Tips for formatting your Word documents First impressions count and we base our initial judgement of how easy a business document will be to read based on the way it looks. Strict length requirements sometimes encourage writers to do crazy things to the layout such as reduce the font size and change the margins. I […]
By Mary Morel, September 2016 Online board-paper course Read about my new board-paper course, Write to Govern. Reader’s comment: v. for versus ‘A quick observation about versus, vs. and vs usage in the U.S.: we sometimes use v. An example is the famous U.S. Supreme Court case known as “Rowe v. Wade.” Maybe this is […]
Data or datum? Microsoft Word accepts data as correct spelling when used in the singular and the Macquarie Dictionary says: ‘The connection between data the plural and datum the singular has been almost completely broken, so that while datum survives in such compounds as datum point, it does not have the frequency of use that data […]
August 2016 Podcasts about writing I was a laggard when it came to podcasting because I couldn’t get my head around the technology. Now I record over Skype, I can’t understand why I dithered for so long. Since I started podcasting, I have started listening to them more often. What a great way to make […]
Use consistent list punctuation There are several different styles for punctuating a bulleted or numbered list, and the main thing is to be consistent. If your organisation has a preferred style, use that. If you can choose your own style, please don’t use semicolons – they really are very old-fashioned! Punctuation with full-sentence lists Lists that […]
By Mary Morel, July 2016 ‘Word classes’ or ‘parts of speech’? I read an article about word classes recently. Now, I know that the term ‘parts of speech’ has gone out of fashion in favour of ‘word classes’, but wasn’t aware that two other competing terms are ‘lexical categories’ and ‘syntactic categories’. The rationale for […]
I find the hardest part about writing blogs is deciding what to write about. But first a confession: I am not a regular blogger because I would rather not blog than write something for the sake of it, and sometimes other things, such as paid work, take priority. How do you decide what to blog […]
What emails do you find hard to write? We all find some emails difficult to write. For instance: I hate following up overdue invoices. I sometimes find it hard to say ‘no’. I wish I never did anything I had to apologise for! I am not always tactful when I give feedback to people on their writing (I […]
By Mary Morel | June 2016 Avoid overusing initial capitals Most editors will tell you they hate the overuse and inconsistent use of initial capitals in business documents – they are unnecessary and ugly. You can avoid overusing initial capitals by thinking of lower case as the norm and using initial capitals only when appropriate. […]
Tone is important in emails – the wrong tone can get you into trouble When we’re writing business emails in a hurry, we often forget to check the tone. Sometimes it helps to put the email aside if you’re having difficulty with the tone. Another test is to read your email aloud and see how it […]