Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Sedimentary rocks can become a significant reservoir for the adsorption of uranium The WritePass Journal

Sedimentary rocks can become a significant reservoir for the adsorption of uranium Summary Sedimentary rocks can become a significant reservoir for the adsorption of uranium SummaryIntroductionGeological SettingSampling ProcedureSample Pre-treatment ProcedureSuggested Analytical TechniquesRadiochemical Analytical TechniquesAlpha, Gamma, and Liquid Scintillation CountersXRD XRFEMPAINAAICP-AESLA-ICP-MSTIMSAMSSIMSGDMSICP-MSBibliographyRelated Summary Radon is an important factor that could result in health hazard by many investigations. This health hazard can be minimized by preventive measures in the North of Derbyshire area due to high level of radon concentration. In the North of Derbyshire, are the largely composed of shales and limestones   having a high level of radon; therefore, Determination of radium isotopes and radon gas has been an important part of the University of   Manchester research programs in Derbyshire. This report also provides a brief description of the both radiochemical and mass spectrometric techniques have been used to determine radium isotopes in barite collected samples from the North of Derbyshire. Introduction Sedimentary rocks can become a significant reservoir for the adsorption of uranium. The presence of clay minerals and organic matter can support the adsorption of uranium (1). Barite is a sedimentary rock which consists largely of barium sulphate and small   concentrations of   F, Sr , and SO3   (2). Due to similarity of chemical properties between barium and radium and   since their location underneath each other in the periodic table, normally radium precipitates with barium in veins forming a   very stable crystalline structure of barium and radium [Ba(Ra)SO4] (3) . Therefore, barite has a relatively considerable amount of radium and its decayed daughter radon as well. Radon is a radioactive noble gas that is produced through decay radium. It has naturally three different isotopes, 219Rn (Actinon), 220Rn (Thoron) and 222Rn (Radon), where 222Rn with a half-life of 3.8 days is most important isotope of radon while other isotopes are very short-lived (219Rn 55.6s, 220Rn 3.96s). According to the recoil-theory, as during alpha decay of radium to radon the energy released causes the alpha particle to be fired away from the nucleus and the newly formed radon atom is fired in the opposite direction to the alpha particle,   the recoil energy of 222Rn transports each atom of radon approximately 20-70 nm in a rock and different possible paths can be identified; therefore, the chance of radon atoms escaping out of grain into the pore space is greater once radium atom is located near by the surface of the grain (4) and radon progeny remains embedded in the grain. In addition, radon can also emanate from minerals in barite but it is very slow process. Since ba rite is unconsolidated rock, radon atoms can escape from the barite grains into pore space to be emanated (5). Radium has four naturally occurring isotopes shown in the flowchart among these isotopes radium-226 and radium-228 have been the most studied as they are the most radiotoxic due to their radiological effects,   both have long biological half lives. For radium-223 and radium-224, they are less importance because of their very short half lives.   Moreover, 223Ra, from uranium-235 decay series, has a comparatively   very low natural abundance in comparison to the   other naturally occurring radium isotopes. 224Ra as previously mentioned is less importance due to fact it is a daughter of 228Th and 228Th is immobile elements (6). There is only oxidation state for radium (П); therefore, no other stable oxidation states exist meaning no solid phase thermodynamic diagrams exist for radium either so for this reason radium chemistry is considered simple. Radium and Radon gas were identified as environmental contaminants and posses a health hazard to human associated with both ingestion of Ra and the inhalation of Rn and its daughter products (7). Many scientists have extensively investigated these elements since 1950s due to their health risk. High concentrations of radon in houses and soil gas in some areas in the UK are associated with two factors. The main factor is the distribution of uranium-bearing source rocks. The classic example is the high heat producing granitic rocks that lead to high radon values in SW England and Aberdeenshire. Other area of the UK also have high radon. One particular hot spot is the Peak district of Derbyshire where there is a relationship between limestone outcrops and high level of radon. The second factor is related to he availability of fracture and   permeable pathways that can act as conduit for the transport of soluble radium which is the source of the radon (8). The association of radon and granitoids is found worldwide. For instance, the highest indoor and soil-gas radon levels in Czech Republic are most associated with granites, granodiorites, syenites in Bohemai containing 12-20 ppm of uranium (9). In Germany, the highest radon occurs over granites and the soil gas radon associa ted with German granites span from 100 to 200 BqL-1 for uranium (10). In France, one of highest radon levels occur in in Hercynian metagranitoids in western France (11).   In Bulgaria, Sandstone in Servia was found to contain high concentration of uranium up to 50 ppb (12). The Peak District is of particular interest because the limestones host the South Pennine Orefield, a series of large vein structures containing galena, fluorite, barite and calcite mineralisation (Ixer and Vaughan, 1993). These were formed from late or post Carboniferous hydrothermal fluids in dilating fractures and are major conduits for present day radon migration. Many studies have found that radium is concentrated in barite scales from oilfield drilling operations,   and barite bearing sludge can contain thousands of picocuries per gram of radium (compared to radium in typical soils ranging of 0.5 to 5 picocuries per gram) (13). Moreover, some states have enacted to protect their environment and others considered to set regulations for NORM. Therefore the barite of the Pennine Orefield may contain evidence of a palaeo-radium (and radon) migration through the fracture system. The primary objective of this study is to assess the processes controlling the behaviour and concentrations of the long lived Ra isotopes and Rn in barite and carbonate. The first focus is on the Peak District as it represents an active radon area with associated health risks to the public. The limestone of this area has been studied by the Health Protection Agency Radiation Protection Division (HPA-RP) examining the link between soil gas radon and ground based uranium, as well as between airborne uranium and indoor radon concentrations. The levels of indoor radon in many buildings and caves are above the minimum acceptable level of 200 Bq m-3 (The UK Action Level) based on gamma spectrometry surveys. Moreover, this area was found to be high in uranium as the average reported values for uraunium in Monsal Dale Limestone at Chelmorton, Derbyshire is 5ppm (14) and relatively low in thorium and potassium, in comparison to the neighbouring areas, as defined by the radiometric data. How ever, there has not been any determination of Ra concentrations in scales or barite in area, recent or ancient. There is therefore interest in determining the Ra content of recently precipitated barite and calcite (in natural cave formations and pipe systems and examining ancient barite for evidence of daughter elements (Pb) reflecting original Ra contents. Interestingly, a new link between health effects and geology has gained considerable attention in a variety of respectable publishing journals leading to the birth of a science called ‘Health Geology or Medical Geology; this study is strongly linked   to this new emerging field of science (14). Geological Setting It is well know that geology of Derbyshire can be classified as MISSISSIPPI VALLEY-TYPE DEPOSITS (MVT) so that this Orefield can be compared with MVT deposit. South Pennine Orefield is located within Derbyshire Dome in central part of England.   South Pennine in Derbyshire as well in centre mostly consist of shale, limestone as the eroded part has been revealed belonging to Lower Carboniferous, and gritstone rocks .   The Limestone thickness is up to about 1800m and the rest is probably Precambrian volcanic where volcanic layers also occur within the limestone and these volcanic layers can form from basaltic lavas to tuffaceous clays in span from few meters down to few centimetres   (15). Therefore, the Carboniferous carbonate rocks overlie lower Paleozoic or Precambrian basement of volcanic rocks. In addition, Much of the limestone in south Pennine follows a gently undulating topography (16). Sampling Procedure For field sampling, A very detailed information with regard to the sampled location must be recorded in a lab note and the sampling procedure performance should also be written in the lab note recorded. This is standard practice and the information will be required for documentation for   future publishing the data and where location details as many publishers will be demanded a description of the studied area. Sample Pre-treatment Procedure In any analysis for geological materials   before it can be preformed, there must be certain criteria carried out in order to make sure no contamination might be in sample during sampling and handling processes and to make the analysis in highly optimum level of performance that surely can lead to high quality and healthy results (17). From previous experience, the weathering effect on the sample’s surface must be sufficiently removed using non-metallic tool. Once the weathered sample   is removed completely, the sample should be cleaned with deionized water and finally with ultrasonic for further cleaning (18). Finally, the sample must be thoroughly crushed and sieved and then dehydrated at highly elevated temperature in order to get rid from the moisture in both barite and minerals as it is important to remove the moisture because moisture can ruin the sample or might lead to false results such as in case of XRF because XRF is surface analytical technique. It is often preferable to use non-destructive analytical techniques in order to avoid introducing contaminations to the sample by the chemicals. It is proposed before starting the pre-treatment steps, loss on ignition (L.O.I) and loss on dry must be estimated with the row material as it is quite important to carry out (L.O.I) for later XRF analysis. L.O.I can easily be done using muffle furnace and the cooking standard procedure can be found elsewhere (19). Suggested Analytical Techniques In this section, analytical techniques for Ra and Rn gas will be briefly discussed. The analytical techniques can be broken into two categories, mass spectrometric techniques and radiometric techniques. In general, the preference between these techniques is that long-lived radioisotopes are better analyzed by mass spectrometric techniques whilst short-lived radioisotopes are preferably performed by radiometric techniques (20).   The radiometric and mass spectrometric techniques can also be divided into two groups, destructive techniques and non-destructive techniques. Radiochemical Analytical Techniques Alpha, Gamma, and Liquid Scintillation Counters The radiometric techniques which will be covered in this report are high resolution gamma spectrometry technique, alpha spectrometry technique, and liquid Scintillation counting (LSC) as they are most capable techniques widely used for radium concentration determination. First, we highlight some issues of radiometric techniques starting of gamma spectrometry. It is a very fast scanning and do not require any chemical separation so it is basically a non-destructive technique which allows us to determine many radioanuclides such as uranium isotopes and thorium isotopes in bulk samples (21).   For 226Ra, the determination can be carried out using gamma counter of the decay lines of immediate daughter 228Ac (22). 226Ra can also be easily quantified by gamma counter using different range of gamma energies, for instance, gamma line at 186.5 keV (3.59%) and gamma line of granddaughter 214Bi 351.9 keV (37.6%). However, there is a drawback in some of these gamma lines such as 214Bi 351.9 keV due to leak of radon gas, the daughter of 226Ra as well as the parent of 214Bi so radon gas can make the reliability of measurement very low. If radon-222 does not escape from the sample ( close system ), 226Ra can be determined by measuring any other of the direct shor t-lived progenies. There are two types of detector equipped in gamma counter, one so-called hyper pure germanium detector which most of gamma detector equipped with it due to higher efficient, the other one is so called sodium iodide which offers qualitative measurement and regards as fingerprinted of isotopes to be determined, thus it is less suitable for our study.   For further regarding gamma analysis for radium, it can be found in elsewhere (21) (23). Second, from previous experience dealing with   226Ra in geological and environmental samples using alpha spectrometry, it requires the sample to be in liquid form. A suitable acid   digestion procedure must be preformed, but keeping in mind that there are many minerals present in the barite and these minerals are highly acid resistant (refractory minerals). To overcome with refractory minerals it is preferable to digest the sample in Pt/Au crucibles in hot water path due to increase in heat conductivity instead of using Teflon beakers. A similar matched standard reference must be used in any destructive method in order to obtain healthy results and to accurately calculate the chemical yield of the chemical separation for quality control assurance reason. Therefore, it is highly recommended to order a barite certified reference material such as IGS 38 from US Geological Survey or any certified reference barite commercially available. 226Ra has a very clear peak in alpha spectrome try because the digestion method follow by ion-exchange (e.g AG1-X8) chromatography, that is a selective method to extract only Ra from the matrix and ultimately a very thin source in electrodeposited source must be made to improve the resolution. 224Ra can also be quantified by alpha spectrometry in the same run while measuring 226Ra. The major disadvantage of alpha spectrometry is related to tedious digestion procedure and longer counting time where the entire analysis may take up to several weeks in order to obtain the results. Third, 228Ra can be quantified by LSC, but this method requires very long chemical treatment to dissolve the sample following up an extraction by ion chromatography and it is very long analytical time which takes at least one month. 226Ra can be measured   using its granddaughter 214Po with the same digestive method as in 228Ra and then followed by extraction by organic scintillation cocktails. Other radionulides e.g. 222Rn can be analyzed in the same procedure like 228Ra (24) XRD This technique might be not a useful technique in the studied material of barite due to high level of concentration of barium that can strongly absorb the X-ray (25). XRF For our purpose in order to determine the major elements ( above 0.1% or 1000ppm ) XRF offers high precision for major elements as well as minor elements ( between 0.01-0.1% or 100-1000ppm ) determination. There are two types of equipments in XRF spectrometry, first is so-called energy   dispersive (ED-XRF) and the other is called wavelength dispersive (WD-XRF). The major difference between ED-XRF and WD-XRF is the resolution as WD-XRF is much more better over ED-XRF. There are other differences between ED and WD-XRF but they are not concern to us. Since barium is the major constituent element in barite matrix, it is better to use WD-XRF over ED-XRF because there is sever interference from titanium to barium in case of ED-XRF leading to inaccurate result for barium. It should be noted that XRF is not quite sensitive   for heavy elements like uranium and thorium due to use of L-lines which are less intense than K-lines (26). Analysis by fluorescence of x-rays (XRF) is a technique essentially based on comparison with standards, the accuracy and the reliability of XRF depends largely on the sample preparation. The preparation of the specimen is a process to obtain from the sample an entity. The matrix,   grain size effects,   atomic number correction, fluorescence correction and absorption correction should be taken into considerations when quantitative measurements are demanded. Therefore, it is preferable to use fused beads techniques to pressed pellets to avoid the matrix and grain size effects (27) and to improve the homogeneity of specimen for the analysis (28) and to not dust the X-ray tube. In addition, fusion technique has also important advantages such as possibility of high or low sample dilution for purpose of maximization of fluorescence intensities and possibility of adding internal standards to decrease or compensate for matrix effects (29) Furthermore, there is Fundamental Parameter Method in XRF, but it is less than accurate empirical methods (empirical method is previously described as methods using range of certified references to set up a calibration curve for analysis.)   because it is based on calculation and computation methods. EMPA Microanlytical technique of EMPA has limited of usefulness in our purpose due to high detection limits for uranium. However, for imaging using secondary electron technique, it enables us to visualize the minerals and their content. INAA INAA is considered the most accurate multi-element analytical technique especially for geological applications as it does not require any chemical separation nor treatment like in case of ICP-MS which is regarded as immune from contaminations of dissolution procedure. The accuracy of INAA is well know by many certifying bodies such as international Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and US Geological Survey (USGS) since they consider INAA as primary analytical technique (30). Most of elemental composition in barite can be accurately determined by INAA, except for Ba and Sr which INAA is not sensitive due to interferences (31). The disadvantages of INAA it needs an access to nuclear facilities such as research nuclear reactor or neutron source and deals with irradiated samples. Further, analysis by INAA takes longer time than any other techniques, 4-6 weeks. It is highly recommendable to carry out this analysis by INAA since it is the most accurate analytical technique ever used for uranium and thorium. However, INAA is not capable for radium determination. ICP-AES It is a destructive analytical technique which is based on fact the atoms of elements can take up energy from an inductively coupled plasma, are thereby excited, and then fall back into their ground state again emitting characteristic radiations. The identification of these radiations permit us for the qualitative analysis of a sample. A quantitative determination takes place on the basis of the proportionality in emission of light of unique frequencies and element concentration in calibration and analysis samples, is the fundamental basis of atomic emission (32) (33). This technique is not capable to quantify either radium or radon in barite sample. However, it is very useful to determine uranium and thorium down to ppt level but less accurate than ICP-MS. Mass Spectrometry Techniques The recent improvements in mass spectrometry since 1998 have enabled precise determination of radium as   substitute for conventional radiometric techniques previously described., especially the new development in multi-collector ICP-MS has offered a precise determination for radium as well as other radionuclides within very short time for analysis. The mass analyzers that are commercially available are quadarpole, time of flight, and double-focusing   sector field.   Quadrupole mass separation has been used in most common mass spectrometry but it has low resolution (34). Time of flight mass spectrometry is regarded as medium resolution mass analyzer while sector field   is   high resolution mass analyzer. Therefore the primary difference is the resolution. For our application, it would be better to consider using sector field mass spectrometry. The main advantage of mass spectrometry is short analytical time. However, in our case it is necessary to carry out chemical separation in order to remove barium before mass spectrometry analysis is taken place. It is required for isotopes study to carry out all the experimental conditions in a clean lab and to use high grade chemicals which are costly. LA-ICP-MS It is regarded as most   powerful multi-elements technique particularly for isotopic studies. However, probably it is not suited technique for elemental analysis. It is a destructive technique as well as microanalytical. Sample preparation for LA-ICP-MS is very simple that it reduces that risk of contamination, except glass disc preparation method. There are three methods of barite   sample preparation in LA-ICP-MS, as pressed pellet, on superglue, and as glass disc (fusion with sodium carbonate Na2CO3 ). Several laser ablation of ICP-MS concern the isotope analysis of radionuclides have been carried out with obtained relative standard deviation of less than 1% using reference materials (35) and the reported results by LA-ICP-MS are comparable to primary analytical techniques. TIMS Due to high concentration of barium present in barite where barium can cause a big interference to radium; therefore, this technique is not applicable to our study unless barium must be removed from barite (36). Because there is   quite similarity   in chemical characteristics of Ba and Ra   and to overcome with this difficulty   to it suggested in literature an   extraction chromtamatographic resin supporting a crown ether such as Sr-Spec   resin from Eichrom which needs many chemical separations (37). The Sr-Spec resin is very expensive (25 gram costs 1050 Euro without VAT) and according to my past experience it is only valid for max 10 runs because after the 10 runs the resin starts degrading. Moreover, I was able to obtain a chemical recovery of 92% for water samples which was comparable to the reported value in literature. Some scientists have reported fractionation of about 2-2.5% by TIMS and this fractionation is difficult to suppress; a correction of mass fractionation is required ( fractionation is part of isotopes ratio calculations )   (37) (38). AMS It has been demonstrated for radium isotopic analysis by many researchers in field of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) that AMS has higher sensitivity, easier sample preparation and requires smaller sample volume (weight) than alpha spectrometry and gamma spectrometry  Ã‚   (39) (40). In addition, AMS furnishes a very excellent determination with low interferences for radium and more importantly the capability of AMS to measure radium-228 without the necessity of waiting for the in grow time. The detection limit is comparable   for 226Ra to   alpha spectrometry but for 228Ra the detection limit is not so good. SIMS It is a surface analytical technique mostly used for depth profile studies for qualitative analysis, especially   in material science, but it is difficult to perform the analysis using SIMS for quantitative analysis due to loss in the   sensitivity. GDMS This has technique has low sensitivity for radionuclides and has limitation in our application; thus, it not useful for our purpose. ICP-MS One of most widely multi-elemental analytical technique used for geological materials. This technique needs the solid sample to be digested by suitable standard digestion method such as microwave assistant digestion method, although it is well know that microwave digestion[1] is not suited for geological materials due to hard matrix, open wet digestion which often used in geochemical labs, and fusion digestion using good flux at high temperature (900-1200 oC) but fusion is only employed for refractory elements, such as Ba and Sr in barite, determination in geological samples because flux can introduce interferences in the plasma and contaminate to the sample from Pt/Au crucibles. Moreover, fusion methods have disadvantage for trace elements measurements because of limited levels of purity of the fluxes. The sample preparation for ICP-MS, ICP-OES, and AAS is the same in case of elemental analysis order. In our study, it is important to separate barium and strontium from radium before the ICP-MS analysis in order to avoid isobaric interferences like 88Sr138Ba. Elemental Analyzer It is a technique used for determination of Sulfur content in barite samples by using thermal conductivity detection method and it can offer a highly accurate measurement for Sulfur in barite. Brief Comparison between Radiometric and Mass Spectrometric Techniques for Radium and Radon determination In table 2, a summery presents main comparison of the above techniques for our application of barite samples. Gamma spectromertry is considered as the simplest and most rapid technique, but with low sensitivity. Alpha spectrometry technique is well known and reliable technique for 226Ra measurement with very low detection limit, but it not capable to carry out 228Ra analysis and it requires the sample   to be digested by mixture of acids and then follows by ion chromatography for selective radium separation method. LSC can only be used to measure 228Ra down to 25mBq; however, it needs many steps for chemical separation as well as chemical digestion for barite. All mass spectrometric techniques with an exceptional of LA-ICP-MS   require the removal of barium from the barite sample in order to prevent interferences and the chemical isolation of barium from radium of certified reference geological material showed a very comparable date with the recommended   values in the certificates. From the above analytical techniques survey of radium isotopes, It is suggested to carry out   determination of radium and radon isotopes using MC-ICP-MS because it is the right technique as it ensures the precise and efficient measurement of not only radium but for uranium and thorium series isotopes, too. Comparison between radiometric and mass s 1 Technique Nuclides Detection limits Chemical separation Interferences Counting time ÃŽ ³-Spectr 226Ra 0.1-1Bq No 235U 4-6h LSC 226Ra (via its daughter.) 0.3-1.4mBq Yes(1 month) 6-8h ÃŽ ±-Spectr. 226Ra 0.2-0.5mBq Yes(more than month) No 16hr TIMS 226Ra 37 µBq Yes (more than month) Ba and Sr 20-30 min ICP-MS 226Ra 0.1-0.5mBq Yes (more than month) Ba, Sr, and Pb 10min AMS 226Ra 0.1mBq Yes (more than month) 30min ÃŽ ±-Spec. 228Ra Not possible LSC 228Ra 25mBq Yes (more than month) 1h TIMS 228Ra 12mBq Yes (more than month) Ba, Sr 30min Further Suggestions Since both radium and radon isotopes are generated in barite and that can subsequently be transported to the water by a variety of means such as diffusion across the barite-water interface and then later water can be driven by wind. 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Measurement of plutonium and other actinides at the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry: A comparative assessment of competing techniques. s.l.  : Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Report No. UCRL-ID-133118, 1999. 41. Recommended Chemical Soil Test Procedures for the North Central Region. Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station SB 1001  : North Central Regional Research Publication No. 221, Jan 1998. 42. Theory, Design, and Operation of a Dynamic Reaction Cell for ICP-MS. Baranov, Scott D. Tanner and Vladimir I. March/Aperil 1999., Atomic Specroscopy.Vol.20(2). 43. Precise analysis of the 228Ra/226Ra isotope ratio for short-lived U-series disequilibria in natural samples by total evaporation thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TE-TIMS). Nakamura, Tetsuya Yokoyama and Eizo. 2004, Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, pp. 717-727. [1]   According to my knowledge microwave digestion offers incomplete dissolution for geological matrix. There some published articles have claimed that digesting   procedures have got   more 90% recovery using microwave.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

How to Improve YourEmployeesBusiness Writing Skills [Quick Tips]

How to Improve YourEmployeesBusiness Writing Skills [Quick Tips] How to improvebusiness writing skills is a vexing issue for many businesses. Employees'ability to write clearly and convert complex information into summarized, well-written business documents offers a huge competitive advantage. Although improving business writing skills seems like an easy thing to do, it really isn’t. Many senior executives and leaders struggle with large chunks of data and disparate information. They lack the ability to extract relevant information from mere noiseand convert it into a meaningful, result-oriented message. Employees spend too much time planning, writing, and proofreading business documents. Finaldocuments have too many errors. Sentences lacka logical transition of ideas. The end result is a poorly written document that reflects poorly on business andimpairs employee productivity. Complimentary Business Writing Review of Your Team's Writing hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(41482, '68b80d4a-2e12-4e12-a6e9-b258b38b08c3', {}); How to Improve Business Writing Skills Step One Before deciding on the approach to training, the first step is to accuratelyassess your employees’ business writing skills. This involves separating the substance or content of employee-written business documents from thesyntax or language. These two elements of business writing must be analyzed separately. Substance refers to the content and organization of ideas in the business document. It is the fundamental aspect that distinguishes a well-written report from a poor one. It refers to your employees’ ability to skim through volumes of data and prepare a summarized report with only relevant information. There are four useful indicators for measuring the substanceof writing: It should matchaudience awareness It should be customized, keeping in mind the readers and the target audience It should be logically categorized in appropriate headings, subheadings, and bullet points It should be logically sequenced with a proper flow of ideas and transition of thoughts Syntax refers to the language of the document. It includes grammatical errors, active and passive tenses used, tone, and sentence structure. Even employees with strong substantiveabilities can make syntax errors. Unlike substance, however, syntax is rather easy to evaluate and syntax errors are easy to fix. Syntax can be loosely measured with software tools: Microsoft’s Readability Index (Flesch Reading Ease Score Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, built into Word and Outlook) Microsoft Grammar Check (Built into Word and Outlook) Grammarly (Grammar-checking software) How to Improve Business Writing Skill Step Two Once you have assessed your employees’ writing skills, you will have accurate measurements about the business writing skills of your employees and organization. The next step is to train or mentor your employees to write better at work. There are threeapproaches to achieve this: Train your employees and mentor them on your own Hire a business writing expert to train and mentor Hire a business writing expert to train employees, and establish an internal mentoring program Internal Training Training your employees on your own is a lot of work and requires business writing experts on staff. Caution: Just because an employee is a strong writer doesn't mean they will be strong writing trainer. Writing training requires the ability to deconstruct a document and break down the rhetoric and syntax. If you are going to train internally, hire business writing experts with experience teaching business writing. You want teaching experience also, not just writing experience. Appoint these employeesas trainers and mentors for the rest of the organization. This should not be a secondary job responsibility. Hire an Expert Vendor This requires an investment of money, but you will be assured of results. Let's consider the cost implications for a typical work unit of 30 employees earning $60,000 per year, who write for 3.2 hours each day (40% of a 40-hour work week): Cost Calculations of Writing in this Work Unit: Employees' total annual salary expenses: $1,800,000.00 Percentage of employee time spent writing: 40.0% Annual employees' writing costs: $720,000.00 Total annual employee writing hours: 23,040 Studies we have conducted for the past 15years indicate a 30% reduction in writing timeafter our professional business writing training. What are the savings implications for these 30 employees, if they follow an efficient business writing process? Company Would Save: $216,000.00 Potential Annual $ Savings per Employee: $7,200.00 Estimated Writing Hours Saved Annually: 6,912 Weekly writing savings: $4,500.00 hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(41482, '8465dacc-17f6-47e6-ad2a-848060c15859', {}); Here are a few factors you need to consider when hiring an expert vendor: The credentials of the training organization - very important. Who developed or will lead the training? Credentials are very important! I saw a "business writing expert" promoting herself recently with the credentials of "Email Doctor." However, she had no writing or teaching credentials. She described her background as "Ten years accounting experience. I was the go-to writer in my office. I'm now a corporate-escapee living a happyfreelance life helping people write more clearly." Credentials and relevant experience matter. The structure of the training program The ability to customizethe training Willingness to provide ongoing support materials Flexible deliverylogistics Hire an Expert Vendor andEstablish and Internal Mentoring Program This builds beautifully on the training and mentoring doesn't require training skills. Essentially, managers need to communicate the strong business writing matters by: Modeling strong business writing. Employees always model their bosses, so be sure managers are modeling the business writing that communicates the company values and skills "What counts is what's counted." Be sure strong business writing skills are included in performance evaluations. Establish an informal document review meeting twice a year. As a team, view sample emails and reports and other key documents written by employees. Critique and improve these - being certain the tenor is support rather than punitive. To learn more abouthow to improve business writing skill for your employees, download the guideâ€Å"Four Steps to improve your Team’s Business Writing Skills.†

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 19

Marketing - Essay Example A brand requires a unique name for its identification that is so very important to chalk out before it turns from a product (or service) into one of a brand. Thus this brand name need not only be unique, it also requires that the name is also what it must convey to the people in mind, how it is meeting their expectations and whether this name has a positive (aspirational) association with the product in the long run or one that takes the end customer away from it, one that can be remarked as being dissociative to say the least. Further, the message which should be used in advertising must be unique as well as fresh so that the consumers are made sure about the quality and the value for which a product is really a known name in the present times. There needs to be a clear and distinct brand positioning statement in order to meet the objectives that are desired by the company in the wake of its new marketing strategy. Strategic positioning research is conducted to determine who the cus tomers of your product/service are and what should be told about the product or service to get them to buy from you. Finding the right target and message to build your marketing plan can be crucial in the success of your product. Similarly, tactical positioning research looks at finding the short term measures which would be suited to the relevant target audiences. We can say that positioning concentrates on getting value to the buyers as concerns to the product. In recent times, positioning has fallen down as becoming a mere document that plays a game with the customers and asks them to fall into the trap of buying the product solely. It is said that the best positioning relies only on how the product will be able to solve the specialized customer queries, concerns and problems. Thus the end result of positioning is one which could be easily observed through a product being