The Wednesday Word Wise Roundup

• I’ve used every online tool available to figure out how much I need to save for retirement (apparently, given what they've told me and my current age, I’m never retiring), what my monthly payment would be if I bought a million-dollar house, and how much I can afford to pay for a new car. But I just came across an online tool that could help writers (who are not known for their mathematical skills - or is it just me?) that’s really worthwhile (especially if you work in financial communications). It’s called the percent change calculator and all you do is enter a number, then the number it changed to and it tells you the percent change. No long division, no embarrassing yourself by asking colleagues if they know how to figure out the percent change from 745 to 13 (98.3 percent decrease), no feeling really old and decrepit. It’s divine.


• On Aug. 18 there was a “systems slowdown” at a major brokerage house. Visit Language Log to read the e-mail sent from the COO to customers. It’s a great example of why the need for good writers never seems to go away.

Comments

[Patricia]

I work with sales reps who send out cringe-worthy emails like the Schwab COO's all the time. While we, the writers, recognize that our skills are always in need, how do you get the linguistically challenged to realize that poor writing, incorrect grammar, misspellings, etc., DO matter in this fast-paced world? The bad communicators I've worked with don't recognize the severity of the problem and dismiss me as an anal-retentive school marm.

[mark]

if you are ever caught without the %CC, try this. Divide the second number by the first (eg 13 / 745) and then multiply by one hundred. If the answer is X, then the second number is X percent of the first. So here 13 / 745 = 1.7% Surely no-one does that in their head now anyway, you just need a calculator. To get the percentage change . type 100 - X. Here, 98.3%

[Jane Howitt]

Oh my, oh my! Just read the Language Log thing about the systems slowdown. Haven't laughed so much on my own for ages!

Tell me, are these intelligent grown-ups we're talking about here?

You're so right, of course; the world certainly needs good writers. But why is so difficult to get so many of the poor dears to recognise that they need us??

[Jonathan]

I subtract the smaller number from the larger, then divide the result by 1% of the first number. So I would get

745-13=732

732 / 7.45 = 98.255...

That seems more intuitive to me somehow. I want to know how many units of 7.45 (each one worth 1%) will fit into 732. What I find intriguing is that an increase from 13 to 745 is more than 5,000 per cent! Now you're asking how many units of .13 go into 732. It's not a very intuitive way of thinking about the relationship between two numbers.

[Dan Santow]

Mark, Jonathan, your examples of what to d if you ever get caught without the percent change calculator is EXACTLY why I can never allow myself to be caught without the percent change calculator.

[mark]

But Dan, assuming you have a calculator/mobile phone/Blackberry, what is so hard about:

Divide the small number by the big number and then multiply by one hundred.

?