Pairs/Groups Of Words Often Confused - Part 4 of 6
December 21, 2005
LATER, LATTER
Later means afterwards; latter is the second of two things.
“Later that day we went for a walk.”
“We have two choices. The latter is the more reliable, but the former would be cheaper.”
Pairs/Groups Of Words Often Confused - Part 3 of 6
ELICIT, ILLICIT
Elicit means to extract or draw out; illicit means not legal.
EVERYONE, EVERY ONE
Everyone means every person in a group; every one means each person and is always followed by “of”.
“Everyone needs to know how to swim.”
“Every one of you should be able to swim.”
FAIR, FARE
Fair means average, good-looking, pale, unbiased (what a lot of meanings for one little word!); fare is the money you pay to go somewhere by bus, train, plane, taxi, etc. It can also refer to a passenger. As a verb it means do, as in:
“I didn’t fare as well in my exams this year as I’d hoped.”
Pairs/Groups Of Words Often Confused - Part 1 of 6
ACCEPT, EXCEPT
Not commonly seen even from unpublished writers, who are probably familiar with the difference because they’re all waiting for an acceptance!
“We accept your invitation to your party, except for Bill, who will be away on that day.”
ADAPT, ADEPT, ADOPT
Adapt means to adjust, adept means skilled and
adopt means to take as your own:
“Some people cannot adapt to new surroundings.”
“He is very adept at dodging awkward questions.”
“He tends to adopt the attitudes of those around him.”
ADVERSE, AVERSE
Adverse means inauspicious, hostile; averse means disinclined, repelled.
“I’m very much averse to making a long, arduous journey under such adverse weather conditions.”
Aggressively Written Resumes
December 14, 2005
When writing resumes, it is important to remember whom it is you’re trying to please - (is it you, or the hiring authority?) In this article I will present my ideas of what makes up really aggressive documents, based on my many years in the industry, and my career in owning and managing a successful resume writing and career marketing firm.
Who Is Reading Your Resume?
Writing Cover Letters That Sizzle
Anything being sent to a decision-maker should sell you, not just state facts. When conducting a job search, your cover letter and resume are in a pile for the decision-maker to review, one by one, along with a vast number of other documents submitted by other hopeful individuals. The odds that YOUR document is the very first ones on the pile are about a zillion to one! This means the decision-maker has probably read X number of cover letters (and resumes) before reaching your set of documents. With that in mind, I never recommend you start the cover letter with the sentence used in so many other letters: