TashWord

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Tash is a professional writer who loves helping people communicate clearly and effectively.

I have a cell to sell

Published 15 September, 2008 | By TashWord

cell: a basic unit, often regular in shape and function
Each cell of his body reacted to the oxygen
or
He couldn’t find a way out of his prison cell

sell: to transfer or exchange goods or services in return for money or other goods and services
How do you sell your services?

If you are having trouble with these two words, remember that a shop sells things.

Managing feedback

Published 10 September, 2008 | By TashWord

When I’m writing for some of my corporate clients, a number of people need to be involved in the document – usually a mix of technical experts and legal advisers, along with a manager or two. If you have ever had to deal with a committee consensus, you’ll know that this process can be frustrating and time-consuming.

The best results arise when everyone has the appropriate input with one or two people having responsibility for the final result – usually the writer and a senior manager.

Here are some of my tips to keep this process under control:

have all feedback come into a central place so it can be collated – and if a technical expert can collate it for you, even better!
as much as possible, get everyone involved to review the same draft by a specific deadline. This way, you can blend all of the feedback into the document in one go rather than having many drafts and missing details in the confusion. Most stakeholders then do not get another review – legal, management and you get to do final checks.
get the document as accurate as possible with one or two client representatives before it goes to the group
explain any potential issues before they start the review. For example, I often write ‘refer to page xx’ in a draft document rather than ‘refer to page 10’ to allow for layout changes. I warn clients of this when I give them the draft to save them and me dealing with page numbers unnecessarily
understand as much as possible who is who amongst the stakeholders. If Jane and Mary give opposing feedback – which should you rely on as technically correct and which is an opinion?
be willing to give way on some points if they aren’t important so that you can stand your ground on points where it is important – remember that the same information can be written in multiple correct ways, and it can be personal choice as to which is ‘better’

As a writer, it is my job to take their technical knowledge, legal requirements and document intentions and provide them with a clear, easy to read document. So sometimes I do exactly as their feedback requests (e.g. changing a measurement from 5mm to 5cm) and at other times I adjust their feedback for clarity.

Use your words wisely!

Posted in writing | Tagged clarity, client, document, feedback, legal, manage, review, stakeholders, technical | 5 Comments

Is noise allowed?

Published 8 September, 2008 | By TashWord

allowed: to have permission
Under school rules, she was allowed to wear casual clothes.

aloud: not silent, speak openly rather than in a whisper
The students took turns reading aloud from the novel.

Posted in Monday Meanings | Tagged allowed, Aloud | Leave a comment

whether the weather is what you want…

Published 1 September, 2008 | By TashWord

Today’s pair of definitions isn’t one I see misused very often, but it looks very strange when they are misused so it’s important to get it right!

whether: providing two or more options or choices
I am not sure whether I will have a boy or a girl.

weather: atmospheric changes that affect people – we usually include temperature, humidity, wet/dry conditions, wind and sunny/cloudy as part of the weather
Do you know what the weather will be for our picnic?

How to remember which spelling is which? Whether (starts with wh) is about which (starts with wh) choice, but weather affects what we want to eat!

Posted in Monday Meanings | Tagged Weather, whether, which | Leave a comment

Finding material to blog about

Published 27 August, 2008 | By TashWord

Some days, words will just flow onto your blog, but there are times when it is harder to know what to write about. It’s normal to have days where we’re less creative, or are tired, or overwhelmed or a multitude of other things that get in our way.

A week or so ago, I looked at a new blog – well, newish as it replaces a previous blog by the same person – and noticed a few spelling errors. Knowing the blogger, I let her know about them and thought nothing else of it. A few days later, I noticed that Melissa had added a new post in which she talked about fixing those errors I had pointed out and the importance of proof reading.

This reminded me of how we can find blogging (or article or newsletter, etc) topics from the simple events that happen in our business and personal lives. Small events can remind us of important things or create a useful learning tool. So here are some suggestions for next time you are stuck on what to write…

questions clients have recently asked you – e.g. I recently explained bleeds to a couple of clients and I have been asked if I do editing of articles (which I do!), and both of those could become a blog post
tips you come across from other business people – for example, I shared some decluttering tips I gained from a workshop I attended
mistakes you see in others’ work – not as a means of criticising others, but as a means of learning from their mistakes
turning points and changes in your business – either just to let people know of them, or as a means of teaching others alternatives

By including little things in your list of ideas is a good way to increase the amount of topics you have to write about.

Use your words wisely!

Posted in blogging, newsletter content | Tagged article, blog, business, newsletter, questions, small, tips, topics | 5 Comments

Boy sits on a buoy?

Published 25 August, 2008 | By TashWord

Don’t rely on your spell checker. Even if there are no language differences, it won’t always catch your errors.

Both “the buoy is floating” and “the boy is floating” are correct, but they mean different things. Of course, if you live in the USA you pronounce buoy as boo-ey so this pair of words doesn’t seem quite so similar as it does to those of us who prounce it the same way as boy.

boy: a male child
The boy was excited about his birthday.

buoy: a floating device that marks significant spots in water
The boats kept outside of the circle of buoys during the race.

Posted in Monday Meanings | Tagged boy, buoy, child, marker, pronounce, spelling, water | 2 Comments

Boundaries between home & work

Published 21 August, 2008 | By TashWord

In a traditional job setting, the difference between work and home is fairly clear and easy to see – until you start bringing work home anyway! But when you run a business or have a remote job, it can be harder to spot the difference – and harder to manage things.

Of course, the big question is HOW to manage time! I think the simplistic answer is to set boundaries to maintain control.

From talking to various people, I see two main groups of at home workers – those who get distracted from work by the need to tidy the kitchen, hang out the washing, vacuum the floors and so on, and those who work a lot and find it hard to manage much of the house stuff at all. Which group do you fit into? I have no trouble (well, generally speaking!) getting on with work but end up working too hard and letting the housework slide…

Here are some of my ideas on creating boundaries between business and home, but I’d love to hear your suggestions, too…

physically separate your working space from your living space as much as possible – if you are sitting in your work space, don’t do home things and vice versa. My article, separating your home office, may give you some new ideas
separate phone lines if you can – then only answer the business phone during business hours, and the home phone during personal hours. Before you assume this is too expensive, consider a VOIP phone as this is much cheaper than renting a second landline
tell clients your expectations/limitations – for example, “We work 10 to 4” or “we don’t answer phone calls in busy periods”. Kylie of Tilda Virtual went further and actually sacked a client to gain back control of her business and family boundaries!
set clear business hours and stick to them most of the time – if clients see you work outside those hours, they will start expecting you to do so. If you do work out of your usual hours, make it clear it is unusual or mask the fact – sometimes I work late at night but program the email to go to my client the next morning so I am not advertising the fact of when I did the work.
if possible, use a different email address for friends and family than for business. Set up filters for incoming emails and just concentrate on business emails during business hours.
learn to say no to clients or extra work – or at least say it won’t be done straight away. Know how much work you can deal with in a day/week and refuse to overload yourself
if you have people visiting you during the day, try putting a sign on the door that says “Business in operation – please call back later for a personal visit” so people can see you are serious about your business hours. If you want, you could leave a pencil and notepad by the door so they can leave you a message

Sometimes it seems impossible to make those boundaries, but the reduced stress and lost time is well worth the effort. Good luck with it!

Use your words and time wisely!

Posted in bit off track, business info & tools | Tagged boundaries, business, Clients, email, home, home workers, house, ideas, manage, office, phone, separate, space, time, work, work at home | 3 Comments

Do patients have patience?

Published 18 August, 2008 | By TashWord

I have received emails/letters that include “thanks for your patients” where I’m sure the writer didn’t have the slightest idea that they really meant “thanks for your patience”. Do you know the difference?

patience: bearing or enduring difficult or trying circumstances, usually in a calm and accepting manner
The audience’s patience was rewarded with a wonderful concert.

patients: people receiving the services of medical practitioners – often ill or injured people but not always
The doctor had a queue of patients waiting to see her during the epidemic.

Given that patients refers to a group of people, it is no surprise that the word ends in s, the common plural ending.

Posted in Monday Meanings | Tagged patience, patients | 1 Comment

Crucial planning ahead for problems

Published 13 August, 2008 | By TashWord

Contingency planning and being prepared are important steps for a business owner – but steps that are not urgent so can easily be left behind in the day to day busyness of business and making a profit.

I was reminded of this topic today when I read an article called ‘When bad stuff happens’ – being about small business owners needing to think ahead to potential problems. And having procedures in place to cope when problems do arise.

Back in 1999, I had a contract to prepare some contingency plans for a major Australian company. We did various things, but one key task was preparing a checklist and contingency plan for the morning of 1 January 2000 – the day computers were going to fail and planes fall from the sky! The checklist included things such as ‘turn on a light switch. If it doesn’t work, try a second switch. If it still doesn’t work, look at neighbouring buildings and street lights – do they have power?’ We thought ahead and gave staff options to get all the information before emergency procedures were put into place.

So what sort of things do you need procedures for in your business? Obviously, that depends on your business, but some simple procedures you could start with are:

make sure someone else has a list of key contacts in case you are suddenly out of action. For example, my key clients and contacts are on a list with my husband so they would not be left wondering about me if I disappeared for a while
give someone else access to your PO box, or at least permission to get your mail redirected
prepare a list of essential business passwords so someone else can manage things – for instance, passwords for your blog, email and online shop administration
if you send out products, writing a procedure on how to package and send them is crucial for another person to be able to pick it up for you
if you are a service provider, establish some relationships now so there are people you can refer clients to or outsource work to if you can’t complete promised work
give your bookkeeper, accountant or a trusted person the means to be able to complete IAS/BAS statements for you, including how to pay any tax owing, so you avoid fines and problems with the ATO while you are ill or unavailable
prepare some standard responses to emails so the same message can be sent out even in your absence. Think about adding some of that common information to your website, too, to reduce how many people ask the same question – much easier for someone trying to fill in for you, but also a great time saver for you in the mean time!

If you start implementing some of these plans into your business, I’d love to hear about it – although I hope it never becomes necessary to use the procedures for a negative problem (using them because you win a trip around the world is a different story!)

Use your words and time wisely!

Posted in business info & tools | Tagged business, contingency, owner, plan, planning, problems, procedures | 7 Comments

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