No Need To Be So Details

I learned a lot from my bosses. In the law office, I had a boss who was a walking Strunk and White. He would call us to his room at night when he reviewed our legal opinions, and we would sit beside him as he mangled our work way into midnight. He didn't seem to particularly care whether our legal advice was accurate or thorough or could possibly send the whole firm to jail; he seemed only to care that we should write in flawless English. He taught us all the usual Strunk and White rules on avoiding big words, making our sentences concise, usage of semicolons, the works.

On top of these, however, he also had these rules that I honestly thought he just made up in his anal moments, but when I Googled them up, he was actually right. One example: use 'on behalf of' when you mean 'as agent of', and use 'in behalf of' when you mean 'for the benefit of'. Hence, on behalf of my equally clueless batch mates in the law office, I would like to thank our boss, the grammar Nazi, for slaving over all our legal documents, in behalf of our clients who undoubtedly could not care less whether our commas were properly placed.

From another boss I learned the difference between 'currently' and 'presently'. I had no idea there was even any difference, and raised my eyebrows when she crossed out the 'presently' in my draft and inserted 'currently'. (I can't explain it, but I seemed to be always in a fighting mode with this woman, always provoking her to fire me on the spot.) I surfed the Net and found that she was, in fact, correct. 'Currently' means 'right now' or 'in the present time' while 'presently' means 'soon to happen' or 'in a moment'. So, I'm currently hoping to learn something truly useful from a boss, other than hair-splitting grammar rules, one that will presently bring me loads of moolah.

My favorite boss of all time (mainly bcoz he's so hot, altho I seem to be the only one who thinks so) taught me to put 'place' before 'time' in a sentence. I think we were working on the agenda for a board meeting, when he told me that the place of the meeting should precede the date. In all fairness to me, I knew it all along and was doing it right; I just didn't know there were formal rules on it. (Place, manner, time is the correct order, apparently.) This time I didn't need to go to the Web; I just took his word for it. I have such a high regard for this guy that if he leaves even a single paragraph intact in a 10-page document that I ask him to review, I go and treat my office friends to lunch.

Now Boss No. 4 is a different breed altogether. He is, without a doubt, a brilliant man. He is, in fact, a multi-awarded business whiz and a well-loved icon in the company who has this talent of owning the stage when he makes a presentation – but his English often leaves me scratching my head in utter bewilderment. He asks me stuff like, “Have you meet so-and-so? Have you meet him?” and “Do we need to reply this?” He has many more of these laugh-out-loud comments, but my all-time favorite is: “No need to be so details”. From this boss I learned How to Murder the English Language.