By Chinua Asuzu
Do we have Judicial Governors or Legislative Governors? Why do you call your governor an “Executive Governor”? Is there any doubt that state governors belong in the executive branch of government? The Constitution says “governor”, with no intrusive adjective. Follow suit.
In its nominal usage (use as a noun), loot is a mass noun, not a count noun. Hence it has no plural form. Neither you nor the EFCC can recover “loots.” No matter how much or from how many sources, it’s loot.
In a hyphenated name, both elements are capitalized. It’s Karibi-Whyte, NOT Karibi-whyte.
Begin your application emails or letters with You, Your, or [the name of the firm], rather than I. They want to hear about themselves first. Say, Your law firm has distinguished itself in the Nigerian legal-services marketplace by … or Aluko & Oyebode is a leading commercial law firm with expertise in … Then segue into your own strengths and show how they would fit into the firm’s business. Say boldly, and show, that you’d be a useful addition to the firm. Match your skill set with the firm’s likely staffing needs.
Forget I hereby apply. Without the ubiquitous, if not iniquitous, word hereby, nobody would think you meant “thereby”.
Research the firm on- and offline. Your laudatory introductory paragraph must ring true. Borrow ideas and words from the firm’s mission and vision statements, and from their website generally. Tug at their heart. Address their self-image.
But don’t be obsequious or unctuous.
In its usual sense of “a place, meeting, or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged” the noun forum takes the plural form forums, not “fora.” Fora works when referring to the ancient Roman “square or marketplace used for judicial and other business.” If you live to 144 years, you may never need the word fora. Some descriptivist linguists still use fora, and you’ll find it in some dictionaries. The trend, however, is that nouns of non-English origin, once fully anglicized, should be pluralized like English nouns.
IT’S “STEER CLEAR OF”, not “STAY CLEAR OF.”
The phrase “stay clear of” is unidiomatic and lacks collocation. The correct admonition is “steer clear of”. It means to take care to avoid or stay away from something or someone undesirable or harmful. The etymology is maritime.
A or An?
Use the indefinite article a before nouns beginning with a consonant sound, not necessarily a consonant spelling: a European, a happy day, a historic event, a horrendous error, a uniform code, a university professor, a US diplomat, a usurper, and a yacht.
Use the indefinite article an before nouns beginning with a vowel sound, not necessarily a vowel spelling: an honor, an NBA function, an owl, an SAN (when you sound each letter separately as opposed to treating the initialism as an acronym or a word), and an X-ray report.
