. The content was about a multi-state recall of vegetables and produce due to possible contamination. We decided to use our new banner system to test it and to let you know about the recall. [Read more…]

Have You Looked Down Lately? — March 2016

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Have you looked below the top of the home page lately?

When you log into the La Casa ROC website, you typically will see the “features” that scan like a slide show, primarily with Activity Association information of upcoming activities.  To the right of that is our Amazon.com link that gives a rebate back to La Casa for anything you purchase.

You can also see several tabs across the top that take you directly to different parts of the website; News, the Events and Notices Channel, our community Calendar, and so on.

But have you paged down?

Below the HOA items in the left column, newest items first, and the News items in the center column, in the same order, is another section for Resident Activities. This includes on-site activities like a block party, the recent American Sign Language classes, notices about Christmas decorations, and so forth. It’s a category we needed to allow all the activities that aren’t HOA or Activities Associations to have a home, and there it is. So once in a while, page down and see if there is anything new there.

Also, don’t forget our Creative Writing page is waiting for residents to get creative. Stories, fiction, photos, artwork, we can accept just about anything. Of course, we don’t want controversial or political topics that are simply designed to antagonize people. Remember that all content is subject to our site Terms and Conditions. You can find a link at the bottom of the home page for that, if you need a refresher.

As always, your feedback is welcome. — The Editor

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