Communication Conundrums

Hello there, and welcome to our first blog entry all about the confusing world of communication!

It’s possibly a daft way to start a blog entry, but isn’t English such a ridiculous tongue? People with lisps can’t say ‘lisp.’ ‘Ough’ has nine different pronunciations. ‘Monosyllabic’ isn’t monosyllabic. ‘All the faith he had had had had no effect on the outcome of his life’ makes perfect sense. ‘A woman without her man is nothing’ has two different interpretations. Let’s not even get started on double entendres.

Last Sunday in town, I noticed that some instructions used ‘were’ instead of ‘where.’ I understood the intended message of course, but it got me thinking about situations that require Standard English. I may be a grammar pedant but I don’t correct friends’ posts if they confuse ‘your’ and ‘you’re.’ If countless baby and food photos are social media norms, it’s fair for us not to be judged if mistakes are made. This isn’t always the case though.

If my CV had a basic spelling mistake, I would not have a job. Fact.

I would not be taken seriously if I didn’t use formal English in professional emails. Harsh? Maybe. True? Definitely.

Queries over the phone would not be successful if I greeted them with ‘S’up!’  No chance.

English is a bizarre and crazy language.  Knowing what formality/punctuation/vocabulary/grammar to use can be difficult. Simple communicative tasks can become unnecessarily confusing… even if you just want to send your grandma a quick thank you note for the knitted jumper that you’ll probably never wear.

This is where we come in. We’re good at this stuff, and we’ll ensure everyone is well-informed of what needs doing and, most importantly, how. Granted, a request to help you write a letter to your gran would strike us as quite odd, but we’d do it.
This blog will also be a space for us to provide language tips, offer our whimsical thoughts on the wonderful world of writing and anything else that takes our fancy. Requests and comments welcomed.

Watch this space for more communication-related blog posts. Until then, so long and thanks for all the fish!

Heather.