The Do’s and Dont’s of Asking for a Promotion

You work hard. You’d like to see your efforts rewarded. In an ideal world, your superiors would recognize your talent and offer you a promotion. But advancing is rarely that easy. We’ve compiled the ultimate guide to asking for a promotion. Read on if climbing the career ladder is in your sights!

Positioning Yourself for a Promotion

• Do decide on a timeline. Asking for a promotion shouldn’t be an impulsive decision. Planning will allow you to make sure you’re at the peak of your performance and have your results well documented before you broach the topic.
• Don’t think a promotion will fix everything. Is a promotion really what you need in order to get where you want to be with your career? A promotion won’t make you happier if you’re not enjoying your current company and position.
• Do analyze your current performance Are you doing outstanding work? If you’re not meeting and regularly exceeding expectations, you’ll need to step it up in order to get on management’s radar. It also never hurts to volunteer for special projects.
• Don’t toot your own horn. Sure, you want to be noticed, but it’s important not to come across as arrogant. Do your best to show that you’re confident, not cocky.
• Do consider the timing. Is your company in a strong financial position? Is the climate generally positive? If not, it might not be the best time to jockey for a better position.
• Don’t disregard your manager’s goals. Before you ask for a promotion, you should know what your manager’s team objectives are and have a clear idea of how your contributions are helping to knock those goals out of the park.
• Do keep notes and gather statistics. In the months leading up to when you plan to ask for a promotion, make note of concrete accomplishments. If your job is one that uses analytics, compile statistics to show your successes—numbers talk!
• Don’t forget to do your homework. Know the skills the position you’re aiming for requires. Make sure you’re prepared to demonstrate how your skills and accomplishments are a good match for the job.
• Do plant a seed and get feedback.

Let your boss know that you’re interested in moving up in the future. Let them know where you’re at today, and how you see yourself evolving to fill a new role in the future. Have a concrete action plan and ask for feedback on it.

Asking for a Promotion

When you’ve positioned yourself and you’re ready to ascend the career ladder, ask your boss for a meeting to discuss your role. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

• Do plan the meeting. It’s a good idea to have your agenda outlined in advance so you can demonstrate that you’re a fit for the new position. Having everything laid out in advance allows you to focus on important points, which makes you appear more composed and confident.
• Don’t skimp on the presentation. If you have insights or data to share, get them down on paper so you can present them to your boss with flair.
• Do dress for success. Even if your company dress code is casual, take care with your appearance on the day of your meeting. You don’t have to wear a three-piece suit if your work attire is usually business casual, but make sure you’re looking clean and polished.
• Don’t make it all about you. Your boss likely doesn’t care that your rent went up, or that it’s been a couple of years since your last promotion. Remember, it’s not about what your company can do for you, but what you can do for the company.
• Do focus on the benefits. Your boss’s job is to look after the best interests of the company. He needs to see how promoting you will improve that bottom line.
• Don’t compare yourself to others. Resist the urge to focus on others, even if you work harder than a coworker who holds a higher position, or you know that someone on the same tier makes more money. Your meeting should focus on your own merit and accomplishments.
• Do think in terms of what you deserve, not what you need. You may well need more money, but unless you can prove that you also deserve it you won’t get far in your quest for a promotion. Be prepared to demonstrate why you’re the person for the job.
• Don’t assume you deserve a raise simply based on your length of employment. Many workers think that longevity should equal a promotion. That’s not the case in today’s workplace. You’ll need to show how your contributions create value.
• Do consider timing. It makes good sense to ask for a promotion just after you’ve achieved a significant milestone. If your biggest successes are months in the past, you’ll want to wait until some of your current projects have come to fruition.
• Don’t forget to rehearse before your meeting. At the very least, rehearse by yourself. If you can, ask a trusted friend to listen to your pitch. Consider these nine things you should never say when you’re asking for a promotion.

What to Do if You’re Turned Down for a Promotion

• Don’t give up. Don’t take rejection personally. If there are performance issues you need to address, own them. Otherwise, let go of factors that are outside your control. If you get a no, consider it a “not yet.”
• Do ask for a timeline and follow up. If you didn’t get the result you were after this time, set a timeline with your boss. Say, “I’d like to position myself for a promotion within the next X months. I’d be grateful for any feedback or suggestions you have on how I might get there.”
• Don’t complain. Whiners aren’t winners. If you hope to advance in your company, keep your attitude positive and goal-focused.
• Do take stock. If you’re convinced that your company is the best fit for you, revise your plan for advancing in your career and get down to work. If you’ve lost enthusiasm, weigh the pros and cons of moving on to another company.

Asking for a promotion is one of the most unnerving challenges any worker faces. But if you go into the process fully prepared and confident in your skills, you’ll increase the odds of successfully earning the career boost you deserve.

What Is Plain Language? 5 Ways to Overcome Workplace Jargon

If your work consists largely of moving words around on a screen, being understood is essential. At no time is this more evident than when workplace communications fail.

Say your team has been coordinating a crucial media announcement for weeks. You’ve gathered input from scientists and software developers at your company to clarify the details of your message, you’ve run the language past your boss and a company lawyer—you’ve even sat down with an executive to make sure your tone is on brand.

That’s when the bombshell drops: somehow, parts of the story have leaked early. A journalist is calling—asking to interview your boss’s boss. Maybe that person is on the road. Maybe your boss has been preoccupied with high-level issues and delegated the details of the project to you. As your panic escalates, you notice this final dagger—an email from your company’s D.C. office that makes absolutely no sense to your bleary, uncaffeinated eyes:

“Hey there, WaPo is looking to intvw c-suite rn re rollout. Cheryl has the bug, can you grab? A quick statement would be clutch.”

Argh. When communication breakdowns happen, they can be devastating for you, your clients, and your team. While it’s fun to tinker with language, invent creative slang, and show off your wonkery with jargon, sometimes the best way to get things done is by using straightforward, plain language.

Here’s how to make sure your writing is easy to understand.

1Avoid jargon and strange abbreviations

Every specialty has unique terminology that separates insiders from the general public, but this separation leads to trouble when you need to communicate broadly. That’s true for emergency responders trying to coordinate with other departments that use different radio codes, and for military officials briefing the press on an upcoming deployment, as in this example:

General: “Our unit will rotate back in approximately seven months.”

Reporter: “Will that be enough time for the troops to rest?”

General: “We believe BOG-time will be sufficient.”

What the general means is yes, but he uses a term that most civilians have to look up; in this context, BOG is short for boots on ground. Unfortunately, the reporter probably can’t use this quote in her story without some added explanation.

2Try paraphrasing

When you spot a clunky turn of phrase in your draft, look for a more conversational alternative. In the above examples, you could just as well substitute rest time instead of BOG for the weary troops, as well as executive in lieu of c-suite, and is sick in lieu of has the bug.

While we’re at it, we might swap out the rarefied lieu in that last sentence for the more plainspoken in place of.

3Ask the experts to simplify

Whether you’re getting input from an engineer or a financial guru, you may find yourself searching for a delicate way to ask them to be, er, um, less technical. The quick-witted reporter in the above scenario might broach it with this followup: “For people in our audience who aren’t familiar, what is BOG-time and why is it important?”

Science writers use this tactic constantly with academics, asking them to distill the complexities of their research as they might when speaking to a bright but easily distracted fourth-grader.

It’s a sentiment echoed in a memorable scene from the 2011 film Margin Call, in which the CEO of an investment bank on the verge of collapse deadpans to a young analyst, “Speak as you might to a young child—or a golden retriever.”

4Don’t act like you know

Small misunderstandings have a way of compounding, if you let them.

It can be strange to ask people for clarification, especially if you feel expected to already understand what they’re talking about in full. In this situation, it’s worth remembering that if you’d mastered the subject perfectly, then discussing it further would only be a waste of breath. In other words, asking questions shows people you respect their time.

Also, putting such questions off for later won’t help, and may even set back your efforts, so it’s best to get it over with. You may be surprised: folks tend to value feeling well understood, so they may appreciate your questions more than you’d guess.

5What would George Orwell do?

The need to simplify convoluted language has been evident for decades. George Orwell hammered on it in his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language” (PDF).

Some key takeaways can be summarized as follows: Don’t use played-out turns of phrase, the passive voice, or overly long, arcane, or unnecessary words. But Orwell’s final rule also acknowledges that it’s possible to go too far in pursuit of simplicity.

Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

While it’s tempting to substitute a plainer word there at the end, like awkward, editing Orwell would be outright barbarous. We’ll let it stand.

The Basics of Good Proofreading

After you finish writing something, do you read it over? Hopefully yes, but reading is not proofreading. The process of reading for enjoyment or information is significantly different from the process of proofreading. How so? To proofread is to examine a document with the express purpose of finding and correcting errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Let’s compare and contrast reading and proofreading. By doing so, you will learn how to make the most of a proofreading session.

Read aloud. Most people don’t read aloud unless they are reading for an audience. When you proofread, the audience is yourself. Hearing the words of your manuscript will help you detect errors that you may unintentionally skim over with your eyes. Research indicates that our brain understands familiar words rapidly without needing the input of individual letters. To test this theory yourself, read the following passage:

I cnduo’t bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too.

Were you able to read it fairly easily? Your brain has a tendency to organize text. Your brain is even better at this skill when you are the author of the work you’re reading, because it knows what ideas you are trying to convey. Other than reading aloud, how can you slow your mind down and force it to attend the details more closely?

Read backward. When you read normally, from beginning to end, you mentally connect thoughts to understand context. However, not understanding context is beneficial in the proofreading process. You can focus on each word and sentence without the distraction of context. When forced to examine words separately, it’s easier to see grammar issues and misspellings.

Read multiple times. You might discover that you find at least a couple of errors each time you review. Some proofreaders suggest proofreading for one type of mistake at a time. In other words, you might read first with the objective of fixing run-on sentences. Next, you would check the document for spelling, especially of names and technical terms. Consult a dictionary to make sure you are using unfamiliar terms correctly. Check for your common weaknesses, mistakes you regularly find in your writing. If you change something, scan the whole paragraph again. Writers often make mistakes when they adjust portions of a manuscript at the last minute. For instance, if they change the tense of one sentence, they have to make sure it fits with all the other sentences in the paragraph. Also, they need to watch out for subject-verb agreement and pluralization when they edit. To avoid this issue, proofread after every change and keep proofreading until you make at least one review that doesn’t result in any corrections.

Read it tomorrow. Some authors like to review text first thing in the morning or whenever they are most alert. Proofreading with a fresh mind is most effective. If your deadline doesn’t permit you to schedule an entire day between writing and proofreading, allow as much time as you can between tasks. Take a short break and do another activity. When you return, your mind will be ready to work. Once you do settle in to proofread, try to minimize distractions. If you simply don’t have time to go back over your work, it’s not cheating to ask a friend to lend a hand. Whom should you choose? The best choice is someone in the target audience. For example, if you are writing an article geared toward working professionals, ask a business associate to provide a fresh eye.

Read everything. Don’t limit your proofreading to the body of the text. It’s important to make sure titles, captions, and footnotes are error-free. If you have numbered lists, make sure the numbers are in sequence and that you haven’t omitted any. Check the formatting of margins and paragraphs.

Can you see how different reading is from proofreading? When you proofread, your focus isn’t entertainment or education. You want your document to be accurate and free of grammatical, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. So, read every word of your manuscript multiple times. Try to isolate words and phrases by reading it backward. Give your brain time to reboot between writing and proofreading activities. Applying this advice will result in better manuscripts and your readers will appreciate your efforts.

Hyphens: The Punctuation Mark That Even Editors Can’t Get Right

It stalks the thick jungles of prose, confounding even the most experienced grammar explorer or navigator, yet it’s a gentle, mistaken, and forlorn creature. What am I talking about? The hyphen—the piece of punctuation that not even seasoned editors can seem to get right.

Super high-profile ad agencies and industry giants, despite large budgets and an intelligent workforce, are known to make hyphen mistake after mistake, unable to get a handle on correct hyphen usage. I’m looking at you, Netflix, with a hyphen error right on the main page!

Thankfully, most hyphen usage falls into a few different categories:

• Compound adjectives (but no -ly endings because those are adverbs!)
• Numbers and fractions
• Specific prefixes
• Preventing confusion

Compound Adjective

The most important breed of hyphen to know is the one associated with compound adjectives, which are single adjectives made up of more than one word. Because both words go hand-in-hand to modify the same noun, a hyphen is used to show they are linked. The important part to keep in mind is that all words in the compound adjective are equally important. For example, “high-priced items” would not make sense as “high items” or “priced items.”

Beware of Adverbs!

While closely related to adjectives in the sense that they’re another kind of modifier, adverbs inherently imply subordination to the word that follows.

Critically-acclaimed movies

The above is incorrect because “critically” is providing context for “acclaimed,” and “acclaimed” is describing the movies. “Acclaimed” is a verb, and that’s why the adverb “critically” is referring to it exclusively and not the nonverb “movies.”

Search -ly Endings

The quick trick to knowing whether to hyphenate compound modifiers without sorting out adverbs vs. adjectives is to look for words ending in -ly. This will (most of the time) indicate an adverb rather than an adjective and, thus, no hyphen.

Exception: Some nouns end in -ly, so be mindful of what hyphens you leave off. For example “family-owned business” should retain the hyphen after “family” despite the -ly because “family” is a noun.

Numbers and Fractions

Of the hyphen family, these are perhaps the easiest to classify and implement. Numbers twenty-one through ninety-nine get hyphenated.

Twenty-seven Four hundred and thirty-five

Fractions also get hyphenated.

Three-fifths

When describing ages, hyphenate the age only when it’s used as an adjective before a noun.

The child playing with her toys was five years old. The five-year-old child played with her toys.

Specific Prefixes

A prefix is a modifier placed before a word to alter or enhance its meaning. The prefixes “self-,” “ex-,” and “all-,” almost always need a hyphen between them and the words they’re modifying.

Self-absorbed Ex-husband

However, not all prefixes use hyphens.

Re-place Un-happy

In addition, be sure to break up double vowels between a prefix and a root word unless your spelling checker flags them as incorrect with a hyphen.

Re-enter Coordinate

Preventing Confusion

The hardest hyphen breed to capture, and certainly the most difficult to tame, is the one used to prevent confusion, often with a group of three or more words that contains either multiple modifiers or a noun that’s made up of two or more words.

Consider the phrase “two dollar bills”: Does it indicate multiple bills of the $2 denomination, or is it two bills of the $1 denomination? Does the phrase “twenty odd people” refer to twenty people who are strange or a group of people with about twenty in attendance?

See also this article about one author’s thoughts about the flying purple people eater. The world will perhaps never know exactly what this creature looked like or ate.

The hyphen makes the distinction for you.

And, finally, consider this interesting and slightly unfortunate story about the word “re-sent.” Without the hyphen, it reads as “resent,” which is certainly not the intended sentiment. Even though “re-” is not a prefix that typically gets hyphenated, the hyphen in this case provides an important clarification.

Have you seen any embarrassing hyphen mistakes or made any of your own?

---

Amanda Edens is an editor and content marketer with a wide range of talents from management to design. Check out her blog at www.askyoureditor.com or follow her on twitter @askyoureditor.

What Is a Generic Noun?

Generic nouns are nouns that refer to all members of a class or group. They are often used when making generalizations or talking about universal truths. Generic nouns can be singular or plural, and be used with or without articles.

Let’s take, for example, the very simple noun book. When writing a sentence, we might have a certain book in mind.

My book fell in a puddle when I got off the bus.

In this sentence, we’re clearly referring to a specific book, a fact that is particularly conspicuous because we have used the possessive pronoun my.

I don’t have a book to read at the moment.

While there isn’t a specific book referred to in this sentence, it is clear that the speaker wants to acquire just one book (at least for now) and has nothing to say that applies to all books. Therefore book is not a generic noun here, but simply a common noun.

A book is a window into a new world.

In this example, however, “a book” refers not to a single book, but to books in general. Therefore, book is a generic noun in this sentence.

It’s also possible to use a generic noun with the definite article, although this style is slightly old-fashioned.

The book is the most important human invention in all of history.

You can even make general nouns plural, in which case no definite or indefinite article is needed. We call this the zero article.

Books are windows into new worlds.

This principle of zero article + plural generic noun can be applied to any generic class of things.

Lions are majestic animals.

Do you think computers have revolutionized our society?

It is important to recognize whether a generic noun is used as a singular or plural, because it must agree with the verb that follows. Take the last sentence above, for example, and transform the plural generic noun computers into a singular generic noun.

Do you think the computer has revolutionized our society?

Since the noun computer is now singular (taking the definite article the) the verb following it is now “has” rather than “have.”

Stay Away From These 5 Cliché Endings

Writing a book is difficult, but trying to pick an ending that is both impactful and wraps the plot up beautifully is even more difficult. Beginning your book is important, but ending it can be equally so. Relying on clichés won’t get the job done. As an author, you’ll only leave your readers feeling disappointed and dissatisfied.

Make sure to stay away from these five cliché endings:

The Happily Ever After

What It Is: All of the characters in your book live happily ever, with no hardships to bear. You’ll find the hero in this ending has defeated everyone and all of the plot twists you’ve worked so hard to write have been tied up nicely — but they’re also usually tied up very unrealistically.

Why to Avoid It: Life doesn’t necessarily end happily ever after, which makes this type of ending feel disingenuous. You want your readers to feel enthralled with your book so that they’ll want to buy more from your library or even read the same book again. Real people always have troubles, so make sure that your book stays in realm of realism.

The Drawn-out Dream

What It Is: The drawn-out dream ending is a cliché that usually has the main character waking up safe and sound in their bed, having realized that the entire plot up until that point has just been a dream.

Why to Avoid It: This type of ending typically annoys readers, who feel that the author has copped out. A book should be emotional to everyone involved, and an author who uses this ending seems to betray readers’ trust and cheapen the deep emotions that person has felt throughout the book.

The Killing Hero

What It Is: This is the cliché ending where the hero gets incredibly strong or lucky and kills off everything that ever stood in his or her way. He either accomplishes this task himself, or he is instrumental in orchestrating a plan that saves the world.

Why to Avoid It: This ending is just overdone, making it one of the top clichés no one wants to see when they finish a book. Authors need to avoid this ending because it’s just not realistic. It’s pretty anti-climactic and leaves the reader feeling excited for a little while, but that the book sizzled out overall. This ending just doesn’t engage the reader.

The Guilty Hero’s Monologue

What It Is: This cliché ending is where the hero finally defeats the bad guy or force, but you get to hear his internal thoughts of regret or remorse. This monologue is supposed to show the character’s guilt at what he’s had to do, and how this is eating away at him (or her). Even though the ending is happy, our hero must now live with all the blood and sins on his hands.

Why to Avoid It: In general, writers should strive to show, not tell, readers what is happening in the book. By strongarming readers into feeling specific, manufactured emotions, you are taking away their freedom to experience the novel in a way that is reflective of their background and experiences. Readers feel like they are being led to specific conclusions, and not many enjoy the feeling of an author holding their hand throughout a book — especially the ending.

The Lover’s Life

What It Is: In the lover’s life cliché ending, you’ll find that the end of your novel involves the main character falling in love, for an unexplained and often random reason, and then living happily ever after. It’s a twist that shows that true love makes the world go ‘round and that all that happened throughout the course of the book was worth it.

Why to Avoid It: Again, unrealistic endings tend to annoy readers. If a love interest is too sudden, it isn’t all that real. If it is unexplained, it leaves your characters lacking depth. The truth is that not everyone falls in love and lives happily ever after. The best endings are unique, seemingly realistic, and really make your readers think.

So the next time you are tempted to end your book with an easy, clichéd ending, don’t. Set the text aside, brainstorm some unique possibilities, and pick up your manuscript again when you have a more interesting picture of what could be.