Every now and then, I like to pause and write about other people who can help you better communicate. For the next two blogs, I’m going to shine the spotlight on communication experts who have helped hundreds of people reach their goals.

1. Get Branded!  Peg Marckworth is the principal of Marckworth Associates, a marketing and identity development firm in Seattle. She creates resonant, memorable brands that attract attention, engage interest, and deliver results. Peg has a 20+ year career in communications.  www.marckworth.com.

2. Get Published! Virginia McCullough has written, ghostwritten, and edited more than 100 books and dozens of book proposals for doctors and other healthcare practitioners, professional speakers, lawyers, and business owners. Virginia also offers consultations and online workshops for those who dream of getting published and/or creating a full-time writing business. www.virginiamccullough.com.

3. Get a Career! Matthew B. Youngquist is a recognized expert in the field of career coaching, job hunting, and professional employment counseling.  He founded Career Horizons in 2004 to assist individuals in successfully navigating through today's challenging, uncharted employment waters. In his current role, he consults with clients at all levels (to date more than 6,500) on how to strategically manage their careers, explore their occupational options, and master the complex dynamics in today’s work world. He has helped even more people through his blog and monthly "Conscious Careering" column in the Puget Sound Business Journal. www.career-horizons.com.

4. Get Creative!  Sandy Bjorgen is the founder of IMPRŏV-able Results®, providing improvisation (or improv) training for business people. She teaches people to think and speak under pressure with more cool than they ever imagined. She teaches everyone from CEOs to up-and-coming staffers how to put people at ease and build lasting relationships. Through IMPRŏV-able Results® proven techniques, clients learn to make better and faster decisions about what to say, how to say it, when to say it—and when to stop!  www.Improv-ableResults.com.

Comments or questions?  What are your writing pet peeves?  Do you read things at work that drive you up the wall?  Or do you have questions about your own writing?  Send them in, and I’ll try to answer in upcoming Word 4 Word blogs.

March 4th is National Grammar Day.  If one wants to celebrate the day in style, you should take a look at common, erroneous shifts.  (Hint: I just wrote one.)

1. Shifts in person
A shift in person, e.g., from "one" to "you," confuses your readers. 
 If one wants to celebrate the day in style, you should take a look at common, erroneous shifts. 
 If you want to celebrate the day in style, take a look at common, erroneous shifts.

2. Shifts in number
Keep the numbers the same.
 After a clerk rings up the sale, they need to place the receipt in the slot.
 After a clerk rings up the sale, he/she needs to place the receipt in the slot.

If you want to avoid the he/she issue, make the subject of the pronoun plural.
 After the clerks ring up the sale, they need to place the receipt in the slot.

3. Shifts in voice 
Avoid this mix of passive and active voice.
 The manager enjoyed bookkeeping, and its cut-and-dried answers were a refreshing change from her other responsibilities.  
 The manager enjoyed bookkeeping; she found the cut-and-dried answers a refreshing change from her other responsibilities

4. Shifts in tense
Watch out for time travels.
 She had been working late and has been having trouble sleeping.
 She had been working late and had trouble sleeping.

If she worked late last week but is still having trouble sleeping, explain that.
 Last week she worked late, which affected her sleep.  Even now, she's still having trouble sleeping.

Comments or questions?  What are your writing pet peeves?  Do you read things at work that drive you up the wall?  Or do you have questions about your own writing?  Send them in, and I'll try to answer in upcoming Word 4 Word blogs.