Tom Fuszard's Business Builder
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Business people have a knack for crafting new uses for words and phrases. We now “grow” our businesses. (Is everyone involved in farming?) Impact is another abused verb, as in The rising price of steel is impacting our bottom line. While it can be used as a verb in limited cases, impact is primarily a … Read more
An adverb, hopefully must accompany a verb. It is used to describe a state of being or feeling. When used with the verb to wait, for example, it indicates a sense of patience or anxiousness. He waited hopefully for her flight to arrive. Use hope with a subject to arrive at the proper sentence structure. … Read more
Writers tend to confuse these two, using i.e. when they should use e.g. I.e., an abbreviation for id est, means that is, and is used when you need to clarify a point or provide additional information. Perform a complete decommissioning procedure (i.e. delete software, remove sensitive parts, thoroughly shred the rest) before signing the manifest. Some people … Read more
“Dispatch advises that the suspect is still on the scene.” So goes a familiar line from a popular TV show. While advise may be used in this manner, it means primarily to offer advice; that is, recommend or suggest a course of action. Our attorney advised us to rewrite our employee handbook. (Incidentally, watch your … Read more
Do you know what UCOM, CAAT, and End Evening Civil Twilight mean? Unless you have the proper experience, you might not recognize these. Each is an example of jargon specific to a given industry or organization. Respectively, they refer to Unified Command, Computer Assisted Audit Techniques, and that time of night when it’s too dark … Read more