For those of us in the land down under, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Yet what we call Christmas in Australia may, to our friends in the Northern Hemisphere, seem just a little weird. As the days get shorter, darker and colder on the other side of the world, our days are getting longer, warmer and lighter. Yet in a true Australian paradox, we still cling to many wintry Christmas traditions. Dreaming of a white Christmas We nostalgically dream of a white Christmas (even if we’ve never experienced one) and sing about ‘walking in a winter wonderland’ or ‘dashing through the snow i ..read more

Has anyone ever described your personality as quirky? Or perhaps when you turned up at corporate head office casual Friday wearing a pink tutu with tartan tights your outfit was described as ‘quirky’.  You may even have been asked to design or create something that’s ‘a bit quirky’. The word ‘quirky’ seems to pop up everywhere. But is it always in a good way? The multiple meanings of ‘quirky’ The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines quirky as ‘Having or characterised by peculiar or unexpected traits.’ In terms of someone’s personality or behaviour, the OED defines the word as an ‘aspec ..read more

You may have heard the grammatical term ‘noun’ and know that a noun names a person, place or thing. But did you know there are several different types of nouns? A thorough understanding of nouns is important for several reasons, such as knowing when to use an initial capital (the first letter of a word), and will give you a greater command of your writing. Types of nouns There are two main types of nouns – proper nouns and common nouns. A proper noun names a specific person, place or thing and takes an initial capital. This distinction is important as it helps us understand the meaning of sent ..read more

If you’re one of the unfortunate people still far from home – wherever that may be – due to COVID-19 border closures, you could be grappling with the scourge of homesickness. Homesickness can do strange things to us. It can make us idealise the country, society or even the times we left behind. We look back on the old days with nostalgia and longing. Challenging events like war and pandemics prompt us to find new words to help us cope with the unexpected. Blighty, a nickname for Britain, or more specifically England, originated during the Victorian rule of India. The word comes from the Urdu w ..read more

You may be lucky enough to work for an organisation with in-house editors who can hone and polish your written communications. More likely, your team will have the task of writing, editing, and proofreading all your written communications themselves without the help of a professional editor. If this is becoming too time consuming, or you are not achieving the results you need, consider outsourcing the editing and proofreading. What is the editor’s role? Editors are responsible for checking facts, spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and ensuring the document corresponds with your organisation’s ..read more

Parentheses (also known as round brackets) are a useful device to keep in your writing toolbox. Round brackets can help break up the content and make reading easier by separating information within the text. The type of text you would include in brackets could be a clarification, an aside, or a definition or example. You can use round brackets to enclose a single word, a phrase, or even an entire sentence. Adding clarity to your writing Brackets can add clarity to your writing by enclosing parts of a sentence that aren’t essential to the meaning. Separating the information using round bra ..read more

Tight or conflicting deadlines often result in team members running out of time to refine and check their document. Attention to detail with your written communications may seem like a waste of time and energy when there are other pressing demands. Yet close attention to concise and correct documents will project an image of professionalism and high quality. Without such rigour, costly and time consuming errors may also slip through. Plan your approach and allow enough time Once all the content is in place and your document is coherent and structurally sound, it’s time to refine the text with ..read more

Major events in history, like wars and pandemics, bring new words into the language and repurpose old ones. A common slang brings people together and helps us cope with events that threaten to overwhelm us. Coining quirky new words and phrases may even give us some sense of control and comfort when we’re isolated from our loved ones through war, border closures or lockdowns.. Some favourites that have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic are ‘iso’ (home isolation during mandatory lockdown), ‘the rona’ (the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus) and ‘sanny’ (hand sanitiser). But what words did Australian and ..read more

Do you want to improve the professionalism of your written communications? Perhaps you have received phone calls from confused customers. Or perhaps you have noticed grammatical errors in emails and reports that reflect poorly on the professionalism of your organisation. Or perhaps your internal reports and procedures are longwinded and difficult to read, reducing productivity. Whatever your communication challenge, there are likely to be several ways to achieve better outcomes from your written communications. For example, you could increase team members’ writing skills by providing writing s ..read more

When we speak or write English, we frequently use words borrowed from other languages. Some common examples are ‘arm’ (from German) and ‘pyjama’ (from Persian and Hindustani). These words have been in the language for so long, we no longer think about where they came from. Other words that have been adopted more recently, like ‘sushi’ may sound more foreign to us even though many of us may know what the word means. Familiar enough to most people now, when the word was first recorded in English in the 1890s it was usually accompanied with an explanation. Now it would be considered a familiar te ..read more