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Bloggers and Social Media Junkies: 5 Tips to Improve Your Writing

Today’s Ask Dr. Diane:  What are some things I can do to improve my blogging and writing skills?

The Internet has turned lot of people into writers.  Bloggers and social media junkies may have great ideas to share but may lack some writing skills that could help improve the message they want to convey.  I know I make a lot of mistakes when I write.  I try not to, but when you blog as much as I do, it is inevitable.  I never intended to be a writer.  However, I found that I liked sharing information, so writing became a means to an end.  When I write my books, I use a professional editor.  Not all of us can be editing experts. It could be very expensive and inconvenient to have to use an editor for every blog and social media posting.  However, there are some simple things that can help to improve writing skills. 

1.  Don’t End Sentences in Prepositions. The problem is that many people have no idea what a preposition is.  Susan Thurman, author of The Only Grammar Book You’ll Ever Need, claims there is a trick to helping recognize a preposition.  “Look at the last eight letters of the word preposition; they spell position.  A preposition sometimes tells the position of something:  in, out, under, over, above and so forth.”  My seventh grade teacher suggested we think about a box.  For example:  in the box, over the box, and so forth. The following are the most common prepositions according to Thurman.  Try to avoid ending a sentence with any of these words:

  • About
  • Above
  • Across
  • After
  • Against
  • Along
  • Among
  • Around
  • At
  • Before
  • Behind
  • Below
  • Beneath
  • Beside
  • Between
  • Beyond
  • But
  • By
  • Concerning
  • Despite
  • Down
  • During
  • Except
  • For
  • From
  • In
  • Inside
  • Into
  • Like
  • Of
  • Off
  • On
  • Onto
  • Out
  • Outside
  • Over
  • Past
  • Since
  • Through
  • Throughout
  • To
  • Toward
  • Under
  • Underneath
  • Until
  • Up
  • Upon
  • With
  • Within
  • Without

2.   Learn to Spell without Spell Check. If you rely too much on a spell checker, you may find that words you meant to write are replaced with words that have entirely different meanings.  I can’t count how many times that a student has sent me a note saying to “please excuse the incontinence”.   It is best if you take the time to learn to spell correctly so that you don’t have to rely on a device that may change your intended meaning. The following are fifty of the most commonly misspelled words according to author Gary Provost of 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing:

  • Acceptable
  • Apology
  • Appetite
  • Architect
  • Assassinate
  • Autumn
  • Calendar
  • Changeable
  • Conscious
  • Correspondence
  • Criticism
  • Deceive
  • Discernible
  • Embarrass
  • Eminent
  • Existence
  • Fascinate
  • Grateful
  • Hygiene
  • Imaginable
  • Immediately
  • Irrelevant
  • Jewelry
  • Judgment
  • Lovable
  • Miscellaneous
  • Mischievous
  • Mortgage
  • Necessarily
  • Occasionally
  • Occurrence
  • Omission
  • Orchestra
  • Potatoes
  • Professor
  • Pseudonym
  • Quarrelsome
  • Religious
  • Reservoir
  • Rhythmic
  • Scissors
  • Syllable
  • Tragedy
  • Umbrella
  • Vanilla
  • Vengeance
  • Weird
  • Wholesome
  • Youthful
  • Zealot

3.  Vary your sentence length.  Some of my students like to write in either really long run-on sentences or overly short monotonous sentences.  Try to vary your sentence length.  Notice how the first sentence in this paragraph was longer and more complex.  That was followed by a shorter more succinct sentence.  It makes your writing easier to read if you vary the sentence length and mix it up a bit. 

4.  Ask yourself some questions once you have finished your draft.  Does the initial paragraph let the reader know what your paper, blog or article is going to contain?  Do you have needless repetition of ideas?  Is your tone and tense consistent?  Does one paragraph advance to the next in a smooth fashion?  Does each of your paragraphs contain a topic sentence that conveys the thought you have developed throughout that paragraph? 

5.  Work on expanding your vocabulary.  Rather than learning overly complicated words to express what you want to say, try varying the way that you say things by using a thesaurus.  If you are talking about a house, perhaps refer to that house as a dwelling or a building in the next sentence.  If you find that you are using the same word over and over, check out some alternatives words in a thesaurus to add dimension to your writing.

I know I am guilty of making some of these mistakes.  Through practice, we can all improve our skills. 

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Controlling Emotions at Work: Part of Core Employment Skills?

 

Lesley Wright’s recent article in the Arizona Republic offered some insight into a new book by author and ASU professor Vincent Waldron.  Waldron’s book, titled, “Communicating Emotion at Work”, due later this year, will include information from his 20 years of studying emotions in the workplace.

In the book, “It’s Not You It’s Your Personality” similar topics are covered in chapters about emotional intelligence and concern for impact.  Concern for impact may be defined as how much we care about how others perceive us.  In the Arizona Republic article, “Waldron argues that emotional communication should be a core employment skill.”  Emotions are a buzz word in the workplace since Daniel Goleman helped increase the popularity of emotional intelligence with his book about why emotional intelligence could matter more than IQ. Books about emotions in the workplace can be a very effective tool to help explain why people act the way they do.  This can be very important, especially in a team setting.  As more companies are creating teams, understanding one’s fellow employees and their emotions can be critical to the success of a team and their projects.

Some of the things that Waldron pointed out in his interview with Wright tied into having concern for impact which can be an important part of one’s success in the workplace. Waldron claims, “The theme of this book is that emotions, both positive and negative, have in a sense evolved to serve a purpose. Emotional communication is a tool for making our organizations and our lives richer, more moral, more humane and potentially building better workplaces. Sometimes that means regulating and suppressing emotions. So we need to be competent at understanding the emotions and learning to regulate them. I’m sort of arguing for a heightened awareness of how emotion makes us good. I don’t think there is any competitive disadvantage to being emotionally competent.”

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Career Dreams are Attainable: Expert Guides Readers to Ultimate Success

 

01.17.2011– Dr. Diane Hamilton is the go-to expert on all things career. The author of three books, she urges readers to not be afraid to try new things. Most importantly, students and job hunters alike must be self-aware, allowing them to know what they want and to allow them to have the career of their dreams.

Bill Gates is not the only one who believes that online education is the wave of the future. In The Online Student’s User Manual: Everything you Need to Know to be a Successful College Online Student, Hamilton guides readers through the process. It took Diane many years to become a successful online teacher and it is the job she loves the most from her 30+ year working career. It’s time readers heed the advice of seasoned professor Hamilton.

In her second book How to Reinvent Your Career: Make More Money Doing What You Love, Diane delves deeper into the importance of taking that degree and making life choices to better oneself. After reinventing herself over 10 times in her career, Diane Hamilton learned many business and life lessons along the way, making her the consummate professional for advice regarding all things career. This in-depth book covers everything from how to properly use social marketing to studying the marketplace. A detailed analysis of up and coming careers is also included. Getting down to the “nitty gritty,” Diane Hamilton proves with this book that she has the power to convey what would be overwhelming information in a concise, no-nonsense yet friendly approach.

“With my first two books, I based my writing on life experience and sharing what I know,” said Hamilton. “Then I wanted to take it to the next level, taking advantage of my training and certification in personality assessments. I chose to have some fun and co-authored my third book with my daughter, Toni Rothpletz. Together we created a book, meant to be entertaining learning for post-boomer workers trying to decipher personalities in the workplace.”

Personality tests abound. Which one is right for each individual? Together Hamilton and Rothpletz analyze each test and leave it up to the reader (with guidance) to find the personality test that works for them. They make the case that having a certain level of self-awareness prepares those of all generations for the complicated personalities issues in the modern workplace. “New Gens,” a term coined by Hamilton and Rothpletz, includes Gen X, Gen Y and the Millennial generations. The authors explain how this unique group has specific expectations in the current working environment. Honing in on the fact that Americans spend a large majority of their time in the office, Hamilton and Rothpletz claim that it is not only encouraged but necessary to find a way to get along with all generations. It is a vastly diverse workplace in 2011 with boomers still working and Millennials soon to be taking their place. With Hamilton’s and Rothpletz’s sound advice new workers will be geared up for career success. A fun, entertaining, inspiring read, It’s Not You, It’s Your Personality: Skills to Survive and Thrive in the Modern Workplace, is a must-have for job seekers and survivors in today’s every-changing work environment.

Hamilton has taken it to the next level this year, offering three informative reads. With her work, readers can navigate the often scary and unchartered world of careers. The US is the land of dreams and opportunities. Authors like Hamilton can help guide readers to improve their potential. Careers can be fun. Careers can be reinvented. Most importantly—dreams are attainable. Dr. Diane Hamilton has proven that.

About the Authors:
Diane Hamilton currently teaches bachelor-, master-, and doctoral-level courses for six online universities. Along with her teaching experience, she has a Doctorate Degree in Business Management and more than twenty-five years of business and management-related experience. She is a qualified Myers-Briggs instructor as well as a certified Emotional Intelligence trainer.

Toni Rothpletz has a Bachelor Degree in Global Business Marketing and is currently working on receiving her MBA. She currently works as a business developer/sales executive in the computer industry. Her background includes working in several industries including computer software, identity theft, and social networking organizations.

To find out more about their writing or to schedule an interview, visit Dr. Hamilton’s website at https://drdianehamilton.com or her blog at http://drdianehamilton.wordpress.com/.

Review copies are available.

The Online Student’s User Manual: Everything you Need to Know to be a Successful College Online Student by Diane Hamilton—August 2010 ($14.95/Amazon). ISBN: 9780982742808

How to Reinvent Your Career: Make More Money Doing What You Love by Diane Hamilton—September 2010 ($16.95/Amazon). ISBN: 9780982742815

It’s Not You It’s Your Personality: Skills to Survive and Thrive in the Modern Workplace by Diane Hamilton and Toni Rothpletz–December, 2010 ($19.95/Amazon). ISBN: 9780982742839 Approximately 220 pages

PR Contact:
Rebecca Crowley, RTC Publicity
649-619-1178
rebecca@rtcpublicity.com

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Millennials Replacing Baby Boomer Workforce: Meeting Their Unique Needs

Big changes are occurring in the current workforce.  The dynamic is shifting as companies are experiencing a shift toward millennials replacing baby boomer generations. According to Harvard Business Review /HBR.org, “The makeup of the global workforce is undergoing a seismic shift: In four years Millennials—the people born between 1977 and 1997—will account for nearly half the employees in the world. In some companies, they already constitute a majority.” 

The book, It’s Not You It’s Your Personality, addresses the unique personalities and needs of the post-boomer worker.  For simplicity sake, these post-boomer generations are given the title NewGens.  It can get confusing when Gen X, Gen Y, Millennials and other titles are used.  The term NewGens encompasses all of these groups. 

Post-boomer generations have received a bad reputation at times due to their need for immediate gratification.  Perhaps they are different but different isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Many have high expectations but are willing to put forth the efforts it takes to achieve their goals. HBR.org reported, “Millennials have high expectations of their employers—but they also set high standards for themselves. They’ve been working on their résumés practically since they were toddlers, because there are so many of them and so few (relatively speaking) spots at top schools and top companies. They’re used to overachieving academically and to making strong personal commitments to community service. Keep them engaged, and they will be happy to overachieve for you.”

image via hbr.org

This new group of employees has considerable knowledge that can be crucial for a company’s success.  Younger generations, unlike the boomer generation, tend to move around in their jobs more often.  They are less likely to remain in a single company throughout their career. 

Are companies doing enough to keep their current employees happy?  Workforce.com stated the following about the millennial generation, “Large companies don’t move fast enough for that generation, which is [switching employers and] looking to expose themselves to new and different things. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show the average American will have 10.8 jobs from age 18 to 42. Many workers have clung to their jobs amid the recession and high unemployment. Still, the overall turnover rate across all industries was 16.3 percent in 2009, according to a survey from Compdata.”

Part of keeping this younger generation interested in staying at their current position is to keep their attention.   Training must be aimed at their specific needs.  This is a technology-based group that likes to learn that way.  They also like to receive their information quickly.  Shorter, 3-5 minute training videos, can be effective.  This is the YouTube generation and employers must realize this and keep up with the trends. 

Aimglobal.org suggests the following guidelines for employers when dealing with millennial workers:

Ø Training. If you want a job well done, employers need to tell Millennials how to do it. However, don’t just give orders. Millennials want to know the reasoning behind them and the training offered to be successful.

Ø Mentoring. Partner your new Millennial with one of your veterans. The veteran can show the newcomer the ropes and conversely the newcomer can offer fresh ideas.

Ø Integration. Involve Millennials in a variety of projects, assignments, and career opportunities. Mixing it up keeps their interest.

Ø Team Collaboration. Millennials are comfortable in team settings. They like to collaborate with others especially on team-based projects and environments.

Ø Support Future Pursuits. During their employment at your company, Millennials will face decisions regarding the next stage of their lives including marriage, buying a house, having children, etc. Developing a guidance program around these changes demonstrates how your company will be there to support them.

For more complete information on post-boomer generations in the workplace and how to deal with their unique personality needs, click here. 

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Dwight Schrute is an Obsessive Pleaser: It’s Not You It’s Your Personality Gives Readers Insight into What Makes People Tick

PRweb Press Release – It might be obvious that Dwight Schrute is a control freak. But, who knew that Chris Rock was an introvert? Understanding how to read personalities is important according to mother and daughter co-authors, Dr. Diane Hamilton and Toni Rothpletz. They blow the lid off what many thought they knew about personalities in their latest book: It’s Not You, It’s Your Personality. This is the ultimate handbook for understanding the inner-workings of not just celebrities—but co-workers, friends and family. Chris Rock, like many celebrity comedians is, indeed, an introvert according to a popular personality test. Are people prepared to work with the Rock and Schrute personalities of the world? Hamilton and Rothpletz help answer some important personality quandaries like this as well as: How should people interact with introverts? Does the boss’s birth order matter? How does one climb the corporate ladder of success by developing emotional intelligence?

There’s no question that Diane and Toni are the type of authors that readers would want to hang out with. It’s Not You, It’s Your Personality is as fun of a read as the title dictates. It takes readers on a journey through the many ways one can analyze personalities. Along the way, a lot is learned about the personalities of celebrities, coworkers, friends and family. The Myers-Briggs personality test, also created by a mother-daughter team, indicates Ari Gold of “Entourage” fame has the personality trait of a “thinker.” Though not all thinkers are cold-hearted, the “thinker” is all business. There is no time to worry about how others are reacting. Truly, however, even Ari has a soft side—or viewers wouldn’t continue watching. People, including Ari, have different personality preferences. Even a “thinker” may sometimes be a “feeler,” depending on the circumstances.

“With It’s Not You, It’s Your Personality we are taking what would normally be a tough topic to address—personalities—and making it fun and light-hearted,” says co-author Dr. Diane Hamilton, “The celebrities we know and love are out there to analyze, so why not have fun with the personality name game?”

It’s Not You, It’s Your Personality is geared toward the new generation of workers, those generally born in the late 70s and beyond who are currently in the workforce. This generation, dubbed by Hamilton and Rothpletz as the “NewGens,” is taking a large chunk of the job force as baby boomers are set to retire. As cited in the book, companies far and wide are now trying to find new ways to train and interact with the NewGens. Personality tests abound. Which ones are the right ones? How can these assessments be used for success?

“We recommend that you get a jump start on knowing your place in the office environment before you land that job,”says co-author Toni Rothpletz, “There are plenty of free tests out there. Being ready to deal with people is half the battle at any job on a day to day basis. By giving celebrity examples of personalities in our book, our hope was to better explain people’s individual preferences, while still entertaining the reader.”

There is a noted severe uniqueness of very strong personalities in the NewGen community. Even with the advent of technology, people are the most valuable asset. Turnover costs money. Hiring the wrong person (or personality) costs money. Job hunters that know themselves the best, are setting themselves up for success because ultimately how they handle themselves on a day-to-day basis is what will get them ahead in the long term.

So what about the personality preferences of Chris Rock, Ari Gold or Dwight Schrute? Bottom-line is it doesn’t matter the personality—certain things cannot be changed. However, the way people interact can be changed. Knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses is the key to advancing from even the seedling of a career.

To find out more about their writing or to schedule an interview, visit Dr. Hamilton’s website at https://drdianehamilton.com or her blog at http://drdianehamilton.wordpress.com/.

Review copies are available.

It’s Not You It’s Your Personality –December, 2010 ($19.95/Amazon). ISBN: 9780982742839 Approximately 220 pages

Rebecca Crowley – PR Contact – 649-619-1178

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