Christine Jalleh

This article appeared in The Star’s “Mind Our English” column yesterday, which was the last issue edited by Kee Thuan Chye, who “manned” the column for the past eight years. (Read his farewell note ‘Goodbye and thank you‘.)

It has been a pleasure working with Mr. Kee and I know we won’t be seeing the last of him even though he’ll no longer be with MOE. Looking forward to working with the new editor

In the meantime, enjoy these light servings from the Land of Milk and Honey:

*****

GROWING up on a rich diet of British English through Enid Blyton, The Sullivans and Mind Your Language, my exposure to American English was limited to TV shows like The Cosby Show, Three’s Company or Eight Is Enough. As enjoyable as these shows were, they rarely included conversations about work.

Years later when I started working for an American and later an American organisation and participated in meetings or teleconferences with American colleagues, I was perplexed by the unfamiliar phrases used in our discussions.

If you’re in the dark like I was, here’s some light on these American mysteries.

read more »

Working as a freelance writer now, I’m reminded of the “writing anxiety” or “writing apprehension” my college students faced when they got their assignments (engineering, business or IT).

Many of them had no idea where to start or what to do with the information they had gathered.

In most cases, the average student bungled their way through (unwittingly plagiarized nearly 80% of their assignments) and left everything to the last minute!

I sympathized with them most during final examinations because many would be scratching their heads or tapping their pencils as they faced a blank paper in front of them…

Whether you’re writing for school or work, I hope that the the article in The Star (May 13, 2009) will help. Got a question? Feel free to contact me.

*****

THE American National Commission on Writing surveyed 120 major American corporations affiliated with Business Roundtable (an association of CEOs leading US corporations in manufacturing, finance, services and high technology) and discovered that writing is a “threshold skill” for the hiring and promotion of professional employees in today’s workplace.

read more »