Seminar
Where Do I Put The Apostrophe?

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Even seasoned writing pros sometimes need to brush up on basic grammar and usage – as evidenced by the often-comical mistakes we sometimes see in newspapers and magazines.

Back by popular demand is a seminar on grammar presented by the Independent Writers of Southern California. Seminar leader Flo Selfman, a longtime public relations consultant and IWOSC’s current president, bills herself as a “professional nitpicker” who conducts lively on-site grammar workshops for organizations and companies.

Has the lazy language of e-mail made your professional communications sloppy? Do you agonize every time you prepare an article or a query letter because you’re afraid it contains grammar and punctuation errors? Some of this you may not have learned in school, or you may have forgotten.

Participants will gain grammar confidence in a review of few simple rules that can correct dozens of the most commonly made errors in written and spoken communication. Topics to be covered include:

• 10 common grammar and punctuation errors to avoid
• How to error-proof a manuscript
• Why spell-check isn’t enough (or, when is a rose not a rose?)
• Why grammar and punctuation matter
• My computer has a dictionary; what else do I need?
• Coping with current trends in language
• And more!

The seminar incorporates class exercises and useful handouts, and the opportunity to have grammar, syntax, and punctuation questions answered.

FLO SELFMAN of Selfman & Others Public Relations in Los Angeles is a public relations consultant with more than twenty years experience. She creates and implements PR campaigns for lifestyle companies, festivals and events, theatre productions, and personalities. She also is a consultant on all aspects of publishing, marketing and publicity for self-published authors and small publishing companies. Her press kits and campaigns have received awards. Before entering public relations, Selfman handled viewer relations and audience research for Dinah Shore’s television show, “Dinah’s Place.” An Ohio native, she earned a BA degree in Psychology from UCLA, a California Secondary Teaching Credential, and the Instructor Development Certificate from UCLA Extension.

Ongoing Intensive Writing Workshop
by Oliver Mayer

Oliver Mayer leads an ongoing writing workshop. Playwrights, screenwriters, novelists, poets, short story writers, and journalists were all welcome to start with any next session.

Oliver Mayer is the author of “Blade to the Heat,” which premiered at the Public Theatre, with subsequent productions in San Francisco, Chicago, and Mexico City; “Joe Louis Blues,” which was shown in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta; “Conjunto,” developed at the Sundance Lab and presented at the Mark Taper Forum New Work Festival; “Ragged Time,” a work which has been widely seen and is anthologized in “Out of the Fringe (TC 2000)”; and “Joy of the Desolate,” which premiered in Chicago and was produced at Cal Arts. His other plays include, “The Road to Los Angeles,” “Young Valiant,” “Bold as Love,” “Laws of Sympathy,” “The Righting Moment,” and “Dias y Flores.” Mayer, who is an Assistant Professor of Dramatic Writing at the University of Southern California’s School of Theatre, is the recipient of a Gerbode Grant, which he used to write the libretto to “America Tropical,” a new opera composed by David Conte which will premiere in 2006. He is a graduate of Cornell and Columbia Universities, and attended Worcester College, Oxford. His literary archives can be accessed through Stanford University Libraries.

This ongoing workshop was held the second and fourth Tuesday evenings of each month from 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. in Westwood. IWOSC members $30 per month; Non-members: $40 per month.