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Muggs MC Ginnis

It was quite serendipitous that I met Susan Leigh Babcock. She is the creator of Ballpoint, Inc., a digital company that was started in 2010 to help people like me who sometimes struggle with basic writing skills. I know that may seem strange considering my entire career has involved all levels of writing but, yes, I am one of those who have been known to misuse words and pull a Muggs McGinnis who was infamous for his malapropisms. I also can confuse the use of words like “apart” vs.“a part” or phrases like “in regards to” vs.”in regard to.” For years I had to suffer asking my husband or co-workers, “What is the word for . . . ?”  I hate having to ask for help at this stage of the game but I still have so much to say and yet at times can’t find the right words to say it.  

I am still confused if it is “make deux,” “make due,” “make do,” or “make dew.” Apparently, I am not the only one.  Susan claims that because people are writing more as compared to verbally communicating, there are more mistakes appearing in front of people’s eyes, and those mistakes are starting to look right from repetition. That’s a recipe for confusion.  

Ballpoint is an education software company that makes game apps for the English language. Ballpoint’s first two learning apps, “Word Wit” and “Phrase Wit”, are available in the Apple Store and deal with the most commonly confused — and miswritten — words and phrases, respectively. Susan calls them confusing words and their evil twins: “amount and number,” “principle and principal” and “moot and mute.” Common phrases and their mangled cousins include “super up,” “soup up,” or “suit up.” While some of the misuses may make you laugh, others will make you cringe as you realize you also thought it was “shoe-in” (instead of the correct “shoo-in”). 

Susan Leigh Babcock

Ballpoint is bringing new skill sets to those who want to take advantage of digital technology. Word Wit and Phrase Wit are apps that use game mechanics to make learning more fun, also known as “gamification” of learning. The next step for Ballpoint will be the “learnification” (Susan’s made-up term) of games. This will get their terrific learning apps in the hands of everyone who enjoys games, which is a surprisingly large percentage of the population, and across a surprising demographic of age and gender. In that sense it will also be a democratization of learning. 

When we met for lunch yesterday, Susan told me that corporations spend $3.1 billion a year on remedial writing training. She also noted that people looking for work need to write for 90 per cent of the available jobs. Foreign speakers make up one in every two new employees. Learning correct grammar and the ability to express yourself is even being underscored by the Obama administration. President Obama signed the Plain Writing Act of 2010 on October 13, 2010. The law requires that federal agencies use “clear Government communication that the public can understand and use.” On January 18, 2011, he issued a new Executive Order, “E.O. 13563 – Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review..It states that “[our regulatory system] must ensure that regulations are accessible, consistent, written in plain language, and easy to understand.”  

Ballpoint plans to be a digital  leader in this category, designing for all platforms to reach anyone wherever they are. You should read their blog which has fun and breezy posts with terrific tips that will help your writing skills. It’s critical in my business to inspire confidence. Susan tells me even she has her work edited. I think I’m in good company then. 

As I state in most of my blog posts, the digital world has certainly made it a lot easier for us in many respects. To be able to strengthen the tools of my trade with Word Wit and Phrase Wit, words, has made a big difference in my life. I’m just glad that Ballpoint has arrived in my lifetime.