Adverbs

“… obtained verbally, in writing, or electronically.”

Adjectives, Adverbs, Common English Blunders, Redundancies

I saw this in a course for customer-service representatives.

Problem:
The list of adverbs contains redundancies.

Explanation:
The expression was part of legal counsel in a company’s course for its customer-service representatives:

“Permission [from the customer] can be obtained verbally, in writing, or electronically.”

Unfortunately, it has become a common English blunder to use the adverb “verbally” when people mean “orally” instead.

The adjective “verbal” refers to both oral communication and written communication.

But many people shy away from “oral” or “orally” when referring to spoken communication and instead use “verbal” or “verbally”, respectively. This is a mistake.

The second problem in the expression is that “in writing” refers to both paper-based communication and electronic communication.

So “in writing” overlaps “electronically” in the problematic expression.

The solution comes from recognizing that “verbally” should be replaced with the clearer adverb “orally” and that “in writing” should be replaced with the clearer “on paper”.

Solution:
“… obtained orally, on paper, or electronically.”
OR
“… obtained by telephone, by mail, or by email.”

“… mirror back (or paraphrase) to the customer …”

Adverbs, Common English Blunders, Self-negation

I saw this in a course for sales agents.

Problem:
The word “back” is redundant in this expression.

Explanation:
The expression was part of advice in a company’s course for its sales agents:

“Once you have determined which of the 4 Ps applies, mirror back (or paraphrase) to the customer what you think the objection is to be sure you are on the right track.”

The word “mirror” means reflect when used as a verb, and the “re” in “reflect” means back.

So one could argue that a “mirror back” action would never reach the intended recipient.

Solution:
“… mirror to the customer …”

“Chance that someday you will forget …”

Adjectives, Adverbs, Common English Blunders

I saw this in a television advertisement two days ago.

Problem:
“Someday” is an adjective, but an adverb is required here.

Explanation:
The verbiage displayed in the FedEx TV ad was along the lines of “Chance that someday you will forget to hit mute”, with no space between “some” and “day”.

“Someday” — without the space — tells you what.

For example, a “someday occurrence” is something that occurs at an indefinite future time.

In other words, “someday” is an adjective; it modifies a noun (such as “occurrence”).

In contrast, “some day” tells you when.

An example of the correct use of “some day” is “It will happen some day.”

The goal of the television advertising copywriter was to tell the viewer when he or she would forget.

Solution:
“Chance that some day you will forget …”