Pam’s question: “Please provide a simple explanation on when federal should be capitalized and when it shouldn’t. The question applies to other modifiers like state or national.” BizWritingTip response: Years ago, when in doubt you were told to capitalize a word. Now the guideline is when in doubt use lowercase. When it comes to words such […]
BizWritingTip reader: “When vacationing in Mexico last week, I went to a restaurant called Carlos’n Charlie’s. Is the name grammatically correct? I don’t think you need two apostrophes.” BizWritingTip response: An establishment has the right to call itself anything it wishes. However, you are right. Carlos and Charlie’s would be the grammatically correct way to name this well-known […]
Pam’s question: “I am responsible for editing various financial documents. In the explanations provided, examples are often included. Can you please clarify the use of eg and ie and how to punctuate them?” BizWritingTip response: The abbreviation i.e. stands for the Latin id est. Translated it means “that is.” Think of it as saying “in […]
“Amount” and “number” are words that are often misused. “Amount” is used for money amounts and for things that cannot be physically counted. Example The amount of work has increased this year. “Number” refers to things that can be counted. Example I spent the day reducing the number of emails in my inbox. Exercise 1. […]
A BizWritingTip reader wrote: “At work, I do a lot of proofreading written by various people in Canada, U.S. and even Europe. One inconsistency I have noticed is how the monetary value of each country is written. For example, when referring to Canadian dollars, I have seen it written: $C, CA and CAD. When referring […]
Susan’s question: “I had a discussion the other day about the word ‘center/centre.’ I was under the impression that ‘centre’ was a noun and ‘to center’ something was the verb. But I was told that it was grammatically correct to use ‘centred.’ ” BizWritingTip response: The word centre comes from the Latin centrum meaning “stationary […]
BizWritingTip reader: “My pet peeve is the use of towards instead of toward. I see it all the time in business communication, e.g., ‘… progress towards our goal.’ To my knowledge, there is no such word as towards. Am I correct?” BizWritingTip response: Towards is traditionally used in British English and toward is more traditionally used in American English. According […]
In our recent poll on pet peeves regarding emails, a number of respondents expressed irritation about receiving messages that contained only the words thank you.They reasoned that opening these short messages wasted their time. They were merely doing their job and didn’t need to be thanked. I understand their rationale; however, sending a thank you indicates […]
A BizWritingTip reader wrote: “A colleague and I are having an argument. If you have to make an abbreviated word plural, do you include an apostrophe? For example, should I write two CEOs or two CEO’s? BizWritingTip response: If you want to make capital letters and abbreviations ending in a capital letter plural , it […]
Mary’s question: “I am never quite sure when to use ‘distrust’ versus ‘mistrust.’ Are they interchangeable, or do they each have specific usages/meanings?” BizWritingTip response: There is a fine line between these two words. Based on the Oxford Dictionary, distrust as a noun means “suspicion or lack of trust.” Mistrust means “suspicion or lack of […]