Grammar Repair Shop: Possessive style
Problem: Phyllis Nagy, Orlando, Fla., asked about the spelling of the possessive “boss’s.”
Category: Internal Communication
Work wizardry with email rules
If you’re handling a high volume of email with Outlook, you’ve probably already tapped the Rules tool to sort messages. Check whether you’ve missed an opportunity with these options.
Turn to e-mail for the truth
Think you can tell when someone is lying? When you must have honesty, it may surprise you to know that face-to-face communication isn’t the best approach. Here’s why …
Grammar Repair Shop: Formality governs letter punctuation
Problem: “When addressing a business letter, is it correct to put a comma or a colon after the addressee’s name?” (From Lynne Nelson, Princeton, N.J.)
Grammar Repair Shop: Comma or semicolon: which one to use?
Several readers recently asked us about the use of semicolons versus commas in a complex sentence.
Specific subject lines guard your messages from deletion
Generic e-mail subjects aren’t just inefficient and confusing; they put your message at risk.
Choose the best communication tool
Just because e-mail is handy doesn’t make it efficient. Indeed, three out of four people delete an e-mail before they finish reading it, a recent survey found.
Easy ways to personalize form letters
Standardized replies save you time but can cost you good will. Create templates and common paragraphs that you can pop into an e-mail or letter, then easily personalize. Use these shortcuts:
Write confidential information, don’t say it
What to do when passing confidental information.
Grammar Repair Shop: Quotation marks, inside and out
Problem: When quoted material comes at the end of a sentence, the pileup of punctuation causes con-fusion. Lesson: American style calls for always placing periods inside the quotation marks. (In contrast, the placement under British style depends upon whether the punctuation applies to the sentence or the quoted material.) Example: Then, he said, “Please finish […]