Words from The Same Family - Died v Dead

Died (verb) - to stop living or existing.

• She died of/from cancer.
• My elderly neighbour, Mr Smith, died in his sleep (= while he was sleeping) last month.

Dead (adj) - not living anymore.

• I can't believe my grandmother's been dead for nearly 20 years now.
• He was dead by the time the ambulance arrived at his house.
• Sam spends a lot of time raking up dead leaves in the autumn.

8 Email Mistakes That Make You Look Dumb by Danny Rubin

In Danny Rubin's recent article titled, '8 Email Mistakes That Make You Look Dumb', I've noticed 3 very common mistakes people tend to make. 

1. Don't use the wrong name or company.

Sometimes, we need to send the same general email to several different people, but the emails go out one person at a time.

In those moments, be extra careful about the person's name and, if included, the person's company. Otherwise, it's awkward to send an email to someone but include the name of the person who received your previous email. Yikes.

Even if you use a mail merge, check yourself early and often.

2. Hold back from capitalizing the wrong words.

The biggest culprits: job titles and "important-sounding" words.

Job titles:

Incorrect: I'm a Marketing Coordinator at Acme Corporation.
Correct: I'm a marketing coordinator at Acme Corporation.

Explanation: Job titles are lowercase unless they come before your name (ex: Marketing Coordinator Jane Doe is…).

Important-sounding career words:

Incorrect: Common phrase in a resume objective statement — Experienced Team Leader with strong Organizational Skills and a Successful career in Management.

Correct: Experienced team leader with strong organizational skills and a successful career in management.

Explanation: We don't capitalize non-specific career words no matter how important they seem ("Successful"). If you attend the Acme Team Leader Training Seminar, then the words are uppercase because they're a proper name.

3. Easy on the acronyms and jargon.

Let's say you're a researcher for a pharmaceutical company and work in a division called RDT. You use the expression "RDT" 25 times a day, and to you the acronym obviously means "Research and Development Team."

To anyone outside of your team — possibly at the same company — RDT means…well, nothing.

Every time you include an acronym in an email — or resume, cover letter and presentation — you must follow one basic rule: provide the full name of the acronym on first reference.

To view the full article, please go to:

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/12/8-email-mistakes-that-make-you-look-dumb.html

8 Punctuation Mistakes That Make You Look Dumb By Danny Rubin

1. Run-on sentences

The first punctuation mistake on our list occurs when there's no punctuation at all because the sentence keeps going when the writer should add a period but instead continues on and there's no end to the line and the reader is worn out but there's no period in sight so when does it all end?

Rewritten:

The first punctuation mistake on our list occurs when there's no punctuation at all. The sentence keeps going when the writer should add a period. Otherwise, the reader is worn out, but there's no period in sight. When does it all end?

Read your sentence aloud. Does it feel like you go on too long? If so, add a period or two to break up different thoughts/ideas.

2. Way too many commas

A sentence with too many commas, makes our writing hard to process, because we include unnatural stops in the flow of a thought, and it's frustrating, for the reader.

Wasn't that last sentence annoying?

There's no easy answer for reducing comma usage. The best course of action is to read your work aloud and look for places where a comma causes an unnecessary pause.

3. Double exclamation points

Double exclamations have no place in a work email. I make no apologies for that rule.

There's a difference between energetic and overkill, and it happens somewhere between ! and !!

If you're on G chat or talking to a friend through Gmail, go nuts!!!

But when it comes to work, the double exclamation is double trouble. You need people to feel comfortable using you or your firm. If you drop !! everywhere, it could be seen as a red flag.

4. Ugly hyphens

I think there's a clean way to use hyphens and an ugly way. The unsightly approach? Something like:

Lesson 1- Introductions

The hyphen right up against the "1" looks sloppy.

In my opinion, there are two ways to improve "Lesson 1- Introductions."

1. "Lesson 1 – Introductions"

2. "Lesson 1: Introductions"

Option #1 is a dash with space on either side.

Option #2 is a colon. Both choices look better than "Lesson 1-" because they're more orderly.

Whenever you need to separate words for emphasis (ex: in a bulleted list or main title), look out for the misplaced hyphen and make the correction.

5. Emojis

You need a strong relationship with a business associate before you start including smiley faces, "prayer hands" and whatever else.

For email introductions and other business correspondence, emojis are a no-go.

6. ALL CAPS

Emails in all caps FEEL LIKE THE WRITER IS SCREAMING AT YOU. Unclick caps lock, start over and write sentences with normal capitalization.

7. The contraction "y'all"

As in, a hybrid of "you" and "all." For example, "Great seeing y'all at the conference!"

Why no "y'all"? It's too casual and colloquial. Avoid it and go with something like, "Great seeing your team at the conference."

8. Two spaces after a period

Writing emails or other online content calls for one space after a period. Two spaces over and over throughout a blog post or website content will drive readers crazy. I mean, crazy.

One space and you're done. Every time.

www.cnbc.com/2017/06/13/8-punctuation-mistakes-that-make-you-look-dumb.html