ORGANIZATION - CAN IT REALLY BE A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE?

I think it is really sad, but I believe one of my competitive advantages is being organized. It seems like organization is out-of-style. People are on their cell phones, texting, tweeting, and multitasking with no real purpose, they are distracted and unorganized.

Teaching, at whatever level, is a profession which requires a high level of organization, in my opinion. The best classes I've taken -- and I've taken my fair share -- have been those where the class has been well-organized. The topic of the class hasn't even mattered that much. One of my best classes was Business Analytics (i.e. Statistics) because the instructor was organized. He laid out everything at the beginning and I knew what to expect. This allowed me to organize my school work to complete everything well and timely.

The worst classes I've taken in my current MBA program were those in which the instructors were unorganized. I'm finishing up one right now and it is driving me absolutely insane. These instructors changed the syllabus several times and didn't do what they said they were going to do. I've even had high hopes because the class topic was very interesting to me - but it was ruined by a poorly organized instructor.

Deadlines and appointment times seem like merely suggestions to a lot of people. To me, a deadline is a deadline; I either meet or exceed it. People complain about being soooo busy -- almost like that is their excuse for being unorganized -- but I'm busy, too. Just because I make better choices about how I spend my time and organize my time better doesn't mean I'm not busy. In my business, I take jobs I can complete and I don't over-extend myself. I organize my time so I can complete projects to the best of my ability, on time, and on budget. In my view, these should be givens, but with what I witness, they are sadly becoming things I offer that many others don't.

Happy Holidays! And here's to an organized 2014!
-The Wordsy Woman

THE WORD OF THE DAY

Whenever I meet with my novel critique partner, I'm always interested to see what my word of the day will be. Usually, it's a small word like "just," "up," or "down," modifiers that don't really mean anything and can be redundant. If one is looking at the sky, how else would it be besides up?

Though the word of the day comes up every time I write a chunk of novel, it can also creep into writing other pieces longer than a couple of pages like articles or web FAQ pages. I'm taking an international marketing class in my MBA program and, in addition to a handful of typos, I've noticed the author is enamored with the word ubiquitous. This word sticks out even more because it's not a word frequently used in conversation. 

I'm not sure of the reason people fall back on the "word of the day." I think I just get it in my head or I get tired. But the fact is, it happens, and should be dealt with in editing because it can make your writing appear redundant or simply boring. 

And if you can't catch them in your own writing (like me), have someone else read your piece and mark repeated words appearing close together. If the words create redundancy such as "just" or "up" do, delete them. If they are important, try to think of a different word to use. For example, sometimes you don't need to repeat the noun subject of a sentence and can use "it" in place of one.

Paying attention to these "words of the day" can keep your writing fresh and interesting for your readers.

Happy editing!

-The Wordsy Woman