Good Grammar? Who Cares?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a grammar purist. I do love the language. I’ve threatened to get out my marker and correct errors on public signs, but I’ve never actually done it. I believe usage defines language rules rather than the other way around.  But I think we demonstrate our professionalism by how we use language.

I taught programming classes a little while ago. I had a student tell me he intentionally went into programming so he wouldn’t have to spell.  And he’s right.  Someone can create a variable or object and name it anything they want as long as they spell it the same way when they use it as when they created it. But I looked him in the eye and said, “Yes, but if you’re misspelling the word ‘credit’ when you’re asking a customer to share credit card information, that customer will have second thoughts about trusting your program. Your professionalism is on the line with how you communicate with your customers.”

So the number one tool you have is to proof your work. How many of us read that memo one more time before we click the send button? Not as many as you’d think. At least read it before you send it.

As a former radio announcer, there’s another variation I suggest… proof your writing out loud. You'll be surprised at what you catch just by saying what you're reading. I’ve had colleagues come into my cubicle and catch me whisper-reading my script or training manual. That naturally cleans up my overly complex paragraphs.

The third powerful tool is to get a colleague to go over your writing. Sometimes we get too close to what we’ve written. Another pair of eyes is invaluable in clearing up foggy writing.

So good grammar and good writing don't happen by accident. Use these three proofing methods to immediately improve them.

I'm reminded that we deal in an international marketplace. I know, too, that English is difficult to master.  The time investment it requires pays off in rich dividends in professionalism and in relationship building.

Besides, proofreading our work is a professional habit, no matter which language we're using.

Just Who Are You Quoting, Anyway?

Hey, great new look, same great blog! This week, it's a video!

Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and Albert Einstein walk into a bar...

Les Oswald talks about quotes and misquotes.

So, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and Albert Einstein walk into a bar. The bartender turns to them and says, "So, which of you is misquoted most often?" All three of them raised their hands… as well as everybody else in the bar: Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Henry Ford, George Carlin, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Helen Keller. It's not much of a punchline, but you get the idea.

I've been in love with quotations ever since I was a kid. I've been collecting them, arranging them, using them, and everything. With the advent of the Internet, it has been fantastic because you can look up anything quoted by anybody. Unfortunately, a lot of those quotations just don't measure up.

I found a quote by Albert Einstein that, as an educator, I just loved. "Everybody's a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it'll live its whole life believing that it is stupid!" Unfortunately, Einstein never said that. Somebody else did. Come to find out the person who did say it was an educator and the quote is terrific because it's kind of motivating, and allows us non-geniuses to feel like we're in the same ballpark as an Albert Einstein. But what happened was somebody liked the quotation, didn't feel like it had enough credibility or enough "authority." So they attributed it to Albert Einstein and got a whole lot more mileage that way.

The thing is, we have the ability to be writers ourselves. If you write something really creative or motivating, I'd really like the opportunity to quote you! We don't have to borrow credibility from somebody else. We can pass along what you wrote or what you said and get a whole lot of mileage out of it. We can build up your own credibility or your own authority.