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UPDATE 9/13/2014
Ben De Rienzo Kindly pointed out that my correction was incorrect here. The wisdom can still be seen but in another dimension.
Allow others to be experts in their areas of expertise.
There is another part to that lesson that I will append here:
Allow others to be experts in their areas of expertise. Then back it up with research.
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This morning I met up with my friend Rick Chavez to discuss some of the entrepreneurial projects each of us are working on. We got to talking about eBooks.
Wisdom for the Visionaries Out There
Rick kept telling me that I don't have to be an expert in writing to write a book. Technical skills like writing will amplify my vision and my thoughts. But writers and editors can help do that for me. All I need is good vision. Then Rick mentioned Snippet to me.Enter Snippet
It's a web app that helps people launch eBooks. Since writing original content is an area I really want to explore more, I was all ears. He then pulled out his smartphone and showed me.Looks like a pretty cool app. Then we scrolled down and saw something that has a valuable real-world lesson in it.
There is a grammatical error here.
"Whom is Snippet For?"
Rick pointed it out in a fraction of a second. As a professional copy-writer, he sees these sort of things all the time.
Disclaimer
Let me point out first, that it is natural for anyone to make grammatical mistakes. Everyone makes errors. Here is a company with a solid product to help people get content out there, AND they are focusing on what they are good at! As they should.
Lesson from Snippet
Snippet doesn't have to have detailed technical skills in order to thrive. And neither do you. All you really need is the vision, passion and willingness to solve a need.
THERE ARE EXPERTS ALL OVER who can help each of us build our dreams. I have no doubt that Snippet will catch this error sooner or later and move along.
Isn't that what life is about? Doing what you are extremely good at, recruiting others along in your journey and trucking along? YES!
Thanks Snippet, for a real-world lesson. And thanks Rick, it was awesome geeking out with you this morning.
PS. Snippet, seriously, if you are looking for a great copy editor, Rick Chavez would love to help point out more grammatical errors. Just hit me up on Twitter and I'll connect you two.
Hey Samuel! Thanks for posting this. We definitely discussed this exact line internally when creating the copy. After doing some research online, we found multiple sources that discuss whether to use who vs whom?
ReplyDeleteHere's one post from one of our favorites, Grammar Girl:
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/who-versus-whom?page=1
To quote the expert:
When you're trying to decide whether to use "who" or "whom," ask yourself if the answer to the question would be "he" or "him."
...if you can answer the question being asked with "him," then use "whom"...
So, the big question is: Is Snippet for him?
Therefore, we went with "Whom."
Hope that helps. Please pass that along to Rick, and if he has issues, have him take it up with Grammar Girl.
Best wishes—Ben @ Snippet
Right on! This is good. Looks like the minor error was mine and the major lesson was to research :D
ReplyDeleteAlso I did some further research and found that some use a rule of thumb of never using "whom" and instead using "who" in all instances. However, for formal American English, "whom" should be used. Thanks again for pointing that out.
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/03/who-or-whom-the-great-debate/