• Intro
  
• Guest Article - Five Steps To Creating A Powerhouse Elevator Speech by Lorrie Morgan-Ferraro
  
• The Office Corner
  
• Giveaway Stuff
  
• Grammar Question - Punctuation for et al.
  
• Tech Tips by Terence Kierans - Wildcards
  
• Tech Corner
  
• Writing Corner
  
• Trivia
  
• Word of the Month - Milieu
  
• Recommendations
  
• Judy's Corner
  

* Enjoy this issue packed with terrific tips and resources!

* Congratulations to Beth McMillan of Michigan, U.S., whose name was chosen from the monthly book drawing! She picked Janet Attard's popular "Answer Book."

By: Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero of Red Hot Copy

An "elevator speech" is a short synopsis of your business that can potentially get you clients. It shouldn't take any longer to deliver than the time you would spend going between floors in an elevator - roughly 30 seconds. If you have an enticing opening, people often want to know more. Then you reel them in.

When crafting your elevator speech, remember to include the "what's in it for me" factor. They don't really care what you do. They want to know what's in it for them. How can you help them?

1. Identify your target market at the beginning of your speech. Don't be afraid to be narrow. Having a niche is preferable, as you probably already know. Everyone can't be your client.

2. Identify the problem you solve for your target market. This should provoke curiosity. "I help widget manufacturers who have a hard time increasing their sales."

3. Expound on how you solve that problem. What techniques do you use? What are some examples of your results for other clients? Know statistics about trends in their industry if possible.

4. Separate yourself out from the pack. Why is your company different than the others? Why should they hire you?

5. Practice, practice, practice saying it until it sounds natural. Otherwise you'll SOUND like you're selling and turn off the listener immediately.

To find out more about Lorrie, visit www.Red-Hot-Copy.com. For tips on getting your message read in an attention-deficit world, sign up for Lorrie's bi-monthly ezine, "Red Hot Copy". Change your words - change THEIR minds.

Like to publish this article? Just make sure you include Lorrie's website and send a copy of the published article to Lorrie@Red-Hot-Copy.com.

Copyright R 2004 - All rights reserved

1. I-HELPDESK & WEB REVIEW: Moderated by Eva Rosenberg, the I-HelpDesk & WebReview targets Internet businesses and SOHOs, as a thrice weekly discussion list and is a haven for people with Internet businesses looking for answers to questions about doing business on the Internet. You can learn a great deal just by lurking. And, if you're sincere and flexible, you can submit your website for free critiques. This email discussion list is a "must" if you want to learn more about the problems of, and solutions for, small businesses. Free. Text-only.
http://www.helpdeskwebreview.com/

2. SPELLING TEST: The English language offers plenty of everyday terms that can trip up even the best spellers. How hard could this quiz be with just two choices for each word? You may be surprised!
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/quiz/Quiz.aspx?QuizID=103

3. THE BUYING VS. LEASING DECISION: Small businesses face decision when acquiring vehicles. Article for CBS MarketWatch by Communication Expressway subscriber and entrepreneur extraordinaire: Eva Rosenberg.
http://www.taxmama.com/Articles-cur/rentvbuy.html

GIVEAWAY BOOK! Subscribers are eligible to sign up to win a copy of "The Home Office and Small Business Answer Book: Solutions to the Most Frequently Asked Questions About Starting and Running Home Offices and Small Businesses" by Janet Attard, or a Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
Sign up once at http://www.ossweb.com/freebook.html

Question: What are the rules regarding commas and periods when using "et al."?

Answer: This is the abbreviated form of et alii ("and others"); the others being people, not things. Since al. is an abbreviation, the period is required.

For more than three authors (or in some science publications, more than two), only the name of the first author is used, followed by "et al." or "and others."

(Vorfeld et al. 1997)
In a study by Vorfeld and others (1997),...

If a reference list includes another work of the same date that would also be abbreviated as "Vorfeld et al." but whose coauthors are different persons or listed in a different order, the text citations must distinguish between them. In these cases, the first two (or the first three) authors should be cited, followed by et al. or and others.

(Vorfeld, Ochman, et al. 1997)
(Vorfeld, Brockelman, et al. 1997)

Reference: The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, University of Chicago Press, 2003.

When finding and replacing text while editing, the following wildcards are useful - however, use with care to avoid unwanted results.

Terence Kierans
Cyberspace Virtual Services
tkierans@virtualservices.com.au
http://www.virtualservices.com.au/
We keep your project on the boil, while you sleep

1. DON'T WANT TO (OR CAN'T) CONVERT A DOCUMENT TO PDF? Eva Almeida of ebooksnbytes.com recommends Dan Sherman for those not interested in learning how to do conversions. It's $8 per document.
http://www.pdfguy.com

2. COLOR STRATEGY: Article by Chuck Green:
http://www.ideabook.com/009_color/colorstrategy.htm

3. WORDINDEXERS DISCUSSION LIST:
mailto:WordIndexers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

1. POWER REPORTING: Thousands of free research tools for journalists.
http://powerreporting.com/category/Reference_shelf/Dictionaries/

2. 11 RULES OF WRITING: Concise guide to some of the most commonly violated rules of writing, grammar, and punctuation.
http://junketstudies.com/rulesofw/

3. HOW MUCH SHOULD I CHARGE? What you as a freelancer offer for sale is simply yourself. The teeming contents of your brain-skills, abilities, personality, experience-form a unique combination that no one else can duplicate. By Lynn Wasnak
http://216.68.90.110/content/wm2004_how_much.asp

1. WASHME.COM
http://www.washme.com/

2. QUILT INDEX: An online research and reference tool designed to provide access to information and images of quilts held in private and public collections. Quilts inventoried over the past 20 years by quilt documentation projects in Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, and Illinois.
http://www.quiltindex.org/

3. THE GERMAN-HOLLYWOOD CONNECTION: "The Germanic impact (Austrian, German and German-Swiss) on Hollywood is often underestimated or even ignored. But the fact is that Hollywood - without its decades of Teutonic influence - would not be the center of the world's entertainment industry that it is today," asserts Hyde Flippo.
http://www.germanhollywood.com/

Main Entry: mi·lieu
Pronunciation: mEl-'y&(r), -'yü; 'mEl-"yü, mE-ly[OE]
Function: noun
The physical or social setting in which something occurs or develops: ENVIRONMENT

*By permission. From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary at www.m-w.com by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

1. HORSE AND RIDER:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/horseandrider/index.html2

2. THE GREAT LIBRARY OF AMAZONIA: Amazon.com's ability to search the text of 120,000 books.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60948,00.html?tw=wn_bizhead_8

3. COLOR BLINDNESS: MORE PREVALENT AMONG MALES Some 10 million American men-fully 7 percent of the male population-either cannot distinguish red from green, or see red and green differently from most people.
http://www.hhmi.org/senses/b130.html

Many of you know that my mother had a severe stroke in June of 2002, and that I flew up to the Pacific Northwest a couple of times to help with her care. I have good news. She's doing so well that she'll be moving into her own apartment soon. She responded well to therapy and loving care, and never gave up hope that she'd play the piano again. She's been doing this for many months now as she gains increased mobility with her left hand. Thank you for your concern and kind notes.

Ah, autumn is here. Today was the first day in months that I felt comfortable wearing warm fuzzy clothing. And the first day in months when a mug of hot tea warmed my hands. Felt so good! Hey, I love warm weather, but there's something special about the change of seasons, and since autumn in the desert is brief, I intend to enjoy every moment of it.

I hope you have Happy Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for you!

ARCHIVES FOR ALL COMMUNICATION EXPRESSWAY ISSUES
http://www.ossweb.com/ezine-archive-index.html

Questions, comments, recommendations?
Contact Judy Vorfeld at www.ossweb.com.contact.html

TO SUBSCRIBE TO COMMUNICATION EXPRESSWAY
go to http://www.ossweb.com/ezine.html