I giggled when a marketing expert suggested I include the word the in my metatags.
Apparently I underestimated the power of this three-letter word. The is one of only three articles in the English language (a type of adjective that gives information about a noun) and the only definite article (can be singular or plural).
But thanks to President Bush (”the google “or is it “The Google?”), THE is getting a lot of attention. That works out nicely for me.
In response to some recent inquiries, I’ve decided to devote time to sharing the nuts and bolts of my writing life. I was going to begin with procrastination. But, I’ll put that off until tomorrow - or maybe next week.
THE, as I stated, is one of three supporting words that provides information about people, places and things. It’s easy to take THE for granted.
I can write: I like THE trees in autumn, or I like THE oak tree in my yard.
A and AN are also articles. I can write: I like an oak tree in autumn, or I like a white oak tree. Clearly these sentences are not as powerful or meaningful. I cannot use A or AN with plural nouns; I like an oak trees in autumn makes no sense, neither does I like a trees in my yard.
So, even within its three-word category, THE has special flexibility and power.
Apparently huge institutions have already figured that out. Put THE in Yahoo’s search engine and THE Smithsonian Institution comes up number one. Enter THE in Google’s search engine and THE White House comes up number one.
Thanks to the impartiality of text-based search engines, tiny THE has finally become as noticeable as any word in English. But does that mean I should become THEWriterByNature.com? I’ll have to think about that.