Bull's Eye Business Writing TipsTip #436: Having a goal and writing it down...These FREE
weekly business writing tips
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| Tip #436: Having a goal
and writing it down focuses your mind and will help you gain real
practical value from any learning situation.
Been signed up for some training at work? Have you decided to attend a seminar on a topic you are interested in? Great! The first thing you should do in any case is set a learning goal. If you are already knowledgeable about the topic and have specific things you want to improve, setting your goal or goals should be easy. If this is training you are less excited about attending, or are unclear about, you can still set a goal like: "Learn one new thing I can apply at work," or "Meet one person I can add to my network." |
Weekly Exercise:
We receive over 200 emails per day. We encourage you to answer our weekly tips, but please, if you are answering this weekly tip exercise, identify the tip number in the subject line of your email.
This week’s quiz:
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Good question asked by Sally: Is there really a rule about using the apostrophe for plurals of acronyms and numbers? I was under the impression that it was common usage rather than correct usage and that 7s or SMSs was correct. Can you clarify this? Please answer her. |
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Reader's Comments:
Comments on how to avoid the ”he/she syndrome”:
Click here to see other suggestions for avoiding the he/she syndrome by Professor Ellene S. Phufas: All concisely listed here and one more at the bottom of the list that is not listed (wikipedia.org):
Laurie Becwar commented:
In response to the suggestion of using “it” or “its” instead of “he or she”, “his or her”, etc., here are other options to use in place of the cumbersome sex/gender-based description. “the person” or “persons”– specifically identify the group: “person”, “employee”, “customer”, etc. “s/he” - if in the rare case where gender is important to identify “one” – careful as may change the context of the message. In our current culture few people will want to be referred to as an object (“it”) and the focus on sex/gender as a description of a person can at times dilute the power of a message.
Quote of the week:
“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.” (Tom Clancy, American author)
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Answer to this week's exercise: My suggested answer to Sally: Some authorities still use an apostrophe before the “s,” for example:
However, the apostrophe is functionally unnecessary except where confusion might otherwise occur. I would use:
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To send the above exercise answers to Gloria for her comments and review, copy the questions, paste them into an email, answer them, and send to Marsha@basic-learning.com.
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These business writing tips brought to you by:
Bull's Eye Business Writing
10 Easy Guides for Getting to Your Writing Target
By Gloria Pincu, M.A. , President of Basic Learning Systems, Inc.
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