Give your company a voice
When writing is dull or difficult to read, it is sometimes due to the writer using unnecessary words or convoluted phrasing, perhaps in an attempt to sound more educated or businesslike.
For instance, stating “The hotel has a fitness suite and swimming amenities” instead of simply saying, “The hotel has a gym and swimming pool”. Similarly, “He works on a part-time basis” can be shortened to “He works part-time”.
Are clichés ‘a gift from the gods’ or something to ‘avoid like the plague’? The answer, it may surprise you to know, is “it’s not black and white”. Used sparingly (and appropriately), a cliché can be a shortcut to understanding. But things begin to go wrong when people overuse them, littering entire paragraphs with these stale phrases like… well, confetti.
The grammarian Eric Partridge identified four types of cliché:
Apostrophes were back in the news again recently when a council became the first in Britain to vote on whether to drive the much-abused apostrophe off Devon’s streets. Mid-Devon District Council claimed that abolishing the apostrophe from road and street names would eliminate “confusion” – although it failed to explain precisely what confusion the humble punctuation mark has caused.
Fortunately, the proposal met with heated opposition from defenders of the English language and the council was forced to back down.
Commas are generally used to indicate a natural breathing space. More subtle than the full stop, which brings a sentence to a juddering halt, the comma is a subtle pause and, when properly used, greatly enhances readability and understanding. Compare these two sentences:
“Melanie Silver has I believe nearly 20 years’ professional copywriting experience.”
“Melanie Silver has, I believe, nearly 20 years’ professional copywriting experience.”
Would you agree that the second sentence is easier to understand?
When it comes to grammar, I’m no pedant but these days it seems anything goes. Yet without good grammar and correct punctuation misunderstandings would be rife. As a professional writer, howling errors jump off the page at me but by far my most common bugbear is misuse of the humble apostrophe.
We’ve all smiled at signs such as “Tomatoe’s” and “Crisp’s”. The problem seems to lie in people’s inability to recognise that there are only two possible uses for apostrophes: one being to show ownership of something –
In our grammar and punctuation spot this week, we ask when should you use words instead of numbers in your writing? It’s a generally accepted rule that numbers one to ten are spelled out as words whereas any number over ten can be shown as a figure. That convention aside, however, much simply comes down to your own personal preference. Round numbers and approximate amounts can be expressed in either words or figures.
In our grammar and punctuation spot this week, we look at the role of the ever useful asterisk (*). It is often used to replace letters that would otherwise form an obscenity unsuitable for use in a family publication or, indeed, a wholesome blog like this. Another equally useful function is to guide readers to a footnote with substantiating information such as a source or to link to an explanation elsewhere in the document.
Fancily called the virgule, solidus, diagonal or separatrix, the oblique stroke – or, more commonly, ‘slash’ – traditionally has three main uses:
I hope that’s proved interesting/helpful.
This week, Hertfordshire copywriter Mel Silver is temporarily forsaking her usual tips on good grammar and punctuation to bring you a guest post from the fabulously well-informed pay per click expert June Cory of MyMustard on how to make Google AdWords work for you. Enjoy!
“Last year I spent £500,000 of my clients’ budgets and turned it into £10million of new revenue for them. That’s the power of AdWords – when it’s done properly.
Great to see at the weekend that Owen Paterson, rural affairs secretary, takes proper punctuation so seriously that he interrupted his preparations for the imminent badger cull to issue an edict on the subject. Paterson has insisted civil servants do not start a sentence with ‘but’, while ‘and’ should only be used once in any sentence. Refreshingly, he also advises “all sentences should be as short as possible” and jargon should be avoided. Paterson’s 10-point list instructs staff to avoid dashes and limit the use of brackets in the interests of simplicity.
