A fact-checking Challenge

Mon, 7 Jan 2013
1 min read
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Spot the error in this month’s issue of Challenge:

People We Love: Across the Generations (Challenge, Jan - Feb 2013)

In case you can’t see the picture:

Laremy Lee, 29
Role: Playwright, teacher
Achievement: Teacher at St Andrew’s JC, Laremy is versatile in writing for (sic) many genres, but focuses on the stage. His plays, Full Tank! and Radio Silence, were staged at the OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival 2008.

Not say I want to say: “value-added”

Fri, 4 Jan 2013
2 min read
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Welcome to the second edition of “Not Say I Want To Say”!

Today’s “Not Say I Want To Say” word is “value-added”.

Example from a news report:

…what is important is for us to go towards a fair and reasonable payment regardless of their nationality and depend more on their skills, productivity and their value-add to the industry, and the business.

 

From “NTUC chief addresses migrant worker issues”, my emphasis.

How has “value-added” been misused here?
The speaker’s intent is to describe “the amount by which the value of [each migrant worker] is increased at each stage…exclusive of [other] cost[s]” (OED) such as their wages or the externalities which Singapore society has to bear when bringing migrant workers into the country.

However, “value-added” is a compound word more commonly used as an adjective e.g. “value-added services”.

The speaker seems to have inferred that “value-added” can be shortened to “value-add”, which is confusing for the reader: is the speaker using the compound word as a verb or a noun?

How do we use “value-added” correctly?
Ask yourself: is a compound word necessary for the purpose I intend?

E.g.

When the focus is on the value of the goods or services:

 
When you want to describe the goods or services:

 
Efficiency of non-standard use: No change – “value-add” and “add value” have the same number of syllables and characters.

Potential for adoption: DO NOT adopt – there is no added value to the word “value-add”.

Have a good weekend and see you back here on Monday!

Stuff you must read today (Thu, 3 Jan 2013)

Thu, 3 Jan 2013
2 min read
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  • How To Build An Antifragile Career | Fast Company
    “‘Never go for medium profession… Literary writers should have a menial job or (if possible) a sinecure, and write on the side. Otherwise writing for a living under other people’s standards debases their literature. The same for artists. The best philosophers were not academics, but had another job, so their philosophy was not corrupted by careerism'”.

  • Bloodless Mary | Luxirare
    Found this recipe when I was searching for stuff to do with vodka and lemons and I was absolutely blown away by the effort and presentation of this drink.

  • The Four Kinds of NYT Headlines | Alex Leo
    Spot on!

  • If They’re Voting For Mitt Romney, Don’t Have Sex With Them | Thought Catalog
    “Sometimes opposites attracting can be sexy, and you’re turned on by the fact that they love dubstep, which you don’t think is music; go rollerblading unironically; or are one of those people who still thinks that Crash deserved to win Best Picture. (Unheard of, I know.) … However, this is election season, and things are different if their “little quirk” is a Romney/Ryan bumper sticker. You need to stop paying attention to dat ass for a moment and pay attention to dat electoral map”.

  • You Only Reboot Twice | The Bygone Bureau
    SPOILER ALERT!

    “After a quick, hushed introduction (they are spies after all), Bond questions the competency of his young tech and weapons expert. Q says, ‘Age is no guarantee of efficiency’; Bond retorts that ‘youth is no guarantee of innovation.’ This is the film’s central conflict: new vs. old, technology against tradition — a fitting theme for a sequel in a rebooted series”.