Social media, when productively used, serves as a key that unlocks incremental value for personalities and businesses. With the monumental growth of digital media and communications, our world has become smaller and more democratic than ever. Social media usage now permeates our web; catalyzing the creation of brands, startups, thought leaders and innovations.

It is right to say that the best brands and individuals on the internet, those who have optimized the relevance of social media in the 21st century, are those who utilize their digital tools and networks strategically and intentionally to gain credence and amplify their voices across the web. Individuals and brands that find success on the social web are often measured by the strength of networks, the relevance of content, and the scope of engagement.

As social beings, we naturally seek out others that pay attention to us, don’t we? There are very few things as powerful as the ability to make a large number of individuals or institutions act according to what is “said” or “written” by you. A social media influencer, therefore, wields that power to act and make change, using his or her social assets; both for self and for others. For many social media users, this happens to be a desire and a goal: powerful and recognition as an Influencer. It is vital to have a resounding voice on the social web in this “age of the social”. To amplify your voice and strategically brew yourself into a worthy Influencer, the following traits are worthy of your attention.

1. CREATE A VOICE AND A PURPOSE
Getting started (in case you haven’t yet), your voice matters a lot. Let your inner being amplify your personality, so as to have your personality speak your thoughts, attitude, relevance and goals. Most social media influencers that I have studied, and many more who are currently amplifying great conversations and moving worthy contents on the social web, are actually everyday individuals who have chosen an extra channel (the social web) to project their personalities and beliefs.

So, the idea is to think about what you are good at and then let that lead you on the path to becoming an Influencer. Are you a funny individual who makes friends and families laugh? Then you could consider posting short, funny videos on Instagram or Facebook. Do you have smart business tips and practical ideas in business? Then you could create an image around that, choose a platform like Twitter or LinkedIn and gradually build your community of followers. The idea is to try to be as real as possible by doing what you love doing and what you could create a social media image upon.

2. CHOOSE YOUR CHANNELS
Choosing your channels could be as easy as figuring out what you want to achieve on these channels. However, attention still has to be given to making this seemingly simple choice. For one, to be an Influencer does not necessarily mean you have to spread your voice (thinly) across all social platforms.

Most influencers started off building their images on a single platform, gained traction and gradually spread their popularity to other desired and popular platforms. However, most influencers choose one or two platforms where they believe their personas commune, and they stick to it while optimizing their presence. Your purpose and objective will determine your content; your content ultimately determines your channel of choice. You could, therefore, publish your content via a blog, or choose one of the other micro-social media platforms that suits your purpose

3. UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE TO CRAFT YOUR CONTENT
It is very vital to know who the people you want to engage, and influence are. What motivates your personas? How do they want their content? When are they mostly active on your channel of choice? Having answers to these fundamental questions matters a lot as it serves as a compass during content development and publishing. Content, they say, is King. Spend time and assess your ecosystem to have a general understanding of these areas while you incrementally develop on your communication skills on the social web.

4. MAKE AN IMPACT
Above all else, this must be your ultimate focus; to influence your world. Remember that being an Influencer is not just about YOU but ultimately about your world. You need to make your voice and influence relevant by participating in worthy causes, driving conversations around pressing issues. Using social media productively this way helps in pushing you up the ladder as a thought leader and as a proponent of social good. Real issues around us happen to be one of the most published, discussed and debated content online. For this reason, the power of your reach must drive change; both on the social web and offline.

Credit: DAVID OTU

Sometimes the only option available is to do it yourself. Here are twenty-one proofreading and editing tips that you can put into practice for polishing your own writing:


11. Look up the spelling of proper names as well as scientific and technical terms that you’re not familiar with to make sure you’re spelling them correctly.


12. Don’t make any assumptions. If you’re not sure about something, look it up so you can fix a mistake (if there is one) and learn the correct way.

13. Don’t forget to proofread titles, headlines, and footnotes.


14. Pay attention to the mistakes you’ve made in your writing. You’ll find that you tend to make the same ones repeatedly. Keep track of these and work on avoiding them during the initial writing process in the future.

15. Choose one of the many style guides and stick with it. This will make your work more consistent, and you’ll have a great resource to use when you have questions about style and formatting.


16. Start building a collection of grammar books and writing resources so when you do run into questions (and you will), you have access to reliable and credible answers.

17. If you intentionally let grammatical mistakes slip through, do so by choice and make sure you have a good reason. It’s okay to break the rules if you know why you’re breaking them.


18. Pay attention to formatting. Use the same formatting on all paragraphs and headings for a professional level of consistency. Learn how to use these features in your word processing software (in MS Word, this feature is called Styles).

19. Proofread when you’re fresh and wide awake. Proofreading doesn’t go over well when you’re tired or distracted.


20. Proofreading and editing can be tedious, so break up your revision sessions by doing other tasks that help you clear your mind: exercise, play with the pets or kids, go for a short walk, or listen to some music. Try to avoid reading or writing during these breaks.

21. Make it your business to develop good grammar skills. Read up on grammar or subscribe to a blog that publishes grammar posts (like this one) to stay up to date on proper grammar.

Some people love the proofreading and editing process. Others despise it. If you’re into grammar, the mechanics of writing, and polishing your work, then proofreading and editing will be easier and more enjoyable for you. If not, just look at it as part of your job — something that goes along with being a writer.

And once you’re done proofreading and editing, make sure you get back to your writing.


Credit: Writing Forward

Sometimes the only option available is to do it yourself. Here are twenty-one proofreading and editing tips that you can put into practice for polishing your own writing:

1. Proofread and edit every single piece of writing before it is seen by another set of eyes. No exceptions. Even if you hire a professional editor or proofreader, check your work first.

2. Understand the difference between proofreading and editing. Edit first by making revisions to the content and language. Then proofread to check for proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.


3. Use the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word when you edit. This feature saves your edits. You can then approve or reject those edits.

4. Step away from a piece of writing before you proofread it. The longer the piece, the longer you should wait to proofread it. Let a novel sit for a few weeks. Let a blog post sit overnight.

5. Before proofreading and editing, run spelling and grammar check. Then, run it again after you’re done polishing to check for any lingering typos. However, don’t count on software for spelling and grammar. Use it as a fail-safe.


6. Read your work aloud. Pronounce each word slowly and clearly as you read and check for mistakes.

7. Proofreading should never be a rush job. Do it s l o w l y.


8. Don’t review your work once and then send it out into the world. I recommend editing until the piece reads smoothly and proofreading three times or more.

9. At the very least, proofread until you don’t catch any more errors.


10. Read the piece backward so you can see each word separately and out of context.



Credit: Writing Forward

18 Surprising And Odd Things You Never Knew About The English Language
By Adam Davis

1. The Oxford English Corpus currently contains over 2 billion words.

2. The average person, though, is likely to know only about 50,000 of them.

3. That might be because the ten most common lemmas (base forms of a word) in English make up 25% of all words used.
Those lemmas are the, be, to, of, and, a, in, that, have, and I.
Seriously, just try to write a paragraph that doesn’t contain any form of those words.

4. Words have lifespans that can range from fewer than 1,000 years up to 20,000 years.
A word like “throw” is expected to have a lifespan of about 1,000 years, while words like “I” and “who” are likely to reach the 20,000 year mark.

5. It is estimated that a new word is created every 98 minutes.
So maybe “plobnrg” will be an actual word by the time you’ve finished reading this.

6. “You” is the 18th most common word in English, while “me” only clocks in at number 50.
I guess English speakers are just really selfless people. Or something.

7. There are over 50 countries around the world that use English as an official language, including Ghana, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

8. The dot above a lowercase “i” or “j” is called a “tittle.”

9. The longest word in English with all its letters in alphabetical order is “aegilops.”
“Aegilops” is a genus of plants in the grass family Poaceae. The more you know.

10. According to researchers at Reading University, the oldest known word in English is “who,” dating back more than 20,000 years.
Followed by “two,” “three,” and “I.”

11. The longest one syllable word is the ten-letter “scraunched,” found in a 1620 translation of Don Quixote.
Screeched, scratched, and a few more nine-letter words are tied for the title among more commonly used terms.

12. The longest word containing no repeating letters, including every vowel, is “uncopyrightable,” at 15 letters.
If you don’t require the word to have one of every vowel, “dermatoglyphics,” meaning “the study of skin markings,” is also 15 letters long.

13. Although most people believe the word “orange” to have no perfect rhyme, it actually does - “sporange.”
An extremely rare term, “sporange” is a botanical term referring to part of a fern.

14. The only English term ending in -mt is “dreamt,” a spelling of “dreamed” commonly used in British English.
There are two terms if you count its negative, “undreamt.”

15. There are nine words in English that contain two “u”s in a row.

16. In 1934, Webster’s released a dictionary accidentally containing a made-up word - “dord” - that wasn’t caught until 1939.

17. Author Ernest Vincent Wright once wrote an entire novel - just over 50,000 words - without using the letter “e.” AT ALL.

18. Lexicographer Paul Dickson entered the Guinness Book of World Records by collecting 2,964 synonyms for the word “drunk,” the most synonyms collected for any one term.

Narrowing the list to ten is difficult, but here are ten words beginning with the letters G and H that are frequently mixed up in speaking and/or writing.

1. gambit / gamut

Perhaps it’s the first syllable that leads to confusion between these two nouns.

In the game of chess, a gambit is an opening move in which a player offers a sacrifice, usually of a pawn, in order to gain an advantage.

By extension, a gambit is a ploy intended to gain an advantage, especially at the beginning of a contest or negotiation.

As a musical term, a gamut is the full range of notes that a voice or instrument can produce. Figuratively, a gamut is the full range or scope of something. Ex. His handyman skills run the gamut from carpentry to plumbing.

2. genial / congenial

Both of these adjectives derive from the same source.

Used to describe a person, genial means cheerful, kindly, affable. Applied to a thing, like weather, genial means mild or pleasant.

In reference to people, congenial connotes a character agreeable to one’s taste or liking. For example, a congenial friend has similar likes and dislikes. A congenial host anticipates the needs and likes of guests. Applied to things, congenial means suited to one’s temperament. For example, a congenial job for a bookish person might be one involving research.

3. gibe / jibe

Both words are pronounced the same, and both can be used as either a noun or a verb.

As a noun, a gibe is an insult or sneering comment. As a verb, to gibe is “to taunt or insult.” Both the OED and Merriam-Webster recognize jibe as a variant spelling of gibe, when used in the context of insulting.

However, because jibe also means “to agree,” many writers to use the spelling jibe only in the context of agreement:

When the witnesses were interviewed separately, their stories jibed.

When the accountant went over the books, he found that the figures did not jibe with the previous report.

4. give / gift

Conservative speakers (like me) shudder to hear both these words used as verbs.

Give is a verb. Friends give gifts to one another. Alumni give donations to colleges.

For most modern speakers, gift is a noun, something given, a possession transferred to another without the expectation of an equivalent.

The use of gift as a verb is not new in English. The OED shows citations dated from 1500 to the 1880s. However, this usage dropped out of general use so long ago that its revival strikes modern ears as barbarous and pompous. I suppose a huge donation to a university might warrant a bit of pomposity: “The corporation gifted the university with a million dollars.” For ordinary purposes, however, it’s still more idiomatic to give presents and not “gift” people with them.

5. grisly / grizzly

The adjective grisly refers to something that inspires great horror. The word is thought to derive from a verb meaning “to shudder with horror,” or “to be filled with dread.”

The adjective grizzly comes from a word meaning “gray or grayish.” A beard could be described as grizzly, but in current speech, the participle grizzled is more common in the context of things that are gray.

Although grizzly bears range in color from very light tan (almost white) to dark brown, they apparently acquired their name from explorers who saw grayish specimens. One English explorer described the huge bear that he encountered as “neither white nor black, but silver-haired like our English rabbit.” Another wrote that he’d seen “the skin of an enormous grizzled bear.”

A grizzly bear rushing toward an unwary camper would be a grisly sight.

Q: In the battle of lay vs. lie, when do you use each and can you provide examples? —Annemarie V.

Don’t forget about “lain,” my friend! All these verbs have two things in common: They begin with the letter “L” and confuse the bejeezus out of many people. But here’s a simple breakdown that will hopefully help you decipher when to use each one and when to use their past-tense equivalents (I’ve also included a handy chart at the end to help, but we’ll get to that later).

Lay
Lay and lie are both present-tense verbs, but they don’t mean quite the same thing. Lay means to put or set something down, so if the subject is acting on an object, it’s “lay.” For example, I lay down the book. You, the subject, set down the book, the object.
Lie
Lie, on the other hand, is defined as, “to be, to stay or to assume rest in a horizontal position,” so the subject is the one doing the lying—I lie down to sleep or When I pick up a copy of my favorite magazine, Writer’s Digest, I lie down to take in all its great information—and not acting on an object. In both these cases, you, the subject, are setting yourself down. Are you with me so far?

I Lie Down vs. Now I Lay Me Down (to Sleep)
To clarify things further, I’ll answer this question that you’re probably wondering: How can you be lying down in your examples while the classic nighttime prayer for kids clearly begins “Now I lay me down to sleep”? You must be out of your mind! It’s true, I’m totally out of my mind, but both the examples I used and the kids’ prayer are correct—and here’s why.
In I lie down to sleep, there is no object to the sentence, just subject (I). In Now I lay me down to sleep, there is a subject (I) and an object (me). Even though the subject and object are one and the same, the object is still present in the sentence, so you must use lay.

Laid vs. Lay vs. Lain
In the past tense, “lay” becomes “laid” (Last week I laid down the law and told her it was inappropriate for her to pick her nose) and “lie” becomes “lay” (Yesterday she lay down for a nap that afternoon and picked her nose anyway). Yes, “lay” is also the past tense of “lie.” And the confusion doesn’t end there.
To throw you for another loop, “laid” is also the past participle form of “lay.” So, when helping verbs are involved, “lay” becomes “laid” and “lie” becomes “lain.” Grandma had laid the chicken in the oven earlier this morning. The chicken had lain there all day until it was cooked all the way through and ready for us to eat.
Remember: Lay and laid both mean to set something down, while lie, lay and lain all mean the subject is setting itself down.
And now, I lay this question to rest. (Enjoy this totally awesome chart below to help you keep track of when to use lay, lie, laid, lain and more.)
Lay vs. Lie Chart
________________________________________
Infinitive Definition Present Past Past Participle Present Participle
________________________________________
to lay to put or place lay(s) laid laid laying
something down
to lie to rest or recline lie(s) lay lain lying

Credit: Writer’s Digest

Running the Gamut and Running the Gauntlet

Two frequently confused expressions are “to run the gamut” and “to run the gauntlet.”

Gamut originated as a medieval musical term. The word is still used to mean “the full range of notes that a voice or instrument can produce.” Figuratively, gamut means “the full range or scope of something.” For example, a person might “run the gamut of emotions from rage to despair.”

Gauntlet derives from the French word for glove: gant. In the Middle Ages, a gauntlet was a reinforced glove, usually made of leather, covered with plates of steel.

A medieval custom gave rise to figurative expressions still used in modern English: one knight would challenge another by throwing down one of his gauntlets. His opponent, if willing to fight, would pick up the gauntlet. From this custom derive the expressions “to cast the gauntlet,” “to fling down the gauntlet,” and “to throw down the gauntlet,” meaning, “to issue a challenge.” Likewise, modern speakers use the expression “to take up the gauntlet,” meaning “to accept a challenge.”

The word gauntlet in the expression “to run the gauntlet” has nothing to do with the word for glove. It’s a corrupted form of the Swedish word gatlopp, which was borrowed into English with the meaning “military punishment in which the offender runs between rows of men who beat him in passing.”

Bottom line: “To run the gauntlet” is the more common version of the expression that means, “to run past a row of people who are trying to hurt you.” It can be used either literally or figuratively:

Political prisoners in Tehran’s Evin prison have allegedly been forced to run a gauntlet of armed guards armed with batons.

Kasich, if he is to run a successful race for president, will have to run the gauntlet of the Republican primaries first.

What is not acceptable is mixing up “running the gauntlet” with “running the gamut.”

The following examples are from printed books. The first two are from self-published novels, but the third—O tempora, O mores—is from a serious nonfiction book published by Penguin:

INCORRECT: His emotions ran the gauntlet from calm to sobbing quietly. Mike Holst, The Last Trip Down the Mountain, iUniverse, 2011.
CORRECT : His emotions ran the gamut from calm to sobbing quietly.

INCORRECT: Their experiences ran the gauntlet from “sadistic preferential” pedophiles, to serial killers who were depressive or enraged… Bill Riveron, The Trojan Killer, AuthorHouse, 2011.
CORRECT : Their experiences ran the gamut from “sadistic preferential” pedophiles, to serial killers who were depressive or enraged…

INCORRECT: Treatment ran the gauntlet from kindness to torture. Deborah J. Swift, The Tin Ticket, Penguin, 2010
CORRECT : Treatment ran the gamut from kindness to torture.

If an adverbial phrase follows “to run the gauntlet,” the most usual choices for the preposition to introduce it are past or through:

Farragut ran the gauntlet past Vicksburg’s guns 28 June.

Men fell back on either side so that he ran the gauntlet through their ranks.

Credit: DWT

10 Tips For Daily Writing [Part 2]


6. Switch off all electronic communication. Take this as fact: e-mail, iPhones, Blackberries, text messaging, and any other electronic-messaging system are the enemies of writing. First, all that time spent reading and responding to messages eats into yours precious writing time. And second, those bleeps and pings and newsy e-mails distract you into completely different mental space—a place far away from your writing mind. However hard it is, even if you are chained to your work or personal electronic device, switch it off. All those messages will be there when your writing time is over and complete.

7. Write ‘naked’: Say a prayer to the writing gods. Develop a prewriting ritual that works for you—even if it means wearing a Stetson hat or writing naked (not in McDonald’s, please!).

8. Set a daily quota or word count. As you look at that calendar or day planner, you may automatically allot a time to writing—a half hour or fifteen minutes or an hour. This works in terms of finding and assigning a regular writing time. But when I’m starting a new project or a first draft, this never works for me. Quite simply, it’s just too easy to say, “I spent a half hour at my writing desk today.” But that half hour doesn’t count if half of it was spent checking the online headlines or just gazing at the computer screen. Make your writing slot work. Set a word quota.


9. Praise! Alleluia! Keep a little calendar about your desk or, at the end of your writing session, open up your online calendar or online to-do lists to record today’s completed word count. It will serve as a time sheet—and a rewards system to praise yourself for your excellent discipline.


10. Allow yourself to write badly: At least for the early drafts, you need to just write. If you stop to judge, edit, delete, and rewrite, you will be spending all your time playing reader or critic, not writer. Trust me, you and your work will have enough critics later when you finish your final draft and put it out there for public consumption. But for now, for these early drafts, be gentle with yourself. Love your writing. And above all, trust where it’s going.

As writers, we are horribly, horribly hard on ourselves. We stop too often to censure, edit, and worry what the readers, the publishers, or the critics might think. Love yourself. Give yourself a break. Keep writing.

Credit: Writer’s Digest

10 Tips For Daily Writing [Part 1]

1. Make a date with yourself. Yes, I know your schedule is jam-packed. But you deserve a writing rendezvous with yourself. We owe ourselves some creative, meaningful time in our lives. So make a date and keep it. Oh, and show up on time.

2. Right brain. Right time. Is there a time of day when you’re naturally more whimsical, more in tune with your inner or imaginative self? First thing in the morning? Last thing at night? Right after your morning yoga? Immediately after your lunchtime jog? Sitting at your son’s hockey practice? If there’s a time when you believe that writing will come more easily, make this your daily writing time.


3. A clean, well-lit place: It doesn’t have to be a custom-designed artist studio with an ocean view. But your daily writing spot needs to make you feel comfortable and happy, and it needs to match your personality. Even if it’s just a table in the corner of your shared bedroom, this spot should make you feel free to be yourself. It should fit the creative you. At a minimum, make sure that your writing spot is free of any negative associations or memories.


4. Tell your family or friends. You may want to be a mystery writer, but you don’t have to a mysterious writer. Because it’s a new surprising side of you, because it’s a new personal that your family may not have encountered before, you may be shy about saying to your family, “I’ve started writing.” Quite simply, it may make you feel vulnerable. Or you may feel that it sets some kind of expectation for blockbusters or huge advances, or that you’ll start to walk around talking to yourself. Or you may fear that your friends and family will see this as time away from them or a set of shirked household duties. Actually it will. Beginning a writing life means sacrificing or cutting back on other things, including your social life. But share your writing dream with your family, friends, or roommates. A real friend will support you. A fake friend will laugh, tease, condescend, or try to discourage you. Or worse, these friends or family will make it all about them (“but what about our Thursday night movie?”). Believe me, every writer needs a cheerleader or two or three. Also, rearranging your schedule to find some writing time will require the support and cooperation of the other people in your household.

5. Same time. Same place. Set up a place where the writing is going to happen. By going to that same spot with the same view and smells and general feel, you give yourself some sensual and spatial prompts to start writing. Yes, we’re Pavlovian creatures, and this is especially true in writing. “Oh right,” you think, as you sit in that plastic seat inside your usual window at McDonald’s. “I’m here. So it must be time to write.”


Credit: Writer's Digest

Confused Words: Flout and Flaunt


The words flout and flaunt convey very different meanings, but they are often used as if they were interchangeable.

flout (verb): to mock, jeer, insult; to express contempt for, either in word or action. For example, a person flouts the law by refusing to obey it.

flaunt (verb): to display ostentatiously or obtrusively; to flourish, parade, show off. For example, a person flaunts his physical fitness by running up steps. A student flaunts a good report card by waving it in someone’s face.

Here are examples of flout and flaunt used correctly on the Web:

Ambassador Nominee States Intent to Flout Bahrain Law on Meeting Opposition

Do all celebrities behave as if they can flout all of the rules of common courtesy?

Nick Jonas Flaunts Abs & Muscles on New Magazine Cover

She is a very personable teacher; she really doesn’t flaunt her authority.

Here are examples of flout and flaunt used incorrectly:

Incorrect: If a student chooses to flaunt authority, he is open to discipline for his disruptions in the classroom.
Correct : If a student chooses to flout authority, he is open to discipline for his disruptions in the classroom.

The student is not showing his authority; he is defying the teacher’s authority.

Incorrect: Artists have more license to flaunt authority than do architects or scientists.
Correct : Artists have more license to flout authority than do architects or scientists.

Artists are freer to disregard rules than professionals whose work affects the safety of others.

Incorrect: No wonder he’s nicknamed himself “Money” and constantly flouts his wealth with pictures on Instagram.
Correct : No wonder he’s nicknamed himself “Money” and constantly flaunts his wealth with pictures on Instagram.

The person is showing off his wealth by posting pictures of it online. (One photo shows stacks of bank bills.)


Bottom line: If you’re showing something off, you’re flaunting it. If you’re disregarding a law, a rule, or a social convention, you’re flouting it.


Credit: DWT

Copying Files On, To, or Onto

Preposition use is not easy to formulate. This post focoses on incorrect—or at least ambiguous—uses of on, to, and onto in the context of electronic file transfer. First, some definitions:

to: expressing motion directed toward and reaching a place.
Ex. I took the book to the library.
I copied the file to a jump drive.

on: expressing a position above and in contact with; at rest on the upper surface of.
Ex. She laid the book on the counter.
I saved a copy of my dissertation on a CD.

onto: indicating physical motion to a position on.
Ex. The clerk dropped the book onto a moving conveyor belt.
I copied a movie onto a DVD.


Here are examples of questionable preposition usage:

Incorrect: Embed the HD videos you create onto your personal or professional websites to help bolster your reputation.
Correct : Embed the HD videos you create in your personal or professional websites to help bolster your reputation.

The use of onto with embed appears to be very common in the context of transferring files from one medium to another, but this usage disregards the meaning of embed: “to fix firmly in a surrounding mass of some solid material.” For example, a fossil may be found embedded in a layer of rock. A YouTube video may be embedded in a web page, but not on one.

Incorrect: If you want to copy on the same volume, use the Finder File.
Correct : If you want to copy to (or onto) the same volume, use the Finder File.

Movies are copied to tape or disk. Once copied, they are on the tape or the disk.

Incorrect: I am hoping to save a font from one computer onto my USB drive and transfer it to another computer.
Correct : I am hoping to save a font from one computer on my USB drive and transfer it to another computer.
Or: I am hoping to copy a font from one computer onto my USB drive and transfer it [from there] to another computer.


Credit: DWT

Don't miss the chance to invest in highly de-risked profitable opportunities

Overview: The fair will feature profitable business start-ups and ideas by our MBAs. The high point of these businesses is that they make money from solving social problems identified around us. These businesses while being profitable, are therefore transforming society for the better by actively solving some of its most pressing problems and gradually closing the gap between economic growth and social development. Investing in these businesses therefore presents opportunities for financial rewards, while transforming society.

Programme Objectives:
- Opportunity to Invest in Highly profitable business that are designed to solve social problems.
- Opportunity to Learn from the experiences of other Entrepreneurs.
- Strategic partnership and connection to a solid network.

Target Audience: Venture Capitalist, Corporate and Private Investors, Financial institutions and Entrepreneurs.

Programme Duration: 1 day

Programme Amount: N 50,000 (Free only for LBS Alumni Association members)

Programme Date: 1st July 2015

Venue: Honeywell Auditorium, Lagos Business School, Km 22 Lekki-Epe expressway, Ajah, Lagos

For more Information Contact:
Dr Henrietta Onwuegbuzie

honwuegbuzie@lbs.edu.ng, 0802 327 2773

Ijeoma Chima-Ugwuanyi

ichima@lbs.edu.ng, 0813 514 9735, 0812 143 1808

Sandra Ohazurike

sandraohazurike1972@gmail.com, 0909 666 5010

Fee payment:

Cheques should be drawn in favour of

'Entrepreneurship Fair':
Lagos Business School,

Account Number: 0006086054
Bank: Diamond Bank plc,
Sort Code: 063150269

Register here: http://www.lbs.edu.ng/programmes/…/Pages/seminar_apply.aspx…

Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid with Personal Pronouns


Among the oldest words in English are the personal pronouns I, you, he, she, it, we, and they.

Two of the personal pronouns, you and it, have only one form that is used as either subject or object:

See that goat? It bit me. (It is the subject of the verb bit.)
I hear a bee. Do you see it? (It is the object of the verb see.)
There’s a poisonous spider. Step on it! (It is the object of the preposition on)

You agree with Charlie on everything. (You is the subject of the verb agree)
That car just missed you. (You is the object of the verb missed.)
This information must remain between you and me. (You is the object of the preposition between.)

Five of the personal pronouns have two forms each: a subject form (I, he, she, we, they) and an object form (me, him, her, us, them).

The most common errors occur when subject and object forms are reversed.

Two additional errors that seem to be increasing are 1.) replacing a personal pronoun with a pronoun ending in -self and 2.) using a personal pronoun in a context that calls for a possessive adjective.

Mistake #1: Object form used in place of subject form

Incorrect: In the next several weeks, my colleagues and me will be discussing the appropriate way to do that. (Jay Inslee, Congressional Record)
Correct : In the next several weeks, my colleagues and I will be discussing the appropriate way to do that.

The subject forms I, he, she, we, and they are used as the subject of a verb. Here are models of correct usage:

We went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. (subject of the verb went)
The children and I had a lovely time. (subject of the verb had)
My colleagues and I will be discussing the plan. (subject of the verb will be discussing)

Mistake #2: Subject form used in place of object form following a preposition

Incorrect: She made each child feel special by taking pictures and spending quality one on one time with they and the dog. (A testimonial written by a person who has an M.A. degree)
Correct : She made children feel special by taking pictures and spending quality one on one time with them and the dog.

When the object of a preposition is a pronoun, the object form is required.

Reminder: Prepositions include such words as with, to, in, on, under, and between. Here are two examples of correct usage:

The butterfly alighted on her. (object of the preposition on)
She gave the horse to Jack and me. (object of the preposition to)

In the sample sentence, a social worker made children feel special by spending time “with them.”

Misake #3 Subject form used in place of object form following a transitive verb

Incorrect: Rodgers then followed she and her daughter out of the grocery store. (New York Daily News)
Correct : Rodgers then followed her and her daughter out of the grocery store.

When the direct object of a transitive verb is a pronoun, the object form is required. Here is an example of correct usage:

The supervisor commended him for his contribution. (direct object of the verb commended.)

The transitive verb followed requires the object form her.

Mistake #4 Subject form used in place of the corresponding possessive adjective

Incorrect: Susan announces she and her husband’s plans to divorce in front of Atticus’s family. (Downtown Abbey site)
Correct : Susan announces her and her husband’s plans to divorce in front of Atticus’s family.

Note: The personal pronouns have corresponding possessive forms. The possessive adjective forms are my, your, his, her, its, our, and their. They stand in front of the noun that is “possessed.” For example:

Jack is his friend. (possessive adjective that corresponds to personal pronouns he and him)
Sally is her friend. (possessive adjective that corresponds to personal pronouns she and her)

She is a subject form and cannot be used as a possessive adjective. Susan announces plans for the impending divorce. They are “her husband’s plans.” They are “her plans” as well.

Mistake #5 Reflexive pronoun used in place of personal pronoun

Incorrect: Both my wife and myself felt so much happier after watching this movie.
Correct : Both my wife and I felt so much happier after watching this movie.

Pronouns that end in -self or -selves are called “reflexive pronouns” or “emphatic pronouns.” Here are examples of their correct use:

The boy cut himself with the hedge clippers. (reflexive pronoun)
The mayor herself delivered my newspaper today. (emphatic pronoun)

There may be occasions when the emphatic form is wanted for a rhetorical flourish, but in ordinary speech, replacing a personal pronoun with one ending in -self or -selves is nonstandard usage to be avoided.

Credit: DWT

Between vs. In Between
By Maeve Maddox


When between functions as a preposition, placing ‘in’ before it is nonstandard usage. The following headlines, for example, are incorrect:

Incorrect: Woman dies walking in between subway cars
Correct : Woman dies walking between subway cars

Incorrect: You don’t need to enter spaces in-between the numbers/letters.
Correct : You don’t need to enter spaces between the numbers/letters.

Incorrect: How Many Hurdles are In Between a Thief and Your Phone Data?
Correct : How Many Hurdles are Between a Thief and Your Phone Data?

The addition of ‘in’ is acceptable when the phrase “in between” functions as a noun, an adjective, or—according to Merriam-Webster—an adverb.

1. In-between as noun

Josie feels like an in-between, trapped between her family’s Italian culture and the Australian culture of her peers. (noun meaning, “a person who doesn’t belong in either of two groups”)

Many times, parents feel like the only choice is to have [the baby] fall asleep in your arms or cry it out, but there really is an in-between. (noun meaning, “an alternative that lies between two extremes”)

2. In-between as adjective

An “in-between hop” is a baseball term that indicates a bounced baseball that reaches an infielder at the midpoint of its upward bounce. (adjective describing hop)

College students on holiday face an in-between world. (adjective describing world)

3. In between as adverb

Everything Nerdy and Anything in Between
Everything Nerdy and Anything Between

We have delivered to points in Florida, Illinois, Ohio and all states in between.
We have delivered to points in Florida, Illinois, Ohio and all states between.

Bottom line: When using between as a preposition, don’t preface it with ‘in’.

The words lose and loose are often confused. Here are examples to illustrate their uses.

“Lose” is a verb.

The Cubs didn’t lose today’s game.
They lost the one yesterday.
They have lost three in a row.
I don’t like it when they are losing.

The word “loose” can be used as more than one part of speech.

“Loose” can be a verb:

Loose the dog from its chain.
The man loosed his pit bull on the intruder.
We have loosed all the raccoons from the traps.
The activists are loosing the monkeys from the lab.

“Loose” can be an adjective:

He prefers to wear loose clothing when exercising.
This screw is loose.

“Loose” can be an adverb:

The rancher turned the horses loose.

One more thing: The two words have different pronunciations. The “s” in “lose” has the sound /z/. The “s” in “loose” has the sound /s/.

Credit: DWT

Wordy Phrases Beginning with “In” [Part 2]

11.
She is attending the meeting in place of her vacationing supervisor.
She is attending the meeting for her vacationing supervisor.

12.
I am in possession of damning evidence.
I have damning evidence.

13.
They are in proximity to the epicenter.
They are close to the epicenter.

14.
We are in receipt of your letter.
We received your letter.

15-17.
I wasn’t sure what the question was in reference to (or regard to or in relation to).
I wasn’t sure what the question was about.

18.
You will notice these side effects in some instances.
You will sometimes notice these side effects.

19.
In spite of the fact that the box was clearly labeled, he could not find it.
Although the box was clearly labeled, he could not find it.

20.
In terms of reducing costs, the strategy has been a failure.
The strategy has been a failure in reducing costs.

21.
In the absence of Smith as manager, Jones was left in charge.
Without Smith as manager, Jones was left in charge.

22.
In the case of duplication, rename the older file and place it in the Archive folder.
If duplication occurs, rename the older file and place it in the Archive folder.

23.
We were speaking in the context of yesterday’s discussion.
We were speaking about yesterday’s discussion.

24.
In the course of the session, little progress was made.
During the session, little progress was made.

25.
In the event that no decision is made, the current procedure will remain in effect.
If no decision is made, the current procedure will remain in effect.

26.
In the final analysis, it is up to us to decide.
Ultimately, it is up to us to decide.

27.
He will return in the near future.
He will return soon.

28.
It took in the neighborhood of two weeks to complete.
It took about two weeks to complete.

29.
They are in the vicinity of the headquarters now.
They are near the headquarters now.

30.
In view of the fact that you suggested it, I think you should propose it.
Because you suggested it, I think you should propose it.


Credit: DWT

BUSINESS AS A TOOL TO TRANSFORM SOCIETY

By Dr Henrietta Onwuegbuzie
Academic Director, Owner-Manager Programme, Lagos Business School

Once upon a time, we used to say Nigerians loved life too much to ever become suicide bombers. We looked upon such acts as foreign stupidities only contemplated by people abroad. Alas! You and I know the reality today. Suicide bombing has become an almost daily occurrence in Nigeria, along with kidnapping and robbery.

How did we slide to the most undesirable situation in our beloved country? The yawning gap between the rich and the poor in Nigeria has been growing over the years, such that in spite of an emerging middle class, 69% of Nigerians (112.59 million) live in poverty. For this impoverished majority, it makes no difference whether they are alive or dead and so they’re willing to do anything to relieve their hardship, even when it means death, if caught.

The pervasive mentality of thinking only of the well-being of one’s family, in spite of being surrounded by suffering, has further hardened this dangerous divide. As someone once said, “A few privileged people in an impoverished society are endangered species”.

How can we expect to be safe when there is deprivation all around us? Perhaps we are blaming the government as we read. The fact, however, is that each of us can make a difference!

Almost every country in the world is presently threatened by the menace of terrorism. This is what has led world leaders to begin to rethink business as usual. There is now a strong global trend towards fostering for-profit businesses with a social mission. These are businesses that seek to solve social problems beyond achieving financial returns. The commonly used terminologies to describe such business models include Impact Investing, Africapitalism, Sustainability, Responsible Investing or Businesses Acting as Agents for World Benefit.

Call it what you may, the overall aim is to ensure that social development does not lag behind economic growth. This ultimately leads to a better society and sustainable development.

Business can therefore become a tool to transform society when problems around us are conceived as a potential profitable business opportunity. Through business, many of us can actively contribute to improving our society.
At LBS, we have made the perspective of business as a tool for transforming society a significant aspect of the training received by our participants, especially MBAs.

Our MBAs are required to start or create profitable business models based on pressing problems observed in the society. In the last couple of years, they have started businesses built around social problems and have discovered the magic of accelerated profitability, while enjoying the fulfilment of lifting others out of poverty and transforming lives. They have therefore transformed potential human liabilities into assets to the society through the various businesses they have started. A number of them have built businesses aimed at taking children off the streets into schools; fought malnourishment and preventable deaths by manufacturing high-nutrient low-cost powders; provided jobs for the physically challenged who supply labour needed for their businesses; started basic business learning in markets such as Oke-Arin and Computer Village, to teach basic book-keeping etc.

The MBA fair will be showcasing many of such businesses, with the aim of attracting investors, encouraging replication and therefore accelerating social transformation and inclusive growth. We aim to use business to create a safer society, such that terrorism and crime become unattractive to most.

Please join us on July 1 as we showcase these ideas and give you an opportunity to invest and partner with them to make a change, while making profits. We look forward to receiving you.


TRW CONSULT
for: Lagos Business School

Wound vs. Injury

In modern usage, the noun wound [WOOND] refers to any injury that tears the flesh.

The verb to wound [WOOND], however, retains its earliest meaning: “to inflict a deliberate injury that tears the flesh.”

For example, a police officer who is shot or stabbed by a perpetrator has been wounded. A fireman who suffers lacerations from being struck by falling debris has been injured.

Both the officer and the firefighter have wounds on their bodies, but only the officer was wounded. Likewise, soldiers are wounded by roadside bombs, but construction workers are injured in accidents. The difference is that the wounds suffered by the soldiers are the result of malicious intent, whereas the construction workers received their wounds as the result of accident.

In addition to their literal meanings, both noun and verb have acquired figurative uses. For example, an insult may be said to wound the recipient.

I am very sorry if I wounded your feelings this afternoon; it was wholly unintentional, I assure you.

Narcissism usually starts with a significant emotional wound or a series of them culminating in a major trauma of separation/attachment.

The verb wound, documented in English from 760, predates the noun wound by about 150 years. The earliest documentation of the noun injury is from 1382. In the 15th century, injury was used both as a noun and as a verb, but by the end of the 17th century, the verb form injure had become established.

The earliest meaning of the noun injury is “hurt or loss caused to or sustained by a person or thing.” Synonyms for this type of injury are harm, detriment, and damage.

The verb that developed from injury meant, “to do injustice or wrong to a person.” Only later did the idea of bodily harm become as closely associated with the words injury and injure as it is now.

The word wound carries an emotional connotation that injury and injure lack. A false report might injure a person’s career, but wound a person’s feelings.

Injure is more or less emotionally neutral, but wound suggests strong emotions of distress or anguish.

The following words are options for describing wound in the sense of a break in the flesh:
lesion
cut
gash
laceration
tear
slash
graze
scratch
abrasion
bruise
contusion

The following words are options for wound in the context of emotional injury:
insult
blow
slight
offense
affront
hurt
damage
pain
distress
grief
anguish
torment

Credit: DWT

As both adjective and adverb, the word very is appropriate in many contexts, but when prefixed to a strong word like chaotic, it weakens expression.

Very has its place in numerous useful idioms:

That lamp is the very thing for my new end table!

Private car ownership is all very well, but billions of cars take a toll on the planet.

–Do you like me? –Very much so!

This is the very last size six they have in the store.

–Private Jones, bring me my rifle. –Very good, Sir!

A phrase associated with Elvis Presley is, “Thank you very much.”

The word very derives from Latin verus, “true,” and in some contexts it can still mean true in English:

“She’s the very epitome of class.”

“That’s the very truth, so help me.” (literally, the “true truth.”)

The use of very becomes questionable when it’s slapped indiscriminately onto adjectives that don’t need it.

With throwaway adjectives like good, bad, and nice, adding a very does no harm; it may even contribute a little meaning to mostly meaningless words. But with expressive adjectives like gory, heartbroken, and chaotic, adding a very has the effect of diminishing their power.

Here are examples of precise and powerful adjectives being vitiated by the unnecessary use of very:

The growth of the receipts has been very phenomenal.

I have a very stupefying headache today.

This guy committed very, very heinous crimes.

The man became very disconsolate after his wife’s death.

Child’s death leaves mother very heartbroken.

All of these adjectives–phenomenal, stupefying, heinous, disconsolate, and heartbroken–already convey intensity of meaning:

phenomenal: (in this context) marvelous, extraordinary, fantastic.
stupefying: numbing, deadening.
heinous: hateful, odious; highly criminal or wicked; infamous, atrocious.
disconsolate: of a person: lacking consolation or comfort; forlorn, inconsolable.
heartbroken: overwhelmed with anguish, despair, or grief.

And, the adjective that prompted this post:

chaotic: utterly confused or disordered. (In Greek myth, Chaos is the “formless void” from which the universe came: earth, air, sky, water–all are mixed up and without order.)

Very has its uses, but next time you are tempted to put it in front of an adjective like overwhelming, you might want to reconsider.

Maeve Maddox

A circle is a perfectly round plane figure. The fact that a circle may be drawn from beginning to end without a break makes it a powerful symbol.

The word circle occurs in many English idioms, often as a symbol of wholeness or repetition.

1. The circle of life: the cycle of reproduction and survival, from birth to death.

2. Circle of hell: a place of punishment in the afterlife, from The Inferno. Dante describes nine circles or areas in which souls are punished according to the nature of their sins.

3. Family circle: a theatrical term to describe the seating area farthest from the stage (aka “upper circle”). In general usage, family circle refers to a person’s closest family members. The word circle can refer to any intimate group of friends. The expression “inner circle” refers to a small influential group of people who run things in politics, business, or the like.

4. Vicious circle: in logic, a vicious circle results when a false premise is followed by a true premise. In general usage, a vicious circle refers to a situation in which no progress or improvement can be made. Sometimes the expression “vicious cycle” is used instead.

5. To run circles around: to surpass with little effort. Similar term: “to run rings round.”

6. To come full circle: to complete a series of events; to come back to one’s starting place.

7. To go in circles: to repeat the same action without arriving at the desired place.

8. To square the circle: to attempt the impossible.

Other expressions draw on the verb circle, “to put a circle around something” or “to move in a circular direction.”

9. To circle the drain: to be on the way out. The image is that of the last of the water draining from a bathtub.

10. To circle the subject: to avoid saying anything specific about a topic of discussion.

11. To circle the wagons: to take a defensive position. The image is that of migrating American settlers arranging their wagons in a circle as a barricade against attacking Indians.

Note: The expression “to circle the wagons” is seen frequently in headlines and in articles about economics. The economists seem to view the American economy “as a fortress, a circle of wagons, as it were, that can be readily defined and defended” (Robert Reno, Newsday). Contemporary American Indians often find this expression offensive.

Credit: DWT

7 Similar but Distinct Word Pairs
By Mark Nichol


Look-alike, sound-alike words can cause confusion. Note the distinctions between each pair of terms listed below:

1. Abjure and Adjure

Abjure, from Latin by way of French, means “to deny” or “to renounce,” or “to avoid.” Adjure, which took the same route to English, means “to confirm” or “to command,” or “to advise or urge.” In some senses, therefore, they are near antonyms. (That’s logical: Ab- means “from” and ad- means “to.”) However, they do share a root syllable, the same one that is the basis of jury, jurisprudence, just, justice, and other terms from the realm of law.

2. Chafe and Chaff

Chafe, ultimately derived from the Latin term calefacere, “to make warm or hot,” originally meant just that, but then, from the added sense of “rubbing to make warm,” it acquired the negative connotations of “make sore by rubbing” and then, by association, “irritate.” Chaff, an unrelated word, comes from Old English and refers to seed husks and, by extension, anything discarded as worthless. By association with the cloud of husks and other debris produced during threshing of grain, bursts of tiny scraps of metal ejected from aircraft to interfere with enemy radar is called chaff.

3. Discomfort and Discomfit

These similar-looking words have similar meanings, but it was not always so. Discomfort is the antonym of the word ultimately stemming from the Latin term confortare, meaning “to strengthen.” (Fort is also the root of, well, fort, as well as fortitude.) Discomfit, from the French word desconfit, meaning “defeated” (its Latin root means “to make”), was weakened by false association with discomfort to mean “frustrate” or “perplex.” Unlike the antonym for discomfort, comfit (“to make”) is not an antonym; it refers to candied fruit. Comfiture, however, is a rare synonym meaning “an act of support.”

4. Perspicacious and Perspicuous

Both words stem from the Latin term perspicere, meaning “looking through,” which is also the source of perspective. (The element spic, from specare, meaning “look at,” is also the root of spectacle and speculation.) However, the meanings are distinct: A perspicacious person is one who is astute or mentally alert; the quality so demonstrated is perspicacity. A perspicuous argument is one that is plainly clear and precise.

5. Practicable and Practical

Something practicable is usable or feasible, while something practical is useful — a slight but significant distinction. Practicable is used to refer to something that is or could be done (“a practicable policy”), while practical is associated with action or use: A practical umbrella is one that keeps rain from falling on you in the rain; an impractical one is decorative but not sturdy or waterproof enough for practical use.

6. Turbid and Turgid

Turbid refers to a state of cloudiness, opacity, or obscurity; its Latin source is turba, meaning “confusion.” Turgid, from the Latin term turgidus, meaning “swollen,” means just that — or, by extension, “embellished” or “pompous,” in that a turgid speech, for example, is delivered by a person swollen with self-importance.

7. Waiver and Waver

Waiver, referring to abandonment or relinquishment, is from an Anglo-French word meaning “to abandon.” Waver, likely from the Old English term waefre, which means “restless,” means “to act indecisively.” The latter term is therefore probably related to the verb wave, meaning “to move back and forth,” and the same word as a noun, referring to the act of waving or to something that moves back and forth, like an ocean wave or a radio wave.

Thanks to technology, everyone who wants to be a writer and publisher can easily do so online. Unfortunately, this ease has resulted in a lot of unease about how information is disseminated.

Early online information about the massacre of children and adults at a Connecticut school is a case in point. Initial reports identified the killer as a man named Ryan Lanza, though, as it turns out, Lanza’s younger brother, the real perpetrator of this horror, who killed himself, had apparently used his brother’s identification during the incident.

But by the time this ruse was detected, the innocent brother had been harassed and threatened online by people who read or heard the inaccurate information, and he issued distraught denials on his Facebook page. Imagine the tragedy that would have occurred if some self-righteous vigilante, missing or ignoring his declaration of innocence, had stormed the elder Lanza’s home or office and killed him.

In addition, reports varied about the number and type of guns the perpetrator used, prompting online debates about gun control based on the firepower and capacity of the weapons apparently used. Such careless argument before the facts are straight just confuses what is already an emotionally charged social issue.

News media, including television and radio news programs and newspapers and magazines, sometimes make such mistakes, and when the information is significant, such sources retract it as soon as possible. Sometimes, it’s too late, and the damage is done. But usually, because of generally stringent standards for gathering facts for reporting, the erroneous information is never released in the first place.

But now that virtually anyone anywhere can post or otherwise disseminate mistaken “facts,” the risk of tragic consequences is multiplied. Even fairly innocuous information can be damaging, so take care when passing along a piece of news:

1. Before blogging or tweeting information, verify though reputable news sources — or, better yet, directly from those involved — that it is correct. (Two other ways of putting it: If something seems too good to be true, it probably is, and, more lightheartedly, if your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.)
2. Being correct is more important than being first.
3. Clearly distinguish fact from opinion in your own commentary, and be alert for your own biases.
4. If you do introduce or repeat misinformation, correct it as soon and as prominently as possible.
5. Most important, if you fail to heed any of these tips, learn from your failures so that next time, there is no next time.

Credit: DWT

TRW Consult, a content development and digital solutions firm, specialises in virtual reputation management of public figures and corporate bodies. Even when facts are ‘mistakenly’ disseminated, we are able to manage the online perception and reputation of our clients effectively to minimise the damage. Don’t wait to get caught in an irreparable fix, call us now on 08188708026 or send mail to mail@trwconsult.com.

Mind Your -ed’s

The English verb ending -ed is a curious construction.

Although always spelled -ed, it has three different pronunciations. Two of them can lead to misspellings:
/ed/ as in faded
/d/ as in turned
/t/ as in wrecked

The suffix -ed is the sign of the past tense. That is, most English verbs form their past tenses by adding -ed. For example, walk/walked, love/loved, sneeze/sneezed. The same ending marks the simple past tense and the perfect: Yesterday I walked. I have walked for hours.

In earlier periods, English verbs presented more variety in the way they formed the simple past and the past participle. A few of the older forms survive in what the grammar books call “irregular” verbs. These verbs do not form their past tenses by adding -ed:

sing sang (have) sung
give gave (have) given
write wrote (have) written

These “irregular” verbs are sometimes called “strong” verbs. Once very numerous in English, only a few survive–fewer than 70. Many of them, like help, became –ed verbs long ago so we no longer say holp or holpen. Some of the survivors, like wake and dive, are in the process of changing and the old and new forms are both in use:

He woke the baby. or He waked the baby.
He dove from the top board. or He dived into the pool.

One changing form that makes me sad is “slayed” for “slew.” The characters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer made the -ed form current. My view is that “slay” is an old-fashioned word that deserves old-fashioned past forms. If I ever slay a vampire, I will say that I have slain it, and I want the reporters to say that I slew it.

And speaking of “old-fashioned,” don’t commit the error of leaving off the -ed when it is called for. Don’t write “old-fashion girl” for “old-fashioned girl,” or “I was suppose to go home early” for “I was supposed to go home early.”

Credit: DWT

Writing a proposal is similar to but not exactly the same as crafting a persuasive essay or producing a report. Here are suggestions for developing a proposal

1. A proposal should define a problem and describe a solution that will persuade busy, thrifty, sceptical readers to support it.

2. Employ facts, not opinions, to bolster the argument for approval. Research similar plans or projects and cite them, emphasizing their successes and/or how your proposal resolves the weaknesses, omissions, or mistaken priorities apparent in them.

3. Analyse your plan or project, demonstrating possible outcomes. If possible, model a small-scale version of the plan or project, report on the results, and extrapolate how the full-scale plan or project will turn out based on the test.

4. Any discussion of financial or other resources should be conducted carefully and should present a realistic picture of the expense required.

5. Be meticulous in writing, editing, and design of the proposal. Revise as necessary to make it clear and concise, ask others to critique and edit it, and make sure the presentation is attractive and engaging as well as well-organized and helpful.

A proposal should include the following elements:

Executive Summary: State the rationale for putting the proposal into effect, and summarize the proposal. (This allows a decision maker to quickly get the gist of the proposal, hence the name.)

Statement of Need: Detail why the plan or project the proposal recommends is necessary.

Project Description: Explain specifics of the plan or project, and how it will go into effect and how it will be evaluated.

Budget Analysis: Provide and explain how the plan or project will be financed and categorize and annotate operating expenses.

Organization Details: If the proposal is being submitted to an outside party, provide information about the beneficiary organization, including its mission, its stakeholders and who its serves, and the scope of its programs and services.

Conclusion: Summarize the proposal’s main points.

TRW Consult, a core content development firm, offers professional services in all forms of business writing to include business plan, business proposal, company profile, executive profile. Other services include ghost-writing, editorials, social media campaign, virtual reputation management and research. Call us now on 08188708026 or send mail to mail@trwconsult.com
We offer you more options and time to do more…

WHY YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT WORKING

Let's face it, social media has come to stay.

These days, almost everyone and every organisation has a presence on the social media, particularly the popular ones such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest. As at March this year, there were 1.415 billion active users on Facebook, and 288 million monthly active users on Twitter. With the explosive youth population in Nigeria, you can imagine what chunk of those statistics we boast as a nation.

However, most corporate presence and iconic presence (prominent individuals) on the social media are mere presence with no marked focus, strategy, or intent to engage the teeming online public/market. This conundrum is largely to due to not knowing what it takes to maintain a vibrant online-cum-social media presence.

There are 4 basics to maintaining a successful online and social media presence. They are:

1. Contents: Content is the backbone of social media. Unless you publish fresh, relevant information on a regular basis for your audience to consume, your online and social media platforms will not command traffic. Social media accounts that don't churn out fresh contents are considered dead.

2. Engagement: the second nitty-gritty for running a successful online/social media campaign is audience engagement. Organisations and individuals who engage their online audience are generally seen as friendly and responsive plus many other positive perceptions, all of which translate into sales, patronage, goodwill, brand affiliation, loyalty and an army of brand ambassadors who will go to any length to promote/defend your name, brand, product, service or cause.

3. Skills: There are potpourri related skills required to drive a vibrant social media presence ranging from graphics, research, designs, backend management, analytics, optimisation, monitoring, etc. Not knowing which to deploy, when and how to deploy it or utilising them wrongly is a sure road to virtual comatose or disaster.

4. Consistence: Knowing what to do to have a winning social media presence and how to do it does not guarantee success unless such knowledge is backed by painstaking efforts and commitment to doing it day in, day out. Lack of consistence accounts mostly for the online failure of multinationals, institutions and public figures, who have all it takes as well as the budget to be vibrant and visible online, but whose activities there are a whimper.

The good news is that TRW Consult has all the expertise, drive as well as foreign and local partnerships to run an online/social media campaign that will give you/your organisation the Coca Cola Effect. We are presently the largest content producers in West Africa and have successfully executed online projects across all horizons from global to national, organisational, iconic, and then cottage projects. Some of our portfolio include World Economic Forum, National Conference 2014, FanMilk, and cottage businesses with low budget.

With our new Branding & Digital Solutions Packages for different cadres of individuals and corporates, you need not worry anymore about what you are losing by not being visible and vibrant online. We have branding and online/social media packages for individuals, organisations, public figures and multinationals/institutions.

Our promise remains... Offering You More Options + Time to do More...

Email: mail@trwconsult.com
Hotlines: 08054259757 | 08189072164 | 08151108880
Website: www.trwconsult.com

6 Simple Tricks for Building a Strong Writing Habit [Part 2]

Do you ever feel like your writing life would be so much easier if only you could stay inspired?

Maybe you had an initial burst of enthusiasm for the project you’re working on, but it quickly faded and now you’re struggling.


So how exactly do you form a writing habit?

Here are six easy tricks to try right now. You don’t need to sit around waiting for inspiration to strike, and you don’t need superhuman levels of willpower.
#4: Mark Your Calendar
One very simple habit-forming tool is your calendar. Not just to plan ahead for writing time, but for tracking what you’ve done.

Put a check mark, an X, or even a smiley face sticker or shiny gold star on each day that you write. (I like to do this with a physical calendar, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use a virtual one instead.)

Many writers find it helps to build a “chain” of successes, where they’ve written every day, or every target day, if they’re not writing on a daily basis.

You could also look for a sense of progress: perhaps in the first week of marking your calendar, you only write on one day, but by the end of a couple of months, you’re consistently writing three days a week and sometimes managing five.

Accountability can come into play here too, if you make your calendar visible to other people – hang it on the wall in your kitchen, stick it on the fridge, or if it’s the virtual sort of calendar, share it with writer friends online.

#5: Get Over the Getting Started Hurdle
What’s the toughest bit of a writing session for you? For me (and I think for an awful lot of writers), it’s the getting started bit.

You may well find that once you actually sit down, put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, make a plan and get a few sentences into your work-in-progress, the writing flows pretty easily.

But getting going can be tough. I know writers who find themselves engaging in all sorts of displacement activities – even tackling the chores – rather than writing.

If getting started is a big hurdle for you, make it easier. Come up with a simple, consistent routine that you can use at the start of each writing session. It might only take a minute or two.

For instance:

Put on a particular album, track, or playlist that you like to use when you write—music can be a great cue to get into the writing zone. If you’re not keen on writing with music playing, try Noisli.
Open up your work-in-progress document. (For some people, just opening the document is enough to break through resistance.)
Write down what you want to accomplish during your writing session. This gets you focused and gets you writing!
Start your timer.
Once you’ve done the three or four little steps of your routine, you may find that you hardly notice yourself starting to write.

#6: Share Your Work with Other Writers
In my own writing life, there’s nothing that’s helped me more than having a circle of writer friends to share work-in-progress with.

Setting my own deadlines for finishing a scene or chapter leaves far too much room for renegotiation: committing to a weekly or monthly meeting means I have to meet an external deadline, one that involves other people who’re counting on me to get my work done.

You don’t have to join a writers’ group, though. Sharing your work could also mean:

Posting regularly (e.g. once a week) on your blog.
Asking a spouse or friend to read what you’ve written each week.
Paying for an editor to review your manuscript.
Publishing excerpts from your novel-in-progress online, perhaps on a writing-related forum.
Emailing each session’s work to a writing buddy.
It could even be as simple as sharing your day’s or week’s word count with your friends on Facebook, rather than sharing your actual writing.



If you’ve already established a strong writing habit in your life, I’d love to hear what’s worked well for you – do you have an extra trick to add to my list?

And if you’re still working on that writing habit, drop a comment below to say which tip you’ll be trying out this week.

Ali Luke

6 Simple Tricks for Building a Strong Writing Habit [Part 1]

Do you ever feel like your writing life would be so much easier if only you could stay inspired?

Maybe you had an initial burst of enthusiasm for the project you’re working on, but it quickly faded and now you’re struggling.

You haven’t blogged for weeks and weeks.

You’re stuck on Chapter 3 of your novel and have been for months.

You can’t even seem to finish a short story.

The truth is, inspiration will only get you so far. Of course it’s wonderful to feel on fire as a writer—words flying from your fingers, the world vanishing around you. When you’re in the zone, you can’t wait to get to your desk.

But, for most of us, that’s not really our daily writing reality.

Simply getting yourself at your desk ready to work might feel like leaping a pretty huge hurdle.

This is where habit trumps inspiration.

If you’re in the habit of writing, sitting down and getting on with it is as natural as brushing your teeth. It’s part of your daily or weekly routine.

(I don’t believe you have to write every day, though some writers swear by it. If you want to build up any momentum, though, you do need to write regularly, though, which – for most writers – means at least once a week.)

So how exactly do you form a writing habit?

Here are six easy tricks to try right now. You don’t need to sit around waiting for inspiration to strike, and you don’t need superhuman levels of willpower.

#1: Make Your Writing Environment Work for You
If I could only give you only one tip, it would be this one: make the place you write work for you. Your writing environment matters more than you might think.

If you sit on the sofa with your laptop, but always find yourself picking up the TV remote ten minutes into your writing session, try sitting at the kitchen table.

If you write at home but feel constantly distracted by all the chores you need to get done, try writing in a coffee shop. (Or even better, in a library.)

If you find that noise intrudes on your thoughts, put on headphones and listen to music or white noise.

These probably sound obvious… but so many writers don’t make the small tweaks to their environment that could make all the difference.

#2: Experiment with Different Times of Day – then Pick One
Chances are, your productivity levels wax and wane throughout the day. You might find yourself writing page after page almost effortlessly in the mornings, but you struggle to string together a sentence after lunch.

Even if you think you know when you’re at your best, try writing at different times of the day. You might surprise yourself.

Once you’ve found a good writing slot, try to stick with it for most of your writing sessions. Of course you can (and should!) write at other times if you feel moved to do so, but having a regular writing slot makes it much easier to build a habit.

#3: Work in Timed Bursts
This is my favorite trick for getting anything done – simply set a timer. I’ve got one running right now. I normally use Tomato Timer, which is designed to fit with the Pomodoro technique – 25 minute bursts. Tick Tock Timer is a good one for other lengths of time.

While the timer is running, write. Don’t check email or chat on Facebook. Just write.

If you’re not used to doing this, it can be surprisingly hard: you may well find yourself having to resist, almost every minute or two, the impulse to stop writing and do something else.

Setting the timer sets your intention. It’s a promise to yourself that you are going to write for 25 minutes (or 15 or 40 or whatever works for you).

It helps you focus and resist distractions – there’s an end in sight.

This trick works especially well if you know you’ll struggle to be as focused as usual. Right now, my teething baby son is asleep in the pushchair next to me. It’s been a busy day (and a rather sleepless night) and I know that, without a timer, I’d have written a couple of sentences of this post and then been distracted by Facebook.


Credit: Write to Done

Compound nouns are of three kinds: open, hyphenated, and closed.

As the names imply, “open compounds” are written as separate words, “hyphenated compounds” are written with one or more hyphens, and “closed compounds” are written as a single word.

Many compounds begin as open, progress to hyphenated, and finish as closed. Because of the modern preference to avoid hyphenating words as much as possible, newly created compounds tend to develop closed forms earlier than they might have in the past. Some compounds written as one word in US usage are hyphenated in British usage.

Compound nouns are formed by combining different parts of speech. This list of ten is not exhaustive.

1. noun + noun
wheeler-dealer
bedroom
shoelace

2. noun + preposition/adverb
hanger-on
voice-over
passerby (Br. passer-by)

3. noun + adjective
attorney general
battle royal
poet laureate

4. noun + verb
airlift
haircut
snowfall

5. adjective + noun
high school
poor loser
redhead

6. adjective + verb
well-being
whitewashing

7. preposition/adverb + noun
off-ramp
onlooker

8. verb + noun
singing lesson
washing machine

9. verb + preposition/adverb
warm-up
know-how
get-together
follow-through

10. word + preposition + word
free-for-all
mother-in-law
word-of-mouth

Most compound nouns form their plurals like any other noun: by adding an s to the end of the word: wheeler-dealers, washing machines, onlookers.

A few, like mother-in-law and hole in one do not place the s at the end, but on the most significant word: mothers-in-law, holes in one.

Some compounds of French origin in which the adjective stands last have more than one acceptable plural (depending upon the dictionary):

attorney generals or attorneys general
court martials or courts martial
film noirs, films noir, or films noirs
runner-ups or runners-up

Because there are no hard and fast rules regarding the writing of compound nouns, stylebooks advise writers to consult a dictionary when in doubt.

Credit: DWT