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Join us in Chicago next week!
Do you write for a living? Are you responsible for marketing brochures? Annual reports? Proposals? If so, the IABC is an organization you should consider joining. The International Association of Business Communicators is all about making you a better, more connected, more prolific writer. Plus you get discounts at the IABC Writers Conferences we sponsor during the year! Check out www.IABC.com today! And join us in Chicago next week!
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Womanly Words...
Women are everywhere these days. Breaking so-called glass ceilings, making decisions of state, even appearing on a major American political party's national ticket (for the second time in history). See if you can handle these related words and their proper definitions.
1. donna: (a) a woman employed in a dairy; (b) a girl or woman who leads a marching band; (c) an Italian woman especially of rank � used as a title prefixed to the given name; (d) a woman who is the sovereign or supreme monarch of an empire.
2. ingenue: (a) a naive girl or young woman; (b) a female genius; (c) a woman who is an instructor; (d) a long gown or dress worn by women.
3. rebozo: (a) a married Portuguese or Brazilian woman; (b) a long scarf worn chiefly by Mexican women; (c) a soprano who sings supporting roles in comic opera; (d) a female clown.
4. doula: (a) a woman experienced in childbirth who provides advice, information, emotional support, and physical comfort to a mother before, during, and just after childbirth; (b) a dignified elderly woman; (c) a set of principles that applies differently and usually more rigorously to one group of people or circumstances than to another; (d) a coin with the image of a woman stamped on it.
5. virago: (a) sisterhood; (b) political supremacy of women; (c) a woman of great stature, strength, and courage; (d) a woman versed in charms, conjuring, or fortune-telling.
6. a rodeo event for women only: (a) calf roping; (b) bronco riding; (c) hoop jumping; (d) barrel racing.
7. begum: (a) a Muslim woman of high rank (as in India or Pakistan); (b) a beautiful and glamorous woman or girl; (c) a usually older woman who is sharp-tongued, domineering, or combative; (d) the basic garment of ancient Greece worn usually knee-length by men and full-length by women.
8. coronet: (a) a pretty young woman; (b) an ornamental wreath or band for the head usually for wear by women on formal occasions; (c) a woman having intellectual or literary interests; (d) a valved brass instrument resembling a trumpet in design and range but having a shorter partly conical tube and less brilliant tone.
9. anile: (a) a woman of the middle class; (b) distraite; (c) marked by gracious courtesy and high-minded consideration especially to women; (d) of or resembling a doddering old woman.
10. diseuse: (a) a young woman who sings or dances in the chorus of a theatrical production (as a musical or revue); (b) a woman who is a skilled and usually professional reciter; (c) a woman who endeavors without sincere affection to gain the attention and admiration of men; (d) a young unmarried woman of noble birth.
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Answers: 1:c 2:a 3:b 4:a 5:c 6:d 7:a 8:b 9:d 10:b Rate Yourself: Take cover from falling glass all around you!
3 to 5 correct: Keep climbing!
6 to 7 correct: Tighten your helmet and keep hitting.
8 to 9 correct: Through the ceiling.
All 10 correct: You're all the way through the roof!
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| Weekly Grammar Tip |
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And...and more.
And. Retain and before the last item in a series, even though that last item consists of two words joined by and.
We need to increase our expense budgets for advertising, staff training, and research and development.
(NOT: We need to increase our expense budgets for advertising, staff training, research and development.)
Beginning a sentence with and or some other coordinating conjunction (but, or, or nor) can be an effective means--if not overused--of giving special attention to the thought that follows the conjunction. No comma should follow the conjunction at the start of a new sentence unless a parenthetical element occurs at that point.
Last Friday George promised to submit the market analysis this Monday. And then he took off on a two-week vacation.
Tell him to return to the office at once. Or else.
BUT: George called this morning from Lake Tahoe to say that the report was undergoing some last-minute changes and would be on my desk by 11 a.m. And, to my delight, it was!
NOTE: Each of the sentences above illustrates how this device can be effectively used. However, these sentences also illustrate, when taken as a whole, how quickly the overuse of this device dissipates its effectiveness.
And etc. Never use and before etc.
And/or. Try to avoid this legalistic term in ordinary writing.
Source: The Gregg Reference Manual.
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| Word of the Week |
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bacchanal
Pronunciation: bah-kuh-NAHL
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin, shrine of Bacchus, probably back-formation from Bacchanalia
Date: 1550
Definition: an occasion of drunken revelry
Example: "And it certainly wasn't as wild as last year's American League East clinch bacchanal when Papelbon wound up dancing with a Bud Light 12-pack box on his head."
- Boston Globe, 9/24/2008, p. D3.
Definition source: dictionary.com.
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Copyright 2008 by ProofreadNOW.com, Inc., 447 Boston Street, Topsfield, MA 01983 USA. Published weekly (we try) by the editors at ProofreadNOW.com, Inc. and sent to customers of record and to opt-in guests. Many readers find it is best to read a portion, put it aside, then come back and read more.
Please rate this GrammarTip (10=high, 0=low):
10 - Like having all your picks win the bowl games.
8 - Like having half the day off after New Year's Day.
6 - Like finding a parking space at the mall.
4 - Like finding a parking space near the mall--across the street.
2 - Like working all day the day after New Year's Day.
0 - Like staying home and forgetting the office was open all day the day after New Year's Day...until they tracked you down.
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