Grant’s question: “When does one place the apostrophe before the ‘s’ and when is it placed after the ‘s’?” BizWritingTip response: An apostrophe with a noun indicates both possession and the number involved. In other words, if the apostrophe is placed inside the “s,” there is only one item that possesses something. If the apostrophe […]
Be Your Boss’ Boss I was on the Go Train last week and cringed to see this slogan on a poster from a well known association. It’s a grammatical error. When you make a one-syllable word ending in “s,” “x,” or “z” possessive, you must add an apostrophe plus an additional “s.” Examples (correct – one-syllable […]
Jennifer’s question: “A bone of contention has arisen as to whether ‘dislike’ is synonymous with ‘do not like.’ For example, I maintain that the statements ‘We do not like tardiness’ and ‘We dislike tardiness’ are synonymous.” BizWritingTip response: I understand your rationale. According to the dictionary, both phrases – dislike and do not like — have the same meaning. However, […]
Roger’s question: “When do you use double quotation marks as opposed to single ones?” BizWritingTip response: Quotation marks have three main functions: 1) to indicate exact words 2) to set off words for special effect 3) to show parts of a complete published work Normally, you would use double quotation marks in all three cases. However, […]
Delores’ question: “In many of our communications, we need to specify a response within a certain timeframe. The format currently being used is ‘Please confirm your attendance by no later than (date).’ Could you also write ‘Please confirm your attendance by (date)’?” BizWritingTip response: Both versions are correct. It all depends on the tone you […]
Linden’s question: “I’m wondering about the difference between ‘continuous’ and ‘continual.’ We’re trying to develop a mission statement and are debating whether we trying to ‘continually achieve excellence’ or are trying to ‘continuously achieve excellence.’ Or does it matter which word we use?” BizWritingTip response: These two words are often interchanged but, according to the Oxford […]
Jean’s question: “Could you please provide some guidance with regard to the closing on a business letter. My colleagues are no longer comfortable with “Yours sincerely” or “Yours truly” and, to add fat to the fire, they are seeing business letters with no closing at all — just the person’s name, title, and contact information. Is this the current […]
Lisa’s question: “Yesterday I heard a co-worker telling someone that a friend was going to bring her to the movies. For some reason, that statement made me cringe as it just sounded grammatically incorrect. Should she not have stated that a friend was going to take her to the movies?” BizWritingTip response: Bring and take imply movement with direction. Bring means to move toward the speaker’s location. Take means to move […]
Peter’s question: “I run into problems in labelling column headers. For example, ‘Sent too’ looks wrong, but ‘Sent to’ looks grammatically incorrect. My understanding is that ‘to’ is the verb form while ‘too’ is a place.” BizwritingTip response: I think your confusion lies in the many uses of the word “to.” As a preposition, it is used with a […]
Ron’s question: “I often hear (or read) ‘that’ used in place of the pronoun ‘who.’ To my ears, it doesn’t sound correct. For example, ‘I’m always shocked by professionals that use improper grammar,’ versus ‘I’m always shocked by professionals who use improper grammar.’ ” BizWritingTip response: I agree with you. I was taught years ago […]