In a recent Better Business Writing class an attendee wrote a sentence like this one in a letter to a customer:
You may be certain that I will appraise you as soon as I receive the investigator’s report.
But the reader would want to be apprised–not appraised. Be sure to apprise your readers, like this:
- I will keep you apprised of the situation.
- We will apprise you as soon as we hear from the insurance adjustor.
- Mr. Adan wants to be apprised as soon as the shipment arrives.
Apprise means “to inform or notify.” Appraise means “to put on a value on.”
- Ms. Grossmann will appraise the contents of grandmother’s house.
- The appraised value of the property is $200,000.
- Jessica is waiting for a performance appraisal and bonus.
If you like memory devices to keep words pairs clear in your mind, remember the words that appraise and apprise sound like. The words with similar vowel sounds provide definitions:
Appraise = rate, evaluate
Apprise = notify
To communicate clearly with your reader, why not use the simpler word notify instead of apprise? But continue to use appraise when you mean “to put a value on.” Appraise is a precise, useful word that should be part of your reader’s vocabulary and your own.
You have now been apprised of the difference between the two words. What is your appraisal of the value of this information?
