new heights; grammar, sentence structure, AND vocab!

I am having trouble with the things in bold and I have no clue how to fix them.Please help.

As the company reached new heights (The company was becoming very popular so they reached a 'new height.'What is a better way to say this?

All changes were made based on how they would affect the customer. (Affect or effect?I know, I should know this!)

Many of the employees were highly educated and well experienced people, such as Harvard graduates of former Wal-Mart corporate managers. (this sounds a bit odd)

Michael analyzes the likelyhood of the compnay succeeding (likelyhood, just need a different word)

Every mistake and achievement was highlighted by the media. (Better words to use)

When writing about a certain decade( 1990's) is there a problem refering to parts of the decade as the early 1990's and late 1990's? Would the 20th century sound better?

Thanks a bunch!

Greetings!

I'm glad to help with a bit of editing!

"New heights" sounds fine to me, but you could also say it "reached new levels of growth"; "achieved record growth"; "grew exponentially" or many other ways.

"affect" is the one you want. :-) They would affect the customer with the desired effect.

highly educated and well experienced people- just flip it: well-educated and highly experienced

likelyhood is fine, as long as you spell it "likelihood" :-)

mistake and achievement could become "misstep and victory" or "error and accomplishment"

I know there is at least one on-line thesaurus, if not several, which could give you options for terms you'd like to change. You might try an internet search to find them.

When writing about the 1990s there's no problem with saying "early 1990s" or "late 1990s" or even '90s. Technically, it should not have an apostrophe before the "s" although Americans are inclined to do it.

I hope this helps!

Thanks,

Sarah, EssayForum.com