Madison, SD, USA
Communication Skills
Dakota State University
Madison, SD, USA
Communication Skills
The Importance of Communication Skills in Finance
In any field of finance effective and efficient communication is essential; it is as important as the financial skills. Glaring grammar and spelling errors detract strongly from the message intended. Lack of good communication skills can be a serious hindrance to one's career in finance. Therefore courses in finance at DSU emphasize communication skills as well as financial expertise. Communication within the courses on exams, assignments, and reports is expected to be in the proper, Standard English expected in financial circles.
The following list is "official" in the sense that misuse or misspelling of the following words or phrases or the commission of the common errors listed below, as applied to finance, may result in points being lost from the evaluation.
This list will grow. Students should check it frequently.
The OWL
Students are reminded of the extensive help available through DSU's OWL (On Line Writing Laboratory), which provides on-line assistance with grammar, spelling, and good writing. There are also links to on-line English handbooks at the OWL site.
Abbreviations: adj. adjective adv. adverb n. noun prep. preposition v.t. verb, transitive v.i. verb, instransitive
Commonly Confused Words
Words or Phrases Meanings
accept to receive; to agree to
except other than, otherwise than, unless
affect, v.t. to influence
effect, n. a result
(effect, v.t. to bring about, to execute, to cause,
e.g., measures to effect [cause]
savings)
borrow to receive on loan (temporary) [Not "The bank borrowed him the money." Rather: "He borrowed the money from the bank."] lend to give on loan (temporary) loan ["The bank loaned him the money."]
by, prep. with the use or help of; through
buy, v.t. to purchase
capital, n. wealth
capital, adj. long-term
capitol a building in which
legislatures meet
company one firm
company's belonging to one firm
companies more than one firm
companies' belonging to more than one firm
country one nation
country's belonging to one nation
countries more than one nation
countries' belonging to more than one nation
its belonging to "it"
it's contraction of "it is"
know to regard as true beyond doubt
no negative, none, zero
known to be regarded as true beyond doubt
none zero, no
of belonging to
off not on
period one period
periods more than one period
period's belonging to a "period"
periods' belonging to more than one
"period"
personal pertaining to one person
personnel a group of people employed
principle a rule
principal an amount of money
rise, v.i. intransitive verb, a subject
acting on its own, e.g.,
"Interest rates rise during
economic expansions."
raise, v.t. transitive verb, a subject
acting on an object, e.g.,
"The Fed will raise interest
rates."
rise, n. an increase in some value
raise, n. an increase in salary or wages
security a single security
security's belonging to one security
securities more than one security
securities' belonging to more than one
security
stockholder a single shareholder
stockholder's belonging to a single shareholder
stockholders more than one shareholder
stockholders' belonging to more than one
shareholder
there not here
they're contraction of "they are"
their belonging to "them"
to a direction, e.g.,
"to the buyer"
too also; or a comparative, e.g.,
"too much"
two the number 2
which the one or ones previously
mentioned
witch a female who practices sorcery
who's contraction of "who is" or
"who has"
whose possessive form of who
your belonging to "you"
you're contraction of "you are"
yore time long since past
Commonly Misspelled Words
Words Meanings accept to receive; to consider true [not "accep"]
analyze to perform an analysis, to study in detail assets resources [not "asets" or "assests"] correlate to relate to depreciation an allowance made for a loss in value dividend cash or stock payments to stockholders [not "divident"]
individual separate [not "indivitual"] interest cash payments to bondholders, [not "intrest"] liquidity availability of cash to pay bills
lost negative return [not "losed"]
monetary pertaining to money [not "monitary"] mortgage, n. a pledge of property as collateral for a loan [not "morgage"] paid past tense of "to pay" [not "payed"] portfolio a collection of assets riskiness property of being risky [not "riskyness" or "riskines"] volatile subject to sudden changes
Common Grammar Errors
Error Explanation/Illustration "could of" really "could've" better to use simply "could have" singular/plural as in "The company lost their mismatch president." 'Company' is singular; 'their' is plural. The sentence should read, "The company lost its president."
College of Business & Information Systems
Dakota State University
Madison, SD 57042
Page Manager: Jim Janke
Contact at: jim.janke@dsu.edu
http://www.courses.dsu.edu/finance/english/english.htm
Last update: August 19, 2008