When English is Bad For Business 25 March 2008

The March 2008 issue of ‘Communiqué for Success’ is ready for public viewing (for a limited time only). Subscribers get privileged, advanced notification and member offers and specials, so be sure to sign up for your free copy.

This issue of the much-talked-about newsletter answers such questions as:

• Why is old-school English damaging your sales?

• What is the future for CfS?

• How can you move your prospects beyond wanting to buying?

• What is the best way to avoid toxic clients?

• How can you grab your ad critique & consultation?

• Where can you get free online fax services? 

All the answers (and more) are in this month’s newsletter.

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Word count for this issue: 2,223

Approximate time to read: About 11 minutes    

Scanning Time: About 41 seconds

Suggested props: White Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows
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You can see the current and some of the past newsletters by going towww.mediaminister.co.uk and clicking on the “F*REE stuff” link on the top menu.

And it’s all freeeeeeeeeeeee.

Enjoy!

 

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English Corner: Which Is It? 29 February 2008

One of the most common English-language errors I come across in any kind of writing – whether business, creative, or blog writing – is mixing up it’s with its.

Put simply, its denotes that “it” is a possessive pronoun. It means, more or less, “of it” or “belonging to it”. For example, “She gave the dog its bone.”

Never, ever add an apostrophe (to make it’s) when you are using its in this context. Just don’t. It is plain wrong. The ONLY time you need use it’s is when you are contracting the words it and is, or when it and has are been used together. For example, “It’s sunny outside.” Or, “It’s been known to rain a lot in February.”It is that simple!  

Got a question about grammar or writing in general? Let me know via the comments section, and I’ll try to answer it in a future post. 

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Correct Email Etiquette 4 February 2008

1. Be as careful about spelling, grammar and punctuation as you wold be if you were writing a letter.
2. Double-check your email before hitting ‘Send’.
3. Answer important emails promptly. When customers and prospective customers send an email, they are generally looking for a  swift response – try to answer their queries within 48 hours.
4. Do NOT forward chain letters – apart from not being professional, it will simply waste other people’s time. They tend to ‘clog’ up the information superhighway, too.
5. DO NOT WRITE IN ALL CAPITALS. It will make you look like you are SHOUTING.
6. When responding to a forum email, do not simply hit ‘respond’ – especially if you are on digest. Having to scroll down a full history of everyone’s email messages is a huge pain in the you know where. Instead, copy and paste the relevant part of the message you are responding to.  

Source: Start Your Business magazine, issue 15, p28 

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Building Trust + My Gift to You 19 December 2007

The festive 2007 edition of ‘Communiqué for Success’ is now ready for you. It answers such questions as:

• How do you get people to trust you and buy from you?

• What’s the difference between ‘affect’ and ‘effect’?

• How can you make your brochure magnetic?

• What is my gift to you?

• How can you add a few extra pennies to your pocket this festive season?

• What can you do to get free advertising?

• What’s the alternative to socks? 

 

All the answers (and more) are in this month’s newsletter.

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Word count for this issue: 2,117
Approximate time to read: About 10 minutes
Suggested props: Mulled Wine or Hazelnut Hot Chocolate

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You can see the current and most of the past newsletters by going towww.mediaminister.co.uk and clicking on the “F*REE stuff” link on the top menu. 

To take advantage of subscriber specials, etc, I would highly recommend you sign up to receive your very own copy.

You’ll also find direct links to my blog and other sites.

And it’s all freeeeeeeeeeeee.

Enjoy!

Tracey

PS - The direct link to the Decenber newsletter is –http://www,mediaminister.co.uk/cfs/11December2007.htm

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New (& Cheap!) Business-Building Resource 13 November 2007

I have just released the Business-Building Matters ebook: Issues 1-12 of Communiqué for Success (the critically acclaimed monthly online newsletter). It’s all assembled in one easy-to-navigate e-publication, and is ready to help streamline your business and increase profits.

We’re talking about every single feature article, success strategy, resource, and tip from the first October 2005 issue right through to the September 2006 issue. That’s 70 info-packed pages. All available for instant download.

Business-Building Matters is about advertising, marketing, promotion and publicity. But most importantly it’s about helping you succeed in business – regardless of which industry you are in.

For a limited time Business-Building Matters is just £7 (approx 9.5 euros or 14 dollars). (NB: This special introductory price will go up to £17 after the first 500 copies are sold.)

For what you get, and will get out of it, that’s almost a joke. Especially when you consider the time and effort that went into compiling it. Indeed, the effort I make every month to craft a FREE publication of real value — driven by practical content that works, NOT hype or endless promotion.

Ordering is easy and secure.

Find out more here:

> http://mediaminister.co.uk/BusinessBuildingMatters.htm <<< CLICK THIS

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Are You Blind to Your Own Embarrassing Hiccups? 24 October 2007

Film director David Cronenberg recently aired a warning to all budding scriptwriters:
“Most scriptwriters are illiterate - their grammar is non-existent and they can’t spell. If I’m distracted by spelling mistakes, I can’t get through a script, so I turn it down,” said Cronenberg, speaking on BBC’s Radio 4 on why he turns down film scripts.

As well as ruining any chances of potential stardom, not noticing or, worse, ignoring ongoing errors on your website, in your blog posts, in your advertising, your press releases, and other marketing communications, is bad for business. Sloppy copy confuses your reader, or makes them think you simply can’t be trusted to get things right.

That, in a nutshell, is why proofreaders are so important.

You see, when it comes to checking your own work, ‘blind spots’ get in the way. Oh, you think you know it like the back of your hand; you’ve read the piece so many times, you are certain there aren’t any rogue typos, misspelled words or erroneous punctuation.

The thing is, your eyes are playing tricks on you. They’ve scanned that piece of work so many times now, that they have simply become bored. So they begin to skip the details. Hence, errors stay put.

In my 12 years-plus of proofreading, there’s one surefire thing I have noticed: That it’s fairly easy to spot errors in other people’s work, but not so in your own.

What about you? Do you think we should bother with grammar and spelling? Please share your thoughts via the comments link below. I look forward to hearing your views.

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Hyphen-hatred Times? 4 October 2007

The Oxford English Dictionary is ditching the hyphen! Well, at least those found in approximately 16,00 words. The reason, apparently, is the declining use of hyphens in our communications, not least electronic communication.

Language is meant to evolve, and as long as there isn’t any confusion over ‘new usage’, then I’m all for the demise of the hyphen. But only in certain situations. And only if it helps the reader’s understanding.

As Chris Robinson, who edits for Scottish Language Dictionaries and gives classes in advanced writing at the University of Edinburgh, says: “Language is always changing. It has to move with the times. There have to be conventions. There has to be a negotiated common ground but within that there’s room for variation and a degree of creativity.”

What about you? Do you wish to follow the tide, or do you have an overwhelming desire to defend the shunned hyphen? Moreover, how do you feel about the changing ‘face’ of the English language? Please share your thoughts via the ‘comments’ link below. Thanks!

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7004661.stm

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Bank Holiday Special 23 August 2007

Just to let you know that I’ve now released the full set of downloadable transcripts of the ‘Better Business Success’ TeleMasterClass programme. Buy one, or buy all 10. But each one WILL take your business or idea to the next level.

Because I like to reward my subscribers and blog readers (geez, I’m a nice gal!) for, well, reading this blog!

So I’m offering Are you ready to take your business to the next level?

I’m offering my newsletter and blog readers a Bank-Holiday special – grab one or more of these downloadable transcripts before 4pm (BST, 8am Pacific, 9am Mountain, 10am Central, 11am Eastern) on Tuesday 28 August 2007 for almost 2/3rds off the regular price.

All you have to do to take advantage of this time-sensitive 65% discount is email the following voucher code to me BEFORE 4pm on 28 August – “tc-aug-mmb” – along with your choice of transcripts from this URL:

http://www.mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm#CDs

~~Tracey

Price Increase 1 August 2007

I need to increase the price of each of my hugely popular content-packed ‘TeleMasterClass’ products from £27 to £50 (or £189 to £350 for the entire 10 CD collection) for an upcoming project where they need to be priced more in line to what others are charging for these kinds of products.

I wanted to give you ample notice so that blog readers can grab your own personal copies of these home-study systems BEFORE the price increase, if you don’t already have them.

Here are all the products affected:

1. http://mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm#articles

2. http://mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm#BetterBizWriting

3. http://mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm#Response

4. http://mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm#HPA

5. http://mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm#Newsletters

6. http://mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm#Postcards

7. http://mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm#Publicity

8. http://mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm#SalesLet

9. http://mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm#Online

10. http://mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm#Webcopy

In all probability, the price will go up around 4pm (BST) next Wednesday (8 August). So there is still plenty of time to save on a handful or the full range. But I’d recommend you buy and save today: http://mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm.

As with all MediaMinister products, there is a full money-back guarantee.

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English Corner: Pity the Misunderstood Apostrophe 30 July 2007

The grammatical cousin of the bored teenager, the apostrophe can often be found hanging out in all the wrong places. Or just being plain useless. Worrying or confusing everything that crosses its path.

Take, for example, the following as a case in point:

“Choose from 1000’s of DVD’s…”

Or:

“Visit Brighton, for refreshing sea view’s…”

Both are not as innocent as they seem on the surface.

Incorrect use of punctuation – and here, we are specifically referring to the humble apostrophe – can weaken your writing and your message, as well as trip up your reader.

So here are some dos and don’t in the world of apostrophes:

• And it’s all right, now…

Ah, yes, the king of confusion – ”it’s” is a contraction of “it is”. However, it’s often presented as “its”. This is bad. And should be avoided. Unless, of course, you mean “its” in the possessive sense of the word. For example:

“It’s about time it showed its true colours.”

Here “it’s” means “it is” and “its” (without the apostrophe) indicates that something belongs to “it”.

• Ps and Qs, Dos and Don’ts…

You do NOT need an apostrophe to pluralise. OK, it’s tempting to slip in a quick apostrophe, but that would be mere folly. Apart from the obvious one – “don’ts” – which is correct in this instance.

There is neither a contraction nor a possessiveness connected with numbers, abbreviations or the “dos” in the world.

So the following are correct:

“There are 100s of them out there.”

“You only ever saw two PCs, but that was in the 1970s.”

“The MPs had 1,000s of complaints.”

So remember, only use an apostrophe for a missing letter or, in every other case apart for “its”, when something ‘owns’ something else. (“It’s amazing to think that the project’s deadline was met.”)

Please send me any ‘grammar gaffes’ via the ‘comments’ section here, and I’ll pop them in a future post on this blog.

Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include at the end of the article.

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