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Commatosis, it is said, is,
and can be, cured.
Commas are overused.
And if
you edit documents by inserting commas each time you take a breath,
you're infected.
Use commas to help readers figure out
intended relationships and meanings:
On
short notice statements will be issued.
(Is that "short notice" or "notice statements"?)
By inserting a comma after "notice," the reader
doesn't
have to stop and think about the intended meaning.
On short notice, statements will be issued.
When
your reader understands the meaning of your sentence you can
omit the comma
(as in this sentence, where some might insert
a comma between ". . .sentence, you...").
Omitting commas works best with
short sentences.
To be sure, have someone read it aloud. If there's
a
problem,
they'll stumble or stop reading
to figure it out. Add a comma to correct the problem.
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When in doubt, you might not
want to leave 'em out. |
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Steve's tips on commas:
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While consistency dictates that
items in a series (ex: red,
white, and blue) be preceded by commas, omit the final comma
only when you know
that the reader understands the relationship.
According to
their father's will, drawn up by the family attorney,
siblings
"Harriet, Bill and Eric" were to receive equal shares
of
their father's $4 million estate. Harriet went to court, claiming
that the absence of a comma between Bill and Eric indicated
that her
father wanted the two brothers to get only 50%
of the estate, not
33% each. The judge ruled in her favor:
Harriet got $2 million; Bill and
Eric each got $1 million.
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Titles after names:
Raymond
Hart, Jr.
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Separate short complementary
adjectives for emphasis:
Terry is an efficient hard-working employee.
But, to show equal weight for efficient and hard-work:
Terry is an
efficient, hard-working employee.
The comma creates a pause,
thus emphasis on "efficient."
Formal: He
delivered a speech; then he returned to work.
New:
He delivered a speech, then he returned to work.
Better: He
delivered a speech. He then returned to work.
or... He
delivered a speech, then returned to work.
-
Dates: American English places a
comma between the day
and year: April 5, 1948. British,
military, and aviation usage
reorder the elements: day, month, and
year. No punctuation
is required:
5 April 1948.
There's no comma between a month and year:
April 2008.
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Semicolons divide;
semicolons join.
There's
no reason to fear this mark; let's make it simple.
The semicolon is the
Cleopatra
of Punctuation Marks. It joins 2 complete
thoughts
that share something
in common.
He reads Drucker; he speaks Toffler.
The above
example demonstrates the best application of semicolons
in business documents.
Use them sparingly to separate short related
thoughts of less than 9-12 words.
The shorter the better.
Proper
use of semicolons signals a higher level of communication.
It raises
your credibility in the mind of the reader.
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Short; sweet.
(2 shared thoughts; same verb) |
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Steve's
tips on semicolons:
-
Semicolons are stronger than commas; they signal
a stronger break; suggest a longer pause; but even
so, are weaker than a
period.
Semicolons:
— gives a feeling of expectancy;
— hey, read on;
— there's more to come to make it clear.
-
Semicolons bring order to strings of commas.
Attending the morning session are
Dan,
Lanette, and Marianna; Andres and
Shirley
prefer the afternoon workshop.
He toured Madrid, Spain; and Paris, France.
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Colons: they fulfill
promises.
Colons signal
what's to come and introduce long lists.
It's a rather
strong mark that tells the reader: pay attention.
Watch out:
(what
follows is the "here's
why")
That said: (...and
now I'll tell you what's really important)
Dear Sir Edgar: (what's to
follow is either
serious, formal, or both)
The
greatest misuse of colons is after prepositions or linking verbs:
NO
> Your trip is approved
to: Paris, Madrid, and Milan.
YES
> Your trip is approved to Paris, Madrid, and Milan.
YES > Your
trip itinerary is approved: Paris, Madrid, and Milan.
NO
> The committee's choice of colors
are: red, blue, and green.
YES
> The
committee's choice of colors are red, blue, and green.
YES
> The committee chose these colors: red, blue, and green.
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Ban colons after
prepositions. |
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Steve's
tips on colons:
-
Don't place colons after prepositions—with 1 exception:
Use them to introduce a series of 1– or 2–word bullet lists:
The supply cabinet is in need of:
· pens
· paperclips
· tape
· rubber bands
-
Use colons to set up long quotes (greater than 3-4 lines).
-
In letters, there's a significant difference
between a colon
and comma in the salutation:
Dear
Steve:
(respect; serious content to follow)
Dear
Steve,
(informal or friendly relationship)
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question? |
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What's missing after question marks?
Effective business documents are concise and precise.
Thus, the only effective use of a question mark is to set up an answer
that immediately follows
this mark. Or it can serve as a
rhetorical
question to which the reader already knows the answer.
When used to request action, make sure to tell your reader who, when,
where, and in what form
the action should be taken.
Imagine receiving the following memo from your boss:
Here's the topic for
discussion at our Tuesday staff meeting:
"How to lower office overhead?"
Does this mean:
-
Think up some
answers in your spare time?
-
Write them down and
bring them to the meeting?
-
Submit 3 recommendations to me before the meeting?
Time and energy are wasted when requests fail to specify format and
timelines.
Replace the question mark with the specific request?
Send me an office email
before Monday with 3 cost-saving procedures
that we can implement
immediately to lower office overhead.
To ensure efficacy,
give an example of the type of response you seek.
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Exclamations
in business
documents are horrific!
When you use this mark in a business document, you're either laughing
at your own
joke,
or telling the reader you didn't take time to find the precise
words to express your thought.
Punctuation Junctions likens the use of
this mark to a long string of "very"s (a word that loses its meaning
if used more than once). Both signal the reader: you're lazy.
Remember our former president's memos!
(Better to list the specifics in those memos.)
I'll
make sure this never happens again!!!
(Here's the ultimate
cosmic joke: what's the difference
between 1 and 3 exclamation
or question marks???
Really! Really!! Really!!!))
Please!!!!
(Mere groveling. Replace this word with a good reason or benefit.)
This mark
serves no purpose in business
communications.
Focus emphasis by placing
the emphasis in bold or by using a different color.
Better
yet, find the precise word or phrase that makes this mark
unnecessary.
In Microsoft Word software, access the Thesaurus (Shift+F7).
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Dash—the
thought.
It's a sudden
interruption—a sharp break—a shift in thought. When
overused, it loses impact
and conveys a gushy
emotional style.
You're bound to see
all kinds of dashes in business documents.
Most are
incorrectly structured.
-
- This is a hyphen (the key to the right
of "0"). It's
not a
dash.
It's used to indicate a syllable break within a word. Hyphens
always
appear at the end of a line.
Hyphens are also used to link 2 words that convey a new or different
meaning:
"set up" is an active verb meaning to arrange in an orderly fashion
"set-up" is a noun, meaning the layout of the new
arrangement
(just as "lay out" is not the same as "layout")
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–
This is an endash, slightly
longer than a hyphen.
It's used to signal a continuing relationship, as in
marking dates:
January–March.
To insert an endash in a Word document, place your cursor where
you wish the mark
to appear. Turn on the number lock key, hold
ALT key,
and input 0150 on the number pad.
The mark should appear.
-
—
This is an emdash, the
longest dash.
It's used in place of 2 hyphens to indicate a pause,
or to separate phrases—like this—in a sentence.
To insert an emdash in a Word document, place your cursor where
you wish the mark
to appear. Turn on the number lock key, hold
ALT key,
and input 0151 on the number pad.
The mark should appear.
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A parenthesis is like
a dash, but softer (much softer).
-
It's a digression or amplification in the middle of another thought.
-
It signals the
reader that what's inside a parenthesis can be eliminated without
changing
the intent or meaning of the sentence.
Use them sparingly. Try not to disrupt
the flow/meaning of the sentence
by placing them
between the subject and the verb.
-
In
business documents,
parentheses encourage readers to stop reading.
If the information is important, either make it an introductory
phrase or its own sentence. If it merely supports the information,
move it to the end of the sentence or make it a short follow-up
sentence. (See Bracket
for more.)
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A hyphen is NOT a dash. |
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Steve's
tips on dashes:
-
If
you can't create en- or emdashes, use a double
hyphen (--).
-
Turn off the auto-hyphen feature in your Word software
program.
Try to keep words intact and on the same line. It
improves readability.
-
Some technical writers abhor the
use of 2 hyphens
as emdashes, branding the writer as "lazy." Using the proper
en- and emdash signals your reader that you know the rules
and how to apply them.
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Never use a dash and comma together—-the dash is stronger.
-
Leave no spaces before, between, or after a dash (as above).
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Quotations say
“who.”
Improper placement of quotation marks
diminishes your credibility.
Abandon logic on how these marks should be
displayed. Learn and follow
these simple rules.
There are 2 sets of rules.
American placement is
different from British-influenced
countries such as the U.K., Ireland, Australia,
and New Zealand. Canada tends to follow
the U.S. placement rules.
TV's Jeopardy is a strange
contradiction.
Though a U.S.-inspired game show,
it applies
British rules when displaying quotation marks,
all
because
the first writer
was a Brit. It's just tradition.
(As told to Steve by one of the show writers)
You can avoid
this mark by setting quotes in italics, a different color,
or using a different typestyle.
Establish a set of rules for your document
and
apply them consistently.
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No logic here. Follow the rules.
And be consistent. |
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Tips for
American
business writers:
Steve's tips on quotation marks:
He could not spell the word "precedence."
Her flight arrives at gate
"A".
Avoid the dilemma. Reformat:
He could not
spell the word precedence.
Her flight arrives at
Gate
A.
(different color or bold text)
"Happiness is the
ideal"—follow your passion.
("Happiness is the ideal"); follow your passion.
"Happiness is the ideal"; follow your passion.
"Happiness is the ideal": Follow your passion.
Place outside when the question applies
only to the quoted material.
Sid asked, "When will the project be
completed?"
Place them inside when the question applies to the
whole
sentence in which the quote appears.
Did Sid ask, "When will the project be
done"?
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For quotes extending beyond a single paragraph,
place them at the beginning of each new paragraph,
and at the end of the final paragraph.
-
Same rules apply to quotes within other
quotes:
Nathalie said,
"I read the article 'Beyond Excellence.'"
>>> "Arial
font double quotation marks on keyboard."
<<<
To
insert quotation marks: turn on the number lock key,
place your cursor before or after the text,
and type:
Alt+0147, Enter >
“ .....Beginning
set of quotation marks
Alt+0148,
Enter >
”
.... Ending set of quotation marks
Alt+0145, Enter >
‘
....Single beginning quotation mark
Alt+0146, Enter >
’
....Single ending quotation mark
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An ellipse signals that something's missing. .
.
Be leery when you see this mark.
Something is missing. Someone has altered the original content, or
stopped
before telling you
how it's going to end. Sometimes, it changes the
meaning of the message.
In business, ellipses work best when the reader has a
familiarity with the information
and knows what's missing.
But overuse may lead the reader to question the validity of the
content.
This mark
also makes your text more difficult to read. Think of it as
someone who doesn't finish
his thoughts or mumbles.
Ellipses are formed by
placing a space before and after 3-4 periods (few follow this rule):
NO >
During the
semester...students improved.
YES > During the
semester
. . . students
improved.
Avoid caution; avoid this mark.
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Don't use 'em unless your reader
knows what's missing. |
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Steve's
tips on ellipses:
Al was in the
plant. Out of nowhere, we
heard a
crash.
After running there
. . .
nothing seemed different.
The deficit ran
out of control . . . .
We couldn't believe it!
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Though
a full thought should include a fourth period, use 3 to indicate
a soft ending or trailing off . . .
< like this.
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. . .
if you begin a quote in the middle
of a sentence, use 3 at the beginning.
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Several
credible references say to use a full line
of periods when omitting portions of quotes
that are longer than a paragraph.
Others recommend the use of 4
periods.
Punctuation Junction says:
-
Unless
you’re drafting a technical report
or proposal,
you’re unlikely to refer
to multi-paragraph quotes. Use 4
periods.
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A
full line of periods is an old rule
that few know about . .
.
or follow.
Use 4 periods.
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He [Steve] says brackets impare [sic]*
readability.
Brackets enclose comments, criticisms, or corrections inserted
by
someone other than
the original writer or speaker.
Anyone who met him [the
author] respected his authority.
I think the day was
the 3rd [4th] when you were last here.
* A bracketed sic [meaning "thus in the original"] indicates
an
error
in the original quoted material
("impare is misspelled: "impair").
"i [sic]
felt very bad." < "I" should
be capitalized.
"He was a nown [sic] criminal."
< misspelling of "known"
Brackets are a literary device for
editing manuscripts.
From time to time you may see them in business
documents, often
misused
in place of parentheses or dashes. (See Dash for
the proper use
of parentheses.)
Avoid them by using a different font or
color.
For those who wish to be creative, it's okay
to use brackets for all kinds
of purposes.
Just be consistent so as not to confuse your reader..
Remember, the goal of punctuation is to aid
readability and comprehension.
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