Business Writing Tips - Grammar Basics: Periods, Commas and Semicolons

Following a three-part series on email on the ULiveandLearn blog, Email Etiquette and Guidelines, offering a total of 15 tips (for example, Part Three), Always Learning has started a series of Grammar Basics punctuation guides. Recently these guides have focused on commas in particular. The brief explanations and examples are well worth a look:

• Business Writing Tips - Grammar Basics: Periods, Commas and Semicolons
• Eight rules for periods include ellipses (2011.07.21)

• Business Writing Tips - Grammar Basics: Commas
• Four rules for commas (2011.07.28)

• Business Writing Tips - Grammar Basics: Commas Used in Series
• Rules 6-7 for commas (2011.08.04)

• Business Writing Tips - Grammar Basics: Interrupting Commas
• Rule 5 for commas (2011.08.11)

• ...

If you go to the ULiveandLearn website, and sign up for free membership, you can get weekly email notification of new writing tips. Tips for using semi-colons should be coming soon! 

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Good PowerPoint Design (Osterwalder)

Modeling design principles for business presenters, Ostewalder showed and told it all in 135 slides, including step-by-step builds and appendices (Slideshare, "two years ago" [relative date]). He cut to the chase to introduce four basic rules on slides 15-18, then elaborated on each.

1. Audience's perspective (slide 24, ff.)
2. Content and structure – Tell a story. (slide 51, ff.)
3. Visual design – Keep it simple. (slide 83, ff.)
4. Delivery – a performance for guests (slide 104, ff.)

The highlight for me was the audience profiling tool, a graphic organizer, that Ostewalder introduced on slides 42-46. Try it out!

Good PowerPoint Design - for business presenters

View more presentations from Alexander Osterwalder

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Book Reviews: Factors to Consider

This post is to remind you how factors work in your Proto-Portfolio spreadsheets. The screenshots below show example factor scores for book reviews (BRs) completed at various times during first semester.  

Screenshot 1 shows what the factor score would be for 12 BRs, if you did two each month. Screenshot 2 show[s] the factor score for 10 BRs completed early in the semester. Screenshot 3 shows the factor score for the same number of book reviews (10) completed late in the semester.

The same factors apply on 2nd semester spreadsheets:

• Each BR completed during the 1st two months counts as 1.50 BRs.
• Each BR completed during the 2nd two months counts as 1.25 BRs.
• Each BR completed during the 3rd two months counts as only 1 BR.

So, if you have time to spare this summer, it would be a great idea to get started reading books and writing reviews for 2nd semester.

Screenshot 1: 12 BRs – same number every month

Factor score = 15

Screenshot 2: 10 BRs – early in semester

Factor score = 14.25

Screenshot 3: 10 BRs – late in semester

Factor score = 10.75

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