Month: October 2008

“If you can’t find the answer your looking for …”

Common English Blunders, Contractions, Mispronunciations, Misspellings

I saw this the other day at the Gizmo5 website.

Problem:
A pronoun appeared where a contraction should have appeared.

Explanation:
The full sentence on one of the pages at Gizmo5.com was “If you can’t find the answer your looking for here please contact us and we’ll be glad to fill in the details.”

Beyond the comma that was missing after the word “here”, the bigger problem was that the author of this sentence used the pronoun “your” where the word “you’re” — a contraction for “you are” — should have appeared.

As I have written in at least one other blog post, many speakers of American English tend to make the common English blunder of pronouncing “your” and “you’re” in the same way, even though these two words have different pronunciations.

I believe that these mispronunciations drive what some would call misspellings — writing “your” where “you’re” is required, and vice-versa.

Solution:
“If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for …”

How to keep working in a worsening economy, cont.

General

I started yesterday a list of ten tips to improve your communication skills so that you can stand out — in a good way — from the crowd and thereby keep working in a worsening economy.

I wrote five tips yesterday, and here are the remaining five tips.

Tip 6. Put it in writing.

Bosses, fellow employees, and customers have less time to meet with you as the economy worsens and they feel increasing pressure to focus on the essentials.

Do them a favor by putting any of the following in email messages:

  • action items;
  • confirmations;
  • deliveries of documents;
  • information;
  • questions;
  • requests.

You can even start your email subject line with “Action:”, “Confirmation:”, “Delivery:”, “Info:”, “Question:”, or “Request:”, so that your message recipient will know right away why you are writing to him or her.

By following this tip, you will:

  • learn to become succinct in your communications;
  • let others respond on their schedules; and,
  • develop a reputation for being thoughtful about others’ time.

Tip 7. Write more often.

This tip both supports tip #6 and is an outgrowth of tip #6.

This tip is really simple: By writing — and rewriting — what you want to say, and by doing this daily, you will improve your ability to organize your thoughts.

In contrast, most meetings, whether by telephone or in person, do not encourage organization of thoughts.

The regular habit of writing will force you to become better at organizing your thoughts, which is essential for better communication.

Tip 8. Write more succinctly.

This is another tip that both supports tip #6 and is an outgrowth of tip #6. This tip also supports tip #7.

To automatically write more succinctly, use lists. (Did you notice that these tips are in a list?!)

If you are not accustomed to writing lists, then learn about mind mapping at Wikipedia, start using mind mapping, and convert your mind maps into lists.

People generally love lists because lists show that you thought about what you wrote and because they facilitate skimming.

Tip 9. Grow your vocabulary.

I saw a television infomercial the other day that claimed that the average size of a U.S. high-school student’s vocabulary dropped from 25,000 words in 1950 to only 10,000 words in 2000.

High-school students probably are not the only ones with weaker vocabularies these days.

Here are three recommendations to help you to grow your vocabulary:

  • check an online source such as Dictionary.com daily for a “Word of the Day”;
  • get a page-a-day calendar that shows a new word and its definition every day;
  • read a book specifically targeted at expanding your vocabulary.

Although this fourth recommendation might seem odd at first, also consider taking a course in medical terminology. I took one many years ago, and it dramatically improved my knowledge of the Latin and Greek roots of many English words, which is essential to understanding their meanings.

Tip 10. Give speeches.

Giving speeches increases your visibility and increases your self-confidence.

Increasing your visibility — whether in your job, with your customers, or in your community — leads to greater awareness by others of your skills, knowledge, and aptitude. This greater awareness in turn can lead to promotions, requests for bids, and even more opportunities to let “the world” know about you.

Increasing your self-confidence is crucial to performing better in job interviews and to handling sales calls and marketing presentations with greater ease. Your increased self-confidence will put others at ease and will increase their confidence in hiring you or giving you business.

Tip 11. Keep reading this blog.

I could not resist adding this bonus tip. I enjoy delivering more than promised!

If you already read my blog daily, thank you; you know its value.

If you are new to my blog, then I invite you to review the archives and then start reading it daily for even more ideas to improve your communication skills.

Remember: Learning never ends!

How to keep working in a worsening economy

Apostrophes, Commas, Common English Blunders, Hyphens, Misspellings, Prepositions, Versus

As I write this, the Dow-Jones Industrial Average has dropped from a record high one year ago to a five-year low.

Insanity is often defined as expecting your personal situation to improve while you continue to do what you always have done.

Protecting your working life from a worsening economy requires standing out — in a good way — from the crowd.

I believe that communicating better makes this possible.

Here are ten tips to keep working in a worsening economy, all with a focus on communicating better — doing something different, so that you’ll get different results.

Tip 1. Watch your spelling.

Here are some of the misspellings that I have documented in this blog:

  • misspelling “extraordinary” as E-X-T-R-A-HYPHEN-O-R-D-I-N-A-R-Y
  • misspelling “pronunciation” as P-R-O-N-O-U-N-C-I-A-T-I-O-N
  • misspelling “likelihood” as L-I-K-E-L-Y-SPACE-H-O-O-D
  • misspelling “accessible” as A-C-C-E-S-S-A-B-L-E
  • misspelling “supersede” as S-U-P-E-R-C-E-D-E

You can throw off half your audience and embarrass yourself by misspelling a word in the title of one of your PowerPoint slides, in an important email message to your boss or customer, or on the front page of a white paper that you have written.

If you know that you are not a good speller, then take action, starting today, to change this.

Tip 2. Watch your punctuation.

Here are some of the punctuation problems that I have discussed in my blog:

You can improve your punctuation skills. Start today by buying a good book or two about punctuation.

Tip 3. Watch your words.

Picking the wrong word is another way to look bad in front of your fellow employees, your boss, or your customer or prospect.

Here are some pairs of words that give people trouble:

Some might argue that many Americans do not know the difference in each of the above word pairs, so you should not worry about knowing the differences.

I disagree. Knowing the differences in these and other commonly confused word pairs can set you apart from the crowd with someone who cares — someone who can give you a raise, someone who can recommend you for a promotion, or someone who can give you new or more business.

Tip 4. Watch your grammar.

While text messaging and instant messaging have encouraged people to write in sentence fragments, not knowing how to write complete, grammatically correct sentences in other written forms — email messages, white papers, etc. — can hurt your reputation with the people who have the most influence over your finances.

Here are some common mistakes with grammar:

I could list many other types of mistakes with grammar, but you get the point.

If you have a basic discomfort with your grammar skills, then read some books about English grammar.

If you are generally confident about these skills but wonder on occasion whether something is correct, then research your question — here or elsewhere online. That nagging feeling is usually there for a good reason; pay attention to it!

Tip 5. Watch your slang.

Although slang can be fun to use, and although the origins of various slang expressions can be fascinating, using slang in your work life can hobble your career.

Here are some types of slang:

  • regional slang, as in “y’all” or “you guys” in place of “you”;
  • ethnic slang, as in “Where you at?” or “Git ‘er done.”;
  • corporate slang, as in “open architecture” or “on the bubble”.

Now, you might know what all of the above examples mean, but this does not guarantee that your boss, your fellow employees, or your customers do, too.

A problem with regional slang is that people will use it against you by taking a “You are not from around here.” attitude.

A problem with ethnic slang is that people will use it against you by taking a “You are not one of us.” attitude.

And a problem with corporate slang is that it can seem intelligent when first read or heard but will later cause the reader or listener to wonder what you meant.

Tips 6-10.

I must postpone these for my next post.

Please think about these first five tips, take a break, and then return tomorrow for the remaining tips!