As a result of what I read, I thought I’d pass along some (hopefully) helpful tips.
Please don’t think that I’m offering these only because The Sanford Herald is free of typos or missing words. That’s hardly the case.
Nary a week goes by that there isn’t something I cringe at after seeing it in print. We try to make the paper as clean as possible, but things sometimes get by us. (Coincidentally, just as I was writing this, someone came into our office and mentioned that we had a recent photo showing students receiving a “plague” instead of a “plaque.”)
We move on and try not to stub our toes on the same thing next time. Hey, there’s likely to be an oversight someplace in this column today that someone will point out!
Some of those local fliers mentioned the “St. John’s River” (there is not supposed to be an apostrophe in the St. Johns River), touted connections to the “Sanford Airport” (should be the Orlando Sanford International Airport), talked about parts of downtown Sanford “rebuilt at the turn of the century” (which century?), and listed hours as “9-2pm” (come again?) and “12-5pm” (is that midnight or noon?).
Why would you need the “th” as in “Aug. 24th” or “:00” as in “2:00” (you wouldn’t).
Most newspapers follow the writing-style rules standardized in The Associated Press Stylebook, and many papers have a local addendum for their own purposes.
We started assembling entries for our own local stylebook at the Herald a few months ago. Here are some of the more common local examples I see around town that you may want to remember when creating a pamphlet, advertising in the Herald or even writing your daily correspondence:
* Altamonte Springs (the city name is not “Altamonte”).
* Auto Train (two words, Amtrak’s line that runs from Sanford to Lorton, Va.).
* Central Florida GreeneWay (The state DOT designation is State Road 417).
* Lake Jesup (one “s”).
* Midges are not “blind mosquitoes.”
* RiverWalk (one word with a capital “W” for the city’s waterfront walking path).
* Seminole Towne Center (“Mall” is not part of the name).
* Streets – Use numerals for numbered streets, such as 1st Street, 6th Street, etc.
* Two Blondes & a Shrimp (restaurant).
* Wekiva/Wekiwa – Wekiva for the Wekiva River. Wekiwa for most everything else (Wekiwa Springs, Wekiwa Springs State Park, Wekiwa Springs Road, etc.)
Go figure on that Wekiva/Wekiwa entry.
Back to my first sentence about fliers…
Just in case you’re creating a flier, you might want to make sure you spell it that way. As the AP Stylebook says: “Flier is the preferred term for an aviator or a handbill. Flyer is the proper name of some trains and buses: The Western Flyer.”
The English language can be a minefield.
A cool advertising idea
We’re flattered that a recent SanPaper column about creative advertising inspired Nancy Palmeiri, co-owner of Sal’s Italian Ice & Ice Cream.
Nancy says she agrees that advertisers, Sal’s included, should do more inventive things to set them apart from competitors (such as the beer ad that I mentioned, which challenged readers to mark off jumbled-up numbers from 1 to 60 in three minutes).
As a result, Sal’s has been running an ice cream trivia challenge in the Herald. Participants who return the quiz to Sal’s could win a $10 gift certificate in an upcoming drawing.
My favorite question is: Which U.S. state boasts the highest per capita consumption of ice cream?
Who would have guessed the answer is Alaska! (Nancy said she wouldn’t be upset if I gave that one answer away.)
Speaking of Italian ices, the Herald is going to offer some tropical-flavored ices from Sal’s at the next downtown Alive After 5 street party. The party’s Aug. 13 theme? Tropical Nights.
Presidents in action
Dan Ping, host of Dan the Man Trivia, had a challenging question recently during his weekly competition at the Black Swan pub, 118 S. Park Ave.:
What five U.S. presidential last names are also verbs?
I’m not even going to help you out on this one…if you’ve thought about it a while but can’t get them all, look up a list of the presidents and see if that helps. Or ask Dan at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Comments can be sent to Herald publisher Gene Kruckemyer at GKruckemyer@MySanfordHerald.com.