More about writing and grammar
The Grammar Factor: spacing after end punctuation, capitals
By Mary Morel | January 2016 Spacing after end punctuation Question: Should you use one or two spaces after end punctuation? Answer: One space. The Australian Commonwealth Style manual: for authors, editors and printers says: ‘In typewritten (as distinct from typeset) material, it was customary to place two spaces after a colon, semicolon, full stop or […]
The Grammar Factor: styles, apostrophes, appendices/appendixes
By Mary Morel | October 2015 Do styles matter for internal documents? Someone recently asked me what to do if you’re working with different managers who have their own preferred styles, for example, on list punctuation and whether a page should be right-ragged or fully justified. If your organisation has a style guide, the obvious […]
The Grammar Factor: third person writing, double possessive
By Mary Morel, November 2015 Third person writing A reader’s comment about the conversational use of ‘you’ (see ‘Pet peeve’ below), and the article referenced below about ‘we’, made me think about the use of third person writing. In formal business writing, such as board papers and business cases, most writing guidelines encourage writers to […]
The Grammar Factor: a few nit-picking hours, spaced or unspaced em rules?
By Mary Morel | September 2015 A few nit-picking hours People who don’t know me well sometimes tell me they’re nervous when they email me because I’ll pick up on their grammar. They don’t realise that I switch off my nit-picking brain most of the time for two reasons: Finding mistakes all the time would take […]
The Grammar Factor: hanging hyphens, compound adjectives and 20 years’ or years experience
By Mary Morel | August 2015 Hanging hyphens A colleague consulted me this month about hanging hyphens (also called suspended or floating hyphens). For example: ‘short- and long-term plans’. I don’t like hanging hyphens, so I would write ‘short and long-term plans’. I think omitting the hanging hyphen is cleaner, but since that is not […]
The Grammar Factor: commas with ‘and’, ‘myself’ and ‘whose’ for things
By Mary Morel | July 2015 Commas with ‘and’ Several business writers have told me they were taught never to put a comma before ‘and’. Now, I could understand if they’d been told not to put one after ‘and’, but before? So I decided to look at occasions when we can use a comma before […]
The Grammar Factor: writing standards, while/whilst, can?
By Mary Morel | June 2015 Writing standards for clear communication Dana Skopal, PhD, wrote a blog for my Write to Govern website recently, but what she says applies to all writing. Here’s an excerpt from the blog: ‘Many people would view writing as putting sentences together and using correct grammar and punctuation. Sentences, grammar […]
The Grammar Factor: acronyms in summaries, media is/are, the power of the pen
By Mary Morel | May 2015 Windows is shutting down By Clive James Windows is shutting down, and grammar are On their last leg. So what am we to do? A letter of complaint go just so far, Proving the only one in step are you. Better, perhaps, to simply let it goes. A sentence […]
The Grammar Factor: numbers in business writing, apostrophes in place names
By Mary Morel | April 2015 Online course offer Just a reminder that the 25{59910f22c4b8b7fb83f8b3fd8107c48ae8d88d19cbd345b9801bf252f54d31e2} discount with the coupon 25offapril is available until the end of the month. This offer is to celebrate relaunching the website. You enter this coupon when you reach the cart. Numbering conventions in business writing The terms ‘numbers’ and ‘numerals’ […]
The Grammar Factor: website relaunch offer, quotes within quotes
By Mary Morel | March 2017 Online Writing Training relaunch offer To celebrate the relaunch of my online writing training website, I’m offering you 25{59910f22c4b8b7fb83f8b3fd8107c48ae8d88d19cbd345b9801bf252f54d31e2} off all my online courses from today until the end of April with the promo code 25offapril. (This offer does not include the Business Grammar class, which is booked out.) […]