CONTENTS FEATURE: Shun 'vanilla' words to write more expressively SPOTLIGHT: EditPros clients in the news WELCOME: The newest EditPros client NET NOTES: Captivating web sites FEATURE: Shun 'vanilla' words in quest of more expressive writing      Americans crave colorful variety and distinction in just about everything—in their wines, blue jeans, athletic shoes, cell phone ring tones and blended gourmet coffees. They're discriminating in just about all of their pursuits except something truly important: language. While expecting 30 or more flavors of ice cream, sorbet and non-fat frozen yogurt at the local confectionery shop, many Americans are distressingly content with banal vanilla speech and writing.      In response to the question "How is your crème de menthe cappuccino?" the reply is, "Great."      An employee's annual performance review says, "You did a great job in launching the new product line."      Great? Meaning "extremely large in size"? Or "large in quantity or number"? Or "extensive in time or distance"? True, one sense of the adjective "great" indicates "remarkable or outstanding" achievement. But with so many more vividly descriptive and precise terms at our disposal, why settle for "great"? How about describing the employee's performance as "superior," "praiseworthy," "admirable," "commendable," "exemplary," "peerless," "fastidious," "meticulous" or "punctilious"?      Pallid speech is attributable in part to our tendency to assimilate the workplace jargon and sloppy syntax to which we're regularly exposed. It's also a manifestation of laziness or haste.      Casually overused and misused terminology abounds. A transit official declared, "Use of alternative routes would significantly impact bus ridership." The verb "impact" properly means "to pack firmly together" or "to strike forcefully." But it is often incorrectly used to mean "exert an effect upon." Typically that sense of the word carries the connotation of crowding, as in traffic congestion. However, the transit official was trying to say just the opposite—that changing the bus route would diminish ridership. Thus, "diminish" would have been a far more precise word choice than "impact."      How about a double scoop of vanilla served by bureaucrats claiming that a proposed city park would "negatively impact" a nearby wildlife waterway? Do they mean that the creek would overflow? Be vandalized? Polluted by rubbish or fertilizer runoff? Defoliated? Or simply that wildlife would be disturbed? If so, they should more definitively say, "The park would threaten the seclusion of the wildlife refuge."      The park proponents might offer a counter-proposal that they say "addresses the concerns" of wildlife preservationists. That's hardly compelling because in no sense does the verb form of "address" suggest anything committal. "Address" is a weak term that in this sense means "to direct efforts toward a task." Instead, a sincere, responsive approach would "resolve," "surmount," "amend" or "rectify" objectionable aspects of the park proposal.      A scientific paper stated, "Our results show some consistent trends that address our original hypothesis." How so? Did the findings support the hypothesis? Corroborate it? Substantiate it? Confirm it? Or contradict it?      A supervisor may denounce a prank by an employee as "inappropriate behavior." The adjective "inappropriate," which means, "not suitable," is so limp that it's scarcely a condemnation. Truly objectionable behavior demands a stronger indictment than that. Was the behavior offensive to some employees? Did it physically endanger them? Did the employee abuse or damage company property? Or was the act an embarrassment for the supervisor or the company?      Challenge yourself to find the proper terms to precisely express each thought. Keep a thesaurus and a dictionary within reach. Expand your vocabulary by verifying the definitions of even familiar words, by studying the distinctions between similar terms, and by using them to more clearly express yourself.      As you do, treat yourself occasionally to a frothy crème de menthe cappuccino, with a scoop of ambrosial pineapple-raspberry sorbet on the side. SPOTLIGHT: EditPros clients in the news Dairy industry initiates emergency preparedness training      A new instructional program to help California dairy farmers tighten "biosecurity" is about to be introduced. The "Food Safety and Emergency Preparedness" course will teach farmers "biosecurity" measures to guard against introduction of foreign diseases into dairy herds. The program will explain how the state's emergency response system, once activated, will mobilize industry, university, state and federal resources to protect consumers from potential food contamination resulting from inadvertent spread of disease as well as intentional contamination by toxic biological or chemical agents.      The instructional program will be offered to dairy farmers by the California Dairy Quality Assurance Program (CDQAP), which began developing the curriculum early last year. The program took on new urgency after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks elevated the prospect of biological warfare. CQDAP operates under the leadership of the California Milk Advisory Board and the California Dairy Research Foundation, an EditPros client.      CQDAP is already operating an Environmental Stewardship Program, through which more than 1,500 dairy producers have been trained in new environmental protection techniques that help increase food safety.      The Food Safety and Emergency Preparedness course is intended to teach dairy producers, processors and veterinarians to function as a first line of defense against "agro-terrorism" by recognizing symptoms of exposure to unusual biological agents. They, in turn, would call upon the resources of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System, another EditPros client headquartered at the University of California, Davis. CAHFS is staffed by some of the world's most experienced veterinary diagnosticians, observed Michael Payne, D.V.M., who is a member of the UC Davis department of environmental toxicology and is program director of CDQA. The laboratory system is a collaboration between the University of California and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)—which in turn is closely integrated with the state's Office of Emergency Services. That network of agencies would trigger an efficient response to any agro-terrorism threat.      Critical to this effort is the ability of dairy foods producers and processors to detect potential threats as early as possible. The Food Safety and Emergency Preparedness program, to be initiated within the next few months, will offer that necessary training. We proudly welcome the newest EditPros client New Horizons In Education Inc. Sacramento, Calif. (916) 482-4405 Web: http://www.newhorizonsineducation.com New Horizons in Education (NHIE) is a teacher training and consulting firm specializing in development of effective methods of teaching students whose first language is not English. NHIE principal Jo Gusman is an internationally recognized ESL trainer who maintains a rigorous schedule of speaking engagements. HNIE also offers educational computer software products and other training materials for teachers and students. Net Notes: Captivating Internet resources Librarians' Index to the Internet http://www.lii.org/      The Librarians' Index to the Internet (LII) is a searchable, annotated subject directory of more than 8,600 Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries. The site is maintained by the Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE, which is sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley, and Sun Microsystems Inc. Worldtime http://www.worldtime.com/      The Worldtime Web site contains an interactive world atlas showing the portions of the globe that are in daylight and those in darkness at any given time. It also offers information about local time, sunrise and sunset times in several hundred cities, and a database of public holidays in nations around the world. This site is operated by HAB Software GmbH Co. KG, Hamburg, Germany. Lycos RhymeZone http://rhyme.lycos.com/      Trying to think of words that rhyme can be a difficult task that consumes lots of time. Here you can enter the words of your choice, and the results you'll see are cause to rejoice. Enter any word, and the RhymeZone can find not only rhymes, but also synonyms, antonyms, definitions, similar-sounding words, or words with similar spellings. This site has fun features for kids and adults. The site is part of the Terra Lycos Internet network headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, formed by a merger of Terra Networks, S.A. and Lycos Inc. YOUR TURN: Ask the "grammar coach" or subscribe      We invite you to submit your questions to the "grammar coach," and we welcome you to subscribe to this monthly newsletter—which we'll send to your e-mail address at no charge. We respond to all "grammar coach" questions personally, but delays may occur because we must place top priority on assignments from our clients. We appreciate your patience and your interest.      You also can change your e-mail subscription address. For an address change, please indicate your existing AND your new e-mail address. Thank you. OUR PRIVACY POLICY for e-mail newsletter subscribers:      We do not use any commercial e-mail lists or automated mass-mailing programs, and we do not allow access to the list by anyone else for any reason. Our subscriber list is maintained by hand, and it is not for sale. 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