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BACK TALK Written gaffes can tarnish


your professional image Frequent foulers should be charged a syn tax


by David S. Kaczmarek


our professional credibility is judged by those around you in many ways. You are judged by the way you interact with people, by the way you look and by the way you communicate verbally. Another demonstration of your professionalism is your written communication. For some reason — perhaps it is the ease of email or the abbreviated language of personal texting — the quality of written communication seems to be declining. However, poor writ- ing style and mistakes in grammar, usage and spelling can project a poor image. It can even change the meaning of the message you want to send. This goes for formal documents like white papers, reports, PowerPoint decks and memos as well as less formal com- munications like emails and texts. Almost everyone can benefi t by improving written communica- tion, and it may not be as hard to do as you think. Here are 10 rules to live by. In fact, adhering to these rules is guaranteed to improve the quality of your written communication. 1. Less is more. Do not use two words when one will do. Use “can” rather than “are prepared to” and “also” instead of “as well as.”


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2. Keep your writing simple and avoid words or phrases you would not use in conversation. Words to avoid include: thusly, notwithstanding and herein.


3. Keep sentence structure simple. Use short sentences. Break long sentences into two.


4. Use active rather than passive voice. Say “I will do this” rather than “it will be done.”


5. Always review/reread after making changes. Changing one part of a sentence can alter the meaning of the rest of the sentence. This is especially important after accepting red-line edits.


6. Use spell-check, but don’t rely solely on it to catch errors. For instance, homonyms will not trigger spell-check, but they can be wrong in the wrong context. Here is an example: “Its important to except changes weather of not their important.” That sentence has fi ve errors that will pass spell-check. Can you fi nd them all?


7. Use a dictionary for words whose meaning or spelling is in question. We often use words incorrectly. If you are not 100 percent sure, look it up or use a different word. There are literally hundreds of commonly confused word pairs. Just Google “com- monly confused words” for lists. Here are a few of my favorites:


• Imply means to suggest indirectly, while infer means to draw a conclu- sion from known facts.


• Assure is a promise or guarantee, while ensure is to make sure as in double checking.


• Complement (with an e) is an addition that improves something while compliment (with an i) is to praise or express approval.


• And my favorite, i.e. (from the Latin id est) means that is and is used to add explanatory information or to state something in different words;


e.g. (from Latin exempli gratia) means for example and precedes a list 64 October 2015 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • www.hpnonline.com


of possibilities. These are always written “letter period letter period” with no spaces and followed by a comma. 8. Use punctuation and use it correctly.


• Always end a sentence with punctuation, typically a period or question mark.


• Be careful with commas. Use commas to offset phrases and to separate words in list. Overuse is the most frequent comma error. However,


leaving one out can result in a different meaning. Consider these two phrases:


Let’s eat Grandma! Let’s eat, Grandma!


The comma really makes a difference.


• Another commonly misused punctuation mark is the apostrophe. They should be used to indicate the possessive (Mary’s car) and contrac- tions (don’t, could’ve, etc.). One common misuse is in the plural of an acronym. The plural of GPO is GPOs, not GPO’s.


9. Use capital letters appropriately. The biggest offenders here in- clude not capitalizing the fi rst word in a sentence, indiscriminate capitalization and inconsistent capitalization.


• Within a sentence only capitalize proper nouns. Proper nouns refer to specifi c people, places, and things. They include: names, titles, book


titles, companies, brand names, places, languages, holidays, etc.


• Inconsistent capitalization is most frequently seen in titles and subtitles in PowerPoint slides or longer documents. The three options are: ALL


CAPITALS, Capitalize Each Word or First word capitalized. All three can be acceptable but must be the same for the same level throughout. For example you might use all capitals for the main topic, capitalize each word for the next two subtopics, and fi rst word capitalized for each subtopic after.


10. For important documents, always review the fi nal product. Sometimes the more you work with a document the harder it is to see the errors in it. One strategy is to fi nish the document but return to it after some time has passed. A full day or more usually works best. Another strategy is to get someone else to review the document. It’s not even important that the person be familiar with the subject matter. What you want is a fresh set of eyes looking at the meaning and grammar. If you want to learn more about this and be entertained at the same time, I encourage you to read Eats Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. Whether you read more or just stick with these ten rules, the quality of your written communications will improve and your professional credibility will be enhanced as well. HPN


David S. Kaczmarek, FAHRMM, CMRP, is a senior director at Chicago- based Huron Healthcare. Kaczmarek has more than 40 years of experi- ence in healthcare administration and supply chain, including director positions at several hospitals and systems. He can be reached via email at dkaczmarek@huronconsultinggroup.com.


BACK TALK


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