Ascension Coastal

Category: Writing and editing tips

Tips for writing style, grammar, punctuation and spelling conventions in different regions (e.g. Australia vs US).

  • Plain English and short sentences (less is more)

    Unnecessary words

    http://www.cartoonstock.com

    Probably the most frequent error is the use of words that aren’t needed. … Watch for extra prepositions, as in head up; beat up on, outside of and watch on; and superfluous nouns, as in weather conditions, bush-fire situation, development process. Pleonasms (phrases that say the same thing twice) are everywhere:

    • close proximity
    • significant landmark
    • two-way dialogue
    • vital lifeline
    • surrogate mother-figure
    • important milestone
    • personal body language
    • pre-prepared

    If you have trouble spotting them, just try to imagine the implied opposite: distant proximity, for instance, or an insignificant landmark. Make every word tell. 

    Source: The Editor’s Companion.

    The Economist on unnecessary words

    Certain words are often redundant. The leader of the so-called Front for a Free Freedonia is the leader of the Front for a Free Freedonia. A top politician or top priority is usually just a politician or a priority, and a major speech usually just a speech. A safe haven is a haven. Most probably and most especially are probably and especially. The fact that can often be shortened to That (That I did not do so was a self-indulgence). Loans to the industrial and agricultural sectors are just loans to industry and farming.

    Use words with care. A heart condition is usually a bad heart. A near miss is probably a near hit. Positive thoughts (held by long-suffering creditors, according to The Economist) presumably means optimism, just as a negative report is probably a critical report. Industrial action is usually industrial inaction, industrial disruption or a strike. A courtesy call is generally a sales offer or an uninvited visit. A substantially finished bridge is an unfinished bridge. Someone with high name-recognition is well known. Something with reliability problems probably does not work. If yours is a live audience, what would a dead one be like?

    In general, be concise. Try to be economical in your account or argument (‘The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out’—Voltaire). Similarly, try to be economical with words. ‘As a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigour it will give to your style.’ (Sydney Smith) Raymond Mortimer put it even more crisply when commenting about Susan Sontag: ‘Her journalism, like a diamond, will sparkle more if it is cut’.

    Some words add nothing but length to your prose. Use adjectives to make your meaning more precise and be cautious of those you find yourself using to make it more emphatic. The word very is a case in point. If it occurs in a sentence you have written, try leaving it out and see whether the meaning is changed. ‘The omens were good’ may have more force than ‘The omens were very good’.

    Avoid strike action (strike will do), cutbacks (cuts), track record (record), wilderness area (usually either a wilderness or a wild area), large-scale (big), the policymaking process (policymaking), weather conditions (weather), etc. ‘This time around’ just means ‘This time’.

    Shoot off, or rather shoot, as many prepositions after verbs as possible. Thus people can meet rather than meet with; companies can be bought and sold rather than bought up and sold off; budgets can be cut rather than cut back; plots can be hatched but not hatched up; organisations should be headed by rather than headed up by chairmen, just as markets should be freed, rather than freed up. And children can be sent to bed rather than sent off to bed—though if they are to sit up they must first sit down.

    This advice you are given free, or for nothing, but not for free.

    Source: The Economist Style Guide

    Happy New Year! More on this topic next week.

  • Numbers, measurement and currencies

    Numbers

    1–9—write out one, nine, (i.e. single-digit numbers); from then on the number 10, 11 etc.

    If a mix of related numbers above and below nine appears in one sentence, use figures:

    • Unbelievably, only 2 of the 110 people on the train were injured.

    Always start a sentence with a word:

    • Two out of 110 people were injured.

    Currencies

    For dollars, you can use just the $ symbol if it’s clear that it represents the local currency, but identify all other types of dollar (e.g. CAN$). When using the code and symbol, do not leave a space between the unit and quantity (e.g. US$500).

    Examples of currency formats are listed below. You can also refer to the official ISO-4217 website for currency codes for all other countries.

    Country Currency Symbol Currency Code
    Australia Australian dollar AU$ AUD
    Canada Canadian dollar CAN$ CAD
    European Union euro € EUR
    United Kingdom pound/sterling £ GBP
    United States US dollar US$ USD 

    Measurement: symbols

    When a number is associated with a unit of measurement, it is normally given as a digit, for example 5 volts, 3 MB. Leave a space between the figure and unit of measurement. However, the money symbol and percent symbol are always closed up. (If a currency code is used rather than a money symbol, leave a space between it and the figure.)

    • 10 MB, 20 kg, $24, 10%, USD 342 million

    Abbreviated units of measurements have no full stop and take no s in the plural.

    • 10 MB, not 10 MBs

    With abbreviations, capitalisation is important, for example Mb means megabits, but MB means megabytes.

    Never allow the unit and amount to be separated over a new line.

    Time of day

    Generally, spell out even, half and quarter hours:

    • The meeting continued until half past three.
    • I’ll be there by ten o’clock.

    Use figures for when you want to emphasise the exact time:

    • 6.20 a.m. (Note that in American English a colon is used between hour and minute.)

    When a 24-hour clock is required, use the following style:

    • 04:00; 12:00; 15:53

  • Loose vs. lose

     

    Loose

    Loose is an adjective, the opposite of tight or contained.

    • My shoes are loose.
    • I have a loose tooth.
    • There’s a dog running loose in the street.

     
    Lose

    Lose is a verb that means to suffer the loss of, to miss. 

    • I win! You lose!
    • Don’t lose your keys.
    • I never lose bets.

     
    The Bottom Line

    Simple carelessness leads people to write loose when they mean lose. Just remember that lose has one o, and loose has two. Start with loose, lose an o, and what do you get? Lose!

    or:

    In order to lose weight, you need to lose an “o” from the word “loose.” And if your clothing is too loose it is probably because the additional “o” in the word “loose” adds more space between the “l” and the “s” in the word “lose.”

    Source: English Learning and Walk in the Words

  • Pronouns: ‘I’ and ‘me’

    Using ‘I’ or ‘me’ depends on whether the pronoun [I or me] is acting as the subject or the object of the sentence. [The subject is what does the action; the object is what the action is done to.] ‘I’ can only be used as the subject of a sentence; ‘me’ can only be used as the object of a sentence. Ditto for she/her, he/him, we/us, etc.

    Which of these sentences correctly use ‘I’ and ‘me’?

    1. Harry and I will take the annual report to the meeting.
    2. The winners of the contest were Morgan and I.
    3. She called Harry and me on Saturday.
    4. The argument was between Sally and me.
    5. Andrew said, ‘Mother gave the keys to Elizabeth and me’.

    All five sentences correctly use ‘I’ and ‘me’.

    The first sentence is correct because ‘Harry and I’ are the subjects of the verb ‘will bring’. Much of the confusion with pronouns occurs in compound constructions. If we remove ‘Harry and’ from the sentence, we can easily hear which pronoun is correct: we would never say ‘Me will bring the annual report’.

    Another instance in which the pronoun ‘I’ is correct is when we have a linking verb and need a predicate pronoun to rename the subject. Think of a linking verb as a mathematical equals mark: winners = Morgan and I. If both sides of the linking verb are equal, then we should be able to reverse the sentence and still have it make sense: ‘Morgan and I were the winners’ conveys the same meaning as ‘The winners were Morgan and I’. Since we would never say ‘Me was the winner’, neither should we say ‘The winner was me’. (Notice that once again it is easier to discern the correct pronoun if we get rid of the compound and focus on the ‘I’ or ‘me’ as if it were alone.)

    The third sentence is correct because ‘called’ is an action verb, and ‘Harry and me’ are its direct objects: they are the ones who were called. It’s easy to hear that ‘me’ is correct in this construction if we remove ‘Harry and’: ‘She called me on Saturday’ sounds correct, while ‘She called I on Saturday’ obviously sounds wrong.

    In the last two sentences, ‘me’ is correct because it serves as the object of the prepositions ‘between’ and ‘to’. As in every other case, simply removing the compound usually enables us to hear which pronoun is correct: we would never say ‘Mother gave the keys to I’.

    Source: Get It Write

    See also: English Grammar and Writing Tips

    From engrish.com – have Christmas every day!

  • Hyphens

    Are you a short story writer? Or a short-story writer?

    Would you rather do business with a pickled herring monger or a pickled-herring monger?

    In the first example, the ‘short story writer’ is a writer who is short in stature, while the ‘short-story writer’ is some one who writes stories that are short. We don’t know how tall the second writer is, but we know his stories are short.

    … The bottom line is: if you can rearrange the phrase using just the word “of,” you need to use the hyphen. If it takes any more than that for the phrase to make sense, then no hyphen.

    Piece-of cake, right? :-) (from magicalwords)

    A.R. Goldyn offers some succinct advice on hyphens:

    Here’s the short rule about hyphens, straight from Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style: “When two or more words are combined to form a compound adjective, a hyphen is usually required.” Here’s the exception: Adverbs ending in -ly are never hyphenated.

    Punctuation exists to make our writing clearer and to avoid confusion. Hyphens contribute to both, and they are indeed necessary in compound adjectives.

    For example, if you write “a small engine mechanic,” you have just said that he’s an engine mechanic who is small (in stature). If, however, you write “a small-engine mechanic,” then you have indicated a mechanic who works on small engines. If the latter is true, then you need the hyphen. Here are other examples:

    • Real-time computing
    • Three-bedroom house
    • Nine-page document
    • Two-day vacation
    • Money-back guarantee
    • Sydney-based company
    • Second-rate actor
    • Once-in-a-lifetime experience

    Back to the exception. Never use a hyphen adjoining adverbs ending in -ly to another word:

    • Naturally occurring event
    • Overly processed food
    • Gently ebbing waves
    • Richly scented perfume
    • Heavily weighted bookcase
    • Generally stated observation

    It should be noted that over-hyphenating is considered as poor style as failure to hyphenate. Consider whether a hyphen is really needed when attaching prefixes to root words, such as in the following: nontraditional, overuse, pretest and unencumbered. (No hyphen is necessary in any of those words.) Furthermore, don’t hyphenate words that are actually one word; for example, online, wildlife and bellboy.

    Hyphens with prefixes

    When the last letter of a single-syllable prefix is a vowel and the word that follows begins with the same vowel, a hyphen is often inserted to prevent misreading.

    For example:

    • De-emphasise not deemphasise
    • Re-enter not reenter

    This practice is less crucial if a word is well known, or at least familiar to readers of the particular publication. Thus as both the Australian Oxford and Macquarie dictionaries confirm, cooperate, coordinate and their derivatives are no longer hyphenated.

    The combination of two different vowels does not usually require a hyphen—as in prearrange, reallocate and triennial. The only exception is when a hyphen is used to separate the prefix from a single-syllable word beginning with a vowel, to prevent the two parts from being read together as one syllable: de-ice not deice.

    Hyphens are used with co- (‘joint’) and ex- (‘former’) in recent formation, whether or not the word attached begins with a vowel:

    • Co-author, co-worker, ex-alderman, ex-president

    For a growing set of words prefixed with e (for electronic), hyphenation is recommended:

    • e-book, e-business, e-commerce, e-shares, e-shopping, e-zine

    The e prefix is so small that such words would be in danger of being misread unless the hyphen is there.

    • email no longer takes a hyphen

    Hyphens are needed if a prefix is followed by capital letter, a number, or an expression that is in italics or quotation marks. For example:

    • Pre-Christian era, un-Australian activities, pro-reconciliation stance

    Also note: 300-fold (using the numeral), 150-odd guests, thirty-odd copies.

    Source: The Cambridge Guide to English Usage, 2004.

    Clarifying meaning

    A hyphen is used in new words with prefixes to distinguish them from established words that would otherwise look the same:

    • Re-cover (cover again) but recover (retrieve, or regain)
    • Re-creation (creation anew) but recreation (leisure-related activity)

    Source: Style Manual, 6th edition.

    Fractions

    Hyphens are used when fractions are expressed in words:

    • One-third           two-fifths           one and three-quarters

    Source: Style manual, 5th edition.

    Hyphen and em rule/dash: not to be confused

    The Em Rule (Dash): Long and Lean

    Basically, the em rule is used to show emphasis. Here’s how:

    • Use an em rule/dash to show a sudden change of thought. Example: An archaeologist—of course I don’t mean you—is a person whose career lies in ruins.
    • Use an em rule/dash before a summary of what is stated in the sentence. Example: Avoiding work, getting liposuction, becoming a finalist in the George Hamilton Cocoa Butter Open—everything depends on that trust fund.

    The Hyphen: Short and Sweet

    The hyphen, in contrast, is used to show a break in words.

    You could make it through life fine and dandy without a dash, but you’d be the poorer for it. Like argyle socks, the dash shows flair and style. It creates rhythm and emphasis in your writing.

    The Ellipsis: Dot, Dot, Dot

    The ellipsis, in contrast, indicates a break in continuity. Example: Abraham Lincoln said: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth … a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

    Use an ellipsis to show a pause or interruption. Example: “No,” I said. “I … I need my space.”

    Source: info-please

    Regarding using hyphens at the end of a line of text: The dreaded but often hilarious hyp-hen has died. With improved technology, today’s newspapers and magazines rarely break words that used to over-run column width with wrongly-placed hyphens in a way that led to mans-laughter and other typographical leg-ends. (from fun-with-words)

    from http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004963.html

  • Effect and affect; Enquire and inquire

    affect verb ( Influence ) – to have an influence on someone or something, or to cause them to change

    • Both buildings were badly affected by the fire.
    • The divorce affected every aspect of her life.
    • It’s a disease which affects mainly older people.
    • I was deeply affected by the film (= It caused strong feelings in me).

    effect noun [C or U] the result of a particular influence

    • The radiation leak has had a disastrous effect on/upon the environment.
    • I tried taking tablets for the headache but they didn’t have any effect.
    • I think I’m suffering from the effects of too little sleep.
    • She has a lot of confidence which she uses to good effect (= to her advantage) in interviews.

    take effect – to produce or achieve the results you want

    • They had to wait ten minutes for the anaesthetic to take effect before they stitched up the cut.

    for effect  – mainly disapproving – If you say or do something for effect, you intentionally do it to shock people or attract their attention

    • I get the impression that she uses bad language in meetings for effect.

    in effect – in fact, or in practice

    • So in effect the government have lowered taxes for the rich and raised them for the poor.

    to that effect (also to the effect that) – used to express that what you are reporting is only a short and general form of what was really said

    • She said she was unhappy, or words to that effect.
    • He said something to the effect that he would have to change jobs if the situation continued.

    Source: Cambridge Dictionary

     

    inquire verb – to ask for information

    • Shall I inquire about the price of tickets?
    • [+ question word] She rang up to inquire when her car would be ready.
    • [+ speech] “Where are we going?” he inquired politely.

    [With] … enquire and inquire, the forms are interchangeable. Some organisations, such as newspapers, tend to standardise on the in- form, but there are also those who make a distinction between, for example, an official inquiry and an informal enquiry.

    Source: Macquarie Dictionary online.

  • Email etiquette

    [Adapted from: Netmanners and The Effective Emailer and Email Replies]

    Perception is the only reality online. In an appropriate context, a cryptic exchange of messages can be a mutually understood method of communication between two people. In most cases, however, it is courteous to follow the conventions of effective communication.

    Why do companies need to implement email etiquette?

    • Professionalism: by using proper email language, your company will convey a professional image.
    • Efficiency: emails that get to the point are much more effective than poorly worded emails.
    • Protection from liability: employee awareness of email risks will protect your company from costly law suits.

    The following tips may be helpful:

    • Do not leave the Subject: field blank. A good subject line summarises the body of the email in 10 words or less—it summarises the message rather than describing it. People scan their inbox by subject—make your subject rich enough that your readers can decide whether it’s relevant.

    BAD SUBJECT: Deadline discussion

    GOOD SUBJECT: Recommend we ship product 25 April

    —ask: who, what, when, where and why?

    Guy Kawasaki (former Apple Fellow, Forbes.com columnist and venture capitalist) writes: ‘Craft your subject line. … It must communicate that your message is highly personalised. For example, “Love your blog”, “Love your book”, and “You skate well for an old man” always work on me. :-)’.

    • Do not write in all caps. Text in all caps is interpreted as YELLING in email. Even if you’re not yelling, it’s more difficult to read text that’s in all caps.

    • Refrain from using multiple !!!!! or ?????. Multiple exclamation and question marks risk giving the perception that you are sarcastic and condescending. Do you understand??????

    Also … “Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes.”
    — F. Scott Fitzgerald —

    • Keep it short. The ideal length for an email is five sentences. If you’re asking something reasonable of a reasonable recipient, simply explain who you are in one or two sentences and get to the question. If it’s not reasonable, don’t ask at all. …There is one exception to this brevity rule: When you really don’t want anything from the recipient and you simply want to heap praise and kindness upon her. Then you can go on as long as you like! (This tip cannot apply to some updates, instructions and so on; in which case it may be worthwhile to attach an itemised Word document rather than have lengthy content in the body of the email).
    • Do not thank others when you are requesting them to do something (e.g. ‘Thank you for taking on this task and thank you for getting a colleague to help you if you can’t’—rather, politely make the request in the form of a question and leave the ‘Thank you in advance’ or ‘Let me know if this is possible please’ for sign-off. This is more likely to evoke a positive response.
    • Always end your emails with ‘Thank you’, ‘Cheers’, ‘Kind regards’ or an appropriate greeting, and sign off with your name. Shortened forms such as ‘kr’ implies that the recipient is not worthy of an extra few letters; if you are that pressed for time, perhaps devise a standard email signature. (An email signature is acceptable, though less personal). Be aware that people can read a great deal into your email signature; for example, from a forum on the topic:

    “A person I was obliged to work with who signed off the most inconsequential notes to people he did not know:

    Warmest personal regards,

    xxx

    Did not trust this person further than I could throw them… how can you trust someone on the big things if they are willing to skimp on the small things?”

    • Limit your recipients. The more people you send an email to, the less likely any single person will respond to it, much less perform any action that you requested. … If you are going to ask a large group of people to do something, then at least use blind carbon copies (BCC); not only will the few recipients think they are important, you won’t burden the whole list with everyone’s email address. Nor will you reveal everyone’s email address inadvertently.
    • When replying to emails, respond promptly and edit out unnecessary information from the post you are responding to. Don’t let folks wonder if you received the email or are ever going to respond to their communications. Think about how quickly you would return a phone call or voice mail. Quote back. Even if emails are flying back and forth within hours, be sure to quote back the text that you’re answering. Assume that the person you’re corresponding with has fifty email conversations going at once. If you answer with a simple, ‘Yes, I agree’, most of the time you will force the recipient to dig through his deleted mail folder to figure out what you’re agreeing to. However, don’t ‘fisk’ either. Fisking is when you quote back the entire message and respond line by line, often in an argumentative way. Don’t feel like you have to respond to every issue.
    • Spell check your email, proofread for errors, capitalise your sentences and use appropriate punctuation and grammar. You want your emails to be readable.
    • Type in complete sentences. Create new paragraphs when the subject matter shifts. Always take the time to review your email before clicking send.
    • Avoid forwarding numerous jokes and large files to friends and colleagues without their permission. Do not forward virus warnings. Always minimise, compress or ‘zip’ large files before sending.
    • Never give out phone numbers or personal information without confirming you are communicating with a reputable party.
    • Do not use Return Receipt Request (RR) for each and every email you send because you like knowing when someone opens your email.
    • If you receive a nasty email, do not respond immediately—if at all. Chill out. Guy Kawasaki comments, ‘This is a rule that I’ve broken many times, and each time that I did, I regretted it. When someone writes you a pissy email, the irresistible temptation is to retaliate. (And this is for an inconsequential email message—no wonder countries go to war.) You will almost always make the situation worse. A good practice is to wait 24 hours before you respond. An even better practice is that you never say in email what you wouldn’t say in person—this applies to both the sender and recipient, by the way. The best practice is to never answer and let the sender wonder if his email got caught in a spam filter or didn’t even matter enough to merit a response. Take my advice and do as I say, not as I have done—or will do. :-)’.
    • Keep in mind that all private email is considered to be copyrighted by the original author.
    • Never just forward an email without a comment as to why you are forwarding it to the recipient. Do you want the party to comment or review? Is there a specific issue you want them to address? Did you have a particular reason why you forwarded that specific email?
    • When communicating informally, it is acceptable to use emoticons and shortened forms. Due to the lack of vocal and nonverbal clues with email, we often forget that eye contact, tone of voice and body language, which we take for granted when communicating in person, is not available in the written word without ongoing efforts to work at your writing skills. Use emoticons and acronyms when necessary to convey your message. If you are joking, include a smiley face :-), if you are sad or upset you can use :-(. If you need to type an extra line or two to make sure your intent is clear—do so.

    From National Punctuation Day:

    “While I like to write,
    Punctuation is a drag.
    That’s for editors.”

  • Dates

    My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places. – Winnie the Pooh

    • The standard date format in Australian and UK English is Day Date Month, e.g. 30 October 2010 (not 30th); unless the document is a standard tender form that has ‘Signed this [30th] day of [month, year]’.
    • Use names of months rather than numbers, as it confuses between American and British English. Local styling should be adopted.
    • Pairs of dates are shortened using an en dash to the shortest pronounceable form: 1998-9 but 2010-12, 1998-2002
    • The solidus (forward slash) distinguishes between a financial year, 2003/4, and a span of calendar years, 2003–4 (en rule).
    • Years are expressed in figures, but avoid starting a sentence with a figure.
    • Use s without an apostrophe to indicate decades or centuries: 1990s 1900s.
    • Decades may be spelt out, in lowercase: the seventies.
    • If the decade is identified by its century, it’s usual practice to use: the 1970s.