April 2011 - Judy Gregory Writer

Pesky possessives

That day for mothers is fast approaching, and with it comes a possessive apostrophe question Should you wish your mother:Happy Mothers Day,Happy Mother's Day, orHappy Mothers' DayThe widespread consensus appears to be for Mother's Day That's what you'll find on cards, in ads, and on most of the signage in shops That makes it a day for motherMind you, last week I read about a restaurant chain that's offering a special Mother's Day breakfast, with a free kids banquet Maybe it doesn't make sense...

Those way wood sheep

Sometimes I come across a writing error that makes me laugh out loudLast week I was reading a magazine article, and encountered this sentence 'On January 1, 2009, I shuffled along a country road, keeping an eye out for the usual hazards - farm dogs, way wood sheep'I wonder whether those wayward, self-willed, and unpredictable sheep had any idea what was ahead of them as they went the way of the woodsI hesitate to call this sort of mistake a typo, because there's an assumption with a...

Seeing (but not reading) red

Churches and schools around Brisbane often use display signs to announce upcoming events or communicate words of wisdom Most remain outside the digital age, and have a manual sign like the one shown above They all seem to have a set of black and red letters, and the signs usually incorporate a combination of black and red words within their messagesI often notice that key words are put up in red presumably to attract the attention of passers-by There's some logic in...

Learning about document structure

Last week, Radio National's Life Matters program featured an interview with Cyril Peupion, author of 'Work Smarter: Live Better' Cyril was talking about people's inefficiencies at work - particularly with tasks like email Cyril noted that most people start their working lives with little idea about how to work efficiently It's not something that's taught either at school or university Given the 1,131 email messages currently in my In Box, with 282 of them being unread, maybe I need to pay some...

Communicating through distraction

This morning I attended a fascinating breakfast seminar about distraction It was called 'Neuroscience of Distraction: Managing Distraction and Maintaining Focus', and was presented by Geoff Grahl from Australian Aeorspace The organiser was NeuroLeadership Solutions Geoff made several comments about distraction that resonated strongly for me For example:The more information we receive, the more likely we are to be distracted (this reminds me of Richard Wurman's book 'Information...