Effective Communication -II : A Word A Week(AWAW)

Folks,
Thanks for the feedback from last week’s column. I hope that write up was effective as I intend to be. Like most of you folks English is not my first language and I tend to make mistakes as well and am not ashamed when someone points out that. So please don’t think I am trying to point fingers at someone or any specific incident. I have compiled few words which are used/misused and would clarify in AWAW session.

Continuing our discussion on Effective communication, I have an interesting word for this week. The choice of word is interesting because as I was composing this newsletter I realized oxford decided to release few new words into the dictionary. Most common words which you and I have heard during past FIFA world cup 2010 is ”vuvuzelas”. Another word which I have used commonly which released in the dictionary is “chillax” (I can see my college buddy’s name written all over it, he added x to all commonly used words to sound more like “Asterix and Obelix” world). All these words have been added to Oxford dictionary which would mean in English(UK), it would take some time to propagate to English(US). I will write something about these two English versions of dictionary/standards in a separate column.

I have manage to write couple of paragraphs of this column without yet getting to the word of the week but setting the stage. This word has had an interesting journey from being an non-existent word to be a word to be added to one of the dictionary(Oxford, so the setup in the second paragraph). Still this word is considered non-existent word in most parts of the world. Merriam Webster’s hasn’t added the word “Prepone” to the dictionary. Oxford Dictionary online suggests this word from India with the usage of Postpone and Pre. I did a quick search of word Prepone in Webster’s dictionary and couldn’t find it . Hence not the widely accepted. Let us take about wide acceptance in a separate column. Why didn’t the word Postpone have a antonym “prepone” to begin with ? That is because the word postpone came from Latin word “Postponere”. Latin didn’t have a “Preponere”. For folks interested in Etymology here is the scoop

Etymology: Latin postponere to place after, postpone, from post- + ponere to place — more at position
Date: circa 1520


My recommendation for this week would be to avoid using this word in Business communication until it is widely accepted. Instead the right word usage is “advance” . For e.g. “I will advance my trip by a week” instead of “I will prepone my trip by a week” . You can chose to use this word in non-official communication to force it to Webster’s dictionary J. Business communication should be clear, concise and communicative (3Cs).



Reference:
[1] http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100819/od_nm/us_britain_dictionary
[2] http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0658300#m_en_gb0658300
[3] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prepone
[4] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/postpone

PS: Please don’t hesitate to forward this to your friends /colleagues, Spread the word.

Effective Communication - A Word A Week (AWAW)

Folks,

I have been thinking about writing this column/news letter about Effective Communication in the context of communicating with the customer. This communication forum is not to point fingers at anyone in particular but educate ourselves from how to do certain things and what not to do certain things. Most of the emails/document we write is read/reviewed by customers and does travel high up reporting chain, for example a project plan/Design documents we produce is reviewed by Directors , VPs and CXOs in some cases.



I am going to broadly classify on Words which we use in everyday communication. The words which we misuse as well. This week I am going to concentrate particularly on a (nonexistent) word which we misuse regularly. Per English dictionary(http://www.m-w.com for example) doesn’t have this word. “Updation” is the word in reference here. There is no word in American/British English dictionary. I have seen this word used regularly. The right usage should be update.



Let us refrain from using the word “updation” but instead use “Update”



For you grammar interested folks, “updation” is wrongly used as a verb , however update(the correct usage) can be used as a transitive verb as is. Update is also a noun based on the context you use for example



Update as transitive verb would be

(Origin of the usage Date: 1941)

: to bring up to date



Update as Noun would be

(Origin of usage Date: 1965)

1 : an act or instance of updating
2 : current information for updating something

Gandhigiri at its best

Everyday I subscribe to Silicon India daily digest. This is a gist of news happening on Tech Indian community. I am touching upon a topic which I wouldn't dare to write on any blog, Immigration and Gandhigiri(Is Gandhigiri a word? Not sure but Wikipedia claims it to be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhigiri). This news however caught my attention it wouldn't do justice if I don't write anything about it. Like a lots of folks who were affected on latest Immigration status fiasco I got affected by this as well due to few USCIS worker's hindsight to open the gates for immigration. I was thrilled but was kind of expecting this to happen on July 3rd or a later date but to my surprise happened on July 2nd the first working day of July.

Why did this occur to me??? It was deja vu because of similar incident happening on H1B visa for 2007. Anywayz it happened. Who profited by this? Doctor's office and Attorneys who file these papers. They aren't going to return your money because USCIS closed the gates on you. I was irritated , p***ed but s*** happens. I was also thinking how we could make this incident go noticed without creating a sensation I thought about Lage Raho Muna Bai and his flowers idea.. well I am not the only who thought that way but few of them just went ahead as well... read the link below you will now what I am talking about..

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/36410/1

If you havent watched Lage Raho Munai Bai, it is a good movie... I am not recommending you to watch it, taste differs.. I can say it is good movie. I thought it wasn't practical to achieve results but I guess it is practical to practice it, for results we will have to wait and see.

KANK Anyone???

As Hindi moviers waited with their bated breath for Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna(KANK) for quiet sometime, I feel it is a word adding into dictionary.

I havent watched it yet but I dont have any comments on to watch or not but however I heard few comments passed on movie so I am going to bloggercize here..

Quiet a few movies have been having Adultery in their agenda however what we see in Kank is little different and goes little further . The movie hopes to resolve marital tensions by letting spouses see others while staying married and ultimately getting out of marriage and finding Love again, I thought that was called adultery and whatever happened to never expiring contract or "Not Part Until death". No this is not got anything to do with Western influence.

However as I see both the couples walk out of marriage and find another life or wife to live, I am going to call this process a kank. Yes a new word , a new definition to adultery...

I hope this word gets around and you will know where it all started from ;-)

http://www3.dharma-production.com/index.aspx

Is Prepone really a word in English Dictionary?

I see the word "prepone" used a lot. Checked
http://www.m-w.com
never found a reference to the word. I found some sources on google quoting to be added to dictionary, 1998 Oxford to be precise. I havent gotten around checking the authencity/justification by looking at 1998 Oxford Dictionary
Until I find legitamate source justifying so it will remain a errored word I guess. However surfing for proofs, I hit this wonderful website which talks about mistakes people make in English. Please Enjoy /educate yourself.
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology

Disclaimer: I claim no authencity to the information on the above Website