So, “Twenty sailors were on deck at the time” is correct.

Within a sentence, numbers can be written in words – “There were twenty sailors on deck” – or in numerals - ”There were 20 sailors on deck.”

There are different styles, so the use of words or figures in text can vary. If in doubt, the most common rule is that single digits (one, two, three, etc) are written in words and the number 10 and greater are written in figures.

“Of the 18 children in class, only five were in yellow house.”

Think about the impact of the words you choose and use.

Think about what words have done to/for our world:

• started wars
• made people cry (or worse)
• made people laugh
• started deep emotional relationships
• ended people’s lives
• made people rich
• given a lot of pleasure (doubt that? Think of your favourite book…)

Think of the impact of words on the careers of

• ACDC, Midnight Oil, Silver Chair, Michael Jackson and Cold Play – would their music be as popular without their lyrics?
• Sean Connery, Harrison Ford, Kate Winslet, Cameron Dias and Bud Tingwell – how good would their movies had been without a script or with a mediocre script?
• Kevin Rudd, Barack Obama, Julia Gillard, John Howard, Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi – a speechless politician wouldn’t get very far
• your favourite school teacher, sports coach and music teacher all needed words to make a career and help you

So remember the importance of words, and using the right words, when planning your business and your marketing. Don’t be fooled – the words you choose in your promotions and materials will impact on your success – or not.

Words are important so

• choose appropriate words
• proof read to be sure your spelling and grammar support your choice of words
• check how words are perceived, not just what they mean (as a drastic example, the word gay means happy and cheerful but many people perceive it differently now)
• use as few words as necessary to get the message across – think of words as important and limited

Use your words wisely!

isp providers and email programs both use rules to sort out real emails from spam – that’s how some emails never reach you and others go into your junk folder instead of your inbox. That’s great for keeping your inbox clear, but not so good when your emails aren’t arriving…

I spoke this morning at a seminar and mentioned how certain words can get your email classed as spam even if you use those words in an innocent way. Many mass email tools can review your emails and tell you which words may cause a problem, which is handy. Alternatively, you can find lists of such words online (some examples are here  and here.)

For words that are in the spam rules, you have a few choices:

• use the word where necessary  as some words are just too hard to avoid – for example if you sell fishing rods it is very hard to avoid writing ‘fishing’ (yes, fishing is a word to avoid!) If you only use one or two words and otherwise pass the spam tests, your email has a fair chance of getting through
• find an alternative word to use. For example, use ‘go to’ instead of ‘visit’ or ‘click here’
• write the sentence differently – to stay with our fishing example, we could write ‘we went to catch some fish’ to replace ’we went fishing’
• break the word with symbol (this is why you see ‘V.isit us for a f.ree valu.ation’ and the like.) This divides trigger words into two part words which spam filters don’t worry about, although some are also being added to rules. I hate the look of doing this but am coming to accept the necessity of it unfortunately.

Avoiding the use of such trigger words can help you get passed spam filters, but these are not the only rules to be aware of. Spamassassin provides some tips for keeping your emails out of spam folders, as does Bob Thomson.

Rein: a tie to maintain control over another being
The horse rider kept tight hold of the rein in each hand.

Rain: water falling from clouds in the sky – a form of precipitation
The farmers are hoping for a lot of rain this month.

Recent: of a similar time to the present – not long ago or far into the future.
The recent rains have helped our water supply.

Resent: to send something again.
I resent the email after he said he hadn’t received it the first time.

If English isn’t your first language, do you find learning such words difficult?

Ravaging: causing destruction, destroying something
The Vikings are known for ravaging many towns and villages.

Ravishing: taking by force; raping. It is more commonly used to mean ‘of great beauty and delight’ which derives from women of great beauty ‘raping’ men of their senses with their beauty!
Ravishing rich women was one of the old pirate’s delights.

Ravenous: very hungry {as hungry as a beast came from the devouring aspect of ravish.}
They were ravenous after their long hike.

In case you are struggling with why this amuses me, here are the definitions of the words court and caught.

caught: the past tense of to catch
She caught the ball and won the game.

court:an institution that applies law and justice for society; a defined area, usually with markings, for the playing of a specific game.
Judges, lawyers and jurors come together in court.
A tennis net is strung across the court.

The legal system is there for us, as as games – you could say they are ours. So the word our is in our court…

Sorry to play with some great lyrics, but the word lightning always makes me think of that song! Apparently, a number of people don’t realise that there are two versions of the word lightning/lightening – that is, there is one sound for the word but two spellings and meanings. Given people don’t realise there are two spellings, I guess it isn’t surprising to see the incorrect word used.

So here are the definitions of the two words to make sure you know which is which!

lightning: a sudden burst of light in the sky
The lightning storm was exciting and beautiful to watch

lightening: to make lighter or brighter
The sky was lightening on the horizon as we arrived home.
I am looking forward to  lightening my load!

Lightning in the sky is fast and sharp – there is no time for extra letters. Whereas lightening something involves some effort, it is a verb, so it has an extra e in the spelling and pronunciation.

Tortuous - twisting and winding, such as driving along a tortuous road.
The wagon was too long to drive along the tortuous track.

Torturous - painful, agonising, upsetting, such as a torturous stay in prison
Listening to the new student play the violin was torturous to the music lover.

To tell them apart, think of the word torture and torturous together as painful and unpleasant.

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!