Mind your words ...

One wrong word can negatively impact your entire message. Fair or unfair, it happens.  For example, if your Resume contains the word “Carrier Objective” instead of “Career Objective”, probably your chances of attending the interview itself is very less, while you may have the real talent and capability to be successful in the interview.

So mind your words.  Here are a few commonly confusing words.

Compliment and complement

Compliment is to say something nice. Complement is to add to, enhance, improve, complete, or bring close to perfection. 

I can compliment your staff and their service.

Your new app may complement your website.

Criteria and criterion

"We made the decision based on one overriding criteria" sounds pretty impressive but is wrong.

Remember: one criterion, two or more criteria, although you could always use "reason" or "factors" and not worry about getting it wrong.

Discreet and discrete

Discreet means careful, cautious, showing good judgment: "We made discreet inquiries to determine whether the founder was interested in selling her company."

Discrete means individual, separate, or distinct: "We analyzed data from a number of discrete market segments to determine overall pricing levels." And if you get confused, remember you don't use discreetion to work through sensitive issues; you exercise discretion.

Elicit and illicit

Elicit means to draw out.. Think of elicit as the mildest form of extract or, even worse, extort. So if one lucky survey respondent will win a trip to the Bahamas, the prize is designed to elicit responses.

Illicit means illegal or unlawful. I suppose you could "illicit" a response at gunpoint.

Farther and further

Farther involves a physical distance: “The distance between Chennai and Delhi is farther than the distance between Chennai and Bangalore.”

Further involves a figurative distance: "We can take our business plan no further."  Or, "I am not going to trust you any further."