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Do You Know When to Use The Words “Which” or “That” in a Sentence?

sharonm — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:36:09 +0000

Many people are uncertain as to the proper usage of the “Which” and “That” clauses. Here’s a tip: use “which” to begin a “descriptive clause” (also called a nonessential clause) and use “that” to begin a restrictive clause (or essential clause - a clause required to identify the noun the clause modifies).

Examples

Descriptive - non-restrictive clause:

Van Aken Road, which is in Twinsburg, is a large thoroughfare.

Restrictive - essential clause:

The Van Aken Road that is in Twinsburg, is not the Van Aken Rd. that is in Sandusky.

Tip: A descriptive clause must be preceded by a comma and then the word “which”

When to Use Commas

sharonm — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:25:33 +0000

I’m not going to bore you with all the ins and outs of comma use, but I just attended a wonderful editor’s refresher course and I thought I’d share some tips with you as you manage your own business or personal communications:

Years and Place Names

Commas should be placed around years that follow a month and day:

On July 14, 1978, Sarah celebrated her birthday.

With “since” and “while”

When “since” and “while” are used to qualify time, no commas precede them. When they are used to denote something other than time, a comma does precede them.

When since is used to indicate a consequence:

Frank bent down to pick up the roller skate, since he didn’t want Catherine to fall. (place the comma before since)

“Since” as a time indicator:

Ed hasn’t visited the church since he moved a way. (no comma before)

“While” when you mean “but” or “on the other hand”:

I love sleeping, while my husband shovels the snow.

“While” as a time indicator

I sleep while my husband works. (no comma).

Online Promotional Strategy

sharonm — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:44:54 +0000

As a website owner, you should consider developing your own online promotional strategy. With a strategy comes a greater sense of control over your time and a better understanding of the effectiveness of your work. What you don’t want to be doing is wasting your time on tactics that don’t work. You won’t know that unless you have a strategy that you can monitor and use to measure success or failure.

A Few Suggestions for your online promotional strategy:

Article marketing - place well written, concise articles about your product or service in publications that your customers are likely to read. Submit your articles to magazine article directories as well. Others will then use your articles (with proper acknowledgment of course!) on their websites/publications. This is great exposure for your company and the work that you do.
Issue a press release over the Internet. The lifespan of a press release is longer on the Internet. In the pre-Internet world, a faxed press release would be ditched hours after its release and pick-up (if it was picked up).
Today whether a release is picked up or not, it’s still on the Internet and if your key words are well integrated into the copy it will still surface in search engine searches.
Research relevant, viable and credible blog writers and discussion forums. Follow the discussion and post comments that, if appropriate to the discussion, highlight your product or service. Interested readers will follow you comment link to your website.

If you’d like assistance developing your online promotional strategy and the content for your articles, please drop me a line via email at sharon@sharonwrites.com. Remember: you need to focus your time on your core business work. Outsource whenever you can - that’s the practice of successful companies!