Today is National Grammar Day, so here's a little grammar help for your fundraising:
Professor Jeff's Fundraising Grammar Syllogism
In fundraising...
- It's better to sound friendly and colloquial than pedantic.
- It's also better to be correct than incorrect.
- Therefore, if you find yourself with a passage that's forcing you to choose between friendly and correct, rewrite the passage to avoid the conflict.
Example: Say you find that you've written this sentence: Whomever you help, you'll make all the difference in the world.
Correct, but sounds pedantic and off-putting. The easy change would be: Whoever you help, you'll make all the difference in the world.
Sounds a little better, but it's now incorrect. (It's incorrect in a way most readers wouldn't notice or care about. But still -- incorrect.)
The advanced fundraising writer will strike the whole sentence and start over. Something like: When you send your gift, you'll know in your heart that you helped someone in need. And that makes all the difference in the world.
Fundraising Ninja Superhint: Awkward sentences can almost always be fixed by cutting them into two (or more) sentences.
(This post first appeared on March 4, 2016.)
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