02 “Do not believe what your teacher tells youmerely out of respect for the teacher”

Gautama Buddha

QUERIES RELATING TOLANGUAGE SKILLSDo you find grammar confusing? Do you getstuck with words when writing a letter, anessay or a blog? Do you have a fear of publicspeaking? Or do you simply want to improveyour communication skills? Times NIE ishere to help you to master the intricacies ofthe English language. Just shoot us yourqueries on

toinie175 @gmail.com

Write an effectivespeech1The first thing you’ll want to do is

work on writing a well-organised,engaging speech. Because even ifyou’ve got a great speaking voice ora great deal of charisma, you won’tgive a good speech if your materialisn’t any good.

Rehearse, rehearse,rehearse

2 Nothing becomes muscle memo-ry unless you practice relentlessly.

If you have a big speech coming up,make time every day to practice. Pre-pare your goals and the content wellahead of time. This can be done whiledriving, exercising, in the car, on aplane...anywhere.

Practice with distractions

3 Once I know the content, I liketo add a little bit of distraction

to test how well prepared I reallyam. For example you can turn onthe TV. Anything that adds a littlemore challenge.

Watch yourself in the mirror

4 Practice your speech in front ofthe mirror as if you were speak-

ing directly to someone. If you real-ly want to learn how to improve pub-lic speaking skills then…Pay attention to:➤➤ Your facial expressions➤➤ Your gestures➤➤ Your body movements➤➤ How welcoming you appearWhen you have gentle expressions anda calm demeanour when you speak, youwill be more welcoming to your audi-ence. Do it in the morning, preferablyas a part of your morning routine.

Give your speech toanother person

5 There are plenty of people youcan practice on. Be sure to tell the

person to be completely honest withyou in their critique.Examples of people you can prac-tice on:➤➤ A significant other➤➤ Your friends➤➤ Your parents➤➤ Your dogSpeaking directly to another personwill help relax you and give you ex-perience with getting feedback fromsomeone. If they have questions aboutyour speech (not the dog), it is likelythat members of an audience willhave the same questions.

Know your venue

6 “Don’t wait until you arrive onstageto realise that there’s a post block-

ing your view of half the audience, orthat there are problems with the audiovisual equipment provided,” says pub-lic speaking coach Ian Cunliffe. Re-

search the venue, become fa-miliar with the schedule ofevents surrounding your pres-entation, and test the equip-ment beforehand.

Visualise your success

7 Sports psychologistshave proven that an ath-

lete’s ability to vividly visu-alise his or her success cre-ates a higher win rate, shesays. “Before your next pres-entation, mentally walkyourself through the pres-entation. Picture yourselfspeaking with confidenceand poise; see your audienceresponding positively.”

Practice positiveself-talk

8 “Say to yourself, ‘I am adynamic speaker.’ ‘I am

enthusiastic and engaging.’‘I am prepared and confi-dent.’” As Henry Ford oncesaid, “Whether you thinkyou can or think you can’t —you are right.”

Take a deep breath

9 Find a private area be-forehand where you can

do some light stretching or afew knee-bends. Another op-tion is to take a brisk walkdown the hall and back. Thisrids the body of excess ener-gy. In addition, take severaldeep breaths. Inhale through

the nose on a slow count ofthree; and exhale through themouth on a slow count ofthree.

Memorise youropening

10 This empowers youto start strong and

make a confident first im-pression despite nervous-ness.

Memorise the‘three rules’

11 First, they believeyou’re the expert, so

don’t tell them otherwise.Second, they want you tosucceed, so they’re on yourside. Third, they won’t knowwhen you make a mistake, sodon’t announce it.

Smile sincerely

12 Sincere smilingemits chemicals in

the brain that calms thenerves and promotes asense of well being. Plus, itshows your audience thatyou’re happy to see themand enthusiastic about the message.

Hi friends. We are

We tell you how to tackle your fearand anxiety to deliver a

memorable speech

MIND YOUR LANGUAGE

Every time you give apresentation, take sometime afterwards to thinkabout what worked andwhat failed. If it wentwell, consider whatmade it go well. If itwent badly, analysewhere and how it wentwrong so that next timeyou can change yourstrategy and ensure thesame thing doesn’t hap-pen again.

LEARN FROM YOURMISTAKES (AND

SUCCESSES)

Punctuation is so boring, right?Who cares about those peskycommas, periods, and excla-mation points? In the business

world, they matter. A lot. Sloppy punc-tuation can undercut your intelligenceand make people question your ability.

Sad but true. Here are eight punctua-tion mistakes to avoid. Your reputationwill thank you!

Run-on sentences

1The first punctuation mistake on ourlist occurs when there’s no punctua-

tion at all because the sentence keepsgoing when the writer should add a pe-riod but instead continues on and there’sno end to the line and the reader is wornout but there’s no period in sight so whendoes it all end?

Whew. See what I mean?Rewritten:The first punctuation mistake on our

list occurs when there’s no punctuationat all. The sentence keeps going when thewriter should add a period. Otherwise, thereader is worn out, but there’s no period

in sight. When does it all end? Read yoursentence aloud. Does it feel like you goon too long? If so, add a period or two tobreak up different thoughts/ideas.

Way too many commas

2A sentence with too many commas,makes our writing hard to process,

because we include unnatural stops inthe flow of a thought, and it’s frustrat-ing, for the reader.Wasn’t that last sentence annoying?There’s no easy answer for reducing

comma usage. The best course of actionis to read your work aloud and look forplaces where a comma causes an un-necessary pause.

Double exclamation points

3Double exclamations have no placein a work email. I make no apologies

for that rule. There’s a difference be-tween energetic and overkill, and it hap-pens somewhere between ! and !!

If you’re on gchat or talking to afriend through gmail, go nuts!!!

But when it comes to work, the dou-ble exclamation is double trouble. Youneed people to feel comfortable usingyou or you firm. If you drop !! every-where, it could be seen as a red flag.

Ugly hyphens

4I think there’s a clean way to use hy-phens and an ugly way.The unsightly approach?Something like:Lesson 1- IntroductionsThe hyphen right up against the “1”

looks sloppy.In my opinion, there are two ways

to improve “Lesson 1- Introductions.”1. “Lesson 1 - Introductions”2. “Lesson 1: Introductions”Option #1 is a dash with space on

either side.Option #2 is a colon. Both choices look

better than “Lesson 1-” because they’remore orderly. Whenever you need to sep-arate words for emphasis (ex: in a bullet-ed list or main title), look out for the mis-placed hyphen and make the correction.

Emojis

5You need a strong relationship witha business associate before you start

including smiley faces, “prayer hands”and whatever else. For email introduc-tions and other business correspon-dence, emojis are a no-go.

ALL CAPS

6Emails in all caps FEEL LIKE THEWRITER IS SCREAMING AT YOU.

Unclick caps lock, start over and writesentences with normal capitalisation.

The contraction ‘y’all’

7As in, a hybrid of “you” and “all.”For example, “Great seeing y’all at

the conference!” Why no “y’all”? It’s toocasual and colloquial.

Two spaces after a period

8 Writing emails or other online con-tent calls for one space after a peri-

od. Two spaces over and over through-out a blog post or website content willdrive readers crazy. I mean, crazy. Onespace and you’re done. Every time.

SOURCE: BUSINESS INSIDER

8

You need to know someone well beforeyou start including emojis in email

Everyone likes getting compliments.But sometimes, even the nicest-sounding compliments are actual-

ly insults in disguise. You may not even re-alise it when your own words could be hurt-ing someone’s feelings. Here are 6phrases that sound nice at firstglance, but really aren’t:

1. ‘Actually’When someone cooks you din-

ner and you say,“This actuallycame out reallywell,” it impliesyou had lowexpectations tobegin with.

Same goes for “Youactually look really

good” and “that actuallymakes a lot of sense.”

2. ‘Don’t take thisthe wrong way’

This phrase drives peoplecrazy. For one, it usually pre-cedes an insult or hurtfulcomment. Although peoplemay say it with good inten-tions, telling someone how tointerpret something can come

off as avoiding responsibility for the fallout.

3. ‘Good luck with that’Speakers need to be careful that their genuine wish-es of good luck aren’t confused with this statement,which often comes off as dismissive and sceptical.

4.‘Interesting’“Interesting” is a positive descriptor, but it canbe very telling when it’s the only word you canthink of to describe something. Praising some-one’s “interesting look” or saying they made an“interesting” choice could raise the question ofwhether you actually liked the moves, or whetherthey simply made you think.

5. ‘Pal’ “Pal” may be a synonym for friend, but when twostrangers say it, they almost always mean it sar-castically. SOURCE: BUSINESS INSIDER

BALANCE OF TRADE: simply the dif-ference between the value of exportsand value of imports.

POSITIVE BALANCE OF TRADE: atrade surplus is exporting more thanimporting.

TRADE DEFICIT: balance of paymentsoutcome when spending on importsexceed revenue received from exports.

TRADING BLOCKS: groups of nationsthat eliminate trade barriers betweenand among member nations.

PROTECTIONISTS: person who wantsto protect domestic producers againstforeign competition with tariff, quotas,and other trade barriers.

INFANT INDUSTRIES: a new industry,which in its early stages experiencesrelative difficulty or is absolutely inca-pable in competing with establishedcompetitors abroad.

WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION:international organisation that estab-lishes rules for international trade andhelps resolve disputes between mem-ber nations.

ECONOMIES OF SCALE: Economiesof scale is a term that refers to thereduction of per-unit costs through anincrease in production volume. Thisidea is also referred to as diminishingmarginal cost.

FREIGHT: The amount of money paidfor transporting goods.

TRADE VOCABULARY

5 WORDS/PHRASESthat sound nice, but aren’t

12 SIMPLE PUBLIC SPEAKING TIPSTO IMPRESS ANY AUDIENCE

A still from Dumb and Dumber To

PUNCTUATION MISTAKES THAT MAKE YOU LOOK DUMB