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Choose correct pronouns. When you come to a confusing sentence using who or whom, here's a trick: Substitute he or she for who and him or her for whom and you'll make the right choice. When the choice involves a list of other people, leave out the other names and you'll choose me/I, he/him, she/her, us/we correctly. Example: "Give the order to Jim, Joanne, or me." Leave out Jim and Joanne: "Give the order to me." It's a fail-safe system for choosing correctly. |
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Tip 129: Use poor grammar only for an intended effect. |
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Ain't can mean "I'm just one of you peopleforget I'm the regional VP." Don't use it when you're not sure if your audience knows that you know better. Make a conscious choice for an intended effect. Then think about it twice more. |
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Tip 130: Use up-to-date slang. |
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Nothing makes a 40-year-old manager look more foolish than using teenage slang. And the problem with picking up slang from your kids is that as soon as you've learned it, they've changed it. Either stay "with it" or give up the effort and speak plain English. |
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Tip 131: Overcome sloppy diction. |
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Watch dropping the ends of words, running words together, and otherwise making it difficult for people to understand you. If you've ever dialed a company and had a receptionist respond as unintelligibly as a robot on fast-forward you understand the irritation. |
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Tip 132: Avoid being so overly precise that you sound like a stuffed shirt. |
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We shall? We will? He proceeded to tell me? He continued? Is it I? Is it me? Let clarity versus awkwardness be your guide. Of course, proper grammar is important, but remember that grammar rules are not static. Usages become archaic. And some things people remember as "rules" never to be broken have never been rules at all; they are matters of style. Such word choices and phrasing may make your conversation or your writing seem |
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