● Proper NounsThe dictionary that spell check uses does not include most proper nouns and may also exclude technical and field-specific terms.. If spell check doesn’t recognize a word th
Trang 1● Proper Nouns
The dictionary that spell check uses does not include most proper nouns and may also exclude technical and field-specific terms If spell check doesn’t recognize a word that you know is spelled correctly, verify the spelling using another reliable source, then simply add it to spell check’s dictionary
Trang 2● BUSINESS WRITING TIPS & STRATEGIES ●
www.basic-learning.com/wbwt/tips-index.htm—Bull’s Eye Busi-ness Writing Tips
www.business-letter-writing.com—Secrets to Effective Business Letter Communication
www.bigchalk.com—offers business writing tips and strategies for students
www.businessletterpunch.com—takes users through the steps of writing a successful business letter
www.mapnp.org/library/commskls/cmm_writ.htm—the Business Writer’s Free Library includes general resources and advice, basic composition and writing skills resources, sample corre-spondence, and reference materials
www.gailtycer.com/writing.htm—offers business writing tips
ONLINE RESOURCES
a p p e n d i x B
Trang 3● ONLINE BUSINESS COURSES ●
www.trainingbetter.com
www.learnatest.com
www.instructionalsolutions.com
www.online-learning.com/course_pbw2_desc.html
www.englishonline.net/writing/busi.html
www.onlinebusinessenglish.com
● BUSINESS TERMS ●
Barron’s Online: www.barrons.com
Bloomberg.com: www.bloomberg.com (includes a financial glos-sary at: www.bloomberg.com/money/tools/bfglosa.html) Business Journals: www.bizjournals.com (you can personalize the site to your locality)
Business Week Online: www.businessweek.com
Career Journal from The Wall Street Journal:
www.careerjour-nal.com
CNN Financial News Online: www.cnnfn.com
Fast Company Magazine Online: www.fastcompany.com
Hoover’s Online: www.hoovers.com
Inc Magazine Online: www.inc.com
Office.com: www.office.com
The Business Search Engine: www.business.com
The Wall Street Journal Online: www.wsj.com
www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/index.html—Paul Brians’ “Com-mon Errors in English” site
iteslj.org/quizzes/—self study quizzes for ESL students, but useful for anyone interested in grammar
www.englishgrammar101.com—English Grammar 101 Several English grammar tutorials
Trang 4www.dailygrammar.com—Daily Grammar—offers daily e-mail messages with a grammar lesson five days of the week and a quiz on the sixth day
www.ruthvilmi.net/hut/help/grammar_help/—offers interactive grammar exercises and grammar resources
www.grammarlady.com/—offers grammar tips and features a grammar hotline
● SPELLING ●
www.dictionary.com—a useful online dictionary (with thesaurus) You can sign up for “word of the day” e-mails to help expand your vocabulary
www.funbrain.com/spell—a site designed for young people with
a Spell Check spelling game
www.m-w.com—Merriam Webster Online This site has a number
of interesting features that will make you forget you are trying
to improve your spelling! Check out the Word for the Wise sec-tion (www.m-w.com/wftw/wftw.htm) for fun facts about words www.randomhouse.com/words/—Words @ Random Here you will find crossword puzzles, quizzes, dictionaries, and other fun stuff all in one site
www.say-it-in-english.com/SpellHome.html—Absolutely Ridicu-lous English Spelling
www.sentex.net/~mmcadams/spelling.html—This site has a tricky online spelling test that is worth taking
www.spelling.hemscott.net/—useful advice on how to improve your spelling
www.spellingbee.com/index.shtml—The Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee site contains “Carolyn’s Corner” with weekly tips and information on spelling
www.spellweb.com—This site will help you to pick the correct spelling of two versions of a word or phrase
167
O n l i n e R e s o u rc e s
Trang 5● LITERARY TERMS ●
Glossary of Literary Criticism—www.sil.org/~radneyr/humani-ties/litcrit/gloss.htm
Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples—www.uky.edu/Arts-Sciences/Classics/rhetoric.html
Literary Arts, Inc.—www.literary-arts.org/
Literary Criticism on the Web—http://start.at/literarycriticism Literary Terms—www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/
Online Literary Criticism Collection—www.ipl.org/ref/litcrit/ The Literary Web—www.people.virginia.edu/~jbh/litweb.html Virtual Salt—A Glossary of Literary Terms: www.virtualsalt.com/ litterms.htm
Wordwizard—www.wordwizard.com
Zuzu’s Petals Literary Resources—www.zuzu.com
● TECHNOLOGY TERMS ●
CIO Magazine Online—www.cio.com
Fast Company Magazine Online—www.fastcompany.com
Government Technology—www.govtech.net
Information Technology Association of America—www.itaa.org National Institute of Standards and Technology—www.nist.gov Tech Web: The Business Technology Network—www.techweb.com Technology & Learning—www.techlearning.com
Technology Review (MIT)—www.techreview.com
Web Services Community Portal—www.webservices.org
Webmonkey—www.hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey (especially the glossary)
Webopedia Online Dictionary for Computer and Internet Terms— www.pcwebopaedia.com/
Women in Technology International—www.witi.org
Trang 6● GENERAL ●
Alfred, Gerald J et al The Business Writer’s Handbook, 6th
Edition (New York: St Martin’s Press, 2000).
Bly, Robert The Encyclopedia of Business Letters, Fax Memos,
and e-mail (Franklin Lake, NJ: Career Press, 1999).
Chesla, Elizabeth Improve Your Writing for Work, 2nd Edition.
(New York: LearningExpress, 2000)
Danziger, Elizabeth Get to the Point! Painless Advice for Writing
Memos, Letters, and e-mails Your Colleagues Will Understand.
(New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001)
Galko, Francine D Better Writing Right Now (New York:
LearningExpress, 2002)
Iacone, Salvatore J Write to the Point: How to Communicate in
Business with Style and Purpose (Franklin Lake: Career Press,
2003)
Kirschman, DeaAnne Getting Down to Business (New York:
LearningExpress, 2002)
PRINT RESOURCES
a p p e n d i x C
Trang 7Kolin, Philip C Successful Writing at Work, 6th Edition.
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001)
LearningExpress The Complete Professional: Solutions for
Today’s Workplace (New York: LearningExpress, 2000) Olson, Judith F Writing Skills Success in 20 Minutes a Day, 2nd Edition (New York: LearningExpress, 2002).
Roddick, Hawley Business Writing Makeovers: Shortcut
Solutions to Improve Your Letters, e-mails, and Faxes (Avon:
Adams, 2002)
● STYLE GUIDES ●
Williams, Joseph M Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, 7th
Edition (Boston: Longman, 2002).
Strunk, William Jr et al Elements of Style, 4th Edition (Boston:
Allyn & Bacon, 2000)
The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers, 14th Edition (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1993)
● GRAMMAR & SPELLING ●
Devine, Felice Goof-Proof Grammar.
(New York: LearningExpress, 2002)
Devine, Felice Goof-Proof Spelling.
(New York: LearningExpress, 2002)
Follett, Wilson and Wensberge, Erik Modern American Usage: A
Guide (New York: Hill & Wang Publishers, 1998).
LearningExpress 501 Grammar and Writing Questions, 2nd
Edition (New York: LearningExpress, 2002).
LearningExpress 1001 Vocabulary & Spelling Questions (New
York: LearningExpress, 1999)
LearningExpress Vocabulary & Spelling Success, 3rd Edition.
(New York: LearningExpress, 2002)
Trang 8Magnan, Robert and Santovec, Mary Lou 1001 Commonly
Misspelled Words: What Your Spell Checker Won’t Tell You.
(New York: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, 2000)
Morrow, David DK Pockets: Spelling Dictionary (New York:
DK Publishing, 1998)
O’Conner, Patricia T Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to
Better English in Plain English (New York: Riverhead Books,
1998)
Olson, Judith F Grammar Essentials, 2nd Edition (New York:
LearningExpress, 2000)
Princeton Review, Grammar Start: A Guide to Perfect Usage,
2nd edition (New York: Princeton Review, 2001).
Straus, Jane The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, 7th Edition (Mill Valley: Jane Straus, 2001).
vos Savant, Marilyn The Art of Spelling: The Method and the
Madness (New York: Norton, 2000).
Wallraff, Barbara Word Court: Wherein Verbal Virtue is
Rewarded, Crimes Against the Language Are Punished, and
Poetic Justice is Done (New York: Harcourt, 2000).
Walsh, Bill Lapsing into a Comma (New York: McGraw Hill,
2000)
Woods, Geraldine English Grammar for Dummies (New York:
Hungry Minds, 2001)
171
P r i n t R e s o u rc e s
Trang 10● Section 4
Rule #23: Learn the Most Commonly Confused Words, and Use Them Properly
1 I assured Rebecca that her new hairstyle was attractive.
2 Their sofa was delivered this morning.
3 The yellow dress fits better than the red one.
4 The personnel office is in the back of the building.
5 To whom should I address this letter?
Rule #24: Learn the Most Misused Words, and Use Them Properly
1 My brother was being indecisive, so I was forced to decide
between the two movies.
2 After working long hours for three months, Joan was eager
to start her vacation
3 I lost the game but didn’t feel bad because I’d tried my best.
4 Exhausted, she went to her bedroom to lie down.
5 The dinner that we ate last night was delicious.
ANSWER KEY
a p p e n d i x D
Trang 11Rule #25: Don’t Use Words That Aren’t Really Words
1 He brought a calculator with him to the calculus final.
2 I hope the meeting will go well.
3 Anywhere you want to meet for lunch is fine with me.
4 Regardless of the weather, we are going to play golf.
5 People should take responsibility for themselves.
Rule #26: Don’t Use Words or Phrases That Might
Offend Your Reader
1 The chairperson of our committee read a report regarding absenteeism among the wait staff.
2 Appropriate
3 The tennis players Venus and Serena Williams are the best
in the world
4 Please support the efforts of our Vice President of Person-nel, Dora Sinclair, by sponsoring her in the Relay for Life
5 Did you send the invitation to Dr Choe and Ms Jones?
Rule #27: Understand Positive and Negative
Connotations to Choose Words Wisely
1 Inexpensive has a positive connotation Consider cheap to
convey the idea negatively
2 Encourage has a positive connotation; think of it in relation
to abet.
3 Aromatic has a positive connotation; think of it in relation
to smelly.
4 Ludicrous has a negative connotation; amusing is a more
positive synonym
5 Cozy has a positive connotation (whereas comfortable is
more neutral)
Rule #30: Formality versus Informality
Note that none of the formal words in this exercise are preten-tious or archaic You may create a formal tone with simple words that get the point across
a F
b I
c F
d I
Trang 12e I
f F
g I
h F
i I
j F
Rule #31: Avoid Colloquialisms
1 In conclusion, we believe you should not choose our com-petitor’s product because they do not understand the tech-nology the way we do
2 The accident last Tuesday was unfortunate; we must install new floor mats to avoid another one in the future
3 They are not sure if they will attend the meeting that we are holding tomorrow
4 If we do not finish on time, our firm could always tell the client their last minute changes held up production
5 The decision to cancel the trip has been made; you should accept it instead of dwelling on it
● Section 5
Rule #35: Noun/Verb Agreement
1 Shelly and her husband are traveling to Spain.
2 Correct
3 Both of the managers are rumored to be fired after losing
the account
4 Correct
5 Either you or your brother is going to have to talk to your
parents
Rule #39: Double Negatives
1 We barely caught the train
2 Lee had nothing to say at the meeting
3 Correct
4 Heather never went anywhere on vacation
5 Correct
175
A n s w e r K e y
Trang 13Rule #40: Don’t Make Spelling Mistakes
1 Incorrect—abundance
2 Correct
3 Correct
4 Incorrect—existence
5 Incorrect—fulfill
6 Incorrect—globally
7 Incorrect—harass
8 Correct
9 Correct
10 Incorrect—occasionally
11 Incorrect—parallel
12 Correct
13 Incorrect—questionnaire
14 Correct
15 Incorrect—relevant
16 Incorrect—scary
17 Correct
18 Incorrect—temperature
19 Incorrect—vacuum
20 Incorrect—wherever
Rule #41: Use Punctuation Marks Correctly
1 it’s
2 its
3 It’s
4 its
5 it’s
Rule #42: Don’t Overuse Capital Letters
1 Correct
2 Next Wednesday is Dr Lee’s lecture.
3 Do you want me to pick up the copies at the Xerox machine?
4 Correct
5 Make a right on Maple St., and then stop in front of the post
office