Judy Gregory, Author at Judy Gregory Writer

Euphemism at the shops … we can’t talk about price increases

There was a lovely little sign at my local supermarket yesterday wish I'd had the sense to photograph itIt was next to the price tag for tomatoes, and went something like this:Due to unseasonably dry weather in the growing regions, tomatoes are in short supply This has caused prices to firm We apologise for any inconvenienceTo me, a 'firm' price is a stable one - a price that's unlikely to change quickly But, of course, in this situation, 'firm' is a euphemism for 'increase' (actually,...

Creating intrigue to capture attention

Sometimes it makes sense to intrigue an audience A cover that's a bit cryptic and says 'can you guess what I'm about' might be just what's needed to persuade the audience to take notice - particularly in a cluttered environment when audiences don't know that you have something interesting to sayBut intrigue only works when there's a pay-off There needs to be a moment of discovery - when the audience makes the connection and realises the logic behind the message That's the moment when the...

Agreement in number

I was at the Queensland Museum yesterday, and was struck by the sign outside the cafe:Food and drink is not to be taken into the museumWhen did 'food and drink' become a singular collective To me they're two separate things I want to see 'are' not 'is'Picky, yes, but another demonstration of how agreement in number seems to be becoming less important in our...

Electronic communication gone mad

There are times when I feel that we've entered an era of electronic communication madness - when we communicate electronically, not because it's helpful, but because we canLast week I conducted a research interview in a coffee shop This is something that I do quite often, and I always ask for a receipt for my purchasesAt this coffee shop, I was told that they don't provide paper receipts any more Instead, they could email my receipt to me So, I waited patiently while the staff member fiddled...

Discount vouchers that eat up time & increase frustration

This is a tale about my hunt for information, and how it raised my levels of frustration Last week I decided that a kids' movie would make the perfect school holiday activityI'd seen in the Saturday paper that our local cinema was offering a family holiday discount Great idea! I went back to the paper and discovered that I needed to get the discount voucher online EasyBut on the company's website, I couldn't find the discount voucher anywhere! I hunted around the site - I looked under...

‘Whom’ – downtrodden & forgotten

I think it's time to start a campaign to save 'whom' Either that, or I'm going to have to get over my tendency to correct the mistakes that I notice I'm constantly muttering 'it's whom' to the radio, tv, newspaper, whatever magazine or book I'm reading, and presenters at eventsThe real problem for me is that, in correcting the who/whom errors that I notice, I often miss out on important content the stuff that I really need to knowI find Janice Bell's discussion about who/whom...

Help customers avoid mistakes and build brand loyalty

Last week I made a mistake in an online ordering system that resulted in my grandmother receiving her 97th birthday present 4 days late Trouble all roundIt was a fairly typical mix-up: The package wasn't delivered; I thought that the company had made an error, so I complained; I was told that, actually, the error was mine as I'd ordered something that wasn't deliverable I'm left with a few questions: Why did the company's system allow me to make the mistake How easily could it have been...

Asking the right questions

I've just been given a form for a chess tournament that my son would like to attend It's a classic example of a form that fails to ask the right questions to collect the information that the organisers needThe flyer asks parents complete the application form and send it in via mail, fax, or email In the text of the flyer, parents are told to provide their child's name, rating, date of birth, school, year level, and parent's contact details All logical information that the organisers are likely...

B is for Blank – the answer to a question that I didn’t know existed

Yesterday I learned that, when you press 'b' on the keyboard while using PowerPoint in slide view mode, the screen goes blankThis little bit of information is a revelation to me I've used PowerPoint in thousands of presentations and workshops, and I've always assumed that shifting the screen to blank is a function of the projector, not a function of the keyboardYesterday, as I was preparing to give a short workshop on workplace writing, I asked my client about whether the projector could...