Page 153 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

144 DELIVERY

left it in only to make a point.) Anyone can easily upgrade the qual-
ity of their speaking and writing by getting rid of just a few bad
habits:

1. As far as always requires is (or are) concerned or goes to complete
the thought or phrase. It always has to be as far as something goes or
is concerned—not just as far as something. So the sentence should
read, “As far as profi ts go . . .” or “As for profi ts . . .” or just plain,

“Looking at profits . . .”
2. The conditional subjunctive can never be expressed as if I would
have or if she would have or if they would have. The correct way to
follow if is to use had with the verb—“If he had” or drop if alto-
gether: “Were he to have” or “Had he . . .” So our sentence should
read, “. . . if we had . . .”.

3. Just one item or person requires a singular verb; more than one
requires the plural. In my opinion, this is the most common rhetori-
cal mistake of our time. For reasons frustratingly unclear, whole
generations have fallen to mismatching the verb to be with singular
and plural nouns. My kids do it, and their kids will probably wind
up doing it, too. But it’s wrong, and we ought to make every effort
to get at least this little thing right. No more, “There’s fi ve people
waiting in the conference room.” Is it so tough to say, “There are fi ve
people”? Our sentence should read, “There are three things . . .”.

4. That is for things. Who is for people. Instead of, “This is the
woman that,” simply make it, “This is the woman who.” But it is,
“This is the offi ce that. . . .” Our sentence should read, “. . . managers
who . . .”.

5. In terms of is just plain tedious. It robs us of whatever action verb
or economy of scale we once might have chosen to express our-
selves—before we had in terms of to fall back on. Instead of, “We