Posts Tagged ‘The Essay Expert’

Keeping it Honest: The Essay Expert’s New Year’s “Ressaylutions” Update

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In January I reported on The Essay Expert’s New Year’s Resolutions (Ressaylutions). As human beings, we are not designed to keep our promises. I certainly am an expert at making resolutions and then forgetting about them, without ever acknowledging which promises I have – and haven’t – kept. Not this year! I’m taking a look to see how I’m doing, ten weeks after my resolutions were made. Ready?

The Essay Expert’s New Year’s Ressaylutions were:

1. Convert my website to WordPress.

This project is complete – sort of. My site is indeed operating now on a WordPress platform, and theoretically I have easy access to edit my pages in any way I want. I have run into some technical difficulties however. For instance, when I tried to edit a page, it made all kinds of changes I didn’t want it to make and “broke”the page. I received the following email today from the company that handled the conversion:

“The problem of visually editing your page content, without causing the page to break, lies with the page template. I did indicate that the template is dated, with a lot of additional graphics embedded. If you ever switch to a more modern template that contains a whole lot less graphics internally you will be able to edit your content visually. The internal design of most of your pages work perfectly for static HTML type pages, but will require someone who is an HTML coder to add content to them. If the website owner wishes to do this, the editing will require some extra effort when editing anything visually.”

Enough said. I’ve got my work cut out for me.

As some of you know, my blog link also changed and created a hiccup in my blog postings last week. You might also notice that if you do a search in my blog, you get not only blog postings but all relevant parts of my website in the search results.

This issue will be fixed later this week – when I will once again need to change my blog link due to a major “architecture change.” My apologies in advance for any strange blog digests you might receive next week as a result of this additional change!

(P.S. I am thankful as I kvetch about my technical difficulties that I am safely landlocked in the Midwest, without any fears for my safety. My heart goes out to the victims of the tsunami in Japan who have much bigger things to worry about.)

2. Make it easier for my readers to choose the topic they want to read about (create 4 separate e-lists: a) Job Search (Resumes & Cover Letters); b) College Admissions; c) LinkedIn & Professional Writing; and d) Everything). AND
3. Create autoresponders. (Related to ressaylution #2.)

This project is running close to schedule thanks to my incredible intern, Robin Reinke! She has prepared all the autoresponders and we’re continuing to move forward to create the lists. Stay tuned!

4. Guest blog.

Back in Force Productions

I haven’t written any specifically targeted guest blogs, though some of my existing articles have been published other places. I did deliver my webinar, How to Write a Killer LinkedIn Profile, for a group of Columbia University alumni and students, as well as for a group of people through ilostmyjob.com. Both events were a hit! I will also be on a blog radio show on March 22, Back in Force Productions, geared toward stay-at-home parents relaunching their careers.

5. Start an Artist’s Way group.

I’ve been writing my morning pages every day (three pages a day of journaling), and though I’ve missed some mornings, I haven’t missed a single day. I haven’t been as good about creating Artist’s dates, which are dates with myself to do something fun and artistic. Mostly what has happened is that my priorities have changed since January. I’m surprising myself by finding creative expression through writing resumes and LinkedIn profiles! I am also singing in a newly forming funk/R&B band! I’ll post clips when I have them!

Artist's Way

6. Continue to write and share about writing issues, job search issues, and sometimes life issues that strike my fancy each week and that my readers care about.

Yep I’ve been doing that. Covered topics from early admissions to parallel construction to LinkedIn news to greeting card grammar. Even got political. And now I’m getting honest.
How are your New Year’s resolutions coming along? It’s a great exercise to check in and acknowledge where you’re making progress, where you’re stuck, where things have shifted. What do you see when you take a look at how the year is going?

The Essay Expert Gets Political: Governor Walker and Proposed Legal Services Cuts

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Grammatically Correct vs. Politically Correct?

I generally tend to stay away from politics (they don’t have a lot to do with grammar and writing). The closest I’ve come in my blog to anything political was calling out President Obama on a slip of tongue in his Tucson speech (he said “tenant” when he meant “tenet”). Living in Madison, Wisconsin, however, has made it nearly impossible to stay completely out of the trajectory of political goings on.

Today, I read something that hit home.Governor Walker Wisconsin Protest

The Essay Expert’s “Past Life” as a Lawyer

As some of you know, I used to be a civil legal services lawyer in Brooklyn, New York.  I spent my days advocating for people with HIV, tenants faced with eviction, and other clients whose benefits were being reduced or denied improperly.  I literally saved lives.

After I had worked for five years in my organization’s HIV Legal Unit, funding was cut for HIV legal services in favor of purely health-related services for this population.  I knew, as did other legal services providers, that the help we gave these clients prevented huge amounts of stress that would have made the clients sick; our services also prevented homelessness, which is a particular health hazard for people with HIV.  The legal services lobby, however, failed to convince our government funders that they should maintain our funding.

Governor Walker Cuts Legal Services

I’m reminded of this piece of my “past life” because today I received the news that state funding for Wisconsin’s civil legal services program would be eliminated by Governor Walker’s proposed budget.  As reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal:

Civil legal service providers for poor people in Wisconsin are facing substantial cuts pending the inclusion of a budget proposal that eliminates all state money for those organizations.

Loss of the state money would result in 46 positions [at Legal Action Wisconsin] being eliminated, [representing] 42 percent of the Legal Action’s staff.

Walker’s proposal would shift money allotted to civil legal service providers to support pay increases for assistant district attorneys and also for additional court reporters in the state.

The State Bar of Wisconsin further reports that funding would be eliminated for data collection to study the extent of racial profiling in Wisconsin.  According to the Bar, “the current state budget, enacted in 2009, significantly boosted state funding for indigent civil legal needs…. A study released by the State Bar in March 2007 (Bridging the Justice Gap: Wisconsin’s Unmet Legal Needs) showed that more than 500,000 state residents routinely cope with evictions, divorces and other critical legal issues on their own.”Uncle Sam at Governor Walker Protest

My Opinion on Governor Walker’s Airtight Logic

It looks like many of these 500,000 state residents will once again be on their own, after a welcome and long-fought-for reprieve that began only in 2009.

As someone who has taken on representing indigent clients after they’ve attempted to represent themselves and failed, I can tell you there will be a lot of people losing their homes, and taxing other state resources, as a result of these funding cuts.  The legal system is no place for anyone untrained in the law.  In New York, even my peers who were brought to housing court relied heavily on legal counsel (sometimes mine), and made errors when they did not receive advice or follow it.

Clients who came to my organization after attempting to negotiate the system themselves were often needlessly on the verge of eviction.  In contrast, almost no one was ever evicted on our watch.

It seems to me that more forethought is in order before snatching away a help line to those who need it most, and for whom it is the difference between tenancy and homelessness, health and illness, minimal benefits or no income whatsoever, and perhaps even crime or no crime.

Of course Walker has also proposed, as part of his budget, increased funding for assistant district attorneys.  I can see his logic: he is likely creating more work for them to do.

 

Princeton and Harvard Fail to Lead the Way on Elimination of Early Admissions

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A New York Times article reported on February 24, 2011 that Princeton and Harvard have chosen to reinstate their early admissions programs.  Apparently they weren’t comfortable sticking out like sore thumbs in the Ivy League.Princeton and Harvard reinstate early admissions

As reported in The Daily Princetonian, Princeton’s President Shirley Tilghman had this to say about the decision:

“We have carefully reviewed our single admission program every year, and we have been very pleased with how it has worked…  But in eliminating our early program four years ago, we hoped other colleges and universities would do the same, and they haven’t.”

This decision highlights how much the Ivy Leagues are bedfellows.  Harvard made its decision first, and although Tilghman claims that Princeton “might” have reinstated early admissions even if Harvard had not, Princeton’s decision was clearly heavily influenced by Harvard’s.

Diversity Schmersity

It is well-known that applying early decision markedly boosts applicants’ chances for admission, and that early applicant pools tend to be higher income and less diverse than the regular admission pool.  The initial reason for eliminating early admissions back in 2006 was the assessment that early admissions had an overall homogenizing effect on collegiate populations. Princeton’s Tilghman remains hopeful:

“I think there’s a lot of confidence among the staff at the admission office — and I have to take that confidence pretty seriously — that we are going to be able to sustain the gains that we’ve seen,” Tilghman said. “I’m cautiously … optimistic that we will be able to sustain the gains.”

Why oh Why?

I wonder what the impetus was for Princeton and Harvard’s choice.  The most obvious possibility is that they were losing top candidates to other schools with early admissions programs.  Isn’t it interesting how the NYT, Princetonian, and AP articles don’t mention that?

Skeptics will likely surmise that there must be some financial gain for Princeton and Harvard in reversing their 2006 decision.  Although this might be the case, there is some mitigating news. The Associated Press reports that Harvard is increasing financial aid in the face of its 4% tuition increase, and that it has pledged improvements in minority recruiting.  I’m sure there will be many people keeping a close eye on the results of the return to early admissions, and I hope Tilghman’s prediction is on the money.

Common Writing Errors: Parallel Construction, Sentence Fragments

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In November 2010, InternsOver40, a popular job-search site for older job seekers, published an article entitled Bobby’s Rant, Rave & Whatever: “Less is More?” internsover40

The second paragraph begins as follows: “Over the years I have ranted  to many of my close friends ”that in my worst day I have more than 98% of the world.” Those people who live on less than $68 dollars a month(yes month).” [sic]

While I like the sentiment of this article, I am compelled to rant about its writing style.  First, there are small formatting issues like the extra space between “ranted” and “to,” and the lack of a space prior to “(yes month).”  That’s just a tiny little rant.

Did you Understand That Sentence?  Parallel Construction

More notably there’s the sentence, “In my worst day I have more than 98% of the world.”  Do you see the ambiguity here?  Honestly when I first read the sentence I did not understand it.  I thought the author was saying he had in his possession some percentage of the world.  Upon second or third reading, I realized he meant that he had more than does 98% of the world – or that he has more than 98% of the world has.

On a basic level, the problem here is parallel construction.  Lack of parallel construction is an issue that plagues many writers, and that takes the sense out of sentences.  In my article about correlative conjunctions, I addressed the issue of parallel construction when using conjunctions such as “both” and “and” in a sentence.  If you read that article, you learned that the phrases after the correlative conjunctions “both” and “and” must be the same part of speech, e.g. “He likes both running and swimming.”  The same idea applies here.

Take the following sentence.  How would you interpret its meaning?I like coffee more than my husband - parallel construction

I like coffee more than my husband.

Read grammatically, this sentence would imply that given a choice between coffee and her husband, the writer would choose coffee.  And although we might be able to cut corners in our spoken communications, it doesn’t work in writing.

Now read:

I like coffee more than does my husband.

OR

I like coffee more than my husband likes it.

OR

I like coffee more than my husband does.

These versions are looking much better for the husband.

To write an unambiguous sentence, we need to look at the two things being compared to ensure they are really the things we want to compare! “I like coffee more than my husband” has nouns (coffee, husband) as the compared objects, so “coffee” is compared against “my husband.”  “I like coffee more than does my husband” has verbs as the compared objects (like, does) so we are comparing degrees of the verb “like.”  And “I like coffee more than my husband likes it” again compares verbs (like, likes).

Sentence Fragments

You may also have noticed that the last sentence in the InternsOver40 paragraph is not a sentence.  It reads, “Those people who live on less than $68 dollars a month(yes month).”

You can probably spot a sentence fragment when you see one.  Sometimes sentence fragments can be used to stylistic advantage, but I don’t think this particular fragment was effective, especially considering the multitude of other errors in the paragraph.

If you are concerned, as I am, about what a major job seeking resource like InternsOver40 is teaching job seekers about how to write, please share your concern with them.  I personally would like to see InternsOver40 post well-written, well-edited articles that will give candidates tools to shine in their written presentation.

Do you have a question about how to keep your sentence structure parallel?  Or about whether a sentence is a sentence fragment?  I’d love to listen to and answer your questions.  Please share your comments below.

Image courtesy Damian Cugley CC BY-SA 2.0

How a Car Wash Led to a Grammar Lesson – and a Valentine’s Day Life Lesson

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A Car Washing Adventure

From time to time it is necessary, living in a snowy city, to give my car a respite from the salt that eats away at it for much of the winter.  During my last visit to Octopus Car Wash, as I waited for my car to get spit out the other end of the car wash, I discovered a wall full of greeting cards, many of them by a local Wisconsin greeting card company, Byrne & Schmidt Greetings.

What a great idea!  I love browsing humorous and clever greeting cards and went to work picking out cards to give to my friends and family for upcoming holidays.

Leave it to me to find a grammar issue in one of the birthday cards.

Squirrel Birthday Poem Insure Ensure

Squirrely Grammar Lesson

Squirrely Grammar

On the front of one card, I found a picture of a squirrel holding an oversized acorn under each arm. The title:  A Squirrel Birthday Poem.  The first three lines of the poem:

Happy Birthday to you,

You can bet your sweet butt

To insure you a great birthday

I opened the card to find the last two lines of the poem:

I’d give my left nut.

I laughed.  And I also got inspired to write about the difference between “ensure” and “insure.”  My first reaction was that “insure” had been used incorrectly here and that the correct verb was “ensure.”  As I did my research, I learned that I was only partially right about that assessment.

The Essay Expert Gets a Grammar Lesson:  Assure, Insure, Ensure

Associated Press style does indeed dictate that “ensure” means to make sure something happens and that “insure” means to issue a life insurance policy.  Other authorities, however, state that it is acceptable to use the two interchangeably, though “insure” does more often relate to monetary insurance and “ensure” more often relates to a non-monetary guarantee.

About.com has a great article about these distinctions, and covers the word “assure” as well.  See Assure, Ensure, and Insure:  Commonly Confused Words by Richard Nordquist.

I’m not going to go into detail about the difference between all these words.  I do want to point out that regardless of his or her proper word choice, the greeting card writer took artistic license in omitting the verb in the sentence.  A correct sentence would have read, “To insure that you have a great birthday….”  The way it read, “To insure you a great birthday” doesn’t make sense.  We can insure a car or a house, or insure *that* something happens, but we can’t ensure a person something.

And Now for the Valentine’s Day Life Lesson…

Nevertheless, I am more interested in the fact that I was so sure the word choice in the card was incorrect that I almost wrote a blog article about the difference between insure and ensure without doing my research.  What a great lesson in being willing to be wrong!

I often think I’m right about a lot of things, not just grammatical issues.  Things like how clean a kitchen should be, or what habits are healthy and not, or what is the best way to do just about anything.  Sometimes being right is not the best way to sustain healthy relationships.  And sometimes I’m just plain wrong.  I can assure you of that.

It’s Valentine’s Day.  Is there anything you’re sure you’re right about with your loved ones?  Are you willing to consider the possibility that there’s another right answer out there in the world besides yours?

Please share your thoughts on grammar and on being right.  I’d love to hear your comments!

4 New LinkedIn Profile Sections to Watch Out For

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In December 2010, LinkedIn rolled out 4 new sections for LinkedIn profiles:  Skills, Certifications, Publications and Languages.

For some reason I do not understand, LinkedIn barely publicized these new features.  It is very likely that you have not heard about them.

I highly recommend that you add as many sections as are appropriate to your skills and experience.  Everyone should add the Skills section; other sections are optional depending on your background.

How do I add sections to my profile?

To add a section to your LinkedIn profile, go to the Edit Profile page and look below the blue box.  Below the right hand corner of the box you will see “Add Sections.”

Add LinkedIn Profile sections

Click on “Add sections.”  You will be brought to a screen where you can choose what sections (and applications) you want to add:

New LinkedIn Profile Sections

Once you click on the appropriate section to add, you will probably be able to figure out how to put in the relevant information.  If you don’t understand anything, feel free to contact The Essay Expert. [Note:  Once you add a section, it will no longer appear on the “Add Sections” page; you can edit the section directly from your “Edit Profile” page.]

But I already have a Specialties section… Isn’t Skills redundant?

Should you fill out the Skills section even if you already have a Specialties section?  YES!  Specialties are searchable through the LinkedIn Advanced Search feature; Skills are searchable through a new LinkedIn feature that is in beta testing as of February 3, 2011.  You definitely want to use it!!  LinkedIn users can now go to LinkedIn Skills and search for people with your skills.

So go ahead and double dip!

Can I reorganize my sections?

YES!  Along with the new Skills, Certifications, Publications and Languages sections, LinkedIn made it possible to move your sections around.  On your “Edit Profile” page, just click on the plus sign to the left of the section name and you can drag the section to wherever you want it.

Move LinkedIn Profile Sections

Had you heard about these new LinkedIn profile features before?  Are you going to use them?  I’d love to hear your feedback on the difference adding these features will make for your LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn Buzzwords from 2010

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As a companion piece to my “Top 10 Grammar and Spelling Errors from 2010″ I’d like to share with you LinkedIn’s list of overused buzzwords in year 2010 LinkedIn profiles.  Is it even possible to avoid using these popular words?  What a challenge for a LinkedIn profile writer!

Sometimes words are overused because they work.  It’s an ongoing challenge to stay ahead of the curve, and to stay grounded enough in accomplishments and concrete facts that even if these buzzwords appear, they do not come across as trite or cliche.

The most overused words varied by country.  Here’s the list in the United States:

  1. Extensive experience
  2. Innovative
  3. Motivated
  4. Results-oriented
  5. Dynamic
  6. Proven track record
  7. Team player
  8. Fast-paced
  9. Problem solver
  10. Entrepreneurial

I challenge you to spot these words in your profile and find other ways to describe yourself and your accomplishments.  And I promise if we work together on your LinkedIn profile, we will find ways to avoid using most if not all of these words.  What a great way to make your profile stand out!

Did you make changes to your profile based on this tip?  How did your writing transform?  Please share in the comments section!

The Purpose of a Resume – Resume Tips for Recent Graduates

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This article was originally posted at New Grad Life.

A common misconception about resumes is that they are meant to describe what you did in your past jobs. In actuality, the most effective resumes are written from a FUTURE perspective. In other words, your resume will work if you think about what a potential employer would want to know about how you WILL perform. What experience do you have that will make you a contribution to their firm or organization?

college graduates

Photo by Ed Brambley, CC-BY-SA 2.0

If you are writing a resume from the perspective of the FUTURE, here’s what will happen:

1. Measurable Results. You will write detailed bullets that demonstrate your capability to achieve measurable results. That means: include numbers as often as possible. Don’t just say you tutored students; say how many and by how much their grades improved. Don’t say you were successful; tell us exactly what results you achieved. Don’t just say “increased;” tell us by what percentage. Your readers will imply that you can produce similar results for them.

2. Finding Relevance. You will think about the purpose and priority of each item on your resume. Does it matter that you worked as a bartender if you are now applying for marketing positions? Maybe, if you you were a student working 20 hours/week and still maintained a 3.8 GPA, or if you were the highest-tipped bartender at the establishment. Additionally, bartending demonstrates your ability to multitask and interact with a wide variety of people. But it does not need to take up three lines on your resume, just because it’s what you did; you can make it a short bullet under your “Education” section to show you were doing it while in school full time.

3. Deleting Irrelevant Items. You will delete anything that is irrelevant or of minimal importance to your future. These things include stuff you did in high school. High school activities are no longer relevant – you had 4 years of college to become who you are now, and if you did less in college than you did in high school, looking into the future, the logical conclusion is that you will do less and less as time goes on.

Let us help you look your best on your resume and in all your writing. The Essay Expert provides writing help with LinkedIn profiles, resumes, cover letters, and other writing projects.

The President Makes Grammatical Errors Too! Tenet vs. Tenant and Obama’s Tucson Speech

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I got an email from my friend Seth Nowak on January 13, 2011 reporting, “Obama said ‘tenent’ in his speech last night.  One term president.”

The speech to which Seth was referring is the moving, poignant speech Obama delivered following the shooting rampage in Tucson.  Obviously Seth was joking to me, The Essay Expert, that a small error like mixing up “tenet” with “tenant” would affect (not effect) Obama’s approval rating.Obama Tuscon Arizona Speech Tenant Tenet

Just a few days before, I had corrected Seth when he said “tenent” (or “tenant” — he was speaking not writing, so I can’t be sure) when he meant “tenet.”  Thus he could not help but notice Obama’s slip of tongue.

To clarify, “tenet” means “any opinion, principle, doctrine, dogma, etc., esp. one held as true by members of a profession, group, or movement.” A tenant, on the other hand, is a person, a group of persons, or an entity occupying a space, usually a rental space (my definition).

“Tenent” is not a word in modern English, though in the interests of full disclosure, it is listed on dictionary.com as “Obs.” (Obsolete).  It does not appear anywhere in the dictionary on my shelf, Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (copyright 1987, the year I headed to college – and if that’s not obsolete, I don’t know what is).

Obama’s spoken sentence was as follows:

“They were fulfilling a central tenant[sic] of the democracy envisioned by our founders.”

The transcriber was kind to our President.  The text “tenant[sic]” does not appear in the transcription; instead, the official version in The New York Times reads, “They were fulfilling a central tenet….

Tenet vs Tenant

The day before Obama’s speech, I had put “tenant/tenet” on my list of Top 10 Grammatical Errors of 2011 (scheduled for publication in December 2011).  Why?  Because inside of one week in January, not including Obama’s speech, I heard “tenant” used incorrectly twice: once by Seth as reported above, and once in a draft of a law school application essay.  I won’t quote that essay here for reasons of confidentiality, but here’s an example of a sentence in a draft law school application essay I received a year ago:

“The general tenants of my thesis was that developing a national childcare system would contribute to the economy and better the lives of all Canadians.”

This sentence has two problems:  First, she meant “tenet”; and second, even if “tenants” were correct, the verb “was” is singular whereas “tenants” is plural.  This client was not accepted into any Canadian law schools, despite the fact that her errors were corrected.  She did get accepted in England.

The moral of the story:  If you want to get into law school, or be elected for a second term, get straight about the difference between “tenet” and “tenant.”  I understand that “n” sound just wants to come out somehow, but try to keep it in check.

So what do you think?  One term or two?  Perhaps that’s really the important question here.

Is The Ladders Irresistible? Or Irrational?

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Oooh, ah, la la la.

Half-clothed men lying on an office floor in evocative poses.  Fully clothed (in office casual) men crawling on top of each other.  Women crawling (yes more crawling) or dancing on desks seductively, wind blowing through their hair.  Overactive wind machines.

These images, overlaid upon a sultry “Oooh, ah, la la la” musical score, comprise a January 2011 television commercial from The Ladders.  It seems some effort was put into infusing this marketing piece with…  ummm…  political correctness?  The video is replete with intimations of gay relationships, interracial relationships, and Asian and Black successful careerists.Sex Appeal The Ladders

But what’s politically correct about people seeking employment through sex appeal, regardless of how ridiculous it clearly is?

I get it.  It’s a metaphor and it’s meant to be outrageous.  Come to The Ladders and we’ll create an “irresistible” image that will get you the job of your dreams.  But why would anyone want to work with a company that resorts to wacky sexual innuendo to gain clients who are climbing the corporate ladder?

I also get that social media has blurred the distinction between private and public lives, and that employers might be able to view a prospect’s “relationship status” through a quick Facebook search.  Maybe sex and job search are no longer so far removed from each other as I would like to think.  Perhaps that’s a question for The Ladders.  I sent them a trackback so maybe they’ll respond here.

The small print in the video says “Be more attractive to $100K+ employers.”  One thing’s for sure, the folks in this commercial could use a LOT of help.

I suppose that’s the point.

Or perhaps this whole mockery is simply an attempt to create viral video.

What do you think?  Is The Ladders irresistible?  Or just irrational?  Would you be more or less likely to hire The Ladders after seeing this commercial?  I would absolutely love to hear your opinions on this one!

And if you want solid resume and cover letter help with just the right “pop” and appeal, consider The Essay Expert’s Resume and Cover Letter packages.


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