{"id":1162,"date":"2019-10-18T01:14:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T05:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/?p=1162"},"modified":"2021-03-06T13:29:46","modified_gmt":"2021-03-06T18:29:46","slug":"1162","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/18\/1162\/","title":{"rendered":"So &#8230; Stop that!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/so-stopsign-ssc.jpg\" alt=\"So ...\" class=\"wp-image-1168\" width=\"308\" height=\"264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/so-stopsign-ssc.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/so-stopsign-ssc-300x258.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/so-stopsign-ssc-768x661.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 308px) 100vw, 308px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br>You wouldn&#8217;t insult a reader like this. So why insult your listener?<br><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph\">S<strong>o &#8230; would you start written copy with the word &#8220;so&#8221;?  Of course not. Then why do many people in conversation start their responses with &#8220;so&#8221;?   This bad habit has pervaded our culture, annoying the hell out of me since I first noticed it a few years ago. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>It&#8217;s especially bad practice when doing an interview. Some listeners find it offensive.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Professionally, how people talk is not all that important to me, except that my voice actor half is naturally interested in how real people talk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is it really important?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What an ordinary individual does in private conversation is their business. Let&#8217;s leave correction to their conversational partner &#8212;  whether the annoyance is &#8220;upspeak&#8221; (every a statement sounds like a question), or &#8220;y&#8217; know&#8221; (no, if I knew, why are you telling me?), or whatever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nevertheless, the writer in me still hasn&#8217;t gotten past it. Since my profession is largely persuasion in print, I figure I at least have some stake in the issue when it comes to public speaking (radio, TV, podcasting, symposiums, whatever). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many of these speakers are trying to persuade others. At least one of the current presidential candidates provides a notable example. The candidate is known for having a detailed plan for seemingly every significant issue, but must have missed the significance of this. In a recent debate, almost all of the candidate&#8217;s answers began with &#8220;So &#8230; .&#8221; (Don&#8217;t get me started on Obama&#8217;s dropping the &#8220;g&#8221; in &#8220;&#8230;ing.&#8221;)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can you <em>ever<\/em> start a sentence with &#8220;So&#8221;?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course. There <strong><em>are<\/em><\/strong> various valid reasons for saying &#8220;so.&#8221;  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>As a conjunction, it&#8217;s fine. (&#8220;This happens, so  that results.&#8221;)  <\/li><li>It&#8217;s also okay as a social convention that suggests, &#8220;I&#8217;m picking up where we left off&#8221; &#8230; as when renewing conversation between friends. (&#8220;So, how you  been?&#8221;)  <\/li><li>It&#8217;s also used to return to a line of conversation that the other person tried to veer away from.  Occurring with or instead of &#8220;Anyway,&#8221; this habit is not polite, but that&#8217;s a different issue.  (&#8220;I&#8217;ve been trying to dress better.&#8221; &#8220;Sorry, I can&#8217;t think about things like that. My dog is very sick.&#8221; &#8220;That&#8217;s too bad. So, what do you think of my hat?&#8221;)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other contexts, where it serves as a verbal vamp while getting our brain up to speed &#8212; the way we used to  begin with &#8220;ummm&#8221; &#8212; it&#8217;s just wrong. &#8220;Ummm&#8221; at least is meaningless, more innocently suggesting a thought is occurring. (As Star Trek&#8217;s android Data might say, &#8220;Processing&#8230;&#8221;.)  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why the gratuitous &#8220;so&#8221; sounds insulting.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unlike most other verbal vamps, &#8220;so&#8221; is a word. It <strong><em>does<\/em><\/strong> have meaning. So its use is easily misunderstood.  To the uninitiated listener, it seems even insulting.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As described in <a aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/3029762\/how-a-popular-two-letter-word-is-undermining-your-credibility\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this Fast Company  article<\/a>, it comes across as if the answer is rehearsed, not a thoughtful personal response. It sounds like the speaker means, &#8220;So here&#8217;s my stock answer to your question, rather than my actually talking with you.&#8221;  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe the reason for that is that it&#8217;s so amateurish, like the other bane of the novice public speaker, the &#8220;fig leaf position.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other news stories about the habit suggest that the Fast Company article is too harsh,  that there are other interpretations, and that people have always done  it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As I&#8217;ve already agreed, yes, there are other reasons, some valid.  But, no, it is not just something we finally noticed. We used to say &#8220;Ummm&#8221; or &#8220;Uh.&#8221; And, when I was much younger, if I had said any of these things at a restaurant table, my grandparents would not have allowed me dessert or a sip of my Shirley Temple cocktail until I corrected myself. (Interjecting with &#8220;Hey!&#8221; also fell into this category.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Your listener is your judge.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In any case, as the FTC and Advertising professionals hold, meaning is not in what you say, but what the reader or listener understands. To me and other listeners, &#8220;So&#8221; still sounds insulting when starting a  response to a question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As with tinnitus, I&#8217;ve learned  to live with it, and now sometimes I barely notice, especially if the speaker does it just once or twice. But that doesn&#8217;t make it a  desirable condition. People who want to persuade their listeners, rather than annoy or offend them, should learn to lose it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead, simply pause a  beat, then start to express your thoughts. Some of us will  hear them better, undistracted.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In interviews, why do people start their responses with &#8220;so&#8221;?  It&#8217;s an annoying habit that many people find offensive. Here&#8217;s why &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,18,15,1],"tags":[41,38,39,36,32,31,37,33,30,34,40,35,25],"class_list":["post-1162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-copywriting","category-culture-generally","category-the-marketing-communications-scene","category-uncategorized","tag-acting","tag-annoyances","tag-conversation","tag-culture","tag-habits","tag-interviews","tag-language","tag-persuasion","tag-podasting","tag-radio","tag-so","tag-television","tag-voice-acting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>So ... 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Here&#039;s why some people find it offensive, and why you should avoid it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/18\/1162\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blog of Randall Rensch, Freelance B2B copywriter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-18T05:14:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-06T18:29:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/so-stopsign-ssc.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"689\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Randy Rensch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Randy Rensch\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rensch.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/18\\\/1162\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rensch.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/18\\\/1162\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Randy Rensch\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rensch.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/837ba739698c4c46f23d6085033f3e92\"},\"headline\":\"So &#8230; Stop that!\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-18T05:14:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-06T18:29:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rensch.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/18\\\/1162\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":761,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rensch.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/837ba739698c4c46f23d6085033f3e92\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rensch.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/18\\\/1162\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rensch.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/so-stopsign-ssc.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"acting\",\"annoyances\",\"conversation\",\"culture\",\"habits\",\"interviews\",\"language\",\"persuasion\",\"podasting\",\"radio\",\"so\",\"television\",\"voice acting\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Copywriting\",\"Culture generally\",\"The Marketing Communications scene\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rensch.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/18\\\/1162\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rensch.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/18\\\/1162\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rensch.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/18\\\/1162\\\/\",\"name\":\"So ... 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Nowadays, freelance copywriters abound, but back when Randy turned to freelancing, he had to explain to many prospective clients that he was not between jobs, that he had really hung his shingle as an independent copywriter. Over the years, he has expanded the range of his experience to match the times, particularly in business-to-business marketplaces. He brings his imagination, analysis and results-oriented viewpoint to a wide variety of products and services. Based in New York City, he serves ad agencies, web developers and companies primarily in North America and Europe. Randy has maintained a balance between b-to-b and the consumer advertising where his career began. As important as specialization is to successful freelancing (he's heaviest in financial, technical, retail, online, collateral, direct and radio), the synergy resulting from a broad mix is very helpful to him and his clients. 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Nowadays, freelance copywriters abound, but back when Randy turned to freelancing, he had to explain to many prospective clients that he was not between jobs, that he had really hung his shingle as an independent copywriter. Over the years, he has expanded the range of his experience to match the times, particularly in business-to-business marketplaces. He brings his imagination, analysis and results-oriented viewpoint to a wide variety of products and services. Based in New York City, he serves ad agencies, web developers and companies primarily in North America and Europe. Randy has maintained a balance between b-to-b and the consumer advertising where his career began. As important as specialization is to successful freelancing (he's heaviest in financial, technical, retail, online, collateral, direct and radio), the synergy resulting from a broad mix is very helpful to him and his clients. Randy's work on the \"15-Minute Breakfast\" campaign for International House of Pancakes won the American Marketing Association's Effie Award, given for effectiveness. Randy doesn't pursue awards, but has also earned other acknowledgements, and has been quoted in various books and publications on copywriting and the business of freelancing, including Complete Guide to Creating Successful Brochures (Gedney) and Marketing Essentials (Bickers). Randy has written for written for agencies and directly for marketers including IBM, Sony, T. Rowe Price, United Technologies, Citibank, International House of Pancakes, E.G. Smith, Legg Mason, Wunderman, SiteSell, and hundreds of smaller companies and ad agencies \u2014 even very small marketers, helping them become as big as they want to be. With this eclectic background, Randy continues to apply his skills to many kinds of business and consumer products and services, but he specializes in business-to-business, consumer and business financial, technological products and services, and retail (including online stores). He has also had some experience with medical products and services. Randy began his career as a staff copywriter at a radio station in the New York City market (a position he also held for awhile in local television.) Lately, in association with Edge Studio, a commercial recording studio and training facility, he has added narration and non-marketing articles to his repertoire. For samples and insights into Randy's work and the nature of advertising, visit www.rensch.com.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.rensch.com"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1162"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1301,"href":"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162\/revisions\/1301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rensch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}