Bad grammar equals bad tourism.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's latest campaign to lure tourists got off to a rocky start after embarrassed officials acknowledged that a key slogan was ungrammatical and ordered it corrected.

"Visit Indonesia 2008. Celebrating 100 Years of Nation's Awakening" has been printed on billboards, government Web sites and emblazoned on the sides of aircraft belonging to the national airline, Garuda.

To be grammatical, the phrase "Nation's Awakening" should be made specific, for example by preceding it with the definite article 'the' or the possessive pronoun 'our.' Another way would be to replace the noun "nation" with the adjective "national."

"Our colleagues tried their best not to be reckless in creating the slogan, I'm sure," said Thamrin Bachri, director general for marketing at the ministry of culture and tourism. "But we have been advised by several people to change the slogan," he was quoted as saying in Friday's Jakarta Post.

No one from the ministry was immediately available for comment.

The 1908 event referred to in the campaign is the founding of Indonesia's first nationalist group, a development hailed here as a key step in the country's eventual independence from Dutch rule in 1945.

Many people have questioned the wisdom of referring to the anniversary at all in a tourist campaign, given that few people outside the country have ever heard of it and would unlikely be interested in attending events to mark it.

Bachri said the phrase would be changed to "celebrating 100 years of national awakening."

It was not immediately clear how much the slip-up will cost the ministry, but a spokesman for Garuda said Friday each of the 10 aircraft emblazoned with the slogan cost about $1,800 to paint.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was to have officially launched the campaign on Jan. 1.

Indonesia drew about 5 million tourists last year, most to its resort island of Bali.

Grammar Cartoon

Check That Spell Check

Have you ever sent an email to a colleague or potential client only to realize afterward that you wrote ‘form’ instead of ‘from’? Or, have you ever turned in a paper to a professor thinking, this paper is perfection incarnate, only to receive it back with red slashes marking verb agreement errors and sentence fragments? If you have ever found yourself in a similar situation, then you know the frustrations of relying on a grammar checking software to proofread your work.

Software companies have made enormous advances in technology, and every time my spell check finds where I’ve written ‘teh’ instead of ‘the,’ I am grateful. But language is complex, and while computer programmers are excellent at generating code that follows rules, it is nearly impossible to generate all the rules for a given language. Studies that have been conducted on the strength of software that attempts to generate these rules have found that, at best, grammar programs catch only about 50 percent of the 20 most common errors made by writers (see this University of Washington professor’s page regarding the Microsoft version).

It is becoming increasingly clear that the more we generate rules about language, the more we realize that ‘rules’ are really ‘guidelines’ and as such, are very difficult to manipulate into a computer code. People like Noam Chomsky have dedicated their life to figuring out the ‘rules’ of language. If you’ve ever studied Chomsky’s work, you’d find that for every rule, there are exceptions, and this creates an extremely complex network of guidelines about language. And Chomsky is only describing how language works, not how to use it. The folks at the Modern Language Association do more of the prescribing. But even if you read the MLA handbook, you will find exceptions to most grammar rules. This is precisely why depending on a computer program to ensure that your grammar is correct is a mistake.

What one needs with an important document – and let’s face it, when that email goes to a client, or that paper goes to a professor, it’s important – is a set of human eyes. Where a computer may not be able to understand complexities, a human can. When you want to present your work to someone who it is essential that you impress, you want to make sure it is the best that it can be. You may have brilliant ideas, but the moment a reader sees a misspelling or an incorrect semicolon, you will lose their trust. If you want to ensure that a reader is evaluating you on your ideas, rather than your grammar, you must be sure that the text you produce is clean. The best way to ensure a clean text is to get someone to read it who knows the rules of language, but even more, who knows when these rules have exceptions.

by Lane Patterson, ©2007 Alphabetix. All Rights Reserved.

Make Time to Write

Being a writer is no milk and cookies. The hardest obstacle to overcome is to find time to write, and in this crazy world filled with jobs, commutes, families, and a multitude of timetables to contend with, it’s a miracle your pen ever meets the page. Try to live by the following mantra:

To be a writer, I must write.
In order to write, I must find time to write.
To find time to write, I must have a plan.

Sure, I know exactly what you are thinking; easier said than done, right? Well, with a game plan, you too can be a productive member of the writing community. Here’s how.

Try getting up a half hour earlier each morning. Use this time to write, and not to get more brush strokes in on the dental care. If you can get up a half hour early each weekday, you gain two and a half hours of writing time a week.

Block out one afternoon a week. Unplug the phone, leave chores unfinished, and find a private space where you won’t be interrupted. Try a local library, coffee shop, or park. Do not fear being anti-social, for writing is a solo craft. Explaining to love ones your desire to have this time for your writing will allow them to appreciate your creative muse.

Carry a notebook at all times. You will be surprised how often the muse will call while you are buying groceries, or how the ride home on the bus unfolds a splendor of urban fauna outside your window. Take full advantage of waiting time. So next time you have to wait an extra fifteen minutes in the doctors waiting room, you should be writing.

Be creative when your body tells you differently. Can’t sleep at night? Then get out of bed and write. It’s more productive than laying there counting dots on the ceiling. Feel like taking a day off from working out due to sore muscles? Not a problem, exercise your imagination instead.

Finally, when all else fails, befriend other writers and join a writers’ group. You will be surprised how deadlines and weekly requirements of sharing your writing develop a necessity to not only write, but also polish your writing for the sake of sharing.

All in all, enjoy the process of writing, and you’ll find what works best for you.

by Jean Cameron, ©2007 Alphabetix. All Rights Reserved.

Grammar Cartoon

Good Grammar Makes Good Business!

Bad grammar can have adverse reactions on potential clients because people form first impressions by the words your business speaks. The old adage “actions speak louder than words” may be true, but words in print form a concrete representation of you, and your business.

The words we choose to use and the manner in which we use them are seen as an indicator of our intelligence. Improper grammar in print usually stems from our daily verbal vernacular and the attempt to write the way we speak. We have ingrained in our brains a particular way to speak, and must remember to write for an audience similar to the way in which we prepare for a public speaking engagement.

Even more important in the business world, is to be aware of your audience, your clients. Clients have the final say on who they conduct business with, and bad grammar will surely keep their prospects moving to a competitor, instead of you.

by James Reid, ©2007 Alphabetix. All Rights Reserved.

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