We don’t generally expect to find references to direct marketing in books about proper grammar. But Constance Hale manages to cite DM issues three times in her new book, “Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose.”
She takes an obvious swipe at the overuse of adjectives in marketing prose; suggests that brevity might add to the U.S. Postal Service’s credibility when apologizing for damaged mail; and credits branding with the blanding of American English.
“In a world of TV anchors who deliver the news in banal and accentless bursts,” she writes, “at a time when `branding’ beats originality and when you can’t escape mindless – and endless – `Just Do It’ commercials, we urgently long for writing that is original, passionate and personal.”
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