I had the pleasure of picking up my son Chris at the airport a couple of weeks ago and surprising my wife and my daughter with his visit. A wonderful moment!
Chris made my week a second time a couple of days later when I told him about my grammar blog. He got excited immediately. "At last," he said, "a cure for my insomnia!"
My friend Amy was carrying around a copy of Strunk's and White's The Elements of Style the other day. I can't remember why she had it, but I have some chemistry in my background, so when I see the word "element," I often think about that previous career. I get reminded of it in other venues too. For example, we went to see Avatar the other day, and I liked the name for the new metal they had discovered under the Na'vis' rain forest, (possibly) with all the best qualities of uranium and titanium: unattainium. [Shucks -- Carol tells me that it's "unobtainium," but either way, let's not be too negative -- we all think we might succeed in some of our New Year's resolutions.]
While we're talking about Strunk and White, it's worth mentioning a concept that they raise pretty early on, not strictly a grammar issue, but one that we should all think about in our writing. There are several good examples in their section, called "Omit needless words," of phrases that don't add anything to a sentence. We all succumb to the temptation to wax poetic and flowery on occasion, but in business writing, it's better to be direct. When you send out a memo, for example, you probably have your audience for only a couple of sentences, so you'd better make them count. I caught myself twice just the other day. First, I wrote:
I'm in the process of finalizing that spreadsheet on xyz.
which could have been written more directly as
I'm finalizing that spreadsheet....
Then, a couple of sentences later, (writing to persuade, as usual!), I said:
In my opinion, we should blah blah blah.
Since I hadn't mentioned that I was relaying someone else's opinion, I was obviously talking about my own, and I could have saved three words and a comma by saying just
We should blah blah blah.
OK, let's do a couple of word-for-words. Here's one that has become so widespread that maybe, like "hopefully" from Week 12, it's a lost cause. I hope [not Hopefully!] I'm wrong.
Quality vs. high-quality
"Quality" is a noun, so when you want to use it as an adjective, you need to say what kind of quality you're talking about:
Eastern Mountain Sports sells quality products to its customers.
should be
Eastern Mountain Sports sells high-quality products to its customers.
Of course, we all remember from Week 5 that compound words like "high-quality" have to be hyphenated, to avoid giving the impression that EMS sells "high" products.
Piqued vs. peaked
I ran across this one (or something like it) on someone else's blog the other day:
The mysterious item in his refrigerator peaked my curiosity.
I suppose that if your curiosity was already at a high level, then the mysterious item could have pushed it over the top, but the correct word is "piqued," from the French verb "piquer," to prick or irritate.
Gone vs. went
Grammarians will probably tell you that this distinction is one between the past tense and the past perfect (pluperfect?) tense, but since we're just ordinary people, let's learn by the following example:
I should have went to the meeting yesterday.
should be
I should have gone to the meeting yesterday.
The simple past tense of "I go" is "I went," and some fancier past tense is "I have gone," not "I have went." When I heard this one at the office a couple of weeks ago, I was tempted to write it off to regional preferences for particular idioms, but the old curmudgeon in me still says it's incorrect.
Along those same (curmudgeonly) lines, I'll leave you this week with one last diagnosis from my son Chris: his parting words on the subject of grammar were "Dad, I don't know about this blog of yours. I think you may have Irritable Vowel Syndrome."
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Alan, I completely agree with your observation that, in business correspondence, brevity is key. Dispense with superfluous words because rather than persuade, needless wording detracts from one’s argument. Therefore, “I am in the process of finalizing the spreadsheet” is more effectively rendered “I am finalizing” or perhaps, “I will finalize the spreadsheet by Friday.”
ReplyDeleteHowever, audience and medium are critical to any form of communication, especially in the context of asymmetrical power structures.
In your next example, you omit the prefatory “In my opinion. . .” as unnecessary. These words are dispensable in most instances. However when communicating with subordinates or those junior to your reporting status, removing those 11 letters effectively converts a recommendation to a prescriptive instruction that does not invite comment or opinion: “We should . . .” This may also be the case when communicating cross-gender. (I say “may” because, due to heightened gender sensitivities and education, many younger women do not necessarily hold men—even older men—in the same style of deference as the generation which preceded them).
E-mail is a hybrid writing genre: it is a cross between conversation and an official memo. In the case of the latter, clear and concise language is desirable. In conversation, that can be stifling and awkward.
Given that most business correspondence today takes place electronically, I suggest that a writer be mindful of the audience and medium of communication. Sometimes, seemingly superfluous wording may in fact be necessary.
After a careful review of Amberly Thrower's posting above, I must respectfully disagree with her argument. Her position clearly betrays a misuse of the words "gender" and "sex," not uncommon among non-native English speakers (Amberly, my presumption is based on the fact that your post is in Mandarin, except for the sexual/gendered wording). Here too might be a lesson for writers--understanding the usage of "gender" and "sex," and avoiding malapropisms in business communication.
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