檳榔嶼

Why strenghthen your skills?

Because computers nowadays are still horrible writers, if you can work on your ability to write clearly and persuasively for people, you'll be a very valued employee tomorrow, and also for a long time to come :

  - Prove quickly that the issue is important - to your readers, not just to you.
  - Waste no time in conveying the information
  - Write the such clarity and efficiency that reading your material will be easy and enjoyable.
  - Achieve a tone that makes you likable, so your readers will wnat to spend time with you and your message.

12 Grammer Tips to Excel :

  1. In many business settings, it has become acceptable to start a sentence with And or But
      - "Sales dropped last quarter. But our new strategy should help correct the problem."
  2. In many business settings, it has become acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition
      - "That's what the new product will be used for."
  3. The adverb corresponding the adjective good is well
      - "She works well under pressure."
      - "Her work is good."
  4. A sentence's subject determines the verb's number
      - "An oversupply of foreign imports is hurting our business."
  5. As sentence subjects, "either" or "neither" take singular verbs
      - "Either of the marketing plans requires capital investments." 
  6. With neither/nor and either/or in the subject position, the second element controls the number of the verb.
      - "Either phone or fax is acceptable."
      - "Neither our accounting department nor our lawyers are concerned."
  7. Not all English adverbs end in 'ly'.
  8. When however, therefore, and otherwise are followed by an independent clause, they need additional punctuation.
      - "Mr. Alvarez cannot atted the meeting; however, he hopes to call in before we end."
  9. It's okay to split verbs and infinitives with an adverb
      - "Experts have long agreed."
      - "We plan to aggressively enter the European market."
  10. For clarity, relative pronouns should appear alongside their antecedents
      - "We'll discuss the customer service position that's being eliminated in the sales department."
  11. Nouns not essential to the sentence's meaning are set off with commas; those that are essential for meaning are not set off with commas
      - "My colleague, who's younger than I am [not essential for meaning], agrees."
      - "My colleague Pat[essential for meaning] agrees."
  12. Correlative conjunctions require parallel phrasing
      - "We raised not only our market share but also our profit margin."

12 must-know puntuation rules :

  1. Hyphenate phrasal adjectives
      - A small-business incentive
  2. Use a seies comma in lists of three or more items
      - Sales for shampoo, conditioner, and hair spray
  3. if one ore more items in a list consist of a subgroup of items, use semicolons to separate the main items
      - I called him today; mailed the keys, contract, and change of address; and will follow up next week.
  4. Don't use apostrophes to form plural nouns.
      - We're building four new banks. (not bank's)
  5. Keep subjects as close to their verbs as possible.
      - Founded in 1963 in Mumbai by Siddhartha Ramaswamy, BrightTech specialized in IT outsourcing.
  6. Precede bulleted or numbered lists with an explanatory sentence ending in a colon
      - The following tips can help you gegotiate a raise:
  7. Don't use quotation marks to emphasize words; they can sometimes suggest snideness or sarcasm.
      - Imagine how you'd feel if someone wrote that you're "an 'expert' in negotiation."
  8. Don't hyphenate most terms that have a prefix
      - "midsize"; "semisweet"
  9. Use a colon or comma, never a semicolon, after a salutation
      - "Dear Ms. Wilson:" or "Dear Ms. Wilson,"
  10. Use long dashes to frame and emphasize parenthetical content.
      - "Customer service - our top priority - is key to our competitive advantage."
  11. Don't use a comma between a month and year.
      - "May 2012" [not "May, 2012"]
  12. For singular possessive, add 's even if the word ends with an -x, -z, -s, or -ss
      - "Kansas's business climate"

Get into the habit of putting your most important content first:

  - Document.
    - Place your key message at the beginning of your document
  - Sections.
    - Put each section's most important message in the first paragraph of the section.
  - Paragraphs
    - Express the topic of each paragraph in the first sentence of the paragraph.

Intense, Informal; Less intense, formal