For the last three months, my husband ( an RF Engineer) has been deeply engrossed in, committed to and preoccupied by,  solar panels. Comparing and calculating the efficiency and reliability of each and every solar panel currently on the market in Australia, to find the most efficient and reliable solar panels for our household. Well, he

Our Solar Panels - 6 of 12

is Swiss, so the availability of solar panels here is quite varied to those he is more familiar with in Europe.

Although I know, and work with many scientifically minded people,  the prolific amount of research undertaken for our solar panels, still seemed excessive -to me anyway! Redefining the use of excel sheets and design programs such as CAD late into the night, in his quest to generate as much energy as possible on an inner-city townhouse roof  somewhat shaded by a majestic gum tree – was obviously challenging.

However…… last week the solar panels were finally installed (thankfully, under the strict and researched scrutiny of my husband, much to the dismay of the installation crew!) and the tables of calculation and commitment turned forever.

I have taken up calculating with relentless fervour – Counting the kilowatts of energy being generated by our twelve panels obsessively; coming to terms with obtaining a carbon neutral efficiency for our home, understanding the consumption rate of our heating system and fridge in earnest, and fully embracing the numerics of sustainability.

Probably still a long way from creating excel sheets of comparison, but feel this area is already covered in our household.

We feel liberated from the grid …………. and that’s a great feeling.

Thank you Herr Engineeire…… your measurements of the sun’s tangents  in winter, summer, morning, noon and afternoon are brilliant – and so very much appreciated.

In English, a report, argument or discussion needs to be cohesive – the ideas need to stick together, and flow in a logical order. The presentation or flow of ideas when writing in other languages is very different to that in English.

It is important to show connections between your ideas, sentences and paragraphs, using signposting/linking words. Linking words help the reader to follow the logical order of your ideas throughout your writing, and need to be included in everything you write; emails, documents, reports and proposals. Without them, the reader can become confused and distracted.

Some useful linking words and devices include: However, therefore, previously, meanwhile, besides, such as, in addition, also,  this, that, these, those, personal pronouns, repeated nouns and YES, there are many more………………

Cohesive paragraphs should either deal with one main idea, as is more common, or continue to build on the point in the previous paragraph.

A simple way of improving your English writing skills, is to improve how a document, report, or email flows.

Are your ideas linked correctly, and is your business writing cohesive?

Well… here I go again, mentioning the many advantages of using Prezi as a presentation tool. The small presentation (below) took me about 20 minutes to create, and although seemingly simple – about Solutions Lingua – I still think it looks more effective presented in Prezi than it would in other software.

Parallelism is a writing technique that improves the overall flow and style of business reports and documents.

It is the writer’s word for consistency. using similar structures to express similar ideas.

Use identical noun, adjective, or verb forms in your writing, so that it is easy to read and understand.

Solutions Lingua Use Tagxedo.

Looking to improve your spoken or written communication skills in 2012?

Solutions Lingua is continually updating their portfolio of clients and customised courses. Whatever your requirements -  Professional Business English support, or to Upskill your Business Writing Skills – we can assist and support you throughout 2012.

We offer customised content, original ideas and a savvy approach to all your Communication Skills requirements.

Take a STEP in the right direction…………………

Emails are often less formal than other forms of business correspondence, but also vary in formality and style based on company protocol.

Emails need to be concise, direct and clearly structured.

The following useful phrases or functional language can improve the overall style and clarity of business email correspondence.

Click here to view the PDF –   Email Functions

Email Functions - Excerpt

Email Functions - Example

Trunk Of Morton Bay Fig Near Bridge

The Yarra

Under the Shade of a Morton Bay Fig

Angel

Hello and welcome to a more personal side of Solutions Lingua – little stories from me.

To get the story ball rolling, I’d like to talk about walking…… a mode less travelled in today’s busy motorised world.

In my humble opinion, good old fashioned walking adds an exciting dimension to an otherwise ordinary day – bringing us closer to our surroundings, culture, language, people, nature and history with the guarantee of seeing, hearing, and experiencing things possibly missed from any other mode of transport.

On arrival in Melbourne – 8 years ago – I walked. Although Australian, I was not at all familiar with sophisticated Melbourne back then, so started walking, breathing and exploring, the grandeur of yet another unfamiliar place to call home. 8 years later, we (my partner and four year old daughter) are still doing most of these walks- at different times, with a variety of people and friends, during all four seasons- and are never disappointed by the ever-changing face of our, current and  wonderful home – Melbourne.

When organised, I also take a camera along, which has resulted in a long string of small, and often peculiar, visual odysseys now taking up enormous amounts of space on our computer. Before 2001, and a move to “digital,”  these photos were (and still remain) all stuffed into a very old suitcase which sits comfortably on the top shelve in our house – memories and odysseys from around the world which sit there growing all the more poignant with time and dust.

Today, on a more recent walk with my 4 year old, I thought of sharing some of these visuals (taken on my phone) to highlight one of our favourite sensory, pedestrian gems that you may not have encountered - The William Barak Bridge.

Music On William Barak Bridge

This wonderful bridge provides quick and easy access from the city to Melbourne’s sporting triangle – The Rod Laver Arena, MCG and Hisense Arena- and also provides a panoramic view of the action on the Australian Open tennis courts.

However, a more significant and valuable understanding of the William Barak Bridge lies in the history of the Wurundjeri (Woiwurung) man – William Barak the last traditional Ngurungaeta (elder) of the Wurundjeri-William clan, and in  its soothing music – The sound installation, Proximities.

As described in the attached link, the sound installation “leads pedestrians into an auditory corridor of indigenous voice recordings of people from 53 Commonwealth nations represented in Australia.”

Traditional songs emanate through speakers on the side of the bridge and gently lull you into a celebration of indigenous culture history and diversity.

My daughter refers to it as “the welcome, singing, gently bridge” and has done since she was 3 – I agree wholeheartedly and encourage anyone who has not yet experienced its wonder to do so soon.Walking is a great mode of transport…

Gum Leaves

This is a fascinating lecture from Academic Earth by Paul Bloom -Yale University -  for anyone interested in communication and  language: acquisition, commonalities and differences, phonology, morphology, syntax, our capacity to learn languages and so on….it’s a bit long, but well worth the 40 minutes.

Many………. Many, thanks to the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies – C4LPT-  for this wonderful resource. It is so interesting to see how technologies have changed over the years, in popularity, and where they are now. There is such a vast array of  invaluable performance boosting techie learning tools these days.

All the names we are now very familiar with are there  – Twitter at the very top. It’s also interesting to see where some of the others have ranked – such as:

1. Twitter

6. Dropbox – a simple file sharing tool

11. Wikipedia – free online encyclopaedia

22. Edmodo – anytime, anywhere learning tool

30. Ted Talks – inspirational people talking about inspirational ideas and experiences

31. Yammer  – enterprise micro blogging

52. Mindmeister – online mind mapping tool

Many thanks to C4LPT and Jane Hart.

Well…there is a lot of ‘buzz’ surrounding the promise of a customised service in the world of business marketing, but is it a sincere offering? or rather a quick tweak of service content to keep up with popularity. We need and deserve a customised service – but it is costly for companies to be genuinely customised, and it also requires a certain amount of dedication and commitment to maintaining a personalised promise.

At the moment, I am helping a client with report writing. We have input sessions to work on his individual writing issues and after refining and most importantly, amending his mistakes, he emails through an improved and well-structured, piece of business correspondence for evaluation and comment. A bit like having your own writing coach really!

One thing I have learnt, in regards to writing skills, while involved in training is…..that it takes time to improve – or really improve. There are many layers involved in the writing process, and therefore, also many layers involved in improving one’s writing style and structure.

A writing skills course, or tuition should be customised in the sense that you have the opportunity to receive continual feedback and guidance, as you progress. Otherwise, how can you gauge your writing performance and improvement?

I believe ( hope and envisage ) that a more customised and personalised approach to doing business, and receiving services is slowly on the increase – along with the popularity of ethical and sustainable business practices. However, we need to be dedicated and committed to this belief, not only as business owners, but also in the choices we make while window-shopping for services.

So……..is it really customised ….or was the shop window a bit steamy and beguiling the day you chose that particular service provider?