BizWritingTip reader: “I noticed in your last tip that you used a.m. instead of AM. Was there a reason for this?” BizWritingTip response: According to both the Oxford Canadian Dictionary and The Canadian Press Stylebook, the designations for morning and afternoon are written in the lowercase with periods between each letter. Examples 10 a.m. 3:15 p.m. Note: There […]
Antonio’s question: “Do you think you could help me in my personal battle against the wrong use of ‘me,’ both in how it’s used and where it’s placed? I am sure you hear ‘me and my cousin went to the movies,’ ‘me and my friend had lunch together’ and on and on… and you want to scream […]
BizWritingTip reader: “Can you let me know what the new format is to copy someone on a business letter? Is it C: or c:?” BizWritingTip response: Although the notation in emails is Cc, this is considered outdated in business letters. The term c.c. was originally used to indicate a carbon copy. We no longer use […]
Several BizWritingTip readers have commented on the news story regarding the decision of a city in England to ban apostrophes from street signs. Apparently, the politicians in Birmingham have decided apostrophes on signs are dated and confusing. The decision was the result of decades of debate and confusion surrounding punctuation on signs for local landmarks, […]
Connie’s question: “I was wondering what you thought the correct abbreviation for continued would be? Is there a standard?” BizwritingTip response: Some words have set abbreviations, e.g., Mr., Sr., and Inc. You will find official abbreviations in the dictionary. Other words are abbreviated by leaving out letters and inserting an apostrophe, e.g., can’t or it’s. […]
BizWritingTip reader: “French being my first language, I am having difficulty figuring out when I should use ‘into’ versus ‘in’ and ‘onto’ versus ‘on.’ As of today, I am almost exclusively using ‘in’ and ‘on’ since I am not quite sure when I should use ‘into’ and ‘onto.’ ” BizWritingTip response: The nuances of these […]
BizWritingTip reader: “How do you punctuate a list of things, such as your job responsibilities? Also, does the tense of the verb have to be the same in each line? How do you show something that you have done in the past, but you do not do on a regular basis?” BizWritingTip response: First, there […]
BizWritingTip question: “In our organization, we have a department called Children’s Services. Is this correct? I thought the apostrophe indicates ownership. In this case, the children do not own the services. The department provides the services for children.” BizWritingTip response: Your question is not a simple one to answer. There are a couple of points that […]
Mary’s question: “My current pet peeve is the use of the word instantaneously rather than instantly. It seems rather cumbersome and the words, to me, are synonymous.” BizWritingTip response: Both adverbs are derived from the noun instant (Medieval Latin word instantāneus). And although they tend to overlap, the nuances are different. Instantly means immediately. It implies promptness. Example We phoned for the […]
BizWritingTip reader: “I am not sure when to use ‘could’ as opposed to ‘would.’ For example, I often write: ‘Would you be able to send me the figures?’ It seems more polite, but is it grammatically correct?” BizWritingTip response: Yes. It is grammatically correct. “Would” and “could” are similar words with slightly different meanings. It […]