Guideline. Unless you have a good reason for doing otherwise, express verbs in the active rather than the passive voice.
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While many people may not know what an appositive is, clients use them often in the documents we see on our server. This week's post is on the appositive and how to use it. We use as our guide the venerable Chicago Manual of Style.
Topics: punctuation, appositives
A venerable client wrote recently and asked, "Should 'that' be added before 'innovation' in the following sentence?"
Topics: when to omit that, when to use that, that
There are many rules in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. It's important that you follow all of them in order to ensure that your documents are acceptable to all readers. We see many documents in which the authors' confusion regarding possessive punctuation is evident. The following list, taken from
The Chicago Manual of Style(15th edition), will help clear things up:
- Kansas's legislature
- Chicago's lakefront
- Burns's poems
- Marx's theories
- Berlioz's works
- Strauss's Vienna
- Dickens's novels
- the Lincolns' marriage
- William's reputation
- the Williamses' new house
- Malraux's masterpiece
- Inez's diary
- the Martinezes' daughter
- Josquin des Prez's motets
- dinner at the Browns' (that is, at the Browns' home)
- FDR's legacy
- 1999's heaviest snowstorm
- Yahoo!'s chief executive
Exceptions (for names of two or more syllables that end in an eez sound): - Euripides' tragedies
- the Ganges' source
- Xerxes' armies
and (for words and names ending in unpronounced s) - Descartes' three dreams
- the marquis' mother
- Francois' efforts to learn English
- Albert Camus' novels (the s is unpronounced)
but - Raoul Camus's anthology (the s is pronounced)
Other exceptions: - for righteousness' sake
- for goodness' sake
- for Jesus' sake
but - Jesus's disciples
Topics: possessives, punctuation, grammar
Titles of people in positions of authority are among the most inconsistent terms we see in all the documents we proof and edit for our clients. Sure, readers are not dumb, and they'll know whom you're referring to when you write "We saw the President boarding Air Force One" or "The secretary of State used to teach at Stanford." But there
are established standards, and following those standards tells your readers that you are thoughtful, knowledgeable, and precise. So, before you write your next letter to the president, check out what the
Chicago Manual of Style prescribes for these civil titles.
Note that some company style sheets make the president of the United States an exception: "The President went to New Orleans today." That's fine; just be consistent!
- the president; George Washington, first president of the United States; President Ford; the presidency; presidential; the Taft administration; Chandrika Kumaratunga, president of Sri Lanka; President Kumaratunga or Mrs. Kumaratunga
- the vice president; Joseph Biden, vice president of the United States; Vice President Biden; vice-presidential duties; Jorge Quiroga, vice president of Bolivia; Vice President Quiroga
- the secretary of state; Hillary Rodham Clinton, secretary of state; Secretary of State Clinton or Secretary Clinton
- the senator; the senator from West Virginia; Senator Robert C. Byrd; Senators Byrd and Trent; Sen. John Glenn, Democrat from Ohio (or D-OH)
- the representative; the congressman; the congresswoman; Henry Hyde, representative from Illinois or congressman from Illinois; Congressman Hyde or Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) or Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.); Maxine Waters, representative from California; Congresswoman Waters; the congresswoman or the representative; Representatives Hyde and Waters
- the Speaker; John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives; Speaker Boehner (Speaker is traditionally capitalized)
- the chief justice; [the late] William H. Rehnquist, chief justice of the United States; Chief Justice Rehnquist
- the associate justice; Antonin Kennedy, associate justice; Justice Kennedy; Justices Kennedy and Thomas
- the chief judge; Henry Tonigan, chief judge; Judge Tonigan
- the ambassador; Philip Lader, ambassador to the Court of St. James's or ambassador to the United Kingdom; Ambassador Lader
- the governor; Ruth Ann Minner, governor of the state of Delaware; Governor Minner
- the mayor; Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago; Mayor Emanuel
- the state senator; Olga Parker, Ohio state senator; the Honorable Olga Parker
- the state representative (same pattern as state senator)
- the governor-general of Canada; the Right Honourable David Johnston
- the minister; Motohisa Furukawa, Japanese economics minister; Mr. Furukawa
- the prime minister; the Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau, former prime minister of Canada; David Cameron, the British prime minister
- the premier (of a Canadian province); the Right Honourable Roy Romanow
- the member of Parliament (UK and Canada); Jane Doe, member of Parliament or, more commonly, Jane Doe, MP (not used as a title preceding the name); Jane Doe, the member for West Hamage
- the chief whip; Tony Yengeni, chief whip of the African National Congress; Yengini
- the foreign secretary (UK); the foreign minister (other nations); the British foreign secretary; the German foreign minister (not used as a title preceding the name)
- the chancellor; Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany; Chancellor Merkel
- the chancellor of the exchequer (UK); George Osborne; Chancellor Osborne
- the Lord Privy Seal (UK; always capitalized)
Note that some company style sheets make the president of the United States an exception: "The President went to New Orleans today." That's fine; just be consistent!
Topics: capitalization, Chicago Manual of Style
Kids going back to school soon? Are
you going back to school soon? Brush up on some academic terms so your notes to the teacher don't come back with a big, fat F on them!
Disciplines. Academic subjects are not capitalized unless they form part of a department name or an official course name or are themselves proper nouns (e.g., English, Latin).
Courses. Official names of courses of study are capitalized.
Lectures. Names of lecture series are capitalized. Individual lectures are capitalized and usually enclosed in quotation marks.
Some academic degrees. In conservative practice, periods are added to abbreviations of all academic degrees (B.A., D.D.S., etc.). In today's writing, periods can be omitted unless they are required for tradition or consistency. In the following list, periods are shown only where uncertainty might arise as to their placement.
These designations are set off by commas when they follow a personal name.
Disciplines. Academic subjects are not capitalized unless they form part of a department name or an official course name or are themselves proper nouns (e.g., English, Latin).
- She has published widely in the history of religions.
- They have introduced a course in gender studies.
- He is majoring in comparative literature, and Janie is majoring in biology.
- She is pursuing graduate studies in philosophy of science.
but - Jones is chair of the Committee on Comparative Literature.
Courses. Official names of courses of study are capitalized.
- I am signing up for Beginning Archaeology.
- A popular course this fall is Basic Manuscript Editing.
but - His ballroom dancing classes have failed to civilize him.
Lectures. Names of lecture series are capitalized. Individual lectures are capitalized and usually enclosed in quotation marks.
- This year's Robinson Memorial Lectures were devoted to the nursing profession. The first lecture, "How Nightingale Got Her Way," was a sellout.
Some academic degrees. In conservative practice, periods are added to abbreviations of all academic degrees (B.A., D.D.S., etc.). In today's writing, periods can be omitted unless they are required for tradition or consistency. In the following list, periods are shown only where uncertainty might arise as to their placement.
- BA - Bachelor of Arts
- BFA - Bachelor of Fine Arts
- BM - Bachelor of Music
- BS - Bachelor of Science
- DD - Doctor of Divinity
- DDS - Doctor of Dental Surgery
- DMin (D.Min.) - Doctor of Ministry
- DVM - Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
- EdD - Doctor of Education
- JD - Juris Doctor (Doctor of Law)
- LittD (Litt.D.) - Litterarum Doctor (Doctor of Letters)
- MA - Master of Arts
- MBA - Master of Business Administration
- MD - Medicinae Doctor (Doctor of Medicine)
- MS - Master of Science
- MSN - Master of Science in Nursing
- MSW - Master of Social Welfare or Master of Social Work
- PhD (Ph.D.) - Philosophiae Doctor (Doctor of Philosophy)
These designations are set off by commas when they follow a personal name.
- Mortimer Snerd, JD, attended Wooden Memorial Law School.
Source: The Chicago Manual of Style.
Topics: academic terms, capitalization
Two unrelated topics today:
Drunk driving v. drink-driving.
Did you know that what goes for drunk driving in America is known as drink-driving in Britain? That's right - so be careful when editing We need harsher drink-driving penalties for MPs. If it's British, it's correct.
Many of us often confuse these tropes (a trope is a word or expression used in a figurative sense). Here's an explanation of all three, along with examples.
It's happened. You're in a five-way conversation and somebody pipes up with something like "Yeah, it's a Catch-22. You just can't get a job if you don't live in Florida." Trouble is, you know it's not a Catch-22, that the guy's blowing smoke, but you can't quite remember precisely what a Catch-22 is. So you keep quiet and everybody goes along. Well, study up and next time be the one in your cube-farm who doesn't mangle these common expressions. Read on!
Topics: word test, vocabulary test
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