At the weekend, Chris and I presented at the Illinois Jaycees General Assembly. It was standing room only for Chris’ presentation on Facebook, with an emphasis on events planning, sponsorship and promotion.
I spoke about the less enthralling, but equally important, subject of business writing and focused on writing tips in general. So, I thought I’d share a few tips with you on this week’s blog.
• Avoid clichés
• Something is unique or it isn’t (it cannot be very unique)
• Effect versus affect
• Your versus you’re
• There, their and they’re
• It’s versus its
• If you say literally it means actually or without exaggeration
• Lose versus loose
• Weather versus whether
• Less versus fewer – less refers to bulk amounts while fewer refers to separate items
• Between versus among – between is used when two are concerned, while among is used when more than two are concerned
• Installation versus instillation
• The word irregardless does not exist – the word is regardless
• Don’t use apostrophes if the word is plural; DVDs, the '80s etc.
• To say you feel nauseous is incorrect. You feel nauseated. Nauseous means something is sickening.
• Do you need to include ‘that’ – that is a filler word
• Me versus I – ‘this has been helpful for my colleague and I,’ - this is incorrect. ‘This has been helpful for my colleague and me,’ – this is correct.
• Feel versus think – feel means to be emotionally affected by something or to have thorough conviction, whereas think means to reason or examine.