Jul
07
2010
Some experts say that you shouldn’t be using try and when you mean try to. It has clearly been established as a informal idiom, therefore it is okay to use it in casual language. However, we advise you not to use it in formal writing.
The sentence “this idea is not viable” is not correct; according to experts, the true meaning of this word is “capable of living or surviving”. However, some dictionaries list “viable” and “practical” as synonyms.
When should we use past instead of last ?
Tip: use it when last may confuse the readers (ex: “The last decade” – you could mean the latest decade, as well as the last decade of a century. In this case, using past is clearer.)
Farther is usually used to denote physical distance (ex: Lucy lives farther away from me than her sister), whereas further means mental distance (ex: Nothing could be further from the truth).
Jun
29
2010
Can you name a word that’s always plural?
(Answer at the bottom of post)
Ability is something you can acquire, whereas capacity is something you were born with, which cannot be learned.
Capacity is also used to refer to the volume of something (e.g a room or a box).
A complement is something used to complement something else, to give it something more to improve it.
Supplement is also used to complement something, but rather to supply its deficiency, make it up.
Heedful writers would use rare to describe an item that’s distinctive or unusual, and use scarce to refer to something that is hard to find.
However, most dictionaries now list rare as a synonym for scarce.
Answer : Trivia.
Jun
16
2010
Even when they don’t refer to medical language, these two words have quite different meanings. Contagious refers to how fast something can spread, while infectious means the irresistible quality of something.
Writing tip: use contagious to refer to unpleasant things.
- Predominant VS Predominate
These two words are often confonded in adverb forms, i.e. predominantly and predominately. However, predominant is an adjective and predominate is a verb.
Writing tip: use a mnemonic device to avoid confusing them:
The word ant is not a verb, but the word ate is. So if ate works in your sentence, you should write predominate.
A foreword (some people also mispell it foreward) refers to the first pages of a book; its synonym could be preface.
Forward is not a noun, but can be a verb, an averb or an adjective, e.g. “He moved forward“, “I forwarded him this e-mail“, etc.
Jun
15
2010
Following our article Writing to buyers – An analysis of Gobbledygook, here is a small follow-up taken from the same book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, by David Meerman Scott, about the overuse of words in news releases and company-authored articles.
Dave Schmidt, VP for Public Relations Services at Smith-Winchester, Inc., has conducted a survey about the overused words and phrases he’s seen, and wanted to find out if editors agreed that these phrases were actually overused. Here are the three main results he found:
- “Leading” (used as an adjective): 94% of editors think this adjective is overused. “Since everybody wants to be the leading something, there are no longer any true leaders.”
- “We’re excited about/pleased/thrilled”: 76% think this phrase is overused, and not very appropriate for a company’s spokesman quote. “You need to quote your spokespeople with words that you would like to see in print”.
- “Solutions”: 68%. It is now probably best avoided.
Every time you write, you have the opportunity to communicate and to convince people. At each stage of the sales process, well-written material combined with effective marketing programs will lead your buyers to understand how your company can help them.
