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Resolve your new resolution
It’s early January and new years resolutions are still being discussed and worked on so today’s definitions are inspired by the word resolution…
resolve: [verb] decide upon (alone or as a vote), solve, analyse
After hearing all the evidence, the judge will resolve the custody question.
[as a noun, it means being steadfast, sticking to a course or showing mental resolution and strength]
resolute: [adjective] being determined, consistent, staying on track, focussed, purposeful
Hamish was resolute throughout the year and became due of his school.
resolution: [noun] something resolved or decided on, a formal decision or opinion from a meeting, solution to a question
The committee passed the resolution after only fifteen minutes.
[as a verb, it means resolving, deciding, analysing or solving]
So you need to be resolute to resolve an issue and make a resolution. (Don’t say that too many times in a row!)
When a date doesn’t date…
In the last week we have seen a lot about world and local financial markets – they dropped drastically but has already picked up some of that again. Have you tried researching information about this situation, either in general or for something specific?
News without a date
Knowing the date can be important for context
I was looking at various superannuation sites yesterday to see what they were telling members about their investments and was amazed that not all listed a date for the news item they had published.
One in particular started their article with “Last week was a tumultuous one for world share markets” and finished with a footnote “*SR50 Balanced fund SuperRatings Crediting Rate Survey, June 2011”.
So was it about things that happened last week (i.e. early August 2011) or some other week since June 2011?
I’m fairly confident the article went live in the last 48 hours so presumably it is about recent developments. But what if I hadn’t looked at their site until next week – would the data still be relevant or useful?
Yes, putting dates on websites can date them fast (the ‘last updated’ reference on many pages is the prime example of that) but current news items are the exception.
I have often read blog posts and wondered when it was written; “new version of ABC will be released next month” and “our web visitors doubled in the past 12 months” carry more weight when I understand ‘next month’ and ‘past 12 months’. A small note after the post is fine (WordPress does it by default and that works for me!)
People need to have a context, a reference point for the information. Especially for things like financial markets which change so rapidly at times.
And just to be clear, this is being written on 10 August 2011!
What, if any, pages on your site do you add a date to? If not all pages are the same, why do you add dates to some but not others?
Between these words
Are you aware that among and between have quite distinct meanings and can’t be used in the same way?
among: surrounded by, part of, included with
Divided among a team of ten, five oranges didn’t go far.
between: fitting in, across or along a spectrum or group
They will provide between $2 and $5 per person for catering.
So you need to use between for two items, and among for more than two items.
Most tips are simple!
Most is a term of quantity – ‘She scored the most goals’ and ‘He ate most of the cake.’
Almost is a measure of qualifying something else – ‘We are almost there’ and ‘You’re almost to the top.’
Although the two words are similar in sound, they are very different and should not be used in the same way. A simple way to remember the difference: Almost is nearly all done
Fewer uses of less?
Words with similar meanings can easily be used in the wrong context, which does not give a good impression of the writer and also doesn’t help to keep the specific meanings of words. Did you know that ‘fewer’ and ‘less’ are often used in the wrong way?
fewer: not as many items (i.e. relates to things you can count)
There are fewer tasks on my to do list now
less (or less than): not as much of something (i.e. relates to a collective noun)
Antibiotics resulted in less disease after WWII.
What phase fazes you?
Here is an interesting pair of similar sounding words – I haven’t often seen faze written (and never misused) but perhaps that is because not many people know how to spell or use it?
faze: to worry or scare
The weather predictions didn’t appear to faze anyone at the campsite.
phase: a specific time or stage in a sequence
He is in the drafting phase of the annual report.
One little letter…
One little letter can make a huge difference.
I have just come across an example of why it is critical to proof read everything before you publish it, and why attention to details such as spelling and grammar are important.
Actually, I first saw this site about 8 months ago and they still haven’t noticed or corrected it. I had forgotten it but for my amusement I’m glad it was still there!
In the header of every page of the site, they have used an a instead of u in their tagline. One little letter could be a simple typo, of course, but your tagline and header are the first things people notice! And in this case, it doesn’t look like a typo as it makes a real word which gives a VERY different meaning.
The tagline in the header is “Pass a drag test no sweat” which instantly brings to mind men dressing as women (testing to see if they are real drag queens is perhaps unusual but I guess we don’t want people pretending to be in drag?)
Elsewhere, they use the tagline “Pass a drug test no sweat” which related to the fact they sell “products is removing unwanted substances from your body and provides for quick detoxification of your organism.”
I’m not going to touch the rights and wrongs of passing drug tests this way, but it is clear that there is a huge difference between drag and drug.
So check your work carefully and don’t just rely on spell checks to get your work correct.
Use your words wisely!
Roast carat or carrot?
Carrot: an orange coloured root vegetable from the parsley family and a good source of carotenoid nutrients including beta-carotene
Roast lamb isn’t the same without roast potatoes and carrots
Caret: a mark that indicates where text is to be inserted. In editing, it is ^ but on a computer screen it is usually >.
The fox jumped over ^log.
Carat (ct):a unit of weight used for gems and precious stones. It is a metric measurement based on 0.2 grams per carat.
A five carat opal weighs about one gram.
Karat (k): a measure of the purity of gold – pure gold being too soft for jewellery, it is mixed with other metals to make an alloy.
My necklace is 18k which means it contains 75% pure gold.
Telling them apart can be simplified. Carrot is the most commonly used version, and the only one likely to rot.
Caret is a very specific word that most people would rarely come across, especially as the word cursor is used more often in a computer sense.
As for carat and karat, carat refers to how much gemstone you have to carry (i.e. the weight) while a karat refers to the King’s gold!
Use of electrocution is shocking
This word is misused so often it is scary – or shocking if you can excuse the pun! In fact, last week I heard a TV host admit to murdering half of his contestants on national television!
electrocution: dying from electricity being applied to the body
He was electrocuted when he touched both live wires.
Electrocution, electrocuted, electrocute – whichever form of the word, it means being killed by electricity. Yet so many people talk about being electrocuted themselves – if you believe in ghosts, that could be possible but otherwise if the person is talking about it they were not electrocuted!
An electric shock on the other hand means feeling electricity through your body but you surive the experience – it can be as mild as the shock you get from synthetic carpets through to an almost fatal shock.
As for our TV host, he had given many of his contestants an electric shock but I’m pretty sure he hadn’t killed them despite saying he had electrocuted them.
Either, neither…
It is the use of either and neither (rather than the spelling) that people seem to have trouble with – I have just edited a 40 page document which repeatedly misused either/or.
either: an introduction of two alternatives separated by the word or
You can either buy or rent this property
neither: an introduction of two unavailable alternatives separated by the word nor
neither John nor Mary can run the meeting.
What is important to note is that both words refer to a choice of TWO options – if there is a list of choices, either/neither can’t be used.
wrong – You can choose either chocolate or vanilla or strawberry.
correct – You can chose either chocolate or strawberry.
correct – You can choose chocolate, vanilla or strawberry.
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