Catching grammar goofs could be an entertaining game as they pop up in social media—-if the prevalence of such errors didn’t make it boring child’s play. But occasionally, something surprises me. I grabbed my bowl of cereal and sat down to the breakfast table this morning only to read this copy in big bold print [...]
Get those hyphens out of hiding and use them. Clarity often depends on it. And when clarity is not the case, proper use just puts you at the head of the class.
So what’s the link between employee engagement, high performance, and training? Come find out at the ASTD 2010 International Conference & Exposition in Chicago, May 16-19, 2010! I’ll be autographing copies of The Voice of Authority and Booher’s Rules of Business Grammar in our booth (#1514) during these hours: Monday, May 17 from 9:30 [...]
No worries. I’m not about to ask you to enter the confessional and own up to your worst sins. We’re going to talk only about the ones that surface when trying to write important documents: Those sales proposals that could win a big contract. That report that outlines what you’ve accomplished for the quarter. That [...]
It happened again. Just about the time I’m ready to leave the office for the day and head home, an email pops into my inbox from our marketing director, Kari. The forwarded subject line from my publisher says “URGENT.” Kari’s email basically states that yes, I can be available for an interview with a newspaper journalist that day [...]
When McGraw-Hill released my latest book Booher’s Rules of Business Grammar: 101 Fast and Easy Ways to Correct the Most Common Errors, I stumbled across the Facebook group, “I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar.” Well, it looks as though these Facebook group members are not alone. Marketing guru Seth Godin also admits to [...]
Attention members of the training industry! Come visit me at the 2009 SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition – New Orleans, Louisiana, June 28 – July 1, 2009! I’ll be speaking on Monday, June 29 and Tuesday, June 30 (4:00-5:15 p.m. both days). I hope to see some of you in New Orleans! Dianna Booher Dianna Booher works with [...]
Sucking the Life Out of Strong Verbs Almost daily TV broadcasters make announcements like these: Sydney Lancaster went missing yesterday after leaving work at 6:00 in his red Toyota. Went missing? Is this like gone fishing or gone to the movies? Whatever happened to Sydney IS missing. We don’t know that he went anywhere. In [...]
Suppose you are CEO and your VP of sales says to you, “The client rejected our proposal, and you may also be surprised to discover that our name has been removed from the bidders list.” You’d probably be wondering who removed your name from the client’s bidders list. The sentence doesn’t provide that information. And [...]
Guest Blog Post by Philip Yaffe Abraham Lincoln, America’s iconic 16th President (1861-65), was never known as either a great writer or a great orator. Yet he penned one of the most highly praised and oft-quoted speeches in history. It was probably so good because it clearly expressed his controlled passion toward the monumental event [...]
