Give your company a voice
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.
No, the topic of this week’s post isn’t Morse code but the punctuation mark properly known as ‘the three-dot ellipsis’ but more commonly known as “dot dot dot”. This simple, but oh-so-useful, device is used to denote missing words or thoughts. Sometimes this may be a single swear word as in “Get the … out of here!” Often, it is used to indicate an unfinished thought – “Melanie wondered whether this blog would be helpful or…” It can also be used to signify a time lapse.
The average adult wastes 1.75 million words over a lifetime while struggling to make a point, according to a new study. It found we litter our sentences with around 60 meaningless words every day, with most waffle reserved for when we are at work. This bad habit is not confined to speech but is also reflected in the majority of written communications. Many businesses use dry, jargon-filled corporate-speak rather than make the effort to get their message across quickly and clearly.
Clients often ask WORDS to “work our magic” on a piece of copy that has been written in-house. All the necessary information is there but for some reason it doesn’t get the message across. Usually, the problem is that it has been buried under so much verbiage that the key points are lost in long, rambling paragraphs. Often, sentences are so tortuously twisted that they have to be read several times before you can understand what they mean.
The playwright George Bernard Shaw famously said that the England and America are two countries divided by a common language – and how true that is. Increasingly, perhaps fueled by the import of popular US TV shows and films (or “movies” as my teenagers call them), English is slowly but surely being ‘Americanised’.
Language is a living thing and, quite rightly, constantly evolves. Personally, I have no problem with use of the word ‘cookbook’ instead of ‘cookery book’,
Punctuation – what’s the point? 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 –
Here’s a short cut when you want to check your spelling and grammar in a document. Instead of choosing ‘Tools’ then ‘Spelling and Grammar’, simply click the ABC button on your toolbar (that’s the one with the tick). Any potential errors will be flagged and you’ll be given a readability score!
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
Most people would put commas before and after the words “I believe”
