Give your company a voice
Thanks for visiting and sorry you won’t be able to get our usual fast service for a couple of weeks. If you’re looking for some copywriting help, Melanie Silver will return to the office refreshed and raring to go on 23 May 2019 when she will get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks in advance for your patience!
The European Parliament is showing it’s in tune with today’s more gender-sensitive, inclusive climate by issuing language guidelines that ban the use of gender-specific words like ‘mankind’ and ‘manpower’ by MEPs.
An updated guidebook sent to parliamentary officials and MEPs in Brussels says the “generic use of man should be avoided”. This means instead of “statesmen”, officials should say “political leaders” and the term “man-made” should be replaced with “artificial” or “synthetic”. It suggests “police officer” is substituted for “policeman” or “policewoman”.
The Huawei spying allegations raised one big question in my mind. And it wasn’t “Did they do it?”, but rather, “How on earth is the company name pronounced?” If you experience similar problems, I’m pleased to say help is at hand with the publication of a survey showing the most commonly mispronounced words.
The British Institute of Verbatim Reporters (BIVR), a professional body for captioning, subtitling and advising newsreaders and the courts, surveyed its members to identify the words and names that frequently cause pronunciation problems.
What are your views on business cards and business card holders? Have they become redundant like CDs in this age of streaming or relics like the typewriter ribbon now we all use PCs or Apple Macs?
I’d welcome your opinion because when my daughter landed her first proper job, I proudly presented her with a beautiful silver business card case to mark the occasion. To me, this symbolised my confidence in her at the start of what would undoubtedly be a stellar career climbing the corporate ladder.
Britain’s Defence Minister Stuart Andrew has declared war on jargon by banning the use of abbreviations and acronyms in his office. A civilian recruit, the Minister was confused by the army jargon used in his new role after discovering that too many conversations were being conducted in a bewildering blizzard of abbreviations.
Andrew, the MP for the Pudsey constituency in West Yorkshire, was a surprise appointment to the role after his predecessor resigned unexpectedly over Brexit.
