Word Constructions

There are many pairs of words that sound or look very similar, but they can mean very different things. There is no easy way around these words, you have to learn them as you can’t rely on spell checkers and the like to pick them up every time.

One such pair of words is advice/advise.

Advice: Opinion given or offered as to action, counsel; information given. (noun)
As a business coach, I sometimes give advice to my clients.

Advise: Offer advice; recommend. (verb)
I advise you to wear a hat when walking in the desert.

So I advise you to take care with words. And my advice is to learn the correct use of each word.
How can you remember which is which?

“I give you advice and I give you ice” will help you remember which word is the noun.

* Definitions from the Concise Oxford Dictionary

Next time you are complaining about the stirring of your mates or the complaints of your Boss, you can say you are copping some flak and feel like you are being shot at! But be careful you don’t write you are copping some flack as that may be wildly misinterpreted!

Flack: (noun) press agent or publicist
Flack: (verb) to act as a PR or press agent

Flak: (noun) anti-aircraft artillery or bursting of shells fired form anti-aircraft artillery;over the top and/or agressive criticism; opposition, disagreement. {Flak is derived from the German name of aircraft defence gun-  Flieger Abwehr Kanone}

Simply remember that a PR agent always adds a little extra - like the letter c in flack!

The definition of tolerant is to be accepting of things and perhaps able to endure unpleasant things. However, to be not tolerant can be expressed two ways depending on the specific lack of tolerance being discussed.

Intolerant: Not accepting, allowing or enduring something/someone to exist without interfering, complaining or hindering. For instance, a racist person is intolerant of other races living in their country.

Intolerable: A situation that can’t be endured or continued. For example, after time a worker may find it intolerable to work 100 hour weeks and be criticised by their boss.

Think of the two words like this: He is not able to tolerate a situation but the ant chooses to be intolerant.

Back in April, I wrote about cuboree - a camp for Victorian cubs and leaders. I wrote that I expected to be able to use cuborre as examples in business behaviour and strength.

As I mentioned, cuboree was affected by strong winds that have since been called a cyclone. The entire campsite of about 4,500 people (mostly 8 - 10 year olds) was locked down for an entire afternoon.

It was certainly an experience to remember and thankfully there were no major injuries, but it wasn’t something anyone had expected or hoped for!

There were various things put in place over the storm period that kept us all safe. For instance, leaders were told a storm was coming the previous night so we could prepare our campsites and warn the cubs in the morning that there would be strong winds. Programs were adjusted to suit the conditions and regular updates were provided to pack leaders. The fact that there were high wind rated marquees available, as well as permanent buildings,  shows how the organisers had planned for problems. The cuboree website was already in place so it was simple for the camp to keep parents and others ‘at home’ informed about the cubs, rather than having 3,000 parents ringing or visiting the campsite.

In business, being prepared for possible problems is called contingency planning and is very important. Planning doesn’t mean you think the problem will arise, but makes it easier to deal with the problem if it did arise. It’s like having some paracetemol in the cupboard - you may never get a headache but if you do, you want the medicine quickly.

Contingency planing depends on the size and potential impact of the problem. For instance, running out of ink for the printer is probably covered by having a spare cartridge in the cupboard and ordering a new spare once it is used. However, the plan for how to cope if your business premises are burnt in a fire will be a lot more complex and detailed.

Some contingency planning is simple and practical - having spare ink for printers, spare light bulbs and a first aid kit - while others are much better if written out and added to the procedures.

How much contingency have you planned for in your business? Have you done this formally or just built up a supply of spare materials for instance?

I would love to hear some examples of how contingency planning has saved your business in some way, too.

Have you ever noticed how changing one word can totally change a document or someone’s understanding?

I don’t mean where the wrong word is used accidentally (for example, a typing error changing boy to buoy) but where an appropriate word doesn’t work as well as intended.

Sometimes the word doesn’t work because of the audience. For example, I have seen Australian children (and adults actually!) struggle over American books when they write about pacifiers (dummies) and diapers (nappies) - that’s life if the author was aiming at American children, but bad judgement if the author was aiming at Australians.

Often, however, a word is used that has hidden meanings that can detract from what you were actually aiming at.

I recently had a discussion about the word therapist versus counsellor. While both words can describe a person you talk to about issues and (hopefully) get some insights and direction from the sessions. However, people perceive the two words in different ways - do you? Personally, a therapist implies someone who will help fix a problem (compare to a speech therapist or physiotherapist) but a counsellor is more about working through ideas or situations. So which word is best will depend on what message you are trying to give.

Another example is calling goals or targets ‘milestones’ instead of goals. Michelle of Shel Design was struggling with the concept of setting goals - to her, the word goal implied a final step whereas setting milestones was easier as they were just part of her business process and development. In this case, the word goals was appropriate but had certain hidden meanings for people like Michelle - when writing, those hidden meanings are important to consider, too.

When reviewing your writing, consider your use of words - are some of those words going to mislead some of your readers? Are there hidden meanings you haven’t considered?

Use your words wisely!

Did you know that compliment is not the same as complement? They actually have quite different meanings so using the wrong word can make a reasonable sentence into nonsense!

compliment - expression of praise, greeting, positive comments
She complimented the floral arrangement on the table.

complement - to complete or make a whole
The new couch complements the room nicely.

Can you see how complete complementary things are as a reminder for which spelling to use?

It is now June and the end of financial year is rapidly approaching - are you ready for it?

Here are some of the things I am considering at the moment to maximise my position at 30 June. Is there anything else you do at this time of year?

• send out all pending invoices and statements as soon as possible - not only does it increase your cash flow this month, many other businesses will appreciate being able to pay (and claim a tax deduction) this financial year
• pay off all outstanding invoices if possible - you may as well claim deductions now rather than in 13 months time! And the new tax rates may mean deductions this year will help your tax position anyway
• consider making a contribution to your super fund - this is tax deductible for the self-employed now
• if you or your business supports a charityand you haven’t made a donation yet, now is a good time to do so as it can then count as a tax deduction this financial year - I wonder how much their donations go up in June each year!
• if you are eligible for a Government Co-contribution, your personal contributions of up to $1,000 must be made to your super fund by 30 June  - and changes from the budget or an increased income next year may mean you aren’t eligible next year so get in while you can!
• consider making business purchases that will be needed soon. Not only can you claim it as a tax deduction, it may save you stress when you do actually need the item - printers notoriously run out of ink the day your proposal is due!
• get your accounts sorted and in order - the more organised they are, the quicker you (or your accountant/tax agent) can get the return completed and submitted
• collate related information, such as a travel log or noting the distances travelled, home office bills, private health insurance policy details, bank statements and PAYG statements
• if you run a service business, check the proportion of income from each client as tax rules can change if more than 80% of your income is from one source. There’s not a lot of time to adjust that, but if you’re on 81 or 82% a few quick projects may make a difference
• consider taking out health insurance if you are a higher income earner ($50,000 for a single or $100,00 for a couple/family) - the higher income brackets come into effect from 1 July 2008
• check if there are any expenses you can (and will benefit from) pay now rather than later in the year - for example, insurance premiums and interest on investment loans can be paid in advance to be claimed as a tax deduction now, and are sometimes cheaper paid as a lump sum. Obviously, this affects cash flow and other factors so is not always hte best plan, but it never hurts to research your options!

By preparing now, you may decrease your tax liability and be ready to start the new financial year with a clean slate.

If you leave a comment in a blog, you presumably want to contribute and have your comment included on the blog site. So make sure this is going to happen by getting it right.

Recently, I have received a few comments and pings that aren’t spam but have faulty links so I have not approved the comments.

In one example, the same person gave two comments and had a URL starting with http://http://www so the link obviously didn’t work. The lesson here is to check whether you need to add http:// or not when completing a form - don’t assume every blog/website owner will take the time to fix this error.

Another example if a link that takes a very long time to open and then goes to a page that doesn’t display well or completely. The credibility of the site, and therefore the comment, is reduced. In my case, it meant I couldn’t see how they had linked to me so I wasn’t comfortable accepting the link in my comments.

The result? Your comment is not approved or is only approved once the link is deleted.

Another pair of words that I frequently see misused is principle and principal…

Principle - a belief or moral that governs behaviour and decisions; a fundamental truth
On principle, John refused to watch the parade.

Principal - first or leading rank (e.g. a School Principal); initial sum of money before interest and fees
As Principal of the local school, Mary was well respected by the parents.

The most common uses of these words are often confused and used incorrectly. The easiest way to remember which is which is to think of your pal being a principal.

My earlier post listed some examples of poor survey questions I have come across, so now here are some tips for making your survey questions effective…

1. Know what you are preparing the survey for - and how you will use the results. By planning the results, you will know what questions you need answered and be sure to word them to get the relevant answers. For instance, if you want to know if clients prefer green or blue so you can change your corporate colours, you won’t bother asking “Do you like pink?”
2. make each question clearly different - if someone has to read a question two or three times to see why it is different to a previous question, they are likely top give up or answer incorrectly. Be particularly careful to not ask the positive and negative for the same point.
3. don’t just copy the same responses for every question. Yes, it is reasonable to give responses such as excellent and poor to some questions, but not if you ask “did the book help you?” A bit of variety is more interesting and makes it more likely people will read each question properly.
4. check questions follow on from one to the next, especially if you are using software that provides different questions depending on earlier responses. For example, if someone answers “I don’t have children” to question 1, question 2 really shouldn’t ask “how old are your children?”
5. Always provide a response for everyone. It is frustrating for someone who can’t give any of your responses as their answer so always include every option or a way of indicating nothing applies.
6. Make sure every question and provided response makes sense. That means read every question/response pair individually. For example, “was the presentation interesting?” works, “was the presentation informative?” works but “was the presentation expectations?” doesn’t work.
7. every question must be simple and clear - if the question is too complicated you can’t expect useful results. Simplify questions by
   • using simple and short words as much as possible
   • divide a long question into two parts if possible
   • give responses to choose from rather than an open ended question
   • staying to the point - and keeping to your purpose
   • keeping all question short - it’s much easier to complicate 12 words than 6!
8. Always use good grammar and spelling so people aren’t confused or distracted by your errors.
9. Present your survey well so people will actually read and respond to your well written questions!

Ideally, prepare the questions and leave them for a couple of days. Then reread each question to make sure it makes sense and will get the answers you are after. Once you are sure the questions are workable, ask someone else (or a few someone elses) to answer the survey for you and provide feedback on questions they weren’t sure of.

A well written and prepared survey can be a very valubale tool for your business so it is worth putting the time and effort into making it as good as you possibly can.