I hope you find my writing and business tips and observations useful. My business and blog are dedicated to helping businesses communicate clearly and reach their potential.
Read, subscribe to my newsletter, enjoy!Tash
Does a suite suit you?
I was happily reading a blog post nicely laid out with tables and sub-headings when I came across a sentence “change your pricing strategy to suite your business needs.”
I’ll say no more other than to give a new pair of misused words…
A business woman in a suit on a lounge suite – one little letter makes a world of difference.
suit: (verb) to be acceptable to or enhance something
Will it suit you to meet at 10am on Wednesday?
Does your pricing strategy suit your business needs?
suit: (noun) a set of clothing, generally consisting of a jacket with pants or skirt; legal action; one of four divisions in a pack of cards club, diamond, spade, heart); a romantic interest.
Most men wear a suit to a funeral.
Jason was very pleased when he won the law suit against his competitor.
Rachel’s hand of cards included every suit.
After three years, Elizabeth accepted his suit.
suite: related things together as a set, such as a group of rooms in a hotel or a set of furniture for one room; music in one key but several parts
Jane ordered a new bedroom suite at the sales.
These are the types of errors I spot naturally and instinctively correct for clients so if you are concerned about your word usage don’t worry about showing your writing to a professional writer/editor – apart from the fact we’ve seen it before, it is better one professional sees it and fixes it than you publish it and your prospective clients see it, don’t you think?
[Tweet “Do you know your suite from your suit?”]
Writing for the group
While individuals may be insoluble puzzles, in the aggregate they become mathematical certainties.
Sherlock Holmes
When writing to sell your business to people, you can’t be sure how any one individual will react to your words. However, you can write so that the majority of your audience (and by audience I mean people who are possibly going to buy from you, rather than the entire global population) will react the way you want them to.
This means it is important to remember that one negative response is not the end of your business, and may not be representative of everyone’s reaction. It also means that you need to use words and expressions that many people will understand, not just ones that a few people will relate to.
Writing for a group will bring better results than writing for one or two individuals – although writing as if to individuals is still effective and personal.
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