I manage the Seattle Chapter’s events on its website and if one has to pay to attend one of our events, I also have to set up the mechanism to allow people to pay for the event. And that brings me to this: Do I set the attribute as “Your Price” or as “Your Cost” – that is, which word will be displayed when one goes to pay for one of our chapter events: Price or Cost?

I had been setting up the payment page using Your Cost.

Then Seattle member Kurt Wong, CDFA, told me the correct way is to display Your Price instead.

I’m like, “Okay, but does it really matter?”

And you know what? It does matter.

If you’re the person registering for a Seattle chapter event, for example (insert shameless plug here ;o>) this event that’s coming up: https://tinyurl.com/y4strf6o: Are you more likely to say to yourself something like, “What’s my price to attend this event?” Or, do you say something like, “How much does this cost to attend?”

I tend to lean toward the latter (whether that’s right or wrong).

As the person who is creating the payment page on our chapter website, I also tend to think, “I need to tell them how much this is going to cost them to attend.” So I had been displaying Your Cost on the payment page. My perspective was this: I’m telling the person who is paying that the chapter’s cost is X, without looking at it from the viewpoint of the person who is paying, which would be their price.

Kurt’s way prompted me to learn a little bit more, so I clicked the Difference Between link he sent, which basically says that the two terms shouldn’t be confused with each other, and that the two terms are often switched in normal conversation.

Kurt was right; we really should be using Your Price on our website’s payment pages. (And to add even more value – because that’s what SDA members do, you know – Kurt suggested I remove “Your” from the payment page to tidy up the page to make things cleaner and better aligned.)

Leave it to another SDA colleague to help set things straight . . . thanks, Kurt!

Judy Beebe, FSDA is our resident 'Word Nerd'  and

serves as the 2019-2020 SDA Seattle Chapter Vice President.

SDA National President, Brooke Simcik, CDFA, shares her August 2019 message.

While at EDSymposium19 I attended a seminar entitled “Fat-Free Gracewriting” presented by Judy Straalsund.   It explained the importance of writing in a way that makes it easy for your reader to understand your message.  As a writer we want to be sure we convey our information in a way that makes a connection between us and the reader. 

But have you ever considered how becoming a better writer can make you a better person?  Recently I read an article "Why Writing Will Make You a Better Person" in The Chronicle of Higher Education authored by Bob Fischer, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Texas State University and Nathan Nobis, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Morehouse College that offers a different argument.  Their thesis is that writing is an ethical activity and how we treat others is an ethical concern.  As writers it matters how we view and treat our readers.  Although the article was written for graduate students and faculty members, the ethical norms cited can benefit all writers.

Norms that should motivate good writing include trying to do good things and avoid causing bad ones; respect your readers as valuable and rational beings; and follow the Golden Rule.  As a writer remember how you like to be treated as a reader.  Apply the traits you most value to your writing.  The professors stated there are moral considerations that are relevant to how you write what you write.  If you want to do more to be better understood, include these considerations in your writing.  As much as possible, use ordinary words.  Don’t ask rhetorical questions.  And finally – revise your document as often as you think you should.   And then, if necessary, revise some more.

As the professors stated, it’s hard to become a good writer.  But then, it’s hard to become a good person.  Can becoming a better writer make you a better person?  Share your thoughts in the comment box below.

Marsha Witherspoon, CDFA serves as SDA National Treasurer for the 2019-2020 term.

She is a Member-at-Large from Columbus, Ohio.