TashWord
Tash is a professional writer who loves helping people communicate clearly and effectively.
Altogether: completely or totally. Overall.
He was altogether mad!
All together: the entire group at the same time or place.
We were all together when we got the news.
Think of altogether being one word and meaning complete compared to all members of a group being separate even when together.
Surfing some of my favourite blogs today, I came across a post by Donna-Marie about choosing suitable fonts. As well as being a good summary of which fonts work well in different media, it reminded me of someone recently asking about using different sized fonts – and recent experiences of unsuitable font choices.
I remember doing school assignments where I’d use different fancy fonts for each heading and changed the text to suit the amount of information in each section, and so on – and I was proud of being so versatile! But looking back (or at children’s work now) I can see that it looks childish and puts the focus on the fonts rather than the content. It isn’t very professional to give the impression you are trying to minimise the content!
As a general rule, it is better to stick to one font style and size in a single document. It is consistent which makes it easier to read (the eye doesn’t have to keep adjusting to different fonts) and it also looks clean and professional. And to be honest, it is also easier to prepare than swapping fonts all the time!
The common exceptions in font sizes would be:
If you are tempted to change font sizes to break up a chunk of text, consider bullet points, italics, bold, more paragraph breaks and page layout as alternatives.
Assistants: two or more people who are helping
His assistants were busy preparing the report.
Assistance: the help being provided
I really appreciated your assistance yesterday.
The use of -ants and -ance is often confused because they sound exactly the same despite the very different spelling. The easiest way to remember which is which is to think of ants (yes, the insects!) as doers and use that ending when you are writing about people doing something.
Everyone I have spoken to enjoyed the conference I attended in July and that got me wondering why – and thinking about other conferences I’ve been to and heard of. So I want to know what makes a good conference?
Knowing what makes a good conference is very useful if you ever have to plan one, but it can also be useful in deciding whether or not to invest your time and money into a particular conference. Business events can be a great resource – but they can also be a waste of time and money if you don’t choose carefully.
Some of the features that I think helped make this particular conference good are:
What features have you particularly appreciated about a conference or business event? Do you agree with the features I listed as being valuable (especially if you were at this conference!)?
One pair of misused words that I find really annoying is your/you’re. It isn’t hard to learn one is possessive and one is an abbreviation (for you are), but so many people use the incorrect word which shows a lack of knowledge and attention to detail that does not represent them , their content or their business well.
Your: refers to something you own
Is that your bike?
You’re: an abbreviation of ‘you are’.
You’re going to work tomorrow.
Yore: referring to the past, although it isn’t often used now
In days of yore, a Lady’s ankle was never seen.
Although these three words sound exactly the same, they obviously can’t be used as substitutes for each other. No catchy memory tricks for this one – you simply need to remember that the apostrophe replaces the a in you are to create you’re.
One of the conference workshops I attended last week was called “Working in a clutter-free, productive place”, run by Natasha Crestani of Inspired Honey. It was fantastic!
I must say I agree with the premise that less clutter makes it easier to concentrate and to find things, both of which make you more productive when you try to work and function. But when you get busy, it can be hard to manage the clutter.
If you tend to hoard things and surround yourself with clutter, I believe you have to be ready to let go of things or it won’t happen. But even organising your clutter will make a difference if you can’t actually lose much of it yet.
Some tips I got from Natasha – either directly or by thinking about what she said – are listed below and hopefully one or two will help you be more productive in your business/office!
What systems will work in your oficce and situation depends on you, your business and what resources you have so the bad news is that there is no magic bullet to fix clutter and disorganisation. The good news is that you can change things and become more productive 🙂
As a busy writer, I admit that sometimes my desk and office got out of control and were hidden under piles of paper. Since Natasha’s workshop, I have reduced clutter and it feels great! I am implementing new systems, too, so I will never lose my desk again!
Still, I would love to hear your business/office organisation tips so please add them as comments…
Another pair of words many people could easily confuse is tortuous and torturous.
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.
Email marketing is a valuable tool for any modern business, but it can backfire if you don’t use it carefully.
I recently saw an email that was very short, started with my name and included unsubscribe details – all of which are good points in an email. But it also included three links to a web page they were promoting – not three pages, but three links to one page!
In a short email, I am quite capable of finding the link even if I have read further on – it will stand out!
Over do something like providing links, and I begin to wonder why you are pushing it so hard and I get suspicious. Finish with “This isn’t hype” to convince me this is hype and not substance.
Add in a comment like “Seriously, this puppy is sick” and the email has no credibility – I deleted it without clicking on any of the three links!
So the lessons from this email are:
Use your words (and links!) wisely!
Last year, my daughter was taught about reading exclamation marks – that is, if she was reading something out loud and saw an exclamation mark, she knew to raise her voice at the end of that sentence.
Today, I was asked how to stop using too many exclamation marks in writing – and I found it an interesting question!
I can’t say how many exclamation marks is too many – it depends on the length of the document and the context, of course. But over use of exclamation marks can cheapen the impact of your message, making it look like hype and unprofessional. An exclamation mark shows a statement as something a bit out of the ordinary – a lot of them and all those statements become ordinary.
If you use exclamation marks because they are fun and help you express yourself, I suggest you still use them as you write – and then go back and remove many of them as you edit. This way, you still have the fun of adding them but can moderate it before anyone else reads your writing.
However, if you use exclamation marks to emphasise your points, perhaps you need more faith in the message and how you present it. A strong statement is strong whether or not you add an exclamation mark.
Here are some ideas for changing your writing to reduce the need for exclamation marks:
Use your words wisely, and you will find less need for exclamation marks!
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