Grammar Repair Shop: Contraction infractions
Common mistakes when using contractions.
Year: 2006
Cheap tools for planning the main event
Give your meeting a modern edge without putting a dent in your budget.
Getting what you really want at work
If you’re hesitant to seek more flexibility, steel your nerves: You have every reason to seek out the most efficient ways to complete your work at the office and at home. And, even in a tight job market, you don’t have to offer to reduce your earnings to get the flexibility you need. The right kind of flexibility benefits your employer too. For example…
Sidestep these 5 temptations of e-mail
You’ve probably noticed how email can bring out the worst in people. Don’t let it tempt you to misuse it. Steer clear of these five common temptations:
Use the power of logic in spreadsheets
Say you’re trying to use an Excel spreadsheet to track weekly wages for office employees. It’s simple enough to create a formula (hours x hourly rate) that calculates wages for someone who works 40 hours or less. But what if someone works 45 hours one week?
Grammar Repair Shop: If only this phrase would ‘go missing’
Problem: I’ve been hearing and reading the phrase “went missing” lately. It’s frequently in the media and sounds terrible! Is this phrase grammatically correct? — Joyce Prosser, Administrative Assistant, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, N.H. The phrase is grammatically correct, at least according to British diction-aries, and most people do un- derstand what it means. But […]
They asked for it; they got it!
“If one word can be used to characterize the new career,” says Barbara Moses, “it is ‘self-reliance.'” She says you must assume that every aspect of your work can improve, network outside of your circle and look for gaps to fill in your company. Here’s how.
Nailing the art of the personal note
Who hasn’t started writing a thank-you or condolence note, only to encounter "the big um" after the first sentence? "The big um is when you get your first couple of words out and wonder, ‘What’s next?’" says Angela Ensminger, co-author of On a Personal Note: A Guide to Writing Notes with Style. "That blank paper is very intimidating." Great personal notes come from taking these five steps:
Invest in understanding the finances
Sure, you’ve glanced at the organization’s balance sheet. But do you know what all those financial terms really mean? First step: Match the financial terms below left with their correct definitions on the right.
Grammar Repair Shop: ‘Which’ or ‘that’?
A reader asks: “Is there a hard-and-fast rule regarding ‘that’ and ‘which?’” One way to figure out when to use “that” versus “which”: Take a look at the whole sentence, and then decide whether the word will introduce an essential or nonessential clause. “That” introduces clauses that are essential to understanding the sentence’s meaning, while […]