In the midst of Advertising wilderness...

From blown-up content writing (to what seems like forever), recently I had the chance to take a creative detour very much within my professional framework. Well, up till last month for less than a year, I had my short stint in the amazing, most complex world of Advertising.

I must say that short span did spin me around, professionally as well as personally, like a good million times. And I should definitely agree that those spins have helped me root deeper and thorough in my chosen field of profession. Which would be writing, to be precise!

Frankly, in more ways than one this short stint at the ad agency I was working with kinda reconstructed and rebuilt my very foundations of content writing. Like, there's this whole deep and wide plunge out there in the universe as to why Copywriting is different than Content writing and how the two seemingly related fields are vastly poles apart. But really, I think, there is so much of correlation between the two and that one can truly gain from the best of both these two worlds (or words).

Fortunately, I was in a position where I had to pretty much self-teach myself about the basics and nuances of copywriting. My situation was as good as a commoner pushed into the MMA ring without any combating skills! But I don't blame anyone. I had voluntarily opted for it. So I just guessed it was my own battle to upgrade my copywriting skills, all by myself.

And I can say that I fairly did a good job for a self-taught and learnt-by-experience copywriter within a short period. Until, someone with over 50 years of experience in the field of advertising came onboard. Though his tutelage lasted only a few days, Mr. Avinash Gokhale enlightened me with many underlying truths and understandings of the Ad field that one only gains by experience. Working under him was mostly eye-opening. Yet, his parting words are something I shall never forget.

A Lion met a Tiger  

as they drank beside the pool.  

Said the Tiger to the Lion, 

"Why do you roar like a fool?"  

"That's not foolish," said the Lion,  

With a twinkle in his eyes,  

"They call me the king of beasts, 

Because I advertise!"  

A Rabbit heard them talking, 

And ran home like a streak.

He thought he'd try the Lion's plan,

But his roar was just as sqeak.

A Fox then heard the Rabbit. 

He had dinner in the woods.

So when you advertise, my friends,

Be sure you've got the goods!

Wonderful, aren't the lines. Written by someone unknown...

I have moved past the copywriting/ advertising phase in my career and have understood that before I step back into this wild wilderness I will have to better equip myself this time.

But, no matter what I do, no matter what anybody else pursues in life - selling remains a big chunk of almost everyone's career. Aren't we now all just trying to sell something to someone, albeit in different formats, different deliverables, across different media?

Selling products, knowledge, emotions, even sometimes self (like when you're interviewing) over print, via digital or the good 'ol way, personally!

When to use ‘A’ and when to use ‘An’ in special cases

Now we most certainly are aware with the basic usage of ‘a’ and ‘an’ while framing verbal and written sentences in English. What I am trying to explore here is of more intricate nature. So before we delve further into this curious case of ‘a’ and ‘an’, let’s check out the prelude to what ticked me off on this expedition. But before that, here’s the basic usage of ‘a’ and ‘an’ for the uninitiated.

-          - Use ‘a’ for words (nouns/adjectives) that start with alphabets other than vowels.

-          - Use ‘an’ for referring words staring with a vowel - A, I, O, U, E; also H sometimes.

Know when to use either 'a' or 'an' while referring to an ancronym

So weeks ago, I was doing this freelance content work for an IT company, here in Pune. I was drafting a Press Release. Now we all know the practice of SEOing your web content in order to make it seeable on the mammoth internet (guess even I should start doing this). So I was given a set of keywords to be incorporated in the press release. And then there was one particular keyword - an acronym - to be used in the headline of the press release.

I tried and tried. But something wasn't right. My efforts were futile. So I simply skipped the headline, only to be reworked upon later after the completion of the Press Release. Perhaps, an hour later I must have finished with the press release but was still stuck with the correct incorporation of that keyword in the headline.

The keyword was SIEM, standing for Security Information & Event Management. And as per their guidelines (which stated simple statements, no grandiloquent language), the best headline that I could come up with, whilst doubting my ability, was this - ProActEye delivers a SIEM breakthrough. +ProActEye Managed SIEM as SaaS 

So the glitch that held me back for so long was whether I should be using ‘a’ or ‘an’ before the term SIEM. I tried and failed miserably in evading the article use. So I had to when I had to. With an anxious nerve, I finally decided to go with ‘a’. Later, I took to an English-Grammar Group in Google+ to find the answer to my confusion. The image below is a snapshot of the clarification received from +Bill Davis, which clearly specifies the answer.

A snapshot of the comments section

He opines, if SIEM were to be pronounced as one single word (meaning: pronounced as SEE-EM) then in that case ‘a’ would imply before SIEM in the headline. But otherwise, if the pronunciation was alphabet specific (like EES-AYE-EE-EM), the usage of ‘an’ would deem best.

That’s it, my problem was solved and confusion was bloated away. I really heaved a sigh of relief that grammatically and technically I was right, because in the IT world the acronym SIEM was actually pronounced as SEE-EM. So my headline was right.

So folks, hope this suffices the others like me out there - ‘a’ or ‘an’ depending on the pronunciation of  the acronym would do well in the sentence.