Happy National Punctuation Day!

                                             Happy Punctuation Day!

Did you know that September 24th has officially been declared as a celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis?  Well, now you do, so let the party begin!#$?!  

Here at Workplace ESL Solutions, this is a national holiday we can truly sink our teeth into!  We're kind of grammar geeks that way.  In fact, we love grammar so much that we offer a Business Writing class for professionals to help them improve their skills at the office.  Our words, both spoken and verbal, really affect our brand and how others perceive us.

The ninth annual National Punctuation Day®, the September 24 holiday that reminds America that a semicolon is not a surgical procedure, will celebrate the 2012 presidential election with a literary challenge — vote for your favorite Presidential Punctuation Mark in one, highly punctuated paragraph!

The rules: Write one paragraph with a maximum of three sentences using the following 13 punctuation marks to explain which should be “presidential,” and why: apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, ellipsis, exclamation point, hyphen, parentheses, period, question mark, quotation mark, and semicolon. You may use a punctuation mark more than once, and there is no word limit. Multiple entries are permitted.

In short, persuade them that your favorite punctuation mark should be the official punctuation mark of the President of the United States.  Contest entries must be received by September 30 to be considered for prizes. The winner(s) will receive a box of punctuation goodies, including a National Punctuation Day® T-shirt. Send entries, including name, address and phone number, to National Punctuation Day® headquarters at Jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com.

In 2011, 220 entries in their paragraph contest were received from the United States, the Netherlands, Malta, Canada, England, and India.  In 2010, 356 people from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Italy (in Italian!) submitted more than 3,000 entries in our haiku contest, including 73 from a certain New York State employee who shall remain nameless.  

Have a great punctuation day!

10 Tips for Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn for your Business

Here at Workplace ESL we're all about helping employees become more successful at their jobs.  We train managers and supervisors to be better leaders and motivators.  In fact, on our web site you'll see our mantra "Workplace ESL: Making Success the Common Language!" 

We like to teach employees and managers about tools that improve communication, so it would be natural for us to talk about LinkedIn, a social networking tool online where professionals can gather and discuss solutions to common problems.

Below is our list of the Top Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn effectively with your company:

 

  

• 1. Make sure your profile is public, so that even non-LinkedIn-users can find you.
• 2. Publish your LinkedIn profile on business cards, email signatures and your website.
• 3. When you invite people to connect, don't use the generic personal note supplied - write your own unique invitation to more effectively engage a connection.
• 4. Use relevant keywords throughout your profile.
• 5. Frequently answer question posts from other users; this helps to brand you as a knowledge leader in your field.
• 6. Offer to write recommendations for your connections - don't just ask for them. It's more sincere, and more effective for gathering positive recommendations.
• 7. Don't connect with people just to get something from them or to ask a favor; offer to do something for them, like make introductions, write recommendations, etc. Sincerity counts, even online!
• 8.  Join some of the terrific industry groups to connect with even more people in your field. 
• 9.  Keep it professional; share your personal pictures on Facebook or some other social network. 
• 10. Be sure to "friend" our Workplace ESL Solutions teachers and staff!   

For more ideas on how you can improve the effectiveness of your business, go to: 
www.WorkplaceESL.com 

Want to Improve Your Business Writing Skills?

Do you ever receive an email from a co-worker that is laden with grammatical or spelling errors?  How does your perception of that person change?  Do you hesitate doing business with a company when you see misspellings in their advertisements or brochures?  Do you ever cringe when you see errors on a company's web site?  Now the biggest question is....how confident are you that others aren't feeling the same way about YOUR written words?

Emails and official company collateral can say a lot more about us than we even realize.  There are some subtle messages that speak louder than our written words. Do you know what they are?

If you're a manager or supervisor at your company, are you confident that your co-workers are representing your company well in their correspondence with business partners or potential clients?  Most of us weren't English majors in college and could use a little refresher on our skills.
 

We have a terrific course that can help your company or department better communicate in writing.  The Business Writing course offered by Workplace ESL Solutions includes the following topics:

1. Grammar can be fun!
2. Sentence Structure can be even more fun!
3. Punctuation - dash, hyphen, and quotation marks, oh my!
4. Common Mistakes in Word Choice: Witch won should eye choose?
5. Business Documents: Reports, Proposals, Resumes, Cover Letters
6. E-mail do's and don'ts
7. Proofreading tips

To learn more about this fun class for your company, visit us on the following link:
 http://workplaceesl.com/business_writing.asp