Ascension Coastal

Category: Writing and editing tips

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

  • Conjunctions: Use of ‘although’ and ‘however’

    Although

    Avoid starting a sentence with although, unless it is followed by a clause (another short ‘sentence’ containing a verb), e.g.

    • He received no awards. Although he did a good job. – Incorrect 
    • He received no awards. Although he did a good job, it was a waste of time. – Correct
    • To improve your performance, you could have expanded on the external socio-economic situation. Although you identified that the merger would result in benefits. – Incorrect. 
    • Despite having identified that the merger would bring benefits, you would have improved your performance by expanding on the external socio-economic situation. – Better.

    Definitions (from the Cambridge Dictionary):

    despite the fact that

    • She walked home by herself, although she knew that it was dangerous.
    • He decided to go, although I begged him not to.

    but

    • He’s rather shy, although he’s not as bad as he used to be.

    • She’ll be coming tonight, although I don’t know exactly when.

    However

    Most dictionaries list however as an adverb when it is used to mean ‘but’, ‘yet’ or ‘nevertheless’. In such contexts, careful punctuation is usually needed for clarity:

    • However, I will let you know.
    • I’m not sure of the outcome; however, I will let you know as soon as this is clear.

    There is an increasing trend to use however as a conjunction joining two contrasting clauses, but with only a comma separating them:

    • I’m not sure of the outcome, however I will let you know as soon as this is clear.

    This use of however is not widely accepted, and should therefore be avoided in standard of formal publications.

    Source: Style Manual, 6th edition.

    Types of conjunctions

    Coordinating conjunctions, also called coordinators, are conjunctions that join two items of equal syntactic importance. As an example, the traditional view holds that the English coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so (which form the mnemonic FANBOYS).

    Note that there are good reasons to argue that only and, but and or are prototypical coordinators, while nor is very close. So and yet share more properties with conjunctive adverbs (e.g. however), and ‘for…lack(s) most of the properties distinguishing prototypical coordinators from prepositions with clausal complements’. Furthermore, there are other ways to coordinate independent clauses in English.

    Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions which work together to coordinate two items. English examples include both … and, either … or, not (only) … but (… also).

    Subordinating conjunctions, also called subordinators, are conjunctions that introduce a dependent clause; English examples include after, although, if, unless, and because. Another way for remembering is the mnemonic ‘BISAWAWE’: ‘because’, ‘if’, ‘so that’, ‘after’, ‘when’, ‘although’, ‘while’, and ‘even though’.

    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_conjunction.

  • Commas

    Commas should aid understanding

    Use commas as an aid to understanding. Too many in one sentence can be confusing, whereas too few can result in serious misunderstanding.

    It is not always necessary to put a comma after a short phrase at the start of a sentence if no natural pause exists there: On August 2nd he invaded. Next time the world will be prepared.

    But a breath, and so a comma, is needed after longer passages: When it was plain that he had his eyes on Saudi Arabia as well as Kuwait, America responded.

    Commas are sometimes imperative to aid understanding, for example to stop your guests from eating Grandpa:

    Use two commas, or none at all, when inserting a clause in the middle of a sentence. Thus, do not write: Use two commas, or none at all when inserting . . . or Use two commas or none at all, when inserting . . .

    If the clause ends with a bracket, which is not uncommon (this one does), the bracket should be followed by a comma.

    Commas can alter the sense of a sentence. To write Mozart’s 40th symphony, in G minor, with commas indicates that this symphony was written in G minor. Without commas, Mozart’s 40th symphony in G minor suggests he wrote 39 other symphonies in G minor.

    Do not put a comma before and at the end of a sequence of items unless one of the items includes another and. Thus The doctor suggested an aspirin, half a grapefruit and a cup of broth. But he ordered scrambled eggs, whisky and soda, and a selection from the trolley.

    Do not put commas after question marks, even when they would be separated by quotation marks: ‘May I have a second helping?’ he asked.

    Source: Economist Style Guide

    1. People who perform well on this test tend to have the capacity to readily understand reports and documents.

    2. People, who perform well on this test, tend to have the capacity to readily understand reports and documents.

    Which one is right? Number 1.

    The second sentence reads as ‘People [description of people] tend to have the capacity…’. The commas identify the clause ‘who perform well on this test’ as modifying ‘people’, i.e. [All] people perform well on this test.

    Such as… and ‘as’: where to place the comma

    Incorrect: ‘In jobs, such as fighter pilots, costs have been estimated at well over a million dollars to train each job incumbent.’

    This reads as ‘In jobs, costs have been limited…’

    The phrase ‘… jobs such as fighter pilots’ should not have a comma.

    However, this is correct: ‘In certain jobs, such as fighter pilots, costs have been estimated at well over a million dollars to train each job incumbent.’

    ‘Such as’ meaning ‘for example’

    The Grammar Exchange Archives has the following explanation (pasted from a more comprehensive posting):

    ‘…such as (in its function that is similar to that of including) introduces a member or members of a category; a class of things or people. It introduces one or more examples of the larger category. For example:

    • She has made a great many people nervous, such as her grandmother, her uncles, and her husband-to-be.
    • Our nursery offers a large selection of fruit trees, such as peach, plum, and apple.
    • Several long-time friends of the groom, such as his two college roommates and his football buddy Jake, were flabbergasted that he actually went through with the ceremony.

    Items introduced by such as are representative of a category, to give some idea of the kind of items that are being talked about. When such as introduces examples of a category, it is usually preceded by a comma, as in the examples above.

    ‘Such as’ meaning ‘like’

    Sometimes such as does not mean ‘for example’ but rather ‘like’:

    There are crystals, of substances such as [like] tourmaline, which are sensitive to the polarisation of light.**

    Irresponsible people such as [like] your little brother shouldn’t be allowed to drive!
    Sometimes such as is followed by a full clause, in which case it means ‘of a/the kind that…’ With this meaning, such as has no comma: This will be a disaster such as the world has never seen.
    or
    We may disclose … personal information about you, such as we have described above, to the following types of third parties.

    Also:

    [The manager] would improve performance by finding out about the person as a basis for adapting your approach and showing appropriate empathy (no comma before ‘as’ here!)

    Eats, shoots and leaves…

    A panda bear walks into a bar and orders a sandwich. The waiter brings him the sandwich. The panda bear eats it, pulls out a pistol, kills the waiter, gets up and starts to walk out.

    The bartender yells for him to stop. The panda bear asks, “What do you want?” The bartender replies, “First you come in here, order food, kill my waiter, then try to go without paying for your food.”

    The panda bear turns around and says, “Hey! I’m a Panda. Look it up!” The bartender goes into the back room and looks up panda bear in the encyclopedia, which read: “Panda: a bear-like marsupial originating in Asian regions. Known largely for its stark black and white colouring. Eats shoots and leaves.”

  • Colons and semi-colons

    The colon is often used to introduce a list of items, for example: You will need to bring three things to the party: some food, something to drink, and a small gift for the hostess.

    The semi-colon is often used to join together two independent clauses—in other words, it joins two clauses that could be sentences: Frank drives a Ferrari; Mike drives a Lamborghini. OR: to join two clauses using a transition such as however, therefore, on the other hand, etc.

    Source: Style Manual, 6th edition.

    Semi-colons should be used to mark a pause longer than a comma and shorter than a full stop. Don’t overdo them. Use them to distinguish phrases listed after a colon if commas will not do the job clearly. Thus, ‘They agreed on only three points: the ceasefire should be immediate; it should be internationally supervised, preferably by the AU; and a peace conference should be held, either in Geneva or in Ouagadougou.’

    Source: The Economist Style Guide

  • Clichés and jargon

    http://www.funnytimes.com/about.php

    Sometimes idioms and expressions are so overused that they grate on the ear. I still believe colourful language can paint a more vivid picture and present ideas clearly, but of course there is no point using technical (I D 10 T computer error) or business (acronyms!) jargon to confound others; or overusing idioms for the sake of expanding writing. Like a diamond, prose often shines more brightly when cut.

    My husband has a real issue with the word ‘issue’ and the term ‘touch base’. When I touched base with him on this issue, he proclaimed that he much prefers dealing with plain old problems than issues, and is happy to discuss matters but prefers not to be touched, especially ‘base’, by colleagues and acquaintances. I, on the other hand, try to avoid issues and problems, and the need to touch base about either.

    In 2004 the Plain English Campaign asked supporters in more than 70 countries which clichés they thought were the most annoying. Supporters voted ‘at the end of the day’ as the most irritating phrase in the English language.

    Second place in the vote was shared by ‘at this moment in time’ and the constant use of ‘like’ as if it were a form of punctuation. ‘With all due respect’ came fourth.

    Overused phrases can be a barrier to communication. As noted by a Plain English campaigner, ‘When readers or listeners come across these tired expressions, they start tuning out and completely miss the message—assuming there is one.’ George Orwell’s advice is still worth following: ‘Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.’

    The following terms also received several nominations.

    • 24/7
    • absolutely
    • address the issue
    • awesome
    • ballpark figure
    • basically
    • basis (‘on a weekly basis’ in place of ‘every week’ and so on)
    • bear with me
    • between a rock and a hard place
    • blue sky thinking
    • boggles the mind
    • bottom line
    • crack troops
    • diamond geezer
    • epicentre (used incorrectly)
    • glass half full (or half empty)
    • going forward (um… or … MOVING FORWARD)
    • I hear what you’re saying …
    • in terms of …
    • it’s not rocket science
    • literally
    • move the goalposts
    • ongoing
    • prioritise
    • pushing the envelope
    • singing from the same hymn sheet
    • the fact of the matter is
    • thinking outside the box
    • to be honest/to be honest with you/to be perfectly honest
    • touch base
    • value-added (in general use)

    Plain English Campaign Foot in Mouth award – Lord Peter Mandelson

    For his comment on the investigations into MP’s expenses .

    “Perhaps we need not more people looking round more corners but the same people looking round more corners more thoroughly to avoid the small things detracting from the big things the Prime Minister is getting right.”

    Plain English Campaign 2009 Golden Bull award – Dublin Airport Authority for a 109 word clause on contractors’ agreement

    (c) Neither the execution and delivery by the Consultant of this Agreement nor the consummation by it of any of the transactions contemplated hereby, requires, with respect to it, the consent or approval of the giving of notice to, the registration, with the record or filing of any document with, or the taking of any other action in respect of any government authority, except such as are not yet required (as to which it has no reason to believe that the same will not be readily obtainable n the ordinary course of business upon due application therefore) or which have been duly obtained and are in full force and effect.

    Try the jargon generator for a spot of fun.

    From Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman:

    ‘Maeve Livingstone. Worried widow of Morris. Needs reassurance. Fair words and fine promises. Rome was not built in a day. The actual business of sorting out Morris Livingstone’s estate and getting money to her continues unabated. Phones me practically daily for hand-holding. Meanwhilst, I turn the task over to you,’

    ‘Right,’ said Fat Charlie. ‘So, um. No rest for the wicked.’

    ‘Another day, another dollar,’ said Grahame Coats, with a wag of the finger.

    ‘Nose to the grindstone?’ suggested Charlie.

    ‘Shoulder to the wheel,’ said Grahame Coats. ‘Well, delightful chatting with you. But we both have much work to do.’

    © this post Ascension Editing 2010

  • Capitals and lower case

     ‘A balance has to be struck between so many capitals that the eyes dance and so few that the reader is diverted more by our style than by our substance. The general rule is to dignify with capital letters organisations and institutions, but not people. … Even these, however, leave some decisions to individual judgment. If in doubt, use lower case unless it looks absurd. And remember that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” (Emerson).’ 

    From The Economist’s rules

    Internet: capital or not?

    The internet no longer needs a capital ‘I’ in standard Australian writing (Style Guide, 6th edition).

    As Pam Peters puts it in The Cambridge Guide to English Usage:

    ‘The global digital network … grew out of a more local system developed by the US military during the 1970s as part of a defense strategy, which was simply the internet. … Given that internet had no capital letter in the first place, and the generic nature of its use, the decapitalised form makes sense. … Though Internet dominates in British and American English at the turn of the millennium, it can only be a matter of time for it to be decapitalised.’ 

    Comments following a post on capitalising proper nouns (Grammar Girl) discusses this, with the final comment: ‘Small “i” is the wave of the future.’

    Titles

    For in-page titles and headings (such as news articles), only capitalise the first word and any proper nouns. Do not end the heading with a full stop.

    Titles of books, magazines, reports

    Capitalise the main words. Use italics for titles of books, films, plays and periodicals.

    Use regular font (not bold, not italics) in quotation marks for article titles, report titles, chapter titles and shorter poems.

    Titles of jobs

    Lowercase in general:

                The chief accountant resigned.

    But when referring to a person and their job title, this should be in capitals:

    Joe Smith, Head of External Affairs

    Titles of people

    Capitalise the specific president of any country, lower case a general mention:

                Many admired Professor Brown.

                UQ will employ a new professor.

    Finally, an old rhyme and a suicide note:

    If an S and an I and an O and a U
    With an X at the end spell Su;
    And an E and a Y and an E spell I,
    Pray what is a speller to do?
    Then, if also an S and an I and a G
    And an HED spell side,
    There’s nothing much left for a speller to do
    But to go commit siouxeyesighed.

    (from Spelling Jokes)

  • Articles (the, a, an)

    Use an before words that begin with a vowel sound and words that begin with a silent h:

    • an enemy
    • an heir

    Use a before a consonant sound, including a pronounced h:

    • a hero
    • a union

    Remember, it depends on how it is pronounced. Although union starts with a vowel, it is not pronounced with a vowel sound: you-nee-on.

    The same rules apply before abbreviations and acronyms.

    • an SS office
    • a WSQ questionnaire
    • an OPQ report

    For more on articles, have a look at the Owl.

    [Contents of this post © Ascension Editing 2010)

  • Ampersand (&), ellipsis (…), en and em dash & the solidus (/)

    Ampersand

    The ampersand (&) is not used for general purposes in printed text. Its use is restricted to company names and titles in display work, and it is sometimes used in references to the work of joint authors or editors, in bibliographies or in parentheses, e.g.:

    Bell P & Bell R (eds) 2007, Americanization and Australia, University of New South Wales Press.

    In the body of the text, the word ‘and’ itself replaces the ampersand.

    Source: The Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage, 2007

    Ellipsis (…)

    An ellipsis (three dots) may be used to indicate either a pause in speaking or an omission of one or more words in a quoted passage. There should be a space before and after the ellipsis.

    ‘Sigh no more, ladies … men were deceivers ever.’

    If something is left out between sentences, use an ellipsis at the end of the sentence. A sentence ending in an ellipsis may conclude with an additional full stop , however this is not obligatory.

    An ellipsis can indicate a trailing thought. In this instance, do not leave a space between the last word and the ellipsis.

    ‘The man was clearly telling the truth. But then again….’

    More on the ellipsis

    Em dash

    Em rules—and en rules – are not hyphens –

    Often called a dash, the em rule (—) is approximately the length of the letter m. It is set close up to words on either side of it (i.e. no spaces on either side). Use:

    • As parentheses when the break in the sentence is abrupt, e.g. ‘We went far away—far away from the demands of city life—to write up our research.’
    • For gathering up, amplifying, explaining, e.g. curiosity, reverence for nature, pleasure in conversation, respect for privacy—all these qualities could be developed by anyone.
    • To show abrupt changes, e.g. ‘I went to Rome to see the churches, to Paris to look at the galleries, to Vienna to hear opera—but I see I’m boring you.’

    For Australian Government publications, do not use a spaced en rule as a substitute for an em rule.

    On the PC in Word, an em rule is Alt Ctrl (Num) –

    (* If you’re ever trying to write something to confuse the reader, use lots of em dashes. Start and stop thoughts willy-nilly. In dialogue, this is a great way to imply the speaker is scattered. – Tom Schoenborn)

    En dash

    En rules (–) are about half the size of em rules and about the width of a letter n. Use:

    • In spans of figures relating to time or distance, e.g. pages 306–7, calendar year 1997-98, April–June, sections 163–75.
    • To express an association between words that retain their separate identity, e.g. Commonwealth–State Agreement, cost–benefit ratio, hand–eye coordination (note that this doesn’t apply to adjective compounds like ‘colour-blind’ or ‘icy-cold’ which can take a hyphen).
    • Link elements that are parallel or in series; link nouns with nouns, adjectives with adjectives and so on, e.g. Australian–American research team.
    • Link a prefix to a phrase, e.g. pre–World War II, pre–Howard Government; however use a hyphen to link a prefix to a word, e.g. Neo-Gothic.

    On the PC in Word, an en rule is Ctrl (Num) –

    Source: The APS Guide 8—Authoring, Australian Public Service Commission.

    More on the em and en dash

    Solidus (/)

    The solidus (forward slash) distinguishes between a financial year, 2003/4, and a span of calendar years, 2003–4 (en rule).

    Source: Mackenzie, Janet The Editor’s Companion, 2004.

    [Content of this post © Ascension Editing 2010]

  • Agreement: singular, plural and gender

    Dr Seuss

    Agreement refers to the matching of words within a sentence in terms of their number (singular and plural), and in terms of gender or person. A traditional name for the concept in English and other languages is concord. 

    Verb-subject agreement 

    Matching pronouns with verbs is straightforward enough, until you come to cases like: 

    • Neither she nor I ?am/?is/?are inclined to go.
    • One or both of us ?is/?are wrong.

    None of the alternatives sits comfortably in those sentences. The best way out of the problem is to remake the sentence: 

    • Both she and I are disinclined to go.
    • One of us is wrong, or both of us.

    With indefinite pronouns (e.g. either, neither, nobody, no-one, something), those ending in -one, -body, -thing simply take a singular verb on all occasions. But with others, a plural verb is a possibility: 

    • Any of the books he wrote is/are worth reading.
    • None of their suggestions appeal(s) to us.

    A singular verb in such examples singles out one item, whereas the plural suggests that the writer has the whole set in mind. 

    Agreement between pronouns 

    • Everyone likes ?his/?her/?their own clothes.

    In strictest grammar, the pronoun should be either his or her in such cases. But the exclusiveness of opting for one gender on the other (and the clumsiness of saying ‘his or her’) makes many people use their. Because it is gender–free, their helps to maintain the generality of the statement, and in many contexts this is preferable. Their is certainly being used in this way very often in speech, and increasingly in writing. A newspaper cartoon not so long ago had the Prime Minister saying: 

    • Everyone has to pay their tax!

    The use of their in singular agreement with indefinite pronouns is accepted as ‘standard idiom’ by the Australian Government Style Manual. 

    Source: The Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage, 2007 

    Make sure that plural nouns have plural verbs, e.g. Kogalym today is one of the few Siberian oil towns which are [not is] almost habitable. What better evidence that snobbery and elitism still hold [not holds] back ordinary British people? 

    Source: The Economist Style Guide 

    The Plural of Mongoose – Mongooses or Mongeese

    The manager of a large city zoo was drafting a letter to order a pair of animals. He sat at his computer and typed the following sentence: “I would like to place an order for two mongooses, to be delivered at your earliest convenience.”
    He stared at the screen, focusing on that odd word mongooses. Then he deleted the word and added another, so that the sentence now read: “I would like to place an order for two mongeese, to be delivered at your earliest convenience.”
    Again he stared at the screen, this time focusing on the new word, which seemed just as odd as the original one. Finally, he deleted the whole sentence and started all over. “Everyone knows no full-stocked zoo should be without a mongoose,” he typed. “Please send us two of them.”
     
    (The word mongoose comes from mangus, a word from the Indic language Marathi; thus the plural is more widely understood to be “mongooses”.)

    Singular or plural agreement for organisations’ names? 

    While either singular or plural agreement is grammatically correct, the singular is recommended in Australian Commonwealth publications—both for consistency and to present a cohesive image in references to government bodies and activities. 

    For consistency, follow this recommendation. Thus: 

    • Virgin employs great people.
    • KPMG offers Development Centres for Partners.
    • The Bureau of Meteorology has been quick to respond.

    Source: Style Manual for Authors, Editors & Printers, 6th edn, Revised by Snooks & Co., 2006. 

    http://www.nataliedee.com/

    [Content of this post © Ascension Editing 2010]