Talking about Age in the Media

Talking about Age in the Media Talking about Age in the Media Talking about Age in the Media By Maeve Maddox Everyone wants to live longer, but no one wants to be old. –Harry Moody, director of academic affairs for AARP (2012). To me old age is always ten years older than I am. –Bernard Baruch, American financier (1870-1965). About forty-two million Americans are 65 years or older. Advertisers, politicians, and researchers often need to refer to this group, but finding a term that will not insult its members is not easy. Various terms have been suggested with varying degrees of success. Elder, elderly, senior, and retiree are the most common. In Canada, according to what I’ve read in forums, the term elder has connotations of venerable age and wisdom; in the United States, however, people tend to associate elder with disapproving church elders or the word elderly. The decline of the acceptability of the word elder is illustrated by the name change of a travel organization established in 1975 for active Americans 60 and older. The parent organization is still called Elderhostel, but in advertising, the program is now known agelessly as â€Å"Road Scholar.† Even the word retiree is heavy with the connotations of age. These days, the American Association of Retired People (founded 1958) goes by its initials only: AARP. When politicians talk about â€Å"our seniors† in the same breath as â€Å"our children,† mature adults understandably bristle. An article in The Senior Times says that the term â€Å"senior citizen† was coined in 1938 during a political campaign. Its use soars on the Ngram Viewer beginning in the 1940s. According to National Public Radio reporter Ina Jaffe, â€Å"senior citizen† is a term that â€Å"seems to annoy just about everyone.† Recognizing the minefield of age and terms relating to it, The AP Stylebook has this entry for the word elderly: Use this word carefully and sparingly. Do not refer to a person as elderly unless it is clearly relevant to the story. It is appropriate in generic phrases that do not refer to specific individuals: concern for the elderly, a home for the elderly, etc. If the intent is to show that an individual’s faculties have deteriorated, cite a graphic example and give attribution for it. Use age when available and appropriate. Apply the same principle to terms such as senior citizen. Age is one of the realities of life that our culture prefers to deny. It’s unlikely that any term can be found to refer to old people that would not be offensive to someone because in our culture, old age itself is seen as offensive. Perhaps the safest course is to refer to the intended age group in numeric terms: between the ages of 65 and 75 above the age of 65 septuagenarian octogenarian nonagenarian centenarian Colloquial synonyms for â€Å"old person† range from friendly to deliberately hurtful, for example: old-timer oldster codger dotard crone coot Although the word codger (like coot) usually has a negative connotation, this review about Dick Van Dyke in the Chicago Tribune (1992) makes a kind of compliment of it: The wonderfully funny Dick Van Dyke, insufficiently honored in his prime, has now passed into the lovable-old-codger stage. His comic gifts are sharper than ever, and he still dances with grace, style and a naughty insouciance. He is much too good for the quirky-old-coot roles that are his lot nowadays. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:70 Idioms with Heart50 Idioms About Arms, Hands, and FingersComma Before Too?

Can My Indie Book Be Discovered

Can My Indie Book Be Discovered You have an indie book out there, but youd love to call yourself a traditionally-published author. What does it take for an agent or press to WANT to sign your book.or sign with you? Remember, theres the book, and then theres you. Some authors bring attention to themselves. Some books take off and garner attention all THE BOOK A CATCH 22 Whether or not the agent/publisher wants your indie book is often decided agent/publisher has to determine if it has saturated the market or not. It may have already peaked and reached the readers its targeted for, and the agent/publisher may see theres nothing left in it for them. On the flip side, it may not have done well, which is interpreted as the book isnt made well, isnt written well, or isnt about a good topic. So why would they want it? Theres a small sweet spot in there to make an indie book palatable to the traditional market. There has to be enough spark left in it for the agent to capitalize upon. THE AUTHOR ANOTHER CATCH 22 If your book does well, often the agent/publisher may take a deeper look at the author. How does he market himself? What impact did the author have in the success of the book? What kind of website/blog? How Google-able is he? That type of author can pitch a second book and have great odds of being accepted. But the question is . . . why would he if hes successful as an indie author where the royalties are SO much greater? We have actually reached the point in publishing that you can make as much or more as an indie author as you can as a traditional author. Youll still have to market yourself hard VERY hard. You get no relief traditionally in that department. Your books will be more readily available in libraries and bookstores (though IngramSpark is closing that gap), but in reality, you can often get your books placed in bookstores But if that credibility factor still keeps you awake at night, and you just want that traditional accolade checked off your bucket list, pitch traditional to start with. Be very, very patient at the time it takes to work that system. Or if you arent that patient, work hard as an indie author, knowing that you can pitch subsequent books  later to the traditional world, and your success will often depend  upon the success of your first book youre selling on your own.   Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary Agency talks about what it takes for an agent to pick up your indie book. Its honest and very informative. Regardless of the road you take, realize that the professional credibility you seek is completely in your hands. Study the successful in the business, indie or traditional or hybrid of the two, and see what you can do to find success in your world. macgregorliterary.com/blog/ask-agent-transition-self-published-traditionally-published/