If the shirt fits…
At the upcoming UK APMP conference (October 10th, 11th, Bournemouth, England) the Strategic Proposal team will be wearing shirts with our logo on them. In preparation for this, Jon sent me a mail requesting that I purchase additional shirts for the newest member of our team. He wrote, “Please add two extra medium polo shirts to the list.”
Though the request was clear to me I wrote back teasing him and stated, “Happy to get the shirts but here in the US we don’t have a size XM (extra medium).”
Now, I realize this was a simple note and I doubt Jon took much time to consider the clarity of it as it certainly didn’t warrant it (besides which, even if he did consider it, he would have concluded I’d know what he meant.) But this does illustrate how wording in a proposal could easily be misunderstood or confusing, right?
So how should/could this be worded to ensure clarity? How about, “When ordering, please add two additional shirts, size medium”? Minor change, much clearer.
This article was written by BJ on 19 September, 2007 and filed under Word play & writing. If you found it useful, you can with others. To receive automatic updates, subscribe to The Proposal Guys via 
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“Extra medium”. Sounds like those shirts were actually meant for me – short with a few additional pounds…