You’re filling out a job application, and you feel pretty good about how it’s going. You have the right qualifications for the job, and you’re pretty sure you’re going to get invited for an interview. Suddenly, you run across a phrase you’ve never heard before, and you don’t understand what it’s asking you. How can …
Job Applications
Have you ever heard someone say “I’ve got some good news and some bad news for you?” This is sometimes the way that people try to soften the blow of delivering bad news. There are also some stock phrases that you often encounter when someone is trying to deliver news to you that isn’t great. …
“Jargon” is the word for specialized language that you encounter in a particular field or situation. One confusing thing about encountering jargon is that it may use language that has a meaning that is familiar to you in other contexts that makes no sense in the new context. To make matters worse, there is a …
There are certain words that have a general meaning that is widely understood. Then, within a very specific context, that word might have another meaning. This can be confusing, especially if you are not a native speaker of the language or if, for some reason, you simply have not encountered the word in that context …
The English language has a lot of stock phrases. Many of these, like “killing two birds with one stone,” are idiomatic. Others are just common phrases that have been repeated so many times that it’s hard to imagine their individual words standing alone. Some of the latter, like the phrase “open availability,” seem redundant but …
Business English is famous for being confusing. And as anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, that’s especially true on job applications. Today, we’ll take a look at a particularly unclear part of some job applications: what to put when one asks for your discipline. What does “discipline” mean on a job application? On …
>Grammatical terms like suffix, prefix and infix (yes, it’s a thing) can quickly get confusing. When paired with the tendency of business English to use words in nonstandard ways, the situation is worse. Let’s take a look at a common question, how to fill in the “suffix” box on a job application form. What …
When we talk about the language spoken in the UK, US, India, Australia and other countries around the world, we use the word “English.” That word is deceptively simple, though. In fact, there are many different types of English. That refers to regional varieties like Indian English (spoken in India) and UK English (spoken in …