Human Skills and Better Communication
‘Appraise’ or ‘apprise’? Are you confident about which you should use?
As an editor, I frequently correct errors in the use of these similar sounding words. Sometimes, predictive text is to blame; the tools don’t always know the difference and often seem to prefer ‘appraise’…
Continue reading “Appraise Or Apprise?”
If you were to ask one hundred people for the definition of ‘trite’, I predict a large percentage would say it means ‘silly’, ‘superficial’, ‘inconsequential’, ‘trivial’ or something similar. That’s not what it means, though.
We can use one or more of those words to describe something which also happens to be trite, but the words aren’t directly related. None of the words is a synonym of ‘trite’.
Continue reading “Trite: Just Tired And Worn Out”
When it comes to absolute adjectives, either it is or it isn’t.
You’ve probably heard statements like ‘That’s a fairly unique design’ or ‘He has a very unique style’. The problem is that ‘unique’ is what we call an absolute adjective. Something is either unique (the only one of its kind) or it isn’t; there are no degrees of uniqueness.
Continue reading “Absolute Adjectives; No Argument”
Most of us know there are two major approaches we can take to descriptive writing: writing literally and writing figuratively.
When using expressions, especially in spoken language, we use a mixture of literal and figurative language all the time – usually without even thinking about it.
Continue reading “Take It Literally, Literally”
Guess what? You might be in the minority. By that, I mean those who understand the real meaning of ‘decimated’. Most don’t.
If you want an example, here’s a beauty! This is a snippet from an account of a road accident: ‘… the impact fully decimated half the car’.
Your challenge is this: ‘How much damage was done to the car?’ Hint: you might need maths.
Continue reading “Decimated? Or Just Damaged?”