Trap 4: Using Knotty Words Incorrectly

I remember reading a cover letter that stated how much the RFP had "peaked" the writers' interest. Hmmm. I don't think so. It probably didn't "peek," either. Maybe what they were trying to say was that the RFP had "piqued" their interest.

Another proposal writer slipped into the common mistake of using a currently popular buzzword in his writing without really knowing what it means or how it's spelled. He wrote: "This application is ideal for use in a nitch market." Nitch? Have you ever seen a "nitch market"? Do you think one could buy a nitch on sale there? Of course, the writer meant niche. But the damage is done.

Here are some knotty usage problems that can pop up in proposal writing. Maybe a few of them bother you.

Affect/Effect

This pair drives people nuts. Affect is usually a verb: "Your choice of a motorized log splitter will inevitably affect the logging camp's productivity." Effect is usually a noun. "Your choice will also have an effect on safety." One way to remember which is which: think of "the effect." "The" can't precede a verb, so link the "e" at the end of "the" with the "e" that begins "effect." (Sometimes people who speak in psychobabble use "affect" as a noun to refer to a person's emotional state. And sometimes lawyers like to use "effect" or "effectuate" as a verb, meaning "to bring about or execute." Ignore these people. Nobody ever learned to write clearly by imitating lawyers' or psychologists' styles.)

Anxious/Eager

People often write that they are "anxious to work on this project." To which the reader might reasonably ask, "Why? What aren't you telling me?" Anxious means nervous or concerned. You will communicate more forcefully, with less ambiguity, if you say that you are eager to work on the project, not anxious.

Assure/Ensure/Insure

All three of these words mean about the same thing: "to make certain or secure." Assure refers to people, though, and suggests putting someone at ease, reducing anxiety or worry. Ensure and insure both mean "to secure from harm," but insure has a stronger implication. If you insure something, the reader may take that as your guarantee of a positive outcome, whereas ensuring or assuring may imply serious effort on your part but no guarantee.

Compliment/Complement

Have you ever seen a menu that promised an appetizer or salad that would "compliment" your meal? But when you ordered it, what happened? Nothing. It didn't say a word. No compliments. No pleasantries at all. A compliment involves "flattery" or "praise." A complement is something that completes a whole: "The program modules complement each other."

Data is/Data are

Everybody who took Latin in high school, and even a few former altar boys and girls, love to pounce on your throat if you say, "The data is in the computer," or whatever. "Data," they snootily inform you, "is the plural form of datum. Therefore, it must take a plural verb." Yeah, well ... Maybe that's why Latin is a dead language. Those Romans were too uptight about these things. In fact, data as used in English is a "collective singular noun," which is grammar jargon that means it's the same kind of word as jury, committee, team, staff, and humanity. If the data you're writing about is a homogeneous whole, use a singular verb: "The billing data is backed up daily." But if the data in question is a hodgepodge, use a plural: "They discovered that their sales and customer support data were located in different parts of the system."

Imply/Infer

Inference is a mental process. You infer something when you reach a conclusion on the basis of observations. Only people can infer: "The client inferred from our documentation that system training would proceed quickly." Implication is a state of being. Data of any kind, including the attributes of people, can imply things: "The disheveled condition of my desk implies that I am a slob. The disgusted looks on your faces imply than you are not."

Interface

Computer systems, hardware, mechanical parts all interface. That's fine. The word interface has become an accepted bit of IT jargon, although connect or link might sound less pompous. But people don't interface. It sounds ludicrous to say, "Our technical team will interface with your project management team."

Its/It's [also, Whose/Who's]

One of these is a contraction, one is a possessive pronoun. The contraction is the one that has an apostrophe in it. It's a shortened version of it is [or who is]. I think the confusion arises from the fact that in English we form possessives with nouns by adding 's, as in John's coat, the chair's padding, the company's financial reports. But we don't use the apostrophe when we form a possessive from a pronoun: ours, yours, hers, theirs, its, and whose. Why? Don't ask. It's a tale of greed, stupidity, and squalor that has been an embarrassment to grammarians for hundreds of years.

Lay/Lie; Raise/Rise; Set/Sit

These are about as knotty as words get. People make mistakes with them all the time, and usually their readers or listeners aren't certain what's correct, either. The second of each pair, the ones with an i-sound, are all intransitive verbs. Big help, right? Well, what that means is that they do not take an object. Each of them is something you do to yourself: "You lie on the couch. You rise for dinner. You sit at the table." (Or somebody else does these things to himself or herself: "She lies on the beach. They rise from their pew. He sits on the board of directors.") The first of each pair are transitive verbs, meaning they are actions performed on something else: "I lay the book on the table. They raise orchids. She set the bags of fertilizer on the driveway." Good luck.

Lead/Led/Lead

The preceding heading looks like a typographical error, but it's not. There are two different words spelled lead. And that's the source of the problem. The first form of lead is a verb, pronounced with a long e-sound, meaning "to show the way," "to guide," or "to direct." The past tense of the verb lead is led, which is pronounced exactly the same way as the second form of lead. That lead is a noun, is pronounced with a short e-sound, and refers to a soft, dense metal. The point is that thousands of proposals every year say something like, "Many of the projects listed below were lead by Dr. Stanhope." No, they weren't. They were led by Dr. Stanhope.

Oral/Verbal

Oral means with your mouth. Verbal means with words. Spoken language is oral. Hence, people give "oral presentations." But both written and spoken language are verbal (unless you write in hieroglyphics or ideograms). A verbal contract could be either spoken or written. An oral contract is spoken only.

Parameters

This word means a variable or a constant in a mathematical expression. If you have a system characterized by a number of variables and you hold them all constant except one, you will obtain parametric data for that one variable. Fine. So if you're writing about parameters in that sense, go for it. But if you're using the word because it sounds kind of smart in a high-tech sort of way, and if you're using it very loosely to mean "scope" or "limits," then shame on you. You're thinking of perimeter, a different word entirely.

Principal/Principle

Most of us recall from grade school that "the principal is my pal." (At least until you were sent to his or her office, that is.) It might be better if we also remembered "the principal is the main thing." Because that form of the word principal means the main or primary element. The principal is the chief administrator in a school. Your principal is the main amount of money on which you're earning or paying interest, and the principals in a law or accounting firm are the chief partners. Principle means a basic truth, an axiom, a guideline, a firm belief. In the wake of the Andersen affair, we could say, "Some principal partners had no principles."

Serve/Service

Do you serve your customers or do you service them? I suppose it depends on what kind of business you're in. Here's the point: serve is a verb; service is a noun. "We will serve the interests of our customers and shareholders alike by delivering the best customer service possible."

Simple/Simplistic

Don't write in your proposal that your solution is "simplistic." Don't say, as I saw in one executive summary, that you have spent extra time developing a "simplistic project plan." Being simplistic in this context is not a good thing. Simplistic means shallow to the point of stupidity, and simplistic solutions ignore the complexities of reality. I think this mistake arises because people mistake simplistic for the superlative form of the word: This is simple, that's simpler, and that is simplistic. Wrong.