Annabelle’s question: “I want to know if I am placing my commas correctly when I list several items or people. For example: Jim, David, and I denotes 3 different people. But Jim, David and I could imply David and I are a couple. I always tend to put commas before ‘and.’ However, several of my […]
Paulo’s question: “Could you clarify the use of ‘come’ versus ‘go,’ as well as ‘bring’ versus ‘take?’ I find it strange that someone would write: ‘Yes, I am coming, and I’ll bring wine.’ ” BizWritingTip response: Use “come” and “go” when you are referring to movement. Use “bring” and “take” when carrying something. Now for the […]
Brian’s question: “I was just wondering if the use of lower case in business titles (e.g., vice president finance or president and chief executive officer) on business cards, emails, and letters is common and/or acceptable business practice?” BizWritingTip response: First, let’s separate business cards from letters and emails. Business cards are usually planned by graphic […]
Carol’s question: “I see a lot of people using quotes to highlight info. For example, all sports teams are encouraged to adopt a “tobacco-free” policy. I am under the impression quotes and single quotes are to be used sparingly, if at all, for anything that is not a direct quotation. But can you clarify?” BizWritingTip response: […]
Bill’s question: “I have seen parentheses with the period both inside and outside the brackets. Which is correct?” BizWritingTip response: The rules for punctuation with brackets — or parentheses — are actually quite simple. If the material inside the brackets is a sentence fragment or an acronym, place the period outside the bracket. Examples I am […]
BizWritingTip reader: “On the weekend my 13-year-old daughter told my wife and me that her girlfriend ‘texted’ her on her cell phone. I commented that the correct way of saying it was that her girlfriend had sent her a text. My wife agreed with my daughter that it is past tense and that ‘texted’ was correct. […]
BizWritingTip reader: “For headings or titles that contain a hyphenated word, do you capitalize the second word in the compound word? For example, would I write: ‘City of Thunder Bay 2010 By-election’ or ‘City of Thunder Bay 2010 By-Election’? Does the rule work the same way for compound adjectives also?” BizWritingTip response: When writing a heading […]
BizWritingTip reader: “I am confused about the punctuation with the word ‘however.’ I know that I must always place a comma after it. But when do I use a comma before it and when do I use a period?” BizWritingTip response: Most people do not know how to punctuate the word “however.” If you understand […]
Jean’s question: “Just wondering if you could clarify the use of parentheses. I have a colleague who uses parentheses because she finds them ‘cleaner.’ I beg to differ.” BizWritingTip response: When you have material within a sentence that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence, you must set this material off. You could […]
BizWritingTip reader: “I feel the word ‘that’ is used much too often and, in many cases, is not required at all. What is the rule pertaining to using the word ‘that’ ”? BizWritingTip response: That is a great question! “That” is used when the information following is essential to the meaning. Examples Here is the […]