Doug's reply indicates that it might be useful for me to redefine my
original request to the list.
My redefined request:
Examples, or stories, that highlight a communication problem that occurred
as a result of a misplaced comma, or incorrect word usage.
This is an example that was used on one of the educational forums, but I
would prefer business examples.
Russian Czarina Maria Fyodorovna reportedly once saved the life of a man
by transposing a single comma in a warrant signed by her husband,
Alexander
III (1845-1984), exiling a man to death in Siberia.
On the bottom of the warrant, the czar had written: �Pardon impossible, to
be sent to Siberia.�
The Czarina changed the punctuation so that the instructions read instead
as
follows: �Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia.�
Always learning,
Christie Mason\
Managers Forum
clmason@essex1.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Max <
dmax@BELLATLANTIC.NET>
To:
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU <
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Date: Monday, December 07, 1998 8:34 AM
Subject: Grammar Gremlins
>Christie asked about the "top 10 mistakes [in grammar and writing] and
>how to avoid them."
>
>The biggest mistake we've seen in our thirty years teaching employees to
>
>improve their business writing is not a grammar error. It's failing to
>have a clear objective.
>
<snip>>
There are many others:
>
>* Writing what you want to say, not what the reader needs to hear
>* Hiding the objective somewhere other than in the first sentence
>* Failing to ask for what you want
>* Writing to many people as a group, rather than to each reader
>individually
>* Beginning every sentence with "I," or making the focus yourself,
>whether you use "I" or not
>* Using hackneyed expressions to open, close, or communicate every
>thought you have--"Per your request," "Feel free to call if you have any
>
>questions," etc.
>* Failing to proofread carefully
>* Failing to read your writing aloud
>
>Grammar, spelling, and punctuation are superficial elements that writers
>
><snip>