----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BETTER WRITING SKILLS NEWSLETTER, August 2007 By Tim North of Scribe Consulting (http://www.scribe.com.au) http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the August 2007 Better Writing Skills newsletter. IN THIS ISSUE 1. "On a par with" or "on par with"? 2. Removing acronyms 3. Hyphenating a company name 4. Just for fun Your comments and questions are always welcome. Just send e-mai to: info@BetterWritingSkills.com Cheers, Tim North Perth, Western Australia ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. "On a par with" or "on par with"? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My first correspondent this month, Leo, writes: I have a question on the use of "on a par with" / "on par with". Many dictionaries (Oxford, Longman and Collins) say "on a par with something / somebody" is an idiomatic expression, but I also searched from Google that many people actually use "on par with something / somebody". Which one is correct? Which usage should we prefer? Well, let's start by checking popular online usage with Google: "on a par with" 1.83 million hits (48%) "on par with" 2.00 million hits (52%) As Leo noted, the usage is evenly split. I'm from the school of thought (technically known as "linguistic descriptivism") that says that if enough people say it a certain way then that way is correct. In this case, since large numbers of people use each of the two forms, I'm comfortable saying that both are correct. A little bit more research may well reveal which form is older and how the other form evolved from it. Such information may well be very interesting, but in light of the numbers above, it wouldn't convince me that either form was "wrong" in contemporary English. My advice is thus to pick whichever form you prefer, and use it consistently. It's interesting (to me anyway -- I have no life!) to note that Google lists over 41,000 pages that use both forms on the same page! Hope this helps. -- (c) 2007 Tim North: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Removing acronyms ----------------------------------------------------------------- During the month, I was asked by a correspondent, Stephen, how I would treat the acronyms in this rather daunting paragraph of technical text: We describe three methods for interpreting seismic refraction data; the intercept time method (ITM) and two related methods known as the (conventional) reciprocal method (CRM) and the generalised reciprocal method (GRM). The CRM is also known as ..... . The ITM is one of the simplest ways of ...... . Otherwise the CRM or the GRM should be used when..... Quite a mouthful isn't it? Technical writing like this is hard enough to read at the best of times. Adding acronyms like ITM, CRM and GRM just makes it harder. What should we do instead? Should we just spell everything out in full each time? That's probably not a good idea either as people will get heartily sick of seeing you write "the intercept time method" thirty or forty times. A reasonable compromise might be to alternate between "the intercept time method" and "the method". We might use the full form the first time then the shorter form the next three or four times. Then we use the full form again. To demonstrate, let's rewrite the example above using this style: We describe three methods for interpreting seismic refraction data. These are the "intercept time method" and two related methods known as the "conventional reciprocal method" and the "generalised reciprocal method". The conventional reciprocal method is also known as ... This method can ... This method will ... etc. The intercept time method is one of the simplest ways of ... This method allows ... This method features ... etc. Otherwise, either the conventional or generalised reciprocal methods should be used when ... Either of these methods can ... etc. The lack of acronyms (together with multiple small paragraphs) greatly improves the readability of this text. Lots of studies show that people don't remember acronyms and don't like reading text that's full of them. Eliminating acronyms from your writing can mean more work for you as the author or editor. However, it results in writing that's easier for your readers to understand, and that's always a good trade off. Hope this helps. -- You can find more on acronyms and many other writing topics in my e-book "Editing and Proofreading". This and my other e-books are available here: http://www.betterwritingskills.com/ebooks.html -- (c) 2007 Tim North: http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Hyphenating a company name ----------------------------------------------------------------- My final correspondent this month, Iain, wrote in asking for help with hyphenating a company name: I am in the process of forming a company, Cow-Print Productions, but unsure how to use 'cow-print'. 'Cow-print' will simply be a name and will not relate to the productions that the company will produce. My question is: should 'cow-print', referring to the patches on the bodies of cows, be written as 'cowprint', 'cow-print' or 'cow print'? Let me start by saying that, since we're discussing a company name, Iain can write it any way he wishes. Company names and trademarks are frequently written in a very creative style. Having said that, if we wanted to be fairly traditional in our choice, we might rule out "cowprint" as it's not found in dictionaries as a single word. Choosing between the other two is largely arbitrary. To make a long story short, hyphens are subject to inconsistent usage. I would thus be completely comfortable with Iain making the decision on the basis of which one looked better to him: Cow-Print Productions or: Cow Print Productions If I was to weigh in with a personal preference it would be to include the hyphen as it prevents a momentary ambiguity about how the words are to be grouped together. Good luck with your new company, Iain! -- (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 send 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. Just for fun ----------------------------------------------------------------- This month youy may wish to have a look at the following rather helpful list of articles: "50 tools that can improve your writing skills": http://tinyurl.com/25y2vh That's it for another month. 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. 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