A way with words.

Ever notice that your choice of words can give away more than you meant to say? When you write something, you will write using words that are more in tune with what you are thinking than you intended.

For instance, when someone makes an error while doing something they do on a daily basis, the differing connotations between mistake and mishap cause management to react differently. Perhaps I should put it into context. Shipping made a mistake and sent the overnight package to the wrong address. And: There's been a shipping mishap and the overnight package was delivered to the customer's home address. Which one raises the danger flags for you?

One statement causes management to go on a war path and the other causes them to say, Well, go fix it. One lays the issue on the heads of those who caused the latest emergency. For the other statement, the problem seems innocuous and something well in your ability handle and raises the question why you haven't already resolved it.

The same goes for condone and encourage. One says you'll passively watch someone do something that you may consider as wrong, and the other says that you'll cheer them on and maybe even help them. A friend of mine made the error of using the word encourage in the same sentence in relationship with vandalism and he's been kicked out of the dormitories. He's appealing their action, but the damning fact is that he put that in writing. Now I think I begin to understand why politicians speak the way they do.

For someone else, whom I won't name, (but you know who you are) observing that there are many options and paths in the same paragraph with trusting yourself often means that you're making a big life-changing decision. And as an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes stories, well, the deduction was obvious, dear Watson... ;) Good luck where ever you choose to go, and remember, home is where you choose to make it, not where you are.

So what it comes down to is that one should be careful how you choose the words as they may say more than they are meant to say.