----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BETTER WRITING SKILLS NEWSLETTER, July 2007 By Tim North of Scribe Consulting (http://www.scribe.com.au) http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the July 2007 Better Writing Skills newsletter. IN THIS ISSUE 1. "You and I" or "you and me"? 2. "In" or "into"? 3. Punctuating sentences that end with an e-mail address 4. Strange punctuation 101: the ellipsis (...) 5. Just for fun Your comments and questions are always welcome. Just send e-mail to: info@BetterWritingSkills.com Cheers, Tim North Perth, Western Australia ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. "You and I" or "you and me"? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My first correspondent this month, Michelle, writes: One long running disagreement in our house is my insistence on the use of 'you and I' as opposed to 'you and me' or, as I so often hear at home, 'me and Steph were talking and ...'. Are both of these correct? "You and I" and "You and me" are each correct at different times. Let me explain with some examples. Consider the following sentence: You and I should have lunch. Is the correct form of this sentence "You and I should ..." or "You and me should..."? This is a common source of confusion as Michelle has pointed out. Fortunately, there's an easy rule of thumb to decide whether to use "I" or "me" in such sentences. All you need to do is discard the word "you" then try the sentence with "I" and "me" separately. For example, which of these variations sounds better? 1. I should have lunch. 2. Me should have lunch. Clearly, the preferred form in this case is "I"; thus, the original sentence was correct as written. ("You and I should have lunch.") Here's another example: He'll blame you and I. Discard the word "you" then try the sentence with "I" and "me" separately: so: 1. He'll blame I. 2. He'll blame me. The second of these is correct. This means that the original sentence should have been "He'll blame you and me". See how easy that was! On a related note, when using phrases such as "you and me", "you and I" or "them and us", it has been traditionally considered courteous to place the reference to yourself last. For example, we prefer: He'll ask you and me later. over: He'll ask me and you later. Incidentally, this article comes from the "Writing tips" section of my web site. You can find dozens of similar articles here: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com/writing-tips.html Hope this helps. -- (c) 2007 Tim North: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. "In" or "into"? ----------------------------------------------------------------- During the month, I was asked about the difference between "in" and "into". "Into" frequently has a meaning that involves entering into a place or state. For example: * He went into the theatre. * She jumped into the pool. * The victim fell into a coma. In colloquial usage, it is common for people to substitute "in": * He went in the theatre. * She jumped in the pool. This usage is less formal, though, and you may prefer to avoid it. In colloquial usage, "into" can also mean "interested in". For example: * He's into photography. * They're close. She's really into him. Notice that in all of these examples, "into" has been written as one word, not "in to". Hope this helps. -- (c) 2007 Tim North: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Punctuating sentences that end with an e-mail address ----------------------------------------------------------------- Consider the following sentence: His e-mail address is example@example.com. That full stop at the end of the sentence can be rather problematic. If copied and pasted into your e-mail program, it will make the address incorrect. How then should we write e-mail addresses that occur at the end of a sentence? Well, here are five styles that you may wish to consider: 1. Put the address on a separate line. For example: His e-mail address is shown below: example@example.com 2. Put a space before the full stop: His e-mail address is example@example.com . 3. Omit the full stop: His e-mail address is example@example.com 4. Surround the address with angled brackets. (Many e-mail programs know to ignore these.) His e-mail address is . 5. The most flexible solution may simply be to rephrase the sentence so that it doesn't end with an e-mail address. For example: His e-mail address (example@example.com) can be used to reach him. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2007 Tim North: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- Do you know someone who'd like this newsletter? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Do you have a friend or colleague who'd find the Better Writing Skills newsletter interesting? If so, please feel free to forward a copy of this issue to them. Alternatively, please tell them they can browse back issues here: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com/newsletter.html Thanks for helping to make this newsletter so successful! ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Strange punctuation 101: the ellipsis (...) ----------------------------------------------------------------- An ellipsis (...) is the punctuation mark used to show missing words in a quotation. It is also used to show an abrupt interruption or uncertainty. For example: Excise is an inland tax or duty ... levied on the manufacture, sale or consumption of certain commodities. In this example, the ellipsis shows where several words have been omitted from the dictionary definition. The examples below demonstrate interruption and hesitation: Niles: But Miss Fine's age is only ... Fran: Young! Miss Fine's age is only young! But ... but ... it wasn't me! An ellipsis consists of three -- and only three -- full stops. It is always poor form to write something like this: But ........... but ........... it wasn't me! Most writers precede the ellipsis by a space, even at the end of a sentence. For example: The report said: "The stock price fell due to market uncertainty. ... It is expected to rebound in the next quarter". Here we have typed a full stop at the end of the first sentence. To mark the missing words, this has been followed by a space then an ellipsis. Incidentally, within Microsoft Word the ellipsis can be typed as a single character, rather than three separate full stops, by typing Alt-Ctrl-period. You can find more writing related tips like this in my range of downloadable books: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com/ebooks.html Hope this helps. -- (c) 2007 Tim North: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Just for fun ----------------------------------------------------------------- This month a friend e-mailed me a wonderful article entitled "Humor for lexophiles (lovers of words)". It contains a series of clever plays on words. My favourites include: * I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me. * The dead batteries were given out free of charge. * Acupuncture: a jab well done. A bit of searching has revealed that the full list is available on many web sites, though I've been unable to locate anyone who claims to have put the original list together. Here's a link to the full list: http://www.jibjab.com/view/163778 Enjoy. ----------------------------------------------------------------- REPRODUCING THIS MATERIAL Permission is granted to reproduce those articles that are copyrighted by Tim North, subject to them not being modified or sold. Please provide a clickable link back to: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com Additional freely republishable articles can be found here: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com/free-articles.html FUTURE MAILINGS You can prevent (or receive) future mailings by visiting this page: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com/newsletter.html This is a GENUINE service, and you will not receive any unsolicited e-mail as a result. 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