1-1-05 Vowels in Absentia

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="042d05a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Big Ring Media Team, Inc.</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Big Ring Media Team, Inc."><B>home</B></A></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="043d2123.jpg"> <div> Click on this link to return to <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Word Watch by Date">Word Watch by Date</A>.</div> <div> Click on this link to go to <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Word Watch by Subject">Word Watch by Subject</A>.</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>1-1-05 Vowels in Absentia</I></div> <div> The human brain is adept at detecting patterns, and it fills in information to complete patterns when necessary. Remember those tests where you were given a sequence of numbers and asked what number would be next? Relative ability to extrapolate is one rough measure of intellect.</div> <div> Sometimes we interpolate rather than extrapolate. That is, we fill in missing elements of a sequence. Look at these examples:</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">A,B,C,D. What is the next letter? (Extrapolation.)</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">1,2,3,5,6. What is the missing number? (Interpolation.)</div> <div> Okay, so what does this have to do with writing? Writers use this knack for filling in missing elements to form abbreviations. We know that “int'l” is an abbreviation for “international,” even though nine of the original thirteen letters have been removed. Note that five of those nine letters are vowels. Studies have shown that humans are especially gd at fllng in vwls.</div> <div> Trouble arrives when unintended infill occurs. One example that comes to mind is the graphic on certain Toyota vehicles that identify them as products of the Toyota Racing Development division. That graphic is an acronym: TRD. All's well when the viewer sounds out the letters. But when the brain fills in what appears to be missing - the letter “u” - the shine comes off Toyota's performance image.</div> <div> Big Ring Writing's directeur, Richard Ries, recalls that when he was a struggling college student, he drove a vehicle that could be classified as a TRD. It wasn't a Toyota. It was a Chevrolet. But with a wheezing four-cylinder engine, the handling of a hay wagon, and a propensity to hydroplane on anything but arid asphalt, that Chevy truly was a TRD.</div> <div> The moral of the story for copywriters: what you leave out may be more important than what you leave in - be watchful for unintended consequences.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>