How kids learn words

How kids learn words: Are they paying attention to the speaker’s gaze?

Toddlers learn new words at an astonishing rate — an average, according to Steven Pinker, of over a word every two hours. Yet attempts to drill children to improve vocabulary are often frustrating. Kids seem to learn words better through observing the environment than they do by rote. So what exactly are they observing?  Article continues

The Open Library

The Open Library website was created by the Internet Archive to demonstrate a way that books can be represented online.
The vision is to create free web access to important book collections from around the world.Books are scanned and then offered in an easy-to-use interface for free reading online. If they're in the public domain, the books can be downloaded, shared and printed for free. They can also be printed for a nominal fee by a third party, who will bind and mail the book to you. The books are always FREE to read at the Open Library website.
The Internet ArchiveThe Internet Archive offers all media: text, audio, moving images, web content and even software for public use. The content ranges from fantastic to obscure. Please have a look.

American Rhetoric

Online Speech Bank
“Index to and growing database of 5000+ full text, audio and video (streaming) versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events, and a declaration or two.”
The website can be searched by subject, such as Christian rhetoric, movie speeches and 9-11 speeches.  There are  over “200 short audio clips illustrating stylistic figures of speech ranging from alliteration to synecdoche. Clips are taken from speeches, movies, sermons, and sensational media events and delivered by politicians, actors, preachers, athletes, and other notable personalities.”  Check out the “100 most significant American political speeches of the 20th century, according to 137 leading scholars of American public address… Find out who made the cut and experience the power of rhetorical eloquence in this provocative list of "who's who" in American public address.”

and the most demanded out of print book is ...

Thanks Gary and Resourceshelf for this one.  

The list of  Top 10 out of print books of 2005 is headed by …. Of course  ….  Sex  by Madonna.  

Meeting success - set time limits

Consider using time limits to keep discussion under control in your meetings.  You can limit each speaker, or each item of discussion, sections of the meeting, or the whole meeting itself.  At the very least it means that everyone will be aware of time and the need to be concise and focused.

Crime writers denied by literary snobs

Crime writers are denied prizes by literary snobs, says Rankin
His gritty detective novels have sold an estimated 17 million copies worldwide, yet the Scottish writer Ian Rankin believes that "literary snobs" turn up their noses when it comes to crime fiction.  Article continues

Email management

How to write better emails that get the responses you need/want, plushow to deal with your burgeoning inbox.
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4438&t=srobbins

"The death of literature"

Michael Masterton wrote an article about the decline of reading and literature in his ezine Early to Rise #1599 . I had to respond. Obviously his title "The end of Literature" was meant to arouse some response. But the main thrust of his article was to decry the end of reading and books. As a librarian and avid reader these are also thoughts that are uppermost in my mind these days, too. Nevertheless, I have to disagree with Michael. I don't think reading is dying, and literature that we idolised last generation and last century may be dying, but I would prefer to use the word changing. We read, but in different formats and from different sources. Many of us use the internet for information that once we retrieved from books. We develop a sense of community with writers on the internet that once we got from magazines and newspapers. But both of those still involve reading. I still read for pleasure in an archair or in bed - from books and I don't think that is changing much, although I read (there's that word again) that people use their mobile devices and computers to read for pleasure. Those may grow, but the comfort is not there so it will be slow. As for literature... It is changing as it always has done. Sentence structure is changing. Storytelling techniques are changing. And our tastes are changing parallel to those changes in writing style. What is considered current great literature is changing. And yes, oral storytelling evolved into paper based materials so that the stories could be preserved better. And we were glad. Now the preservation/publication styles are changing to be able to tell stories orally but preserve them as well. An entirely different pleasure is involved in listening from the pleasure involved in reading, but it is literature all the same. So Michael, maybe it's change we have to face, and embrace, if we choose, but it is not death - well not of literature and reading.

Guardian first book award

Biography of homeless man wins Guardian First Book Award
Alexander Masters has tonight beaten a strong field to win the £10,000 Guardian First Book Award for Stuart: A Life Backwards, his biography of homeless man Stuart Shorter. Told in reverse, from homelessness, drug addiction and spells in prison back to a horribly abusive childhood, it is, despite its harrowing subject matter, a funny, irreverent read,

HarperCollins goes digital

Company Will Issue RFP for Digital Content Services to Prospective VendorsNew York, NY (December 12, 2005) - HarperCollins Publishers today announced they will create a digital warehouse for all of its content and will issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) this month as part of an effort to develop the necessary technical infrastructure to broadly exploit its content digitally.

Merriam-Webster's Open dictionary

Merriam-Webster's Open Dictionary where you can 1) submit and share entries that aren't already in our Online Dictionary, and 2) browse entries submitted by other members of the Merriam-Webster Online community.

Communication Success Tip

The simplest way to start a conversation is to ask a question. When a simple YES/NO answer of just a few words is sufficient, questions usually begin with ARE, DO, WHO, WHAT, WHEN , WHERE, WHICH. When further elaboration is required, the questions usually begin with: HOW, WHY, IN WHAT WAY, WHAT.

National Poetry Almanac

National Poetry Almanac http://www.poets.org/almanac/ Read something new every day! The almanac offers exciting monthly themes and daily articles about poetry, both its fascinating history and its dynamic present."

eBook Impressions

e-book Impressions

Over 30,000 bestseller fiction and non-fiction e-books

Literacy: a global issue

Literacy: a right still denied to nearly one-fifth of the world’s adult population09-11-2005 1:50 pm Governments and donor countries are curtailing progress towards Education for All (EFA) – and broader poverty reduction – by according only marginal attention to the 771 million adults living without basic literacy skills, says the fourth edition of the EFA Global Monitoring Report, “Literacy for life”.* “Literacy is a right and a foundation for further learning that must be tackled through quality schooling for all children, vastly expanded literacy programmes for youth and adults, and policies to enrich the literate environment,” says Nicholas Burnett, the Report’s director.  Article continues

Chatrooms help needed

Chatrooms: help neededParents are showing an alarming level of ignorance and indifference towards their children's participation in Internet chat rooms, with boys in particular being left to their own devices.  Article continues

Swedish and Ikea communication style

A Swedish take on things
Last week, Massachusetts' first Ikea store opened in Stoughton. I tried to make it there yesterday with my family, but after a long hour in which the traffic inched forward on a narrow two-lane road, we questioned an Ikea shuttle bus driver headed in the opposite direction; he said we had another hour ahead of us. We baled out and went to Boston's North End for dinner instead.But here's what's really blown my mind about Ikea: an interview with Ikea Group president Anders Dahlvig that appeared in Thursday's Boston Globe Business section. In it, he says that, "Our quality is OK, but there is more to do," and "in the 1980's, we had a lot of problems with quality." When asked if he owned Ikea furniture, he said, "about 50 percent."If an American executive had been asked the same questions, you know what you'd get: "Of course, all my furniture is Ikea. We're committed to quality! It's job #1. [Oops, that might be taken...] We're proactively looking for news ways to make our quality even better!!!"Executives say these kind of things because that's what they're trained to do. Be positive. State missions. Spin for advantage. This, we're told, is "effective" communicating. You know, the kind that "interacts" with consumers and "builds bonds."Of course, it doesn't. But difficult realities rarely trump heart-felt illusions. So we exaggerate, boast and preen. And the real result is lost credibility. Or worse, a collective yawn from the masses.Mr. Dahlvig served it up straight. And what he said wasn't all positive and glowing. Some of it may have been, by our American standards, ill-advised.But you know what? I believe him. And when the traffic finally clears (February, perhaps?) I'll make that trek to Ikea.

Does reading to children help them to learn to read?

Does reading to children help them learn to read?Eric Durbrow pointed me to this article in the Globe and Mail. Its lead sentence offers a surprising claim:Parents take note: Reading to your preschoolers before bedtime doesn’t mean they are likely to learn much about letters, or even how to read words.But aren’t teachers and literacy advocates constantly urging parents to read to their kids? Aren’t their entreaties backed by research?   Article continues

Carey's backlist released

Carey's Backlist Released by Random House
During September and October 2005 Random House [released] all of Peter Carey's backlist as the Sydney- and Melbourne-based publisher takes over the rights to Carey's books from University of Queensland Press. Designer Jenny Grigg has created new jackets for each of the books with Carey's name dominating the design. Random hopes the new covers will entice book collectors' interest, thereby boosting sales.

Goodnight Moon - smokeless version. In the great green room there is a telephone, a red balloon, but no ashtray. "Goodnight Moon", the children's classic by Margaret Wise Brown, has gone smoke free. In a newly revised edition of the book, which has lulled children to sleep for nearly sixty years, the publisher, HarperCollins, has digitally altered the photograph of Clement Hurd, the illusrator, to remove a cgarette from his hand. Read the whole article.

Collaborative story writing

Glypho – collaborative story writing on the net.  The introductory storyline is introduced, and then people from around the world contribute characters and plot. These are written into a chapter by two writers and then people vote on the best use of the ideas.  At least I think that’s how it happens.  Check it out.

Negotiating confidence

Ten Steps to Win-Win Negotiating. Negotiating confidence Negotiating can be a challenge. Sometimes we watch successful negotiators at work and wonder if it is an ability they were born with. But with a little time, information, and preparation you can head for the negotiating table with confidence. 1. Be prepared. Define your objectives and use lateral thinking to brainstorm possible ways they can be achieved. 2. Research the other party’s objectives and brainstorm the methods they may use. “Find the edge” – any pressure points or hidden agendas. “Information is power.” 3. Prepare yourself and the way you use the venue. Choose your seating for power, your clothes and your attitude. 4. Establish a cordial relationship on opening the meeting. Specify the aims of the meeting. 5. Raise less contentious issues first. 6. Promote harmony, minimise the negatives and articulate areas of commonality. 7. “Win-win” means compromises on both sides, so be prepared to bargain. Start with two lists – your must-haves and your might-haves, and start with a higher level than you expect to obtain. Highlight the contribution of your concession to the other person’s objectives. 8. Be prepared to release information at times beneficial to your cause. Use silence. 9. Listen for surprises. 10. Articulate the agreed outcomes and any timelines, or they may collapse. Use detailed preparation and the win-win method and you have the tools to approach negotiation with confidence.

Scotiabank Giller prize winner

Author, David Bergen wins the 2005 Scotiabank Giller Prize Toronto, ON (November 8, 2005) - David Bergen has been named the 2005 winner of The Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s premier literary prize for fiction, for his novel The Time In Between, published by McClelland & Stewart.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005
"who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms"
Harold Pinter
United Kingdom
b. 1930
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Reading

For years, studies have shown that the most significant therapy for young offenders is not Outward Bound camps, not psychological counselling, not tough love or family healing, but remedial reading. While no one would deny the importance of all those other approaches to troubled, destructive behaviour, many studies for over 30 years have consistently shown that help with literacy has a more profound and lasting impact on the rehabilitation of antisocial kids than anything else.  Read the whole article

Email communication

How Not to Stick Your Foot in Your Mouth via E-Mailby Reid Goldsborough
E-mail is the most common form of business communication today; it’s among the most common forms of all communication. Yet many people communicate poorly with e-mail.
That’s the opinion of Janis Fisher Chan, and I agree. Chan is the co-founder of Write It Well (http://www.writeitwell.com), a publishing and training firm operating out of Oakland, Calif., that, since 1980, specializes in helping businesspeople write clearly and concisely in e-mail and elsewhere. She also authored the newly published book E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide, as well as eight other books on business writing and additional topics.
I talked with Chan about why we write poorly in e-mail, what consequences this can have, and how we can improve. Article continues

Email terms explained

Glossary of Email Terms
A comprehensive list, with succinct explanations.

An impostor?

Focus: Is this an impostor I see before me?
Scholars claim they have finally identified the real Shakespeare. But the drama is not over yet. Richard Woods reports The most enigmatic and mysterious drama ever created by William Shakespeare is about to reach its denouement. Or so certain scholars hope.
This tragi-comedy — let’s call it Where Art Thou, Will? — has for years beguiled and bamboozled audiences with a simple theme: who really wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare? The answer, say these scholars, will be revealed in a book to be launched on October 19 at the Globe theatre in London, a replica of the playhouse where Shakespeare once trod the stage.  Article continues

A Word wrapped in light

A Word wrapped in light

A modern, written language has the advantage of hundreds of years of established usage. If there is an emerging visual language in our age of new media, it is necessarily a nascent one. As computer technology — and, by extension, computer interfaces — infiltrate more and more areas of our lives, the semantics of ideographic representation may well become increasingly standardized.  Read the whole article

The synonym and antonym finder.

Type in your word and click the buttons either for synonym or antonym or definition.

Structure your speech for Maximum Impact

“Tell them what you’re going to say. Say it. Then tell them what you said” And that is so true!! We have such short attention spans. And so do audiences. If we want to make a point that will stay with an audience after they leave the room, we have to repeat and reinforce it throughout the presentation. Introduce your well defined theme. Present that theme. And repeat it to conclude. You will have given your audience a great chance of remembering it.

Fire Destroys Rodney Hall's Coastal Home The New South Wales south coast home of poet and novelist Rodney Hall was destroyed by fire on 6 August 2005. The Canberra Times (10 August 2005) reported Marion Halligan saying that Hall's 'entire life's work had been in the house and he had planned to sort it out to give to the National Library of Australia, but kept postponing the task because of the mass of paper.' Halligan, who described the loss as 'absolutely heartbreaking', said Hall was a 'paper man' known to prefer writing by hand. Hall told his publisher Fran Bryson of the Bryson Agency Australia that while the loss was tragic, at least no-one was hurt. A two-time winner of the Miles Franklin Award, Hall was awarded a Centenary Medal for service to Australian arts in 2001 and in 2003 received an honorary Doctor of Literature from The University of Queensland in recognition of his distinguished career and his contribution to Australian literature. Hall's most recent novel is The Last Love Story : A Fairytale of the Day After Tomorrow.

Five fast email productivity tips

There’s been a lot of great discussions about email productivity going around on sites I enjoy, so I thought I’d throw in five no-brainers that I’ve seen help a lot of folks. Shut off auto-check - Either turn off automatic checking completely, or set it to something reasonable, like every 20 minutes or so. If you’re doing anything with new email more than every few minutes, you might want to rethink your approach. I’m sure that some of you working in North Korean missile silos need real-time email updates, but I encourage the rest of you to consider ganging your email activity into focused (maybe even timed) activity every hour or three. Process, tag, respond to the urgent ones, then get the hell back to work. (See also, NYT: You There, at the Computer: Pay Attention) Pick off easy ones - If you can retire an email with a 1-2 line response (< 2 minutes; pref. 30 seconds), do it now. Remember: this is about action, not about cogitating and filing. Get it off your plate, and get back to work. On the other hand, don’t permit yourself to get caught up in composing an unnecessary 45-minute epistle (see next item). Write less - Stop imagining that all your emails need to be epic literature; get better at just keeping the conversation moving by responding quickly and with short actions in the reply. Ask for more information, pose a question, or just say “I don’t know.” Stop trying to be Victor Hugo Marcel Proust, and just smack it over the net—especially if fear of writing a long reply is what slows your response time. N.B.: This does not mean that you should write elliptically or bypass standard grammar, capitalization, and punctuation (unless you want to look 12 years old); just that your well-written message can and should be as concise as possible. That saves everyone time. Cheat - Use something like MailTemplate to help manage answers to frequent email subjects. Templates let you create and use boilerplate responses to the questions and requests to which you usually find yourself drafting identical replies over and over from scratch. At least use a template as a basis for your response, and then customize it for that person or situation. Don’t worry—you can still let your sparkling prose and winning wit shine through, just without having to invent the wheel 10 times each day. Be honest - If you know in your heart that you’re never going to respond to an email, get it out of sight, archive it, or just delete it. Guilt will not make you more responsive two months from now, otherwise, you’d just do it now, right? Trust your instincts, listen to them, and stop trying to be perfect.

Ten Steps to Win-Win Negotiating.

Negotiating confidence Negotiating can be a challenge. Sometimes we watch successful negotiators at work and wonder if it is an ability they were born with. But with a little time, information, and preparation you can head for the negotiating table with confidence. 1. Be prepared. Define your objectives and use lateral thinking to brainstorm possible ways they can be achieved. 2. Research the other party’s objectives and brainstorm the methods they may use. “Find the edge” – any pressure points or hidden agendas. “Information is power.” 3. Prepare yourself and the way you use the venue. Choose your seating for power, your clothes and your attitude. 4. Establish a cordial relationship on opening the meeting. Specify the aims of the meeting. 5. Raise less contentious issues first. 6. Promote harmony, minimise the negatives and articulate areas of commonality. 7. “Win-win” means compromises on both sides, so be prepared to bargain. Start with two lists – your must-haves and your might-haves, and start with a higher level than you expect to obtain. Highlight the contribution of your concession to the other person’s objectives. 8. Be prepared to release information at times beneficial to your cause. Use silence. 9. Listen for surprises. 10. Articulate the agreed outcomes and any timelines, or they may collapse. Use detailed preparation and the win-win method and you have the tools to approach negotiation with confidence.

Discover great new writers This list of mini-reviews is issued seasonally, by Barnes and Noble. There are details of the selection process and archived lists.

Nothing better to talk about Some say the art of conversation is dying -- I suspect we have always talked about nothing much for most of the time.

Looking for a good book?

This article just may help - Gary Price has written Going Under Cover with Book Search Tools "Google, Amazon and others offer really useful "search inside the book" tools, but they're not always the easiest features to use. Here's a closer look at getting the most from online book search services." Read the whole article.

WordCount is "an artistic experiment in the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, rankedin order of commonness. Each word is scaled to reflect its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving a visual barometer of relevance."

Five tips for overcoming public speaking nerves

Your mouth is dry, heart palpitating, and knees knocking. You go into panic, facing a dreaded public speaking assignment. It doesn’t have to be so. These five tips will give you some strategies to overcome those symptoms and have the butterflies flying in formation. 1. Deep breathing will pull in oxygen. Adrenalin, secreted to help you deal with the fear brought on by little doubts, causes breaths to become shallow, or causes you to hold your breath. Deep breathing will help your brain work to capacity, and forcing the slower pace will quell the panic. 2. Bluff. Stand tall, with shoulders back and chest out. Smile. Even though you don’t feel happy or confident, do it anyway. You will look confident and your body will fool your brain into thinking it is confident. This really works!! Bluff – body and smile 3. Keep you mouth and throat hydrated. Plan to keep a drink on hand while you are speaking., though this sounds impossible. Visualising how you will use it if you need it, and calling up the audacity to do such a thing will carry across to your attitude as you take your place to speak, placing your glass just where you need it to be. 4. Adrenalin sends the blood rushing to the fight/flight centres of your brain at the base of the skull. Place your hand on your forehead and press gently on the bony points. This will bring the blood to the parts of the brain that need it to present your speech best. 5. Know you are prepared. Obviously this depends on actually being prepared, so take every opportunity in the days leading up to the speech to prepare your material. Be familiar with the structure of the presentation, and the ideas to use. Memorise the most important parts, and the parts you are frightened of forgetting. I would memorise the opening of the speech and in the moments before presenting it, would reassure myself that I knew that part, and that would lead on to the rest. It worked!! Further articles to help you with your confident public speaking.

Communication vital to relationships

Once a human being has arrived on this earth, communication is the largest single factor determining what kinds of relationships he makes with others and what happens to him in the world about him." -- Virginia Satir

Verballing

I have to agree with Jay Cross in the post he called Verbals. Words alone really are "a clutzy way to communicate." words are sometimes a clutzy way to communicate. words lack precision. words require mental translation. words force us to play an internal game of telephone, whispering the message to ourselves, reverberating back and forth as the mind seeks patterns. the mind messes with the message as much as a chain of conniving, deceitful interpreters, misunderstanding & shaping & rejiggering the original into what they want us to hear. some educators tell stories to make an end run around the interpreters, to convey meaning even when a few details are out of whack. others turn to multiple media. if i hear it, see it, smell it, taste it, feel it, try it, practice it, challenge it, & teach it, the better the odds that i will learn it. all of which makes one wonder why we cling to words as if words are the only way to teach and to learn. But then in the communications business, particularly in public speaking, we are well aware of that. We use everything we can to harness a person's attention and to get the message across. We supplement verbals with all the body language, gesture and facial expression we can muster to support the message. We vary our pace, pitch and intensity. We use all the "multiple media" we can lay our hands on - judiciously, with forethought about the message, the media and the audience. And what makes him think that teachers don't?

Shock omissions from literary prize list

British author Julian Barnes was named hot favourite for the Booker Prize today, but the biggest shock was the omission of three literary heavyweights from the shortlist for the prestigious award. To the surprise of literary critics, the judges decided not to pick three previous Booker winners - Salman Rushdie, J.M. Coetzee and Ian McEwan - as finalists for the £50,000 ($92,000) prize. Article continues

Email addiction

Are you addicted to email? How much time do you spend checking your inbox? I was fascinated by this report from Media Post on that very subject. Some people are addicted to love, but most of us are addicted to e-mail. According to a new survey conducted by America Online, the average e-mail user checks e-mail nearly five times a day. Yes, that's right. AOL's E-mail Addiction survey examines our e-mail behavior and frankly, it's a little obsessive. The survey found that e-mail users rely on e-mail as much as the phone for communication, spend nearly an hour a day on e-mail, and that 77 percent of e-mail users have more than one mail account. Here are a few of the survey's more interesting findings: --Forty-one percent of e-mail users check e-mail first thing in the morning, before they've brushed their teeth or trudged to the kitchen to make coffee. --Forty percent of e-mail users report checking their e-mail in the middle of the night. (Downright obsessive, yes?) --More than one in four (26 percent) of e-mail users say they haven't gone more than two to three days without checking their e-mail. --Most e-mail users have two or three e-mail accounts (56 percent). The average user has 2.8 accounts. --E-mail users check for mail anywhere: In bed in their pajamas (23 percent); in school (12 percent); in business meetings (8 percent); at Wi-Fi hotspots, like Starbuck's or McDonald's (6 percent); at the beach or pool (6 percent); in the bathroom (4 percent); while driving (4 percent); and in church (1 percent). "Last time I checked God didn't have a Blackberry," says Chamath Palihapitiya, general manager and vice president for AOL's AIM. The survey results, he says, speak "to the fact that e-mail has become such a fundamental way that people communicate. People thought that e-mail was just a business behavior, but it is a social and commonplace behavior." Palihapitiya says it's the first time AOL has conducted a survey of this kind, probing the actual behaviors and habits of e-mail users. AOL recently launched its e-mail service Web-wide. "One of the things we took away from this is that people need accessibility everywhere. They may be at home, at a friend's house, at the office, in the street... one of the things we did with our e-mail product is we made sure it was accessible all over the Web," Palihapitiya says, adding "But just as important, we make sure that it works with your work e-mail. We allow you to use Outlook to get your AIM mail." That's important because the survey finds that 61 percent of all e-mail users check their personal e-mail at work at least three times a day. By syncing with Outlook, AOL mail becomes part of a user's normal work e-mail application. AOL plans to offer mobile e-mail access via Blackberry, mobile phones, and other handheld devices by the fall. AOL says its mail service supports advertising in the body of e-mails. "Our competitors don't do that," Palihapitiya says. It means that embedded ads won't be stripped out when e-mail is delivered in Outlook. The survey's results, Palihapitiya says, will help AOL develop e-mail features and applications that users may find useful. "One of the things that jumped out of us is that e-mail users are really interested in un-sending a message and knowing when a message has been forwarded." He says in AOL e-mail, a user can un-send right away and check the status of whether mail has been opened. AOL is working on a feature that would notify users as to whether a piece of mail has been forwarded to them. More survey findings: --Sixty-one percent of e-mail users check personal e-mail on the job an average of three times a day. About half of those who check personal e-mail at work (47 percent) check it sporadically throughout the day, while about one in four (25 percent) check it first thing when they arrive, 18 percent check it at lunchtime, 8 percent during an afternoon break, and 2 percent right before they head home. --Women are more likely than men to check their personal e-mail at work throughout the day (50 percent versus 44 percent), while men are more likely than women to check their personal e-mail first thing when they arrive in the morning (28 percent versus 21 percent). --Six in 10 of all e-mail users (60 percent) check their e-mail while on vacation, mostly for pleasure (47 percent) rather than business (13 percent). Of those who access e-mail while on vacation, 57 percent say it's very (21 percent) or somewhat important (36 percent) that they have access to e-mail. Get this, AOL has provided a quiz to determine your level of e-mail addiction. The survey was conducted with Opinion Research Corp., which conducted online surveys with 4,012 respondents 18 and older in the top 20 cities around the country to measure e-mail usage. Tobi Elkin is Executive Editor, MediaPost. Just An Online Minute http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=30603

Teams debating - a natural high

Debating is exciting. It's challenging. And it's a great opportunity to work with other people in sharing the excitement, the challenge and the creativity. And team debating offers all of those. I love it. The adrenalin's a natural high and the achievement keep it high. But it also holds its own challenges - of following rules and of working with others far more closely. Loved our chance at it at Communicators Logan City recently, and it was great to watch those new to the whole deal, learning huge amounts.

How much time do you spend internet surfing at work?

My job excites me too much to spend time on personal internet surfing or reading emails, but I can imagine that if ever it got too boring, I would certainly be tempted, and I know some people who work hard and are dedicated to their jobs who nevertheless feel that they should use their company time to go online. What about you? I found this study from Media Post very revealing. Enjoyed it too!! Personal Internet Surfing at Work Costs Companies Over $300 Billion a Year According to a new survey by America Online and Salary.com, summarized by Dan Malachowski, the average worker admits to wasting 2.09 hours per 8-hour workday, not including lunch and scheduled break-time. The survey indicates that employees are wasting about twice as much time as their employers expect. Salary.com calculated that employers spend $759 billion per year on salaries for which real work was expected, but not actually performed. The biggest distraction is personal Internet use by 44.7% of the more than 10,000 people polled. Socializing with co-workers came in second at 23.4%. Conducting personal business, "spacing out," running errands, and making personal phone calls were the other popular time-wasting activities in the workplace. Top Time-Wasting Activities % of Respondents 1 Surfing Internet (personal use) 44.7% 2 Socializing with co-workers 23.4% 3 Conducting personal business 6.8% 4 Spacing out 3.9% 5 Running errands off-premises 3.1% 6 Making personal phone calls 2.3% 7 Applying for other jobs 1.3% 8 Planning personal events 1.0% 9 Arriving late / Leaving early 1.0% 10 Other 12.5% Source: AOL/Salary.com, June 2005 Employees say they're not always to blame for this wasted time, however. 33.2% of respondents cited lack of work as their biggest reason for wasting time. 23.4% said they wasted time at work because they feel as if they are underpaid (if this applies to you, click on the Salary Wizard to find out what you are worth). Top Time-Wasting Excuses % of Respondents 1 Don't have enough work to do 33.2% 2 Underpaid for amount of work 23.4% 3 Co-workers distract me 14.7% 4 Not enough after-work time 12.0% 5 Other 16.7% Source: AOL/Salary.com, June 2005 According to a Salary.com follow-up survey of Human Resource managers, companies assume employees waste 0.94 hours per day, managers suspect that employees waste 1.6 hours per day, but employees admit to wasting 2.09 hours per day. Salary.com's Senior Vice President Bill Coleman, says "To some bosses, that's a startling figure. Others, though, will view this extra wasted time that may well have a positive impact on the company's culture, work environment, and even business results." The Older People Are, The Less Time They Waste At Work: Year of Birth Time Wasted Per Day 1930-1949 0.50 hrs. 1950-1959 0.68 hrs. 1960-1969 1.19 hrs. 1970-1979 1.61 hrs. 1980-1985 1.95 hrs. Source: AOL/Salary.com, June 2005 The report concludes with The average yearly American salary is $39,795 per year - or $19.13 per hour. If the average worker wastes 1.15 hours more than employers suspect, per 8-hour work day, that adds up to $5,720 per year, per worker in wasted salary dollars. So with the American workforce 132 million (non-farm) employees strong, the total in lost salary dollars adds up to $759 billion per year.

The Power of Humour in communication

Humour makes an audience more responsive, and this applies as much to making presentations, as to conducting a conversation. Humour can win an argument or lessen the tension. Make sure, though, that it is used to support your main message, or it will be wasted.

Proofreading Tips

The traps and pitfalls of proofreading are legion. And if they weren't so annoying theyd be incredibly comical. How is it posible that I read through a document with excrutiating thoroughness, and, being satisfied there are no mistakes, send it off to do its job, only to discover six months later, a glaringly obvious mistake?? So this list of tips offers me, and other sufferers like me, some hope. It was compiled by Diana Huff, the Marcom writer. 12 Tips for Avoiding Embarrassing (and Expensive) Typos plus Proofreading Checklist By Dianna Huff 1. Don’t proof your own work. . 2. Don’t rely on spell-check. 3. Don’t proofread on the computer screen. 4. Shut your door. Don’t answer your phone. 5. Proofread each word s-l-o-w-l-y. 6. Proofread finish to start. 7. Test all phone and fax numbers, URLs, and email addresses. 8. Pay special attention to people’s names and titles. 9. Ensure images are the correct images. 10. Proofread the ENTIRE document. 11. Use these special tips for PowerPoint presentations. 12. Call the folks at Proofreadnow.com. PROOFREADING CHECKLIST ___ Carefully read all headlines and sub-heads. ___ Read the entire document from back to front ___ Consult your corporate style guide. ___ Pay careful attention to formatting. ___ Double-check proper names, scientific notation, and images This is just the skeleton of the article, Diana produced. She fleshes out each one, and includes embarassingly familiar examples of the mistakes we can make without following the tips. You can read the whole article in pdf.

Emotional power

When we are communicating, the role of emotion is a vital one. People respond readily to emotions, and many of us remember an emotional impact long after we’ve forgotten the words that were said. It means that to get a message across, we can employ emotion to support our words. Facial expression is all-important. A smile can light up a message, a frown cast it down. Storytelling is so terribly important. And humour. And it seems that this has now been proven by research, according to this article. High emotion contributes to great opera. It does not, however, serve us well when making judgments about others. This is the argument advanced in "Feeling and Believing: The Influence of Emotion on Trust," a new paper by Maurice E. Schweitzer, Wharton professor of operations and information management, and PhD student Jennifer Dunn. The two researchers show how incidental emotions -- emotions from one situation that influence judgment in a following, unrelated situation -- affect our willingness to trust others, and thus our responses in certain business and social contexts. As Schweitzer puts it: "Did you give someone a big contract because of his reputation for dependability or because he told you a funny, uplifting story prior to making the deal?" You can read more at this site. And if you want to learn more about using emotion in your communications to make them more effective, visit an ITC club.

Conversation starters

Are you trying to improve your personal communication skills? Want to network more effectively? Or are you faced with a room full of prople? Where will you start? The simplest way to start a conversation is to ask a question. When a simple YES/NO answer of just a few words is sufficient, questions usually begin with ARE, DO, WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHICH. When further elaboration is required, the questions usually begin with HOW, WHY,IN WHAT,WHAT. So next time you are challenged with establishing a conversation, this is one tip to remember. For more communication success tips and articles, subscribe to our ezine, The Communication Edge.

Reading for all seasons

Hello, Not many posts lately, as I’ve been busy preparing awards to be presented at ITC convention (Baltimore). If you are in the northern hemisphere you will be in summer mode, with days by the pool or the beach, and holidays – plenty of relaxed time for reading. If, on the other hand, you live in the southern hemisphere with me, you will be snuggling by the fire in a comfortable chair with a good book. Either way, it seems, reading accompanies any season. Looking for some good reads? Here are some websites that will help. 1. Beach Bag of Books. Brought to us by Bookreporter.com. Their comment? “It wouldn't be summer without sun, surf and sizzling reading. You supply the beach chair and the sunblock, and we'll provide the fantastic fiction.” Each week they publish a fiction selection. There are reviews, author biographies, interviews, and book excerpts. 2. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh: Adult Summer Reading Book Lists You can choose from Renaissance, Medieval, Best Beach Reads, For Mystery lovers, and Mostly for guys. While you’re there you can use their Ask their Librarian. 3 National Public Radio Choices from personalities involved in this medium, reviewers and listeners. Includes reviews, excerpts and alternatives for children. 4. From the Guardian Unlimited Reviews and recommendations from authors. Fiction and non-fiction. Airport books, cookbooks, and selections. Books for children and teenagers as well as genre lists. The members of your local ITC club would love to hear a review of the book you choose. Choose an ITC club near you.

Use your body language to support your speech

Your body language - the way you use your face, gestures and stance - can make or break your speaking presentation. It needs to support and add to you message; certainly not detract ... or distract ... from it. If you want your audience to receive your message, understand it and respond to it, then you have to keep their attention and you have to be believable. The image is one of sincerity, confidence and authority. Use your face, gestures and stance to support that image. More in future posts ... In the meantime, check out an ITC club where you can practice your body language in a secure environment, with positive feedback and training.

Effective listening

Successful listening would have to be one of the most vital contributions to successful communication, so it was nice to see this excellent article from Kellie Fowler of Mind Tools She titled it Listen Up: Remove the Barriers; Hear the Words... She points out that there are several levels of communication: 1. Facts 2. Thoughts/Beliefs 3. Feelings/Emotions and that sometimes we choose to listen at the wrong level. She continues ...While seemingly elementary, there are quick and easy steps you can take to ensure that you hear the words, factor in the situation and even consider the sender’s motivation and desirable outcome. These include: · First and foremost, stop talking! It is difficult to listen and speak at the same time. · Put the other person at ease. Give them space and time and "permission" to speak their piece. How we look at them, how we stand or sit, makes a huge difference: Relax, and let them relax as well. · Show the other person that you want to hear them. Look at them. Nod when you can agree, ask them to explain further if you don't understand. Listen to understand them and their words, rather than just for your turn. · Remove distractions. Good listening means being willing to turn off the TV, close a door, stop returning emails or reading your mail. Give the speaker your full attention, and let them know they are getting your full attention. · Empathize with the other person. Especially if they are telling you something personal or painful, or something you intensely disagree with, take a moment to stand in their shoes, to look at the situation from their point of view. · Be patient. Some people take longer to find the right word, to make a point or clarify an issue. Give the speaker time to get it all out before you jump in with your reply. · Watch your own emotions. If what they are saying creates an emotional response in you, be extra careful to listen carefully, with attention to the intent and full meaning of their words. When we are angry, frightened or upset, we often miss critical parts of what is being said to us. · Be very slow to disagree, criticize or argue. Even if you disagree, let them have their point of view. If you respond in a way that makes the other person defensive, even if you "win" the argument, you may lose something far more valuable! · Ask lots of questions. Ask the speaker to clarify, to say more, give an example, or explain further. It will help them speak more precisely and it will help you hear and understand them more accurately. · STOP TALKING! This is both the first and the last point, because all other tools depend on it. Nature gave us two ears and only one tongue, which is a gentle hint that we should listen twice as much as we talk. This article is from the Mind Tools newsletter. You can subscribe here.

Excellent Training in Communication at council meeting

The ITC clubs to which I belong, are part of a group of clubs called Council Seven. The next meeting is on the Gold Coast, on 2nd July, and the programme has some excellent training. Major education sessions are "There is a magic button", "listening Skills and "EQ in Leadership". I'm looking forward to sitting back and enjoying what looks like a gret training meeting. My only role will be preparing the delegates for the business meeting.

Word Count

I have just discovered this fascinating website. If you are interested in words and how we use them, then click on the heading and explore.   WordCount™ is an artistic experiment in the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonness. Each word is scaled to reflect its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving a visual barometer of relevance. The larger the word, the more we use it. The smaller the word, the more uncommon it is.  The goal is for the user to feel embedded in the language, sifting through words like an archaeologist through sand, awaiting the unexpected find. Observing closely ranked words tells us a great deal about our culture. For instance, “God” is one word from “began”, two words from “start”, and six words from “war”. Another sequence is "America ensure oil opportunity". Conspiracists unite! As ever, the more one explores, the more is revealed. Some of the best sequences people have sent me are here.  NEW! WordCount tracks the way we use language. QueryCount tracks the way we use WordCount. Take a look.   #2 in the popular series "Fun with WordCount", we introduce the 1970's Movie Character Name Game!!!!      

Eye contact for sincerity

Eye contact is a wonderful tool to convey sincerity. It is also useful to help you to stay aware of how the audience is reacting to you. Stay aware and adapt by changing your presentation style and content to keep their attention and interest.

BRAG! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn without Blowing It.

If the thought of bragging about yourself puts a bad taste in your mouth or conjures up the image of a disapproving look from your grandmother - you're not alone. Many talented, hard-working leaders were brought up to believe that a job well done speaks for itself, that they don't have to point out their accomplishments because other people will do it for them, and that humility will get them noticed.   Read the article

Teleseminar update

Teleseminars are seminars conducted by telephone. You are given a number to dial and a pin number to enter, and you enter the Teleseminar “room.” The person conducting the seminar will greet you and you will meet the other participants. The seminar then continues as it would in reality. It may take the form of a discussion, a lecture or an interview. The Teleseminars to be offered by Communicators Logan City will be in the form of interactive lectures. Notes will be given out beforehand, and you will be encouraged to ask questions or contribute your ideas and needs. If you are a first-timer, detailed instructions on Teleseminar etiquette will be posted. The first seminar is entitled "Tips for overcoming your public speaking nerves" and will be tentatively available on Tuesday 14th June at 1.30 p.m. and Thursday 16th June at 7.30 p.m. These times are Brisbane time in Australia. You can use Time Zone converter to work them out if you are in a different country. Please let me know if a different time would work better for you on those days, and give me a range of the possible times that would be better.

Club to offer public speaking teleseminars

Communicators Logan City will offer a series of teleseminars on aspects of public speaking in early June. The first will be on Overcoming nerves. Watch the website.

The Audience-Centered Speaking Process

The success of any communication will hinge on your focus on your audience, and your understanding of their needs and attention. This impacts on many aspects of the communication and this article by Kellie Fowler from MindTools puts it into perspective ... As every successful speech writer knows, the only reason to give a speech is to change the world! Otherwise, why bother? Having established that, how can you ensure that your speech can accomplish such a lofty goal, especially when the opportunities for failure are many, and for success correspondingly few? Recent studies suggest that most executives would rather die than deliver a public speech. Perhaps this explains why most executives often put off the task of preparing speeches to the last minute, or hand the task off to someone else. Before you do this, you should know that public speaking can be a powerful tool for communicating your most important messages. And, when it happens, it’s powerful. When it’s missing, everyone feels it, including the ill-fated speaker. Can you find that connection with your audience that truly creates sparks? And, once you make the leap and deliver a successful speech, could it be that it is something you actually enjoy? Yes, and yes! The place to start is with the content of your speech or presentation, for that will make or break you with your audience. Structure Your Content Like a Conversation Your content should be structured and delivered in a way that recognizes the audience’s need to absorb information through an aural genre with limited opportunities for feedback of the kind conversation provides. This is not to say that there is no feedback in public speaking; there’s actually plenty. But because most public speaking is more or less scripted, the speaker is limited in the amount of attention he can give to feedback, and limited in the ways in which he or she can respond. Perhaps it is best to think of your presentation as a journey. Once on the journey, you may not get to stop often, for you will miss something. Considering this, your content needs to proceed logically, in complete thoughts, with stops along the way for the audience to check its comprehension. You will need to remember that active listening is exhausting work and people don’t retain much of what they hear. So, with this in mind, make sure you structure your content so that it is organized and delivered the way the audience needs to hear it. Second, it’s a matter of unabashed focus. Think in terms of getting your messages and your ideas across to your audience. For instance, if you get only a single message across to your audience, what will it be? When structuring your speech’s content, pit your focus here. Third, consider your emotional content. You want to give as much thought to preparing an emotional story line as an intellectual one. Take Your Audience on the Journey With You Your audience will start the journey wanting a few key questions answered: “Why am I here,” “Why is this topic important to me,” and “Why should I pay attention to this speaker for the next hour or so?” Herein lies the difference between conversation and public speaking. People engage in conversation for mutual pleasure, to exchange information, or perhaps storytelling, or even a mix of the three. Public speaking differs greatly from conversation in that you need to orient the audience and prepare the way, or the journey, for where you will take them. To accomplish this, you must set them at ease early on and establish right off the bat what the context of your presentation is and why it is important and worth their time (and yours). Once you’ve answered the “why?”, the real journey begins. Now your goal is to move your audience from “why?” to “how?”. Don't Tell All You Know Your audience already assumes you are an authority on the subject discussed. By being there, they are bestowing a mantle of trust and credibility upon you at the beginning of the speech. It’s up to you to wear it successfully. To do this, stick to the point and make it possible (and enjoyable) for the audience to follow you by delivering strong, focused, clear and concise messages. Connect With Your Audience with Stories Studies show that we make sense of the world by piecing together stories. Take advantage of this to ensure your audience gets your message. Think of the journey you are taking your audience on as a kind of story. Your audience will understand it better if it has all the parts, or the various makings, of a good story – a strong protagonist, a clear dilemma for him or her to work on, and a happy ending. For more information on speeches, presentations and audience-centered communications, visit the Mind Tools website’s Communication section. You can subscribe to their newsletter by emailing join-mindtools@atomic.sparklist.com..htm

Negotiating success

Successful negotiation depends on detailed preparation. Define the outcomes you aim to achieve - those that you must have and those that you might have. Then use lateral thinking to plan possible strategies. Use the same processes to get into the mind of the other person involved, understand how they may approach the situation and then you will be better prepared.

Happy birthday Johnson's Dictionary

"Two hundred fifty years ago, on April 15, 1755, Samuel Johnson published the first edition of his Dictionary of the English Language, compiled and written almost wholly by himself. It appeared in London in two folio volumes." This article from the New York Times continues, to look at Johnson's process of creating a dictionary, a first dictionary, and provides a wholly new look at our language and its foundations ... "Johnson lived in turmoil, and the sense of vigor he so often projected was, if nothing else, a way of keeping order in a world that threatened to disintegrate into disorder every day. And what was the disorder of London to the chaos of the language? "Sounds," he wrote, "are too volatile and subtile for legal restraints; to enchain syllables, and to lash the wind, are equally the undertakings of pride." Johnson published his dictionary not as the conqueror of the language but as the person who knew best how unconquerable it really is." Read the whole article

What's in a name?

Just for the fun of it, I had to share this post. It's from Harper's, and called No Contest. "From a list of cases heard in U.S. civil and criminal courts, published in the October 24, 2004, issue of the ABA Journal eReport, the online magazine of the American Bar Association. Originally from Harper's Magazine, January 2004." and here are a couple from the list .... United States ex rel. Gerald Mayo v. Satan and His Staff Advance Whip & Novelty Co. v. Benevolent Protective Order of Elks Easter Seal Society .for Crippled Children v. Playboy Enterprises Kind of highlights the value of names, doesn't it?

ASSERTIVENESS – HOW DO YOU RATE?

Hello, This is part One of a series of posts on Assertiveness. In this first one, we'll look at how you rate. Part Two will cover the reasons behind our behaviour and Part Three, ways to make our communication as successfully assertive as possible. So how do you rate ....? Do you wish you had the confidence to speak your mind? Do you feel you have the respect of your family and co-workers? Would you like to improve your relationships? Let's take a step back, then, and think about how you interact with your family, friends and the people at work. Are you assertive? § Confident § Express feelings without hostility § Resist peer pressure § Respect yourself § Take responsibility for your own needs § Stand up for your rights Are you aggressive? § Demand rather than ask § Angry when someone disagrees with you § Need to win § Express own feelings at the expense of others’ § Feel threatened § Feel frustration at not being able to express your needs Are you Submissive? § Unable to express feelings or needs honestly § Lacking self-respect § Fear making mistakes, displeasing others or being selfish § Remain silent when something is a problem § Feel guilty saying no § Have difficulty asking for assistance How did you rate? If you are not happy with your rating, or feel the need to be different, take comfort in the fact that it is your behaviour that we are evaluating here, not you. And behaviour is something we can change. It is something we can observe, evaluate and adapt, step by step. Achieving the most effective communication will allow us to meet our needs without denying the feelings and needs of others. In Part Two of this series on Assertiveness, we look at some of the reasons why people have an imbalance towards aggression or passivity, and the benefits of redressing that balance. In the meantime, to develop confident communication skills, visit an ITC club.

The Problem With Shakespeare

"Shakespeare is a biographer's nightmare. Not because the information about him is so overwhelming or incriminating but because it is so slight and so stubbornly innocuous. We forgive our great poets almost anything -- suicide (Sylvia Plath), homicide (Ben Jonson), incest (William Wordsworth), hubris (Oscar Wilde), drunkenness (Edgar Allen Poe), insanity (Friedrich Nietzsche), sexual excess of every description (Byron, Shelley, Houellebecq -- who not?). What we are loath to forgive is quiet respectability." (Source: Cristina Nehring, writing in The Atlantic) A biographer's nightmare? OK. What would you want to be remembered for??? Public speaking skills, writing? The ability to move people?? Or personal notoriety??

New Venue for club

Communicators Logan City has a new venue. We had to leave the restaurant as they are not renewing the lease on the meeting room. So we have moved to the new meeting/Board room at Logan Diggers Club. Looking forward to using the newer rooms and the range of equipment available there.

In Land of Lexicons, Having the Last Word

An interesting article in the New York Times. Interview with the newly appointed editor of the Oxford American Dictionary. She is young and articulate. The article also paints pictures of others in this new generation of lexicographers, ('Ms. McKean is part of the next wave of top lexicographers who have already or may soon take over guardianship of the nation's language, and who disprove Samuel Johnson's definition of a lexicographer as "a harmless drudge"'),and comments on the current state of dictionary construction. 'Sidney I. Landau, a former editor of Cambridge Dictionaries and the author of "Dictionaries: The Art And Craft of Lexicography" (and at 71, a member of an older generation), said a shift in people's interests had also played a part. "In the early part of the 20th century, science and technology were very big in terms of marketing dictionaries, and they'd make claims about having 8,000 words dealing with electricity or mechanics," he explained. But now, he added, "I think there has been a shift in terms of recognizing the importance of youth culture and slang."' Read the complete article.

Communication success

Keep your wisdom judiciously hidden. No-one is happy to share their ideas with someone who knows everything. For more communication success tips, subscribe to our ezine.

Towards a Learning Revolution in Australia

National Conversation on Lifelong Learning Adult Learning Australia has taken an initiative to generate a national conversation on future directions for lifelong learning in Australia. This project has involved a discussion paper titled Towards a learning revolution in Australia which was released in December 2004 and consultations in all States during the period 14 March to 8 April 2005. The project is being directed by ALA Visiting Research Fellow Peter Kearns.

Reporting science - a balancing act

The Power of the Press is considerable, but then I think we have grown up to the extent of doubting its veracity. There is the pull of sensationalism against factualism. There is the need to present generalities without too much detail. And how much time should a journalist spend researching his story? And the paper's own bias??? This article discusses the issues of balance versus completeness of reporting. It becomes a matter of some importance when the reporting applies to matters scientific and ethical. For communication success tips, subscribe to our ezine

Tips for keeping your cool before your presentation

Stretch to relax. Rise on your toes and reach for the ceiling, with your head back. Tighten your muscles from legs up through abdomen, and then release. Relax the neck and shoulder muscles, letting head loll on neck in different directions. Breathe to relax. Stand erect, but relaxed and balanced. Inhale while silently counting to five. Hold the breath for five counts, then exhale for five – all breathing is through the mouth. Your diaphragm should move, but your chest should not expand. You can gradually increase the number of counts for each breath to 10. Relax your Jaw. Let your head loll forward. As you raise it, keep your jaw relaxed. Let it hang open, and smile to yourself at how silly it feels. Relax your throat. Yawn …. This is how your throat needs to be to speak well – open, and relaxed. Keep relaxing the muscles throughout your body, your jaw, neck and throat until you walk to the presentation area. Then smile! and begin. For practice in keeping your cool, join an ITC club

Automating your text entry

This tip comes from SpeakerNet News (editor@speakernetnews.com), servicing the professional speaker community worldwide. Automating your text entry – Dawn Bjork Buzbee (dawn@softwarepro.com) Do you frequently type your address, a closing for a letter, add your company logo, or type a favourite quotation? Any repetitive text or graphics can be recalled easily in Microsoft Word with AutoText. Here's how to get started: 1. Highlight the text and/or graphics you want to use again (formatting will also be part of the AutoText entry). 2. In Word, choose Insert > AutoText > New. 3. A prompt will appear asking for the name; you can use 1 or more characters, a word, or phrase or other shortcut combination. The real trick is to use at least 4 unique characters at the beginning so that your entry will pop up automatically when you want it. For instance, ABCaddress and myclosing are better than address1 and closing1. 4. OK to save. There are 2 easy ways to bring up your AutoText entries: 1. Type the first 4 characters or more of your shortcut, and Word will pop up a yellow ScreenTip suggesting the entry. (Try this by typing November). If you want to add the AutoText entry that is displayed, just press "Enter" or "Tab" and it will appear along with all formatting and graphics. Very cool! If you don't want to add the entry and just want the word, just keep typing and ignore the yellow popup. 2. If you used a shorter name or you don't see the AutoText popup, just type the entire shortcut name (with no space at the end) and then press the [F3] key to add the AutoText entry. Using AutoText is a great timesaver! For more communication success tips, subscribe to our ezine called The Communication Edge

Training at ITC Club

Mt Gravatt Communicators held its meeting last Tuesday. The theme was Obsessions. Soul-searching was the order of the day, but this is a skill - releasing only so much information about oneself as suits the audience and the ocaasion - not to mention to reinforce one's image! Using the theme for impromptu practice also created some useful lessons. The main training session was on Enneagram basics. Madonna presented a tantalising overview. This system has so much to offer both to consultants and counsellors as well as to management.

Meeting Success: How to argue

'Just as you need to know when to fight in a meeting, you also need to know when to be quiet. Stop arguing when a decision is made. Be a team player. You could say, "As you know, I disagreed with this idea, but you have my whole-hearted support."' From Adele Greenfield

How to think like a Genius

We use problem solving every day, over and over again, "creative thinking" if you will, to run our lives. What to cook for tea when every member of the household has different tastes. How to communicate to that employee that they need to change their work habits. Whether or not to continue a particular relationship. We sometimes muddle along without applying any technique. Our solutions could come easier. Just discovered this "in a nutshell" set of tips for problem-solving and thinking skills. Thanks Sneedle Flipsock . Or you could source coaching or workshops on thinking skills at ITC.

Vocabulary Challenges.

When we write, we need to communicate as effectively as we can. And that applies whether we may be a company or organisation executive writing at work, or a private individual flicking off an email. If we use the wrong word, we risk the chance, at least, of being misunderstood, at worst of being misjudged. Here are a few commonly misunderstood words: Adherence, Adhesion – Adherence suggests mental or moral attachment. Adhesion suggests physical attachment He shows ‘adherence’ to the rules. The science teacher discussed the ‘adhesion of the two substances. Among, Between - Use ‘among’ (or amongst) when speaking of three or more. Use ‘between’ for two only Please distribute the books ‘among’ Allan, Colin and Bruce. Please divide the toys ‘between’ Roslyn and Jennifer Appreciable and Appreciate – Use ‘appreciable’ to mean apparent, noticeable and ‘appreciative’ to mean showing appreciation. There is an ‘appreciable profit increase this year. The ‘appreciative’ student thanked her teacher. As, Like - The confusion arises when these two words are used a connecting words. “As” can be used to join two clauses, but ‘like’ which is never a conjunction, cannot. [Remember that a clause must have a verb]. She sings ‘as’ her mother taught her. She sings ‘like a nightingale.’ Consists, Comprises - ‘Consists’ is followed by ‘of’. ‘Comprises’ is not. The house consists of six rooms. The house comprises six rooms. If the impression we create is to be affected by the vocabulary we choose, and if our communication is to succeed or fail depending on our choice of vocabulary, then we need to be as precise as we can. Happy communicating!!

Literary weblogs

Are you interested in literature? Perhaps you belong to a book club and love discussing books. This site has researched Literary weblogs. So the links should provide you with a great deal of fascinating and enjoyable reading.

Playing with words

Love word games? Enjoy the possibilities of writing and using words? Then visit the Washington Post's weekly "Style Invitational" column. For fun times writing and speaking visit an ITC club.

ITC Passions

Communicators Logan City’s last meeting followed Valentine’s Day and, appropriately enough, was themed “Passions.” There was a Round Robin on “How we met,” an education session on “Protocol’ and a workshop on “Rules of Attraction”, followed by a Speech to Inspire entitled “My Passion.” All sessions were evaluated and there was a General Evaluation. For more information visit the Communicators Logan City website.

The Language of Poetry

Keats may have been one of the working class poets, and perhaps he had pretensions above his station. But perhaps Shelley worked to perpetuate his image, and Keats was stronger. Certainly he has left a major heritage. The Mediadrome made Keats the Poet of the Week. For Communication Success Tips, subscribe to our ezine. Visit

Use Language for Meeting Success

When you are using speech at a meeting, use hard-hitting words like think rather than term such as feel or hope. For more efficient, effective meetings, book a workshop for educate you and your group, visit

A Walking Tour of London: Words rule in these descriptions

A walking tour of London: "Orangey-Brown Street was bombed flat during the Second World War, but still has treats in store for fans of modern architecture. Chief among these is Lactose House, which is designed in the Brutalist-Minimal Style... its rough-hewn concrete form was far too minimal to include decorations like doors or windows. It is believed that the architect may still be inside." http://thisisntlondon.blogspot.com/2004/09/london-walks-1-plutonium-andurchins.html For Communication Success Tips subscribe to the Communication Edge ezine. Visit

Five tips for overcoming public speaking nerves

Your mouth is dry, heart palpitating, and knees knocking. You go into panic, facing a dreaded public speaking assignment. It doesn’t have to be so. These five tips will give you some strategies to overcome those symptoms and have the butterflies flying in formation. 1. Deep breathing will pull in oxygen. Adrenalin, secreted to help you deal with the fear brought on by little doubts, causes breaths to become shallow, or causes you to hold your breath. Deep breathing will help your brain work to capacity, and forcing the slower pace will quell the panic. 2. Bluff. Stand tall, with shoulders back and chest out. Smile. Even though you don’t feel happy or confident, do it anyway. You will look confident and your body will fool your brain into thinking it is confident. This really works!! Bluff – body and smile 3. Keep you mouth and throat hydrated. Plan to keep a drink on hand while you are speaking., though this sounds impossible. Visualising how you will use it if you need it, and calling up the audacity to do such a thing will carry across to your attitude as you take your place to speak, placing your glass just where you need it to be. 4. Adrenalin sends the blood rushing to the fight/flight centres of your brain at the base of the skull. Place your hand on your forehead and press gently on the bony points. This will bring the blood to the parts of the brain that need it to present your speech best. 5. Know you are prepared. Obviously this depends on actually being prepared, so take every opportunity in the days leading up to the speech to prepare your material. Be familiar with the structure of the presentation, and the ideas to use. Memorise the most important parts, and the parts you are frightened of forgetting. I would memorise the opening of the speech and in the moments before presenting it, would reassure myself that I knew that part, and that would lead on to the rest. It worked!! If you want to develop your speaking confidence, visit an ITC club. You will have the chance to find the strategies that work for you and perfect them. ITC offers a supportive environment and constructive evaluation for you to develop your communication skills. Visit

Conversation is ...

Communication Success Tip for the Week: Conversation is learning something about somebody, blending personalities, getting the best out of people, creating an encouraging, productive atmosphere between two or more people. ... Fiona Wright For communication success tips, brought to your email inbox once a fortnight, subscribe to our ezine, visit

Structure your speech for Maximum Impact

“Tell them what you’re going to say. Say it. Then tell them what you said” And that is so true!! We have such short attention spans. And so do audiences. If we want to make a point that will stay with an audience after they leave the room, we have to repeat and reinforce it throughout the presentation. So …Your introduction should lead into the main point and give a short background for the points to follow …The body of the speech should present points that are pertinent and support the theme or premise support the points with examples, illustrations, etc. present original ideas or a new approach to familiar materials …The conclusion should: summarise the points and restate them briefly emphasise the theme or premise again make the purpose of the speech clear provide a strong finish for the speech … You have introduced your well defined theme, presented that theme, and repeated it to conclude. And you will have given your audience a great chance of remembering it. Book a workshop to further build your speaking skills. Visit

Club gives communication practice.

Communicators Logan City recommences for the 2005 year on 1st February, 2005. The theme is Kick Start 2005 and the programme includes an education on Motions, a skit and a Book Report, all evaluated, and Impromptu Issues. As usual, visitors are very welcome. For more information visit

Meeting Success Tip

Sit where you can be seen. Place yourself with the most powerful people, so you get the halo effect. If you are presenting, face them. Sit in the middle of the row, not the end, to maximise your contact with the other people at the meeting. At a table, sit the head of the table. These are external symbols of validation. Need skills to make your meetings more efficient and effective? Book a workshop or training session for your workplace or conference. Visit

Nine steps to Better Listening

We desperately need our listening skills - or we stand to waste time, misunderstand directions at work and at home, and sabotage our social lives. Make effective listening a habit. Start with these nine tips. 1. Make listening a two-way process – learn to clarify what you thought you heard. 2. Make an effort to have a positive attitude towards the speaker and subject, so that your prejudices don’t overwhelm your understanding. 3. Relax. But stay focussed. You sabotage your ability to listen if you are stressed, “on the run”, or nervous because of the status of the speaker. 4. Avoid completing sentences for someone you perceive as slow. 5. Personal anecdotes are, not a waste of time, but a way to understand the speaker’s perspective and therefore a way to more effectively decode their message 6. Don’t waste listening time preparing your reply. 7. Focus on the present moment, not the past or the future. 8. Keep judgements and conclusions until the end of the message. We are all blessed with two ears and one mouth – a constant reminder that we should listen twice as much as we talk! For more Communication success Tips, subscribe to our newsletter. Visit

Mt Gravatt club resumes meetings

ITC in the southern hemisphere is taking its summer break and will resume at the end of January, early February. Mt Gravatt Communicators resumes on 25th January and visitors are very welcome to attend what will probably be a light-hearted meeting to start the year. For more information visit

Research Used to Correct School Language

University researchers have helped West Australian teachers and school students tweak their talking skills to better suit modern life. For six months, a team of Edith Cowan University (ECU) researchers, Associate Professor Rhonda Oliver, Dr Yvonne Haig and Dr Judith Rochecouste, assisted 50 teachers to investigate the language skills of about 2500 of their students. ECU Media release, 13 October 2004 http://ecumediaqa.ids.ecu.edu.au/popups/mrPopup.asp?mrID=655 For workshops to develop your speaking and witing skills, visit