Business Writing

Don't Be Fooled by Microsoft's Non-Errors

In Microsoft Office the grammar and spelling checker often flags non-errors. It flags certain constructions that have "fooled" the software into detecting a possible error. 

My grammar and spelling checker flagged a potential error in each item below. But don't be fooled! Each item is correct.   

1. I am wondering who they are and how to reach them.
   Microsoft suggests changing who to whom, but the sentence requires the subject pronoun who.
2. Thank you for letting Michael know about the situation.
   Microsoft suggests changing know to knows, which is obviously incorrect.
3. This magazine may give you ideas for decorating the kitchen.
   Microsoft suggests replacing you with your--wrong!
4. Suzan says it is difficult to write about herself.
   Microsoft suggests replacing herself with her, which changes the meaning.
5. Treasurer’s Report (as a heading)
   Microsoft suggests replacing Treasurer's with "Treasurer is."
6. Kate, thank you for your help.
   Microsoft flags this as a fragment, but it is a perfectly fine sentence.
7. Please look over your bid to see if there is anything you can do to lower the price.
   Microsoft suggests a comma after anything--wrong!
8. Thanks, Bob!
   Microsoft suggests deleting the comma, but the comma is required in direct address.
9. She earned a master’s degree in communication from the University of Notre Dame.
   Microsoft wants to capitalize of--wrong!
10. The session will run from 1 to 5 p.m.
    Microsoft wants to change 1 to one--wrong!
11. We need to know our guest's preferred dinnertime.
    Microsoft suggests "guest has" rather than the possessive form guest's.
12. I have taught thousands of professionals at all organizational levels.
    Microsoft suggests professional's and professionals'--both are wrong.

In many of the examples, you can tell why the software was fooled. For instance, "Michael know" would be wrong in most sentences, but not in the construction "Thank you for letting Michael know." The number 1 is often spelled out, but not with a.m. or p.m. Guest's can mean "guest has," but not in Item 11.  

Before you accept a change your grammar and spelling checker suggests, be sure you understand it. In Microsoft Office, click "Explain" when your software offers that option, and see if the explanation makes sense. If you aren't sure whether your sentence is correct, try revising it in a way that makes sense to you.

Does your grammar and spelling checker find other non-errors? Please share them here.

Lynn
Syntax Training

A Writing Tip From Ly7nn

Today I received a brief, thoughtful message from a successful colleague who works in another field. Here is the email:

Thanks, Ly7nn. Let me know if you have any questions concerning the report.

What went wrong? How could my friend send me a message with my name mangled by a number? Why didn't his grammar and spelling checker catch the error and stop the message from being sent?

The likely problem is that his Microsoft grammar and spelling checker is set to "Ignore words that contain numbers." That is one of the options a user can check. But checking it results in embarrassing mistakes like the one my friend made.

Be sure you have not inadvertently checked "Ignore words that contain numbers" and "Ignore words in UPPERCASE" in your Microsoft Office grammar and spelling checker. If you have checked them, your grammar and spelling checker will skip such words--and any errors in them!

Microsoft Office 2010, 2007, and 2003 all have a different way of getting you to the page to change these settings. Begin in a Word document. Then:

In 2010, go to File, then Options, then Proofing.

In 2007, go to Office Button (upper left corner of your screen in Word), then Word Options, then Proofing.

In 2003, go to Tools, then Options, then Spelling and Grammar.

Once you get to the appropriate screen, uncheck "Ignore words that contain numbers" and "Ignore words in UPPERCASE" if they are checked.

Be sure you are using Microsoft Word as your Outlook editor to apply these changes to your email.

I hope you enjoyed this tip. If you would like to add to it or add another tip, please do. 

Ly7nn
Syntax Training 

Nouns in a Stream--What Do They Mean?

Last week while driving on the Palisades Parkway in Bergen County, New Jersey, I spotted a perplexing road sign. It said:

End Construction

There are several ways to interpret the sign.

Does it say that we should end construction? But why should we do so?

Does it mean that we are constructing ends? How? What kind of ends?

Or does it mean that construction has ended? If so, why doesn't it say "End of Construction"?

Of course, we drivers and passengers realized the sign meant that construction was behind us. Yet the two nouns run together (end and construction) had us guessing momentarily. The insertion of the little preposition of would have made the message instantly clear.

Imagine how readers struggle with five nouns in a row:

Software Package License Application Process

Work Schedule Policy Review Statement

Attendance Incentives Policy Survey Report

Business Writing Program Registration Information

When signs and headings omit little words such as articles and prepositions, readers have to work to insert them in the correct place. They may guess "A Survey Report on the Attendance Incentives Policy" or "A Report on the Attendance Incentives Policy Survey" or something else. They may assume "A Policy Review Statement on the Work Schedule," when the writer intended "A Work Schedule for the Policy Review Statement."

When your Microsoft Office grammar and spelling checker comments "Too Many Nouns (consider revising)," pay attention. Consider revising so your readers won't have to work and still make the wrong assumption. 

End Post Note Witticism

Lynn
Syntax Training

Microsoft Turns Mangers Into Managers

Reading an e-newsletter a minute ago, I came across an error I see often. Can you find it in the sentence below?

The New Hampshire-based organization surveyed 117 senior executives and mangers around the globe for the survey, whose results were distributed April 26.

Yes. It's those mangers again. And we can't blame Microsoft Office. After all, manger is a perfect word, especially in sentiments expressed in Christmas cards.

The writer obviously intended the word manager. But this is a mistake that did not have to happen. It did not even need to be caught through proofreading. It could have been eliminated from the start.

How? Easily. Unless you write about mangers in your business, use your Microsoft AutoCorrect feature to automatically change manger to manager anytime you type it. It takes just a few seconds, like this:

1. Click Tools.
2. Click AutoCorrect Options.
3. In the Replace box, type manger.
4. In the With box, type manager.
5. Click Add.
6. Click OK.

I have written several times about how I now have Microsoft automatically change pubic to public. The result? I no longer offer any pubic seminars.   

So no more excuses about silly typographical errors! Get rid of that doe snot (does not)!  Away with those mangers!

The result? Your readers will focus on your message--not your mangers.

Lynn

Sunk by a Typographical Error

I am glad that Raymond Ward of The (New) Legal Writer wrote about an Office Team survey on typos (typographical errors). The survey showed that typos do affect our job prospects.

When 150 executives were asked, "How many typos in a resume does it take for you to not consider a job candidate for a position with your company?" 47 percent responded "One typo." Two typos were enough to turn away another 37 percent of the executives.

Why would executives place so much emphasis on perfection? My belief is that they assume job applicants are demonstrating their very best work in their job search. Therefore, if the resumes or CVs (curricula vitae) aren't perfect, applicants' work on the job will not be perfect either.

The moral: A resume with errors will be ineffective at least 84 percent of the time. It is worth the effort to be sure it is perfect.

For a perfect example (I hope) of a free cover letter and resume to download, try this link on my website. It will take you to a cover letter and resume, with commentary, that I helped a friend refine. I am happy to say that she succeeded in getting the interview and the job. (Note: I have disguised her name and contact information.)

Lynn

Disburse Vs. Disperse--Wrong!

Some people talk about their mistakes in therapy. Some write about their mistakes in diaries or journals. I write about mine here. That way, I may save other people from making the same errors.

The mistake: disburse vs. disperse.

My mistake was thinking that disburse meant "distribute methodically" while disperse meant "scatter." WRONG!

Disburse means "distribute money." Disperse means "distribute or scatter." Disperse applies to everything except money.

You can disperse knowledge to your students. You can disperse an unruly crowd gathering in your lobby. (And the crowd itself can disperse.) You can disperse flyers about your upcoming sale.

But if it is money you want to distribute, disburse it. The word comes, in part, from the French word for purse, bourse. If it comes from your bourse, disburse it.

This might seem like a small error. Indeed, it is. The problem is that I have dispersed this misinformation to people in my writing classes.  If a small error is repeated many times, does it become a big error?

My office is filled with excellent reference books, which I always consult before putting a rule in writing to pass on in classes. That is why I don't know how I got disperse/disburse wrong. But wrong I was.

I hope you get two things from this post:

1. The difference between disperse and disburse
2. The fact that experts are sometimes wrong, even with the best intentions

If you have any mistakes to share, please bare your soul here. Of course, please limit yourself to mistakes in business writing.

Thanks!

Lynn
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Other search spellings: bizness, bisness, writting, eror, dispurse

My Latest Mistake

Yesterday I discovered another mistake I had made, and I decided to turn it into a piece of advice for you. Isn't that what life is all about--turning our mistakes into something positive?

Here is the situation: Last week I completed a proposal for a potential new client for classes in business writing. I was very pleased with the proposal. It was priced well, on target in terms of what the client needed, and expressed clearly and concisely. I viewed the proposal as a job well done.

Yesterday another potential client asked for a proposal. I got out last week's document to use as a model. That is when I noticed the mistake. It was a spelling error in the file name of the document! Much to my chagrin (embarrassment), the file name of the Word document was:

Proposal for Writing Class from Syntax Trianing

Yikes! Trianing! But I thought I had created an autocorrect rule for the typographical error "trianing" that automatically changed it to training. What had gone wrong?

What had gone wrong is this: the autocorrect and spellcheck features do not apply to the file names of documents.

Now I will add another item to my proofreading checklist: the name of the file.

Learn from my mistake! I know I certainly did.

Lynn

Public or Pubic? Spellcheck Can't Tell!

Yesterday I got a friendly telephone call from a stranger: Collette Gillian of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Being a copywriter and a lover of the English language, Collette likes to see English written correctly. 

Collette phoned to inform us that a page on our website said we have clients in the "private and pubic sectors." (Later a friend described this as the "private and even more private sectors.")

I was shocked. How could Collette be right? But she was. Although we do not have clients in the pubic sectors, we have--had!--a typo, a proofreading problem. The word p-u-b-l-i-c was simply missing its letter l.

Through conversations, I have learned that this is a common typo. Friend Martha Bean of Collaborative Focus told me about the time she invited people to attend a "Pubic Meeting" about the "Snohohomish River." Martha's was a double blooper, since the river she meant to name is really not so jolly--it's the Snohomish.

How can we be sure not to repeat embarrassing errors? And how can we catch them if spellcheck doesn't? Here's what I have just done to avoid the pubic/public problem.

In Microsoft Word, I went into Tools, Autocorrect Options. On the Autocorrect menu, I inserted the word pubic in the "Replace" column. In the "With" column (as in "Replace With"), I typed the word public. Now any time I type the word pubic it will automatically be changed to public. Whew! I feel more secure already.

Although there are many things that software cannot do and spellcheck cannot catch, Microsoft Word can Autocorrect beautifully.

Please phone or email me if you find other embarrassing errors I have made. I will be delighted to hear from you, and I will thank you here in pubic--I mean public.

Thank you, Collette!

The Principal Principle

Here's a test. Which forms of the word pair principal/principle fit in these examples?

1. This dollar figure covers just interest--not interest plus ______.
2. The ______ reason for our visit is to meet the new director.
3. Which ______ did you follow to solve this problem?

Easy?

Here's the rule--that is, here's the principle:

Principle (le) means "rule" (le). All other uses require principal. If you grew up thinking "the principal is my pal," you were right. However, principal has other meanings. Rather than trying to remember all of them, it's easier to remember that principle (le) has only one meaning: "rule"  (le). Someone with principles is someone with rules.

Following that principle, the correct choices for the blanks above are principal, principal, principle.

Your grammar checker is unlikely to catch this error. That's because discerning the right word requires thinking. After all, the difference between "Which principle did you follow to solve this problem?" and "Which principal did you follow into the main office of the school?" is subtle.

The important difference between us and our grammar and spell checkers is that we know our principles--I mean principals. I mean . . . it depends!

 

Improve Your Grammar & Spelling Checker

As we rapidly generate documents and email, we rely more and more on Microsoft's grammar and spelling checker. But you may not be getting as much as you could from that tool. For example:

Does your grammar checker catch passive-verb sentences, such as "The meter should be read"?
The active-verb form is "Read the meter."

Does it catch a pile-up of nouns, such as "Service Agreement Addendum Discussion"?
The phrase reads more clearly as "Discussion on the Addendum to the Service Agreement."

Does it provide Readability Statistics, such as the average number of words in your sentences?
In business writing, sentences should average no more than 15 to 20 words. In this post, sentences average 12 words.

If your software isn't flagging the above items, here's how to change the Grammar & Spelling settings so that it does:

1. In MS Word or Outlook, go to TOOLS. Select OPTIONS, then SPELLING & GRAMMAR.
2. In the lower right corner, under Writing Style, select either "FORMAL" or "GRAMMAR & STYLE," depending on your version of MS Office.
3. Click SETTINGS. Be sure you have selected "Passive sentences," "Successive nouns (more than 3)," and any other error you want to identify.
4. On the main SPELLING & GRAMMAR menu, select SHOW READABILITY STATISTICS.
5. Recheck your document for errors.

When you correct a spelling error that has been flagged, correct it carefully. If you don't, you may be like the person who wrote to me about being unable to attend a workshop. He wrote, "I hope it doesn't cause you any incontinence." Although disappointed, I had no such physical reaction!

Note on passives: Many passive-verb sentences work perfectly. For more information on passive vs. active verbs, click here.