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Wit and Wisdom From Oscar Wilde

"When people agree with me I always feel that I must be wrong."

"I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do that day after."

"Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing."

"No great artist sees things as they really are. If he did he wold cease to be an artist."

"Source: The B.R. Institute Reader,The B.R. Institute, PO Box 1117, Ashland, OR 97520

A Guide to Flawless Writing

You probably never bought a book because of its appendixes. But Error-Free Writing by Robin A. Cormier may get you to plunk down your cash for just that reason.

Appendix B, a "Compounding Guide," is the real gold mine. Its 136 pages bulge with hundreds of words you're never quite sure should be one word, hyphenated or two words. And many are those you can't find in a dictionary or other resource when a copy deadline has you against the wall.

You'll also get about 60 pages of abbreviations in Appendix A. They range from ampere to zirconium, with just about everything you'll need in between.

And in Chapter 1, you'll find lists of wordy expressions and their succinct forms, smothered verbs made active and 300 clichés to avoid.

You also get a four-step process to error-free writing: Step 1: Write and revise your first draft. Step 2: Edit for grammar and punctuation errors. Step 3: Proofread for typos and format problems. Step 4: Perform a quality-control check. Some sound advice we uncovered:

• When you're stumped by a new writing task, reread something you wrote that you're especially proud of. Reason: It will help you get started by reminding you that you do indeed have the needed word skills.
• Write with skimmers in mind. Be generous with subheads and lists.
• Help readers glide through your text with invisible direction signs, such as topic sentences, transitions and summaries.
• Never forget that your main objective is clarity, not length.
• When you edit your work, mark but don't fix errors that will take more than a few seconds to correct. You can revise them later. Reason: If you stop to fix a sentence or look up a rule, you lose your train of thought and you may miss errors.
• Don't be the only one to edit and proofread your work. Reasons: The better you know the document, the less chance that you'll spot the errors. The odds of spotting errors increase with each new pair of eyes.
• Focus on only one kind of error at a time in longer documents. Example: Read once for punctuation, again for grammar and a third time for consistency errors.
• Don't view the four-step method as a time waster even when time is tight. Your reputation and that of your company are at stake whenever you send out printed material.

Source: Error-Free Writing, by Robin A. Cormier, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632--$14.95.

Voice-Messaging Lessons

Many raise their voices against voice mail. But a commercial voice-messaging system may be worth what it costs because you can:

• Enjoy service that's reliable, and your organization comes across as professional.
• Change your greetings often-and easily. And you can include a marketing message about current sales and upcoming promotions.
• Select one greeting for the hours you're open and another for when you're closed. The latter can tell callers when you'll be open and ask them to leave a message or call again.

• Increase productivity because the system will channel calls t the right person the first time anyone calls.
• Opt for a separate mailbox for each person's messages. Dual payoff: It signals efficiency. Also, it can make callers think your organization is large-even if it isn't.
• Provide personal mailboxes for key customers with whom you may want to exchange confidential messages.

Source: Leann Anderson, Anderson Business Resources, Greeley, CO, writing in Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur Media Inc., 2392 Morse Ave., Irvine, CA 92714.