Vision Unlimited

11 Grammar Mistakes to Avoid

Akhtar — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 18:30:45 +0000

Of course not everyone is going to be the next Mark Twain, but career success does depend on avoiding certain errors.

1. Constipated Clauses

Reporting on the feats and foibles of the Red Sox, a writer for South Coast Today notes: “It goes without saying that these exploits take a tremendous amount of skill.”

If it “goes without saying” then don’t say it. If it doesn’t, in fact, go without saying, then don’t say it does.

“Obviously, the sky is blue.” Putting the “obviously” doesn’t suddenly make the statement insightful.

2. Comma Vomit

True or false: a comma must precede any use of the word “and”? FALSE. Commas should only precede and, but, for, or, nor, so, or yet when they introduce an independent clause. For example, “We laid out our music and snacks, and began to study.” Placing a comma after “snacks” is incorrect. The subject of the sentence has not changed, “we” still “began to study.”

An example of correct comma use: “The game was over, and the crowd began to leave.” The game and the crowd are different subjects and the clauses are independent. The crowd could still be leaving regardless of what is happening with the game. A comma can also precede “and” when it is used in a list of three or more items. However, in a list it is entirely optional and called an “oxford comma”. While that is probably the most common overuse, others are prevalent. Just because you think you would pause at a certain point when speaking, it does not mean you need a comma.

3. The Death of Adverbs

Once upon a time, the English language had a way to modify both nounsand verbs. Adjectives did the trick on the former and adverbs on the latter. You didn’t just have to walk, you could walk quickly!

Adverbs modify verbs. For example, you accomplish a task with ease. What do you say?

WRONG: I can do that easy!
RIGHT: I can do that easily!

You accomplish a task with more ease than your colleagues. What do you say?

WRONG: I can do that easier than they can.
RIGHT: I can do that more easily than they can.

4. Less vs. Fewer

A professional’s skills are not on par with yours. How would you describe that: “He has less skill than I” or “He has fewer skills than I do”? You could use both! Less describes something that is not finite, like a trait. In the first case, “skill” does not refer to any particular skill, it denotes skill like “talent” or “intelligence.”

Fewer describes finite, listable items.payday loans In the second case, you have a larger skill set than the other professional. You could list those skills that you have and the ones he doesn’t.

Too often, people over- and mis-use “less.” They’ll say something like, “He has less skills than I do.” Say that and you’ve shown you have less intelligence and fewer brains than your competitors.

5. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Et cetera: a useful Latin-derived tool for shortening lists. However, unless you are a lawyer, using it (and especially overusing it) can make you sound unprofessional. If you must, use it once. A second or third occurrence in the same document essentially says, “I really don’t know what I’m talking about, so I’ll just jam etc. on the end and try to pretend I do!” Another et cetera mistake is using it when you should use “et al.” Listing a set of objects? Use etc. Listing a group of people? Use et al. It also is derived from Latin and means “and others.”

6. Prevarication Junction

“I think that I would be an ideal candidate for this position.”

“I think that my product would do wonders for your company.”

“Studies show that people like this product more.”

Draw a line through each of those sentences. As a teacher told me in high school once, “Don’t tell me what you think. Tell me what you know.” Similarly, don’t talk about studies. If you think a study is reliable—and you probably do if you rely on its results—just say what those reliable results were. If someone asks, you can always point them to the study in question.

These phrases ultimately end up making your writing much longer than it needs to be. What’s worse, they make you appear afraid: not assertive enough to express your own opinion and unsure of what you are writing about.

If you really don’t know what you’re talking about…don’t talk about it.

7. The Affect-Effect Divide

His affect had an effect on me and affected me so much that I had to effect a change in my work environment.

WRONG USAGE: “Our products will positively effect your business;” or “My skills will substantially effect your company.”

Affect and effect can both be nouns and verbs.

Rule of thumb for the most common uses: use affect as a verb and effect as a noun.

An affect (noun) is an artificial air that someone puts on. Do you pretend to have a British accent? That’s an affect.

To affect something (verb) is to change it.

An effect (noun) is the result of someone or something affecting something.

To effect (verb) means to accomplish or make something happen.

8. Then≠Than

When one event follows another, we use thEn. For instance, “The clouds appeared, then it rained.”

When two things are being compared, we use thAn. “Grandma is shorter than Grandpa.”

Although most people learned this in elementary school, they seem to forget more thAn anyone would like. Just this month a news site in Santa Clara, California published a review of “WALL-E”. The critic said, “The film was shorter then I would’ve liked.”

9. None is.

It’s an easy trap in which to fall.

“While I am certain there were many applicants for this job, none of them are as experienced as me.” WRONG!

We hope you wouldn’t actually write a sentence like that even without the grammatical error, but making none plural makes it even worse. None is singular. None is always singular.

While the “them” toward the end may make you think, “A ha! Multiples!”, the subject is still none, which (did we mention?) is singular. “None of them is” may sound a little off to some, but it is correct English.

10. i.e. is not e.g. is not i.e.

Some people seem to think that throwing an “i.e.” into a paragraph makes them look smarter. Unfortunately, most of those people are using i.e. to mean “for example.”

WRONG: “I have sold many products, i.e. washing machines.” This doesn’t make any sense.

i.e. is an abbreviation of the Latin words id est, literally translated as “that is.” In English, i.e. is used synonymously with “namely.” It specifies and limits.

e.g. is also a Latin abbreviation but of the words exempli gratia, meaning “for example.” E.g. implies, “This is one of several possible options.”

11. Could of

When speaking, certain contractions can sound like other words. “Could’ve” rolls off the tongue like “could of.” You have to be careful that does not slip into your writing. In the past tense, could, would and should must never be followed by “of.” If you use contractions in your writing, the words are “could’ve, would’ve, should’ve.” If you don’t, they are “could have, would have, should have.” It’s an easy mistake to make. Scan any document or business e-mail you write and make sure it’s correct.

Should Sally LAY down or should she LIE down???

Akhtar — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:41:09 +0000

Lay Versus Lie
In the present tense…
If you exclude the meaning “to tell an untruth” and just focus on the setting/reclining meaning of lay and lie, then the important distinction is that lay requires a direct object and lie does not. So you lie down on the sofa (no direct object), but you lay the book down on the table (the book is the direct object).

This is in the present tense, where you are talking about doing something now: you lie down on the sofa, and you lay down a book.

There are a bunch of ways to remember this part.

How to Remember the Difference
The way I remember is to think of the phrase lay it on me. You’re laying something (it, the direct object) on me. It’s a catchy, dorky, 1970s kind of phrase, so I can remember it and remember that it is correct.

What’s that I hear, music in the background? I know I don’t normally play music, but I love Eric Clapton, and his song Lay Down Sally can actually help you remember the difference between lay and lie… [record screeching sound] because he’s wrong.

To say “lay down Sally” would imply that someone should grab Sally and lay her down. If he wanted Sally to rest in his arms on her own, the correct line would be “lie down Sally.”
It’s pretty easy; you lays something down, and people lie down by themselves.
We don’t have to judge Clapton on his grammar; we can still love his music and at the same time know that it’s grammatically incorrect! In fact, that helps us remember, and we can love him more.

If you’re more of a Bob Dylan fan, you can remember that “Lay Lady Lay” is also wrong. The lyrics should be “Lie lady lie, lie across my big brass bed.”
But again we love BoB Dylan, don’t we???

So How to Conjugate Lay and Lie
Here’s how to conjugate these two verbs:

The past tense of lie is lay, so

Last week, Steve lay down on the floor.
The cat lay in the mud after it rained yesterday.

The past tense of lay is laid, so

Last week, I laid the TPS report on your desk.
Mary forcefully laid her ring on the table.

The past participle of lie is lain, so

Steve has lain on the floor for days.
The cat has lain in the mud for hours.

The past participle of lay is laid, so

I have laid the TPS report on your desk.
Mary has forcefully laid her ring on the table.

BPO Industry – What makes it possible?

Akhtar — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:36:38 +0000

This is one very interesting question and if answered correctly would create enormous amount of faith in the strength and longevity of the industry. I have attempted to answer this in this post.

Every era has seen an industry take shape and move on to become very big. In the 60’s it was manufacturing since it was a supplier driven market where there were very few manufacturers and many takers. The 80’s saw the birth of the IT industry in our country the biggest names in the industry took birth then. The 90’s saw a major shift. The market became consumer centric. We had to access a larger variety of products with better features and at a better price. Thus distribution became the new money spinner giving birth to Walmart and Fedex as huge.

Towards the end of the last decade the world was faced with new challenges and every time there is a technology to overcome great challenges, new opportunities and trends are born, Let us understand which challenges emerged:

Product quality stopped being a market differentiator, hence creating price and freebies the only tool to sell. For example ten years ago very few PC manufacturers advertised price but today it is a norm.

Western companies went truly global by entering Asian markets hence becoming behemoths where each department became an organization in itself.

This created problems of focus on core competencies for all organizations.

Skilled labor pool in the west reduced and hence became more expensive.

Customer loyalty reduced hence increasing churn

At the same time in our country something was drastically changing. We had access to new technologies like improved communication system and the Internet, which if used to address the above problem would create an opportunity and Yes it certainly did. A whole new trend called the BPO industry. India with its massive base of skilled manpower which largely studied in English used this opportunity to its best and the rest is history. The benefit it created for the western companies is as given below.

Focus on company’s core competencies

Achieve cost reductions

Improve service quality

Maintain competitive edge

Obtain outside expertise

Meet changing customer demands

Gain access to advanced technology

Achieve Revenue Enhancements

This has made it a process which is truly irreversible and has lest the west with no other option but continuously outsource more business and become more competitive. This is the reason that during worst times of the world’s economy, the process did not stop and hence the BPO industry kept growing. This is therefore also the reason that this industry would continue to grow hence creating the massive opportunity it promises.

Technical Support Humor

Akhtar — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 06:23:41 +0000

1). Tech Support: “I need you to right-click on the Open Desktop.”
Customer “Ok.”
Tech Support: “Did you get a pop-up menu?”
Customer: “No.”
Tech Support: “Ok. Right click again. Do you see a pop-up menu?”
Customer “No.”
Tech Support: “Ok, sir. Can you tell me what you have done up until this point?”
Customer: “Sure, you told me to write ‘click’ and I wrote ‘click’.”

2) Customer: “I received the software update you sent, but I am still getting the same error message.”
Tech Support: “Did you install the update?”
Customer: “No. Oh, am I supposed to install it to get it to work?”

3).Customer: “I’m having trouble installing Microsoft Word.”
Tech Support: “Tell me what you’ve done.”
Customer: “I typed ‘A:SETUP’.”!
Tech Support: “Ma’am, remove the disk and tell me what it says.”
Customer: “It says ‘[PC manufacturer] Restore and Recovery disk’.”
Tech Support: “Insert the MS Word setup disk.”
Customer: “What?”
Tech Support: “Did you buy MS word?”
Customer: “No…”

4).Customer: “Do I need a computer to use your software?”
Tech Support: ?!%#$

5).Tech Support: “Ok, in the bottom left hand side of the screen, can you see the ‘OK’ button displayed?”
Customer: “Wow. How can you see my screen from there?”

6) Tech Support: “What type of computer do you have?”
Customer: “A white one.”

7). Tech Support: “Type ‘A:’ at the prompt.”
Customer: “How do you spell that?”

8). Tech Support: “What’s on your screen right now?”
Customer: “A stuffed animal that my boyfriend got me at the grocery store.”

9). Tech Support: “What operating system are you running?”
Customer: “Pentium.”

10). Customer: “My computer’s telling me I performed an illegal abortion.”

11).Customer: “I have Microsoft Exploder.”

12).Customer: “How do I print my voicemail?”

13). Customer: “You’ve got to fix my computer. I urgently need to print document, but the computer won’t boot properly.”
Tech Support: “What does it say?”
Customer: “Something about an error and non-system disk.”
Tech Support: “Look at your machine. Is there a floppy inside?”
Customer: “No, but there’s a sticker saying there’s an Intel inside.”

14). Tech Support: “Just call us back if there’s a problem. We’re open 24 hours.”
Customer: “Is that Eastern time?”

15). Tech Support: “What does the screen say now?”
Customer: “It says, ‘Hit ENTER when ready’.”
Tech Support: “Well?”
Customer: “How do I know when it’s ready?”

16). A plain computer illeterate guy rings tech support to report that his computer is faulty.

Tech: What’s the problem?
User: There is smoke coming out of the power supply.
Tech: You’ll need a new power supply.
User: No, I don’t! I just need to change the startup files.
Tech: Sir, the power supply is faulty. You’ll need to replace it.
User: No way! Someone told me that I just needed to change the startup and it will fix the problem! All I need is for you to tell me the command.

10 minutes later, the User is still adamant that he is right. The tech is frustrated and fed up.

Tech: Sorry, Sir. We don’t normally tell our customers this, but there is an undocumented DOS command that will fix the problem.
User: I knew it!
Tech: Just add the line LOAD NOSMOKE.COM at the end of the CONFIG.SYS. Letme know how it goes.

10 minutes later.

User: It didn’t work. The power supply is still smoking.
Tech: Well, what version of DOS are you using?
User: MS-DOS 6.22.
Tech: That’s your problem there. That version of DOS didn’t come with NOSMOKE. Contact Microsoft and ask them for a patch that will give you the file. Let me know how it goes.

1 hour later.

User: I need a new power supply.
Tech: How did you come to that conclusion?
User: Well, I rang Microsoft and told him about what you said, and he started asking questions about the make of power supply.
Tech: Then what did he say?
User: He told me that my power supply isn’t compatible with NOSMOKE.

Amazing World of Vision Unlimited

Akhtar — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:51:57 +0000

Hi Everybody!

This is our first blog and an e-beginning to a whole new journey. The past eight years of our existence have shown us rather interesting times and memorable is an understatement as we have gone about giving a new meaning to our profession. Our vision is and will remain to become the largest manpower provider to the ITES industry through Education, Innovation and Service. We know that we must create value for our clients, our candidates and governments constantly and this is a path we choose to walk on forever.

We have always been proud to be a part of this High Tech and high touch industry and the industry has not let us down. The past few years are a testimony to the industry’s strength and stability. Though it is not recession proof but definitely recession resistant. The last few years have shown the most skeptic minds that this truly is an industry in its own right hitting $18 bn this year. There are so many instances of our candidates coming back as Team Leader, Managers, Trainers and the most ironical are the ones who come to our venue to hire. Ironical because we had to literally push these candidates to go and explore the opportunity. Those are proud moments for us and help reinforce our trust and faith in opportunity that we offer.

The task ahead is huge with industry watchers predicting a five fold growth resulting in a demand of 8-12 million people in the next few years and that would take some doing. One thing that we surely know that is that we would be in forefront of reaching out to and creating fresh talent pool for this industry.