CONTENTS FEATURE: Top 10 misused and overused words—part 2 GRAMMAR COACH: Fielding your questions NET NOTES: Captivating Web sites FINDER'S FEE: Recommend a friend—and earn up to $500 FEATURE: Top 10 misused and overused words—part 2      Author and critic Elizabeth Drew compared language to soil, asserting that "however rich, it is subject to erosion, and its fertility is constantly threatened by uses that exhaust its vitality."      Last month, the EditPros newsletter contained the first installment of a three-part series examining 10 words now in the process of erosion. Habitual and often imprecise uses of these terms are abrading their vitality and blurring their meanings. We encourage preservation of their integrity by using them more sparingly and judiciously. Now, our countdown continues. 6. CHALLENGE      Among the most pervasive vitality-eroding influences are euphemisms—surrogate words substituting for other terms that could be perceived as harsh or pejorative. As a result of one such euphemistic switch, people or organizations today don't acknowledge that they have problems; rather, they "face challenges." An article profiling a meat processing company said, "One challenge facing the company is what to do with poultry litter, which is coming under increased scrutiny from various state governments as well as the federal government." The president of an environmental research institute declared that "Halting the decline of the planet's life-support systems may be the most difficult challenge humanity has ever faced."      A challenge is a competition or stimulating task. A track-and-field competitor seeking to break a timing record is responding to a challenge. The decline of Earth's "life-support" systems constitutes much more than a playful "challenge"—that's a downright dire problem.      When contemplating use of the word "challenge," consider substitutions: complication, constraint, deficiency, deterrence, difficulty, dilemma, hindrance, impasse, impediment, inadequacy, inequity, limitation, obstruction, opposition, plight, predicament, resistance, restriction, shortcoming, trouble. 5. ADDRESS      Unlike President Harry Truman, who affirmed his acceptance of responsibility with the slogan "The buck stops here," far too many members of today's workforce appear content to pass the buck to avoid scrutiny and liability. That tendency is reflected by the pervasive use of the cautious, noncommittal verb "address" in describing their approach to responsibilities. The minutes of a safety committee meeting said that "the committee addressed the issue of what to do when an employee is injured and the threat to them is not severe enough to call an ambulance, yet the employee would like to be transported to a medical facility for evaluation."      Did the committee members actually determine and adopt a policy for treatment of injured employees who do not require admission to a hospital? Or did they merely discuss the need to develop a policy? The introductory section of a report issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce contained a sentence that said, "The third chapter of this report sets out a series of recommendations designed to address the challenges identified by U.S. manufacturers."      Will the recommendations actually resolve the problems ("challenges"), or does the report simply recommend a process for discussing them? A scientific paper declared, "Our results show some consistent trends that address our original hypothesis."      Do those trends support the hypothesis? Substantiate it? Or contradict it? The statement does not clearly indicate the way in which the trends "address" the hypothesis. An article on an employment service Web site discussed "How to Address Gaps in Your Career History."      That use of "address" could be intended to mean rectify, explain, camouflage—or eradicate. Which is its real intent? A school district in which ninth grade is being shifted from middle schools to high schools posted a question-and-answer page on its Web site. One question asked, "What is being done to ensure my child doesn't get lost in the system?" The answer: "A special subcommittee for the ninth Grade Transition Committee addressed this issue. The committee members developed guidelines for small learning communities. Each high school is using the guidelines to develop learning groups that are smaller in size and more personalized."      More to the point, the subcommittee established guidelines for organization of small learning groups within which to ease the assimilation of ninth graders into the high school student body. A report by the Federal Trade Commission's Advisory Committee on Online Access and Security declared that "the advisory committee addressed providing online consumers reasonable access to personal information collected from and about them and maintaining adequate security for that information."      Does that mean the committee members actually took action, or did they merely discuss the concept of granting access to consumers? "Address," in this sense, refers to directing attention to, or dealing with, a topic. However, it does not necessarily convey taking responsive action.      If no more than discussion takes place, then "address" is your verb. But to express tangible, decisive action, choose a more precise verb. 4. EFFORT      Another term somewhat analogous to the verb "address" is the noun "effort." Often used to veil inactivity, this vague, hedgy term also can reveal underlying uncertainty about ability to achieve a goal. A U.S. Department of Commerce publication titled "Manufacturing in America—A Comprehensive Strategy to Address the Challenges to U.S. Manufacturers" reported on recommendations to make the findings of federally funded research and development programs more accessible to manufacturers. "Implementing these recommendations will require a comprehensive effort, led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. As a part of that effort, NIST should take the lead in identifying and promulgating best practices in intellectual property management, cooperative R&D agreements, and partnering arrangements needed to enhance the benefits and delineate the obligations associated with such cooperative efforts. Participation from existing groups such as the Federal Laboratory Consortium, the Interagency Working Group on Technology Transfer, and others should be solicited in this comprehensive effort."      An effort is an attempt or an exertion of will—which does not necessarily equate to success. Enacting those recommendations demands more than mere exertion; it requires successful execution of an incontrovertible plan. "The goal of the effort is to adopt quantitative and qualitative factors/endpoints and develop the associated cost-benefit-risk tradeoff methodology to support the preliminary screening and subsequent evaluation of guardrail site selection and upgrading with limited available funding," stated a verbose proposal for a study to recommend new standards for placement of highway guardrails. "The effort will adopt best available models for the assessment of quantitative factors/endpoints from data and engineering judgment."      An "effort" can't adopt models or anything else; rather, the committee is responsible for specifying criteria by which to evaluate data. A proposal for incentives to encourage wireless telephone service in rural areas said, "The effort is designed to help coordinate an effort on behalf of consumers and give them a place to turn when they have unresolved questions. The goal of this effort is to improve the quality of wireless services to customers within the state."      If the goal of one "effort" is to coordinate another "effort" that, in turn, will be relied upon to initiate another "effort," those customers shouldn't expect results anytime soon.      The noun "effort" often can be replaced by a more demonstrative choice, including program, project, procedure, function, process, course or measure.      We'll conclude the unveiling of our top-10 list of misused and overused terms in the March edition of EditPros News. Yes! EditPros can help you identify and replace shopworn terms in your documents. GRAMMAR COACH: Fielding your questions Sherri McFall submitted this month's question: "When describing a list of single items, is it correct to use 'is' or 'are'? Example: Attached is an agenda, a registration form, and a map." The grammar coach replies:      The subject and verb of a sentence must coincide in terms of number and person. If the subject is in singular form, the verb must be also; if the subject is plural, the verb must be as well. In addition, both must have agreement in either first, second or third person form (I, you or they).      A list of two or more single items constitutes a PLURAL subject and therefore requires a plural verb. The correct construction for Sherri's example is: "Attached are an agenda, a registration form and a map."      In that sentence, which is written in the passive voice, the verb "are" appears before the subject. The choice of verb can be clarified by rephrasing the sentence so it appears in the more conventional subject-verb-object sequence: "An agenda, a registration form and a map are attached."      When you're unsure, untangle the questionable sentence and use a more direct, active-voice approach: "I have attached an agenda, a registration form and a map."      Thanks for submitting your question, Sherri!      Are you perplexed by some aspect of grammar or word usage? Don't be shy! Ask the "grammar coach" at EditPros and we'll try to help—at no charge, just for the sport of it. NET NOTES: Captivating Internet resources American Rhetoric repository of speeches      The "on-line speech bank" at this site is an archive of full text, audio and streaming video of more than 5,000 speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews and other recorded media events. The speakers include politicians, sports legends, literary figures, cultural icons, military leaders and others. The repository was developed and is maintained by Michael E. Eidenmuller, an assistant professor of speech communication at the University of Texas at Tyler. Apple Safari Browser      Microsoft Corp. has discontinued further development of Internet Explorer for the Macintosh. What choices do Mac users have besides AOL's Netscape Navigator? Plenty, starting with Safari, the Apple browser that boasts HTML page loading speeds three times faster than Internet Explorer. Safari requires the OS-X operating system. More Mac browser choices      Visit the Pure Mac site to choose from among a dozen or so Web browsers for Macintosh computers, including iCab, Camino, Firefox and Shiira. FINDER'S FEE: Recommend a friend—and earn a finder's fee of up to $500      Do you know of a friend or colleague whose office can benefit from EditPros services? If you do, EditPros may reward you with a "finder's fee" of up to $500.      EditPros performs writing, editing and publication management services for newsletters, sales literature, brochures, Web sites and other informational and marketing materials.      If you recommend our services to a friend or business colleague, and that introduction leads to an assignment for EditPros, we will award you a "finder's fee" equaling 10 percent of the amount we earn on the first assignment for the new client, up to a maximum finder's fee of $500. Naturally, the finder's fee is applicable only to clients for which we have not worked previously.      This offer will remain in effect until further notice. 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. 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