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Although most of the lessons in our English usage series thus far have focused on homonyms and homophones, after doing some keyword research earlier today I discovered that many of you have been searching for information on the correct usage of different kinds of punctuation marks. The correct use of apostrophes is one of the most popular, but since I have already covered this, we will move on to the next most popular in terms of search volume, which is “correct use of colon.”

It turns out that the colon actually has a significant number of uses, which I will describe below followed by an example of each. Afterward, I will briefly deal with other uses of the word colon that do not involve its use as a punctuation mark. The purpose of this is to clear up any confusion that readers may have about the word, also known as disambiguation.

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These world quotes from people ranging from philosophers to business leaders provide an overview of different perspectives on the human condition and our overall environment. Since my last collection on 100 Quotes About Power has been somewhat of a disappointment so far in terms of popularity, I have shortened the list to 50 this time in the hopes that people will be more likely to read through the list and possibly add their own relevant sayings in the comment section.

• The world of poetry, mythology, and religion represents the world as a man would like to have it, while science represents the world as he gradually comes to discover it. — Joseph Krutch
• To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world. — author unknown
• Einstein said that if quantum mechanics is right, then the world is crazy. Well Einstein was right. The world is crazy. — Daniel Greenberger
• Since periods of great change such as the present one come so rarely in human history, it is up to each of us to make the best use of our time to help create a happier world. — Dalai Lama
• The world is more malleable than you think and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape. — Paul David Hewson
• I just started to see the world as it really is and it completely shocked me and changed my opinion on everything… on life and my values and certainly my own sense of self. — Angelina Jolie
• The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it. — Karl Marx
• The world has entered a new era, evolving from an industrial into a knowledge-based society, and into a society that wants to live in harmony with nature. — Minoru Mori
• Man’s destiny was to conquer and rule the world, and this is what he’s done - almost. He hasn’t quite made it, and it looks as though this may be his undoing. The problem is that man’s conquest of the world has itself devastated the world. And in spite of all the mastery we’ve attained, we don’t have enough mastery to stop devastating the world, or to repair the devastation we’ve already wrought. — Daniel Quinn
• Philanthropy is all about making a positive difference in the world by devoting your resources and your time to causes you believe in. In my case, I like to support causes where “a lot of good comes from a little bit of good,” or, in other words, where the positive social returns vastly exceed the amount of time and money invested. — Jeff Skoll

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E-commerce giant Amazon.com announced to their affiliates this week that the company is launching a new section of its website called Amazon Green, a multi-category program that integrates several different kinds of environmentally friendly products into a single shopping interface. Earlier today I had a chance to check out the product listings, which feature an eclectic mix of items ranging from toilet tissue made from post-consumer recycled paper to a bicycle for commuters called “Iron Horse Transit”. Energy-related items such as compact fluorescent bulbs and relatively inexpensive solar panels are also included.

For those of us who are trying to make money from Amazon’s affiliate program, this provides us with an opportunity to showcase a pre-selected subset of their product line that can be targeted toward environmentally conscious consumers. If you would like to check out the products yourself, simply click on one of the banners in this post to view the main Amazon Green page. Meanwhile, I have reprinted the email text of the announcement to Amazon associates below.

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Smart business owners plan for growth. In this tutorial article by Angela Baca, you will learn you can never spend too much time planning and managing your company. You’ll look at how securing cash through internal controls is an important consideration for a growing business. As your business reaches new limits, you will be encouraged to step up your management and planning strategies.

One way to improve business management is to create better controls for your company finances. If your operation involves collecting cash (either physically or electronically), more sophisticated controls are needed. First, think about how you can analyze your operations. What kinds of payments do you accept? What kinds of security features do you use for each transaction? How secure are your methods? These questions and others are important to design controls that fit the current dimensions of your business.

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Nearly everyone who is connected to the Internet has an e-mail address. It’s the new way to communicate and receive what is now known as “snail mail” in a much shorter amount of time. However, due to this relative convenience, we sometimes send and receive things we probably shouldn’t. This article by April Aragam provides four tips for keeping your e-mail manners up to date.

1. Do not send too many forwards

There are few people who actually enjoy receiving these. Most of the time they are repeats going around and around, year after year. We all have many e-mails to sift through each day as it is, so please don’t make it any harder for others.

If you receive forwards and wish they would just stop, don’t be afraid to ask your friend or family member to cease and desist. Politely say that they are more than welcome to e-mail you anytime, but you’d rather not receive unnecessary forwards. People forget that when they send forwards they not only contain your e-mail address, but that of possibly hundreds of other people who have received the same message before. This is a sure-fire way to get even more e-mail that does not interest you because everyone who sees that message now has access to your e-mail address.

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This recipe for deviled eggs is one that has remained in our family and has been passed down through oral tradition for at least four generations. Until very recently, it had never been written down with any standardized ingredient lists or procedures until I discovered that there were significant numbers of people searching for deviled eggs recipes. A few days ago, my mother prepared it as a side dish for one of our dinners, and this time we paid attention to exact amounts and preparation methods so that the recipe could be officially recorded and published.

The secret ingredient is the sugar, which helps to bring out the flavor and increase the pleasant taste of the other ingredients. We always add at least one teaspoon, but more may be added to suit individual tastes.

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This Sunday was the end of the first full week in which I have been able to test the Google Analytics tool and use this data to select the favorite search queries for this series of posts. Although the overall traffic numbers seem to be a little lower than what FireStats was reporting, the data is presented in a better fashion and there is more of it to look at and analyze than there was under the old FireStats system. The only major exception is that I cannot seem to view individual IP addresses with Google Analytics; however, simply being able to see a combined tally of each day’s search visitors instead of having to manually count each query probably more than makes up for this.

can having crumbs on the floor cause ants — While they do not really “cause” ants directly, having crumbs of food on the floor is one of the factors that can attract ants into your house. Keeping spilled crumbs off the floor and kitchen countertop areas is a good preventive measure against future ant problems.

is it possible to change your wordpress url — Yes, you can change the URL of any WordPress post by changing the “Post Slug” from your writing interface. Remember to separate words with hyphens - this will become the text at the end of the URL that is created when you publish the post. It is also possible to change the permalink format, which will change the URL for all posts.

what foods need to be taken to cure scurvy — Eating any food that contains vitamin C can prevent or cure scurvy. Most fruits and vegetables seem to work pretty well, although you can always use vitamin supplements if you are not sure.

is it correct to use “an”? — Yes, as long as it is used as an article before a noun that begins with a vowel sound (this is not necessarily an actual vowel). Otherwise, use a instead of an if the noun begins with a consonant sound.

will ron paul be on presidential ballot — Unfortunately no, at least not for the general election. However, you can still vote for the Libertarian Bob Barr, who seems to be the next best candidate.

why would atm machine eat card — Some machines do this as a kind of security feature if the user fails to enter the correct PIN after a certain number of attempts (usually three). It is also possible for an ATM to simply malfunction and fail to return the card after the transaction is completed.

which hyip sites are legitimate? — The notion of a legitimate HYIP is much like the idea of a necessary pork barrel program or a progressive tax; it’s essentially an oxymoron. In practice, none of the HYIP sites are really legitimate for serious investment purposes. However, if you know how to play this particular game, it is possible to make money from short term speculative plays.

what kind of rice do you use to fix your cell — The rice should be uncooked and as dry as possible so that it can draw moisture out of the phone. As far as I know, the exact brand of rice does not make much of a difference.

After running across a news article published by Reuters and considering the possibility that it might be a hoax, I confirmed from other sources today that there is a university lecturer in the UK who is seriously suggesting that obvious English errors should now be accepted as legitimate. Interestingly, the Reuters article that I read first appears to have been truncated somewhat, along with many other copies of the same article that appear on other news sites. This version from GlobeAndMail that I found later appears to be the full article.

In any case, I found it quite astonishing that this misguided fool maverick professor actually thinks that we can solve the problems of teaching English by legitimizing incorrect usage. Here is an excerpt from his comments:

“Teaching a large first-year course at a British university, I am fed up with correcting my students’ atrocious spelling,” Ken Smith, a criminology lecturer at Bucks New University, wrote in the Times Higher Education Supplement.

“Instead of complaining about the state of the education system as we correct the same mistakes year after year, I’ve got a better idea,” he wrote. “University teachers should simply accept as variant spelling those words our students most commonly misspell.”

To kickstart his proposal, Dr. Smith suggested 10 common misspellings that should immediately be accepted into the pantheon of variants, including “ignor,” “occured,” “thier,” “truely,” “speach” and “twelth” (instead of “twelfth”).

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Working from home offers many important advantages such as being closer to family more during the day and having the freedom to set your own hours. But with the good side of working from home also comes some obstacles. This article by April Aragam describes four common roadblocks that many writers experience while working from home and how you might overcome them.

1. Feeling Isolated

Even though writing can be a lonely career, it’s important to know where you can turn when you need some human contact. Since most of us write from home, the Internet is a great place to talk to others. You can choose from forums, blogs, chat rooms, e-mail, social media sites, and even instant messaging services. You might prefer one over the rest or you might like to do a little of each. Sometimes chatting to people in “real time” makes you feel less alone. If you’re someone who needs to get out of the house more you might schedule a weekly afternoon with a friend where you go out for lunch and a walk. And while you’re working at home, make it a habit to open up the curtains.

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After surviving for almost a year with a relatively clean email address after I finally left Excite, the first instances of clearly recognizable spam have begun to creep into my inbox. Earlier today I received two copies of this message about a bogus prize award from a company called “Google Lottery International”.

Although most of us are familiar with the Google search engine, as far as I know this particular variant of the name does not exist as an actual organization. The two copies of the email contained exactly the same body text but the subject lines were different; one was titled “Congratulations You Have Won” while the other was simply labeled as “Google Lottery International”. In both cases, the sender was listed as “teresalummp”.

The overall content of the message is similar to the Irish Lottery spam that I received and reported on last year. In both cases, the purpose of the message is to harvest live email addresses by eliciting responses from the small percentage of people who naively believe that the mail is legitimate and attempt to claim the bogus lottery winnings.

If the spammer is actually contacted, the usual trick is to send a second message stating that some type of processing fee is required to release the prize money. If the recipient continues to follow through on the instructions, he or she eventually gets scammed after being tricked into initiating a wire transfer of money to the spammer. At this point the spammer will either ignore future contact or may continue to string the victim along with garbage information as a way of setting up additional scams.

As you have probably figured out by now, unless you are a professional scambaiter and really know what you are doing, it is never a good idea to actually reply to a spam email such as this. Even if you manage to avoid being scammed, any reply will indicate to the spammer that your email address is a “live” target, which will likely lead to additional spam messages in the future. Meanwhile, here is the content of the message for those who have not yet seen it and need to know what to avoid.

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In its ongoing battle against spam blogs, or “splogs”, Google managed to inadvertently lock out many users of its Blogger service last week, apparently due to a bug in the data processing code. After becoming aware of the problem and realizing it was an error, a Google official named Brett noted in the Blogger Buzz Blog on Friday, “To those folks who have received an e-mail saying that your blog has been classified as spam and can’t post right now, we offer our sincere apologies for the trouble.”

Complaints from less-than-thrilled bloggers had begun to filter in to the Blogger Help Group earlier in the week after they received emails informing them that their blogs had been locked due to being classified as spam. Although the full scope of the problem is still not clear, eventually Google reinstated the affected blogs and issued an official apology:

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Organizing paper clutter is an issue that practically everyone who has a home or business has to deal with at some point. Even here in the home office of Karlonia, various papers such as keyword lists, receipts for web hosting bills, and printed articles have gradually increased their presence and found their way into semi-organized piles to the left of my keyboard. Fortunately, I have been able to control the “paper tiger” reasonably well by periodically discarding papers that contain old, outdated information that I no longer need to keep.

Other people, however, often end up dealing with a greater volume of paper than I do and may become overwhelmed if they let it go for very long. This article by April Aragam provides some tips for how to control clutter within a typical household environment.

Maybe you walk into someone else’s home and see something very unlike your home. They don’t have paper clutter all over the place. You may think that they must not have as much to handle as you do. Unfortunately, there are probably few people who don’t have paper constantly coming into their home. The difference is a matter of organization — you can learn this skill too. Here’s how:

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This article by Wanda Long provides a few simple tips for enticing children to eat more vegetables, something that has been notoriously difficult to do for many families. If you’re interested in this topic, I have another similar article that became popular in StumbleUpon recently called Healthy Snacks Your Kids Will Love.

Today, many children request hamburgers or pizza as their choice for eating, and often their choice of sides has little to do with anything that looks green, leafy or fresh. Yes, it’s no secret that many children dislike eating vegetables with their meals. Children are often turned off by their different taste, which in their minds isn’t a good thing.

Therefore complaints and excuses are often heard as to why they shouldn’t eat them. This leads to many parents faced with the challenge of overcoming this obstacle. But this task doesn’t have to be as difficult as it seems. Follow these tips to help your child become fond of eating vegetables.

• If you dislike eating vegetables, try to refrain from repeatedly telling your child this. Parents are the biggest influence in a child’s life and your opinion counts. If your child constantly hears how much you hate vegetables, he or she will follow suit.
• Make vegetables tasty. No, that doesn’t mean fatty! But you can jazz up your vegetables without adding a lot of calories. There are thousands of recipes in cookbooks and online to cook vegetables deliciously.
• Make vegetables just as important as the meat and carbs when you are at dinner. Also eat them yourself. Once your child sees you are doing as you speak, it sends a strong message.
• Compliment your child every time he or she eats vegetables. This will encourage your child to eat more.
• Keep yourself informed on the benefits of eating vegetables and teach them to your child regularly.

Once your child enjoys eating vegetables, it will make your job as a parent much easier.

The big news of this week is that I have now switched over to Google Analytics for retrieving the search queries. The FireStats application that I had been using previously malfunctioned when I tried to upgrade it to the latest version. Although I could probably reinstall the old version, the initial reports from Google Analytics seem to be providing somewhat more data overall than the old FireStats plugin did. Most importantly, I am now able to see a full accounting of exactly how many visitors landed on each page of the site, and I can view this data for any time period of one day or more in increments of one day. Previously, I had been restricted to seeing only the first 10 pages that had most visits, and I was further restricted to viewing only the 30-day totals. These new abilities will be a great help in determining which pages are the best candidates for AdSense monetization, affiliate link placement, or other methods that could be used to monetize the traffic.

Another significant development was my discovery of the relatively new KeywordLuv plugin yesterday, which allows commenters on WordPress blogs to submit both names and keywords into the name field of the comment form and have it formatted so that the commenter’s link appears with the desired anchor text beside the name. This is a great boon to SEO enthusiasts like me who obtain a significant portion of our backlinks through blog commenting. With some savvy searching to find KeywordLuv enabled blogs that cover topics relevant to our pages, it is now possible to significantly speed up the process of obtaining backlinks with the correct anchor text from other blogs without having to worry as much about comments being deleted because keywords in the name field look “too spammy”.

Last night I tested out the plugin by commenting on some blogs that had posted about the new Cuil search engine and linked them back to my page that had covered that topic. The plugin really works well as long as you use the proper format, which is Name@Keyword with no spaces between the words or symbols. Afterward, I checked the Google Analytics reports and began to examine the first search queries that have arrived. Here are some of the ones that I can easily answer:

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Over the past few weeks, I have been receiving several search queries about the “correct use of am and pm” or similar variants. Although I already know about standard time conventions, I have always wondered about whether or not there are any established grammatical rules for writing the 12-hour clock designations. After spending at least three hours researching this earlier today, it appears that there is no single hard-and-fast rule for expressing a.m. or p.m. when referring to time. The majority of the grammar-based sites that I encountered listed several variants. Some used capital letters or periods while others did not, but most of these sources agreed that all of these variants were acceptable as long as your usage remains consistent throughout your writing.

Eventually I ran across the Associated Press Stylebook guidelines, which state that for journalistic copy we should use the lowercase letter with period format and write the abbreviations as a.m. and p.m. without spaces between the letters or periods. When expressing an actual time, there is one space between the numerical value and the abbreviation, so for example three o’clock in the afternoon would be written as 3 p.m. Since we bloggers (at least those of us who are serious about our work) often like to think of ourselves as journalists, it’s probably a good idea for me to stick the AP standards on this when writing articles. However, for informal writing it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference.

Meanwhile, there were two other questions that came up frequently in searches regarding proper time expression. Here are the answers to these:

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