INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Attention, Please. | Don't Let These Words Trip You Up | Use Every Tool on Your Toolbar | Be a Guest Writer

"Attention is among the most important components of your mental life," says Caroline Latham, writing for SharpBrains.com. "By choosing to attend to something and focus on it, you create a personal interaction with it, which gives it personal meaning, making it easier to remember." In "How Can I Improve Concentration and Memory?," she notes, "Focus takes effort. If you want to learn or remember something, concentrate on just that one thing. The harder the task, the more important it is to tune out distractions." And then, "When you learn something new, take breaks so that the facts won't interfere with one another as you study them."

Sarah Moore and Maura Murphy recommend removing distractions like TV or radio that "may knock your concentration out of kilter. On the other hand," they say in How to Be a Student: 100 Great Ideas and Practical Habits for Students Everywhere, "a favourite piece of music may be just what you need to create positive focus and to help lubricate the connections your brain makes between different ideas and concepts." 

In his Psychology Today article "Attention Training," Joseph Cardillo explains, "Your attention plays a vital role in whether you feel focused or scattered, happy or sad, angry or content, full of energy or depressed.  As such, you cannot fully be who you want to be if your attention mechanism doesn't function properly."

In this article, Cardillo, an educator and author of the book Can I Have Your Attention?, recommends building attention skills by asking – before the task or even the night before – seven questions, including "How does (today's) goal link to larger goals in my life" "What are the demands of my environment." and "What behaviors and feelings are worth catching from others."

When writers use an incorrect word – whether for school, business or personal communication – they risk losing more than clarity.  The reader's estimation of their capabilities may also suffer.

Since most of us can think of at least a few words that cause us to stumble, the chapter Confusing Words Clarified in Harold E. Meyer's book The Skill and Art of Business Writing: An Everyday Guide and Reference (Westport, CT: Quorum, 2002), 286, is a great resource.

Here are some examples of the words Meyer deciphers:

Accept/except
Accept means to receive or agree with.
Except means something is excluded.

Right: I will accept your offer.
Right: Everyone except me will attend today.

Affect/effect
Affect is to influence. Effect is a result.

Right: The noise affected his ability to hear clearly.
Right: The effect of the hail was a damaged wheat crop.

Assume/presume
Assume implies a justifiable motive or taking something for granted.

Right: He assumed an attitude of helpfulness upon arriving at the scene of the accident.
Right: Dennis assumed his wife would phone if she were to be late.

Presume means to undertake without justification, to guest or to accept as true without evidence.

Right: We presumed we could get there on time even with our old clunker.
Right: The gang was presumed innocent because they had not been proved guilty.

Get clarity on many more words – and find other valuable tips to help you communicate clearly – in The Skill and Art of Business Writing: An Everyday Guide and Reference.

Knowing how to use everything on your toolbar means you won't have to think twice before reaching for any of them.  Barbara G. Friedman explains the functions of each toolbar button in her book Web Search Savvy: Strategies and Shortcuts for Online Research (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004), 10.

Explaining that her examples "work specifically with Internet Explorer, although Netscape Navigator works much the same way with slight variations," Friedman begins by talking about the back, forward, and stops keys, then goes on to explain other functions, including these:

• The refresh key reloads a page. This is useful if you suspect a page has been updated since you first loaded it (e.g., a news site) or if graphics fail to appear as expected. If a transfer seems to be taking an inordinate amount of time, it can also be helpful to stop the transfer, then press refresh. You can also click on the go key, located to the right of the address box. The shortcut for PC users is Ctrl + R.

• The search key will open a frame on the left side of your screen, displaying the Web site of a search engine or registry chosen by your software provider. Rather than use this key, it's best to find the search engine that you prefer and bookmark it instead or designate it as your starting place. The PC shortcut for the search function is Ctrl + E.

• Clicking on the history key will open the URL history folder in a pane or frame on the left side of your screen, allowing you to see the addresses of Web sites you've viewed on a given date. This is a means to find Web sites you neglected to bookmark, but want to revisit. Parents also find this an effective way to monitor children's use of the Internet. The PC shortcut is Ctrl + H. Your URL history is automatically deleted after a certain number of days, which you can set by using the "tools" pull-down menu on your browser. Select "internet options" and the "general" tab. Use the up and down arrows to designate how many days you want your URL history retained. Here, you can also empty your history folder and release hard drive space by clicking on "clear history."

Visit Web Search Savvy to learn about more toolbar key functions and get other tips to improve your online search.

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