----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BETTER WRITING SKILLS NEWSLETTER, February 2009 By Tim North of Scribe Consulting www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the first Better Writing Skills newsletter for 2009. IN THIS ISSUE 1. Free material on report writing, apostrophes and plain English 2. Do place names always need a capital letter? 3. How can we use fewer acronyms? 4. Just for fun Your comments and questions are always welcome. Just send e-mail to: info@scribe.com.au Cheers, Tim North (Perth, Western Australia) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Free material on report writing, apostrophes and plain English ----------------------------------------------------------------- Well it's February already, and the silly season is long behind us. Industrious fellow that I am, I spent part of that silly season writing new training materials. Three sample chapters are now available for free download from my web site. The first chapter is from my new e-book "Report Writing" and is entitled "How do I get started?". You can grab it here: http://www.scribe.com.au/report-writing.html The second sample is an updated section from my e-book "Editing and Proofreading". It's on apostrophes: http://www.scribe.com.au/apostrophes.html The final sample is from my e-book "Business Proposal Writing Made Easy" and is on plain English: http://www.scribe.com.au/plain-english.html I hope you find these helpful, and I'd love any feedback that you might have. Cheers, Tim. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Do place names always need a capital letter? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My next correspondent, Jodi, writes: This one has been annoying me for years and I hope you can clarify... Kings Park is a wonderful park. The Park has many attractions. People love to come to the Park. or Kings Park is a wonderful park. The park has many attractions. People love to come to the park. These are just dummy sentences of course but I am heartily over "Park" versus "park" and unless I write the name in full -- Kings Park -- I tend to just drop the caps. Is this acceptable or do I have to conform? Let's generalise from Jodi's question. When a place name (for example "Rottnest Island") is reduced to just the general word ("Island" in this case) should we keep the capital letter? If you guessed that some people keep the capital and some people don't, you'd be right. You'll see both "the Island" and "the island" in common use. What is most important is that you pick a style and stick to it. Having said that, dropping the capital is the form recommended by my favourite style manual ("The Style Manual for Authors Editors and Printers", 6th edn, pp 127-8). It says: Names designating particular topographical features -- mountains, rivers, bays, islands, and so on -- are always capitalised when cited in full. ... When the name is reduced to its generic element, it is usually left uncapitalised: the Murray River ... the river Lord Howe Island ... the island So, back to Jodi's question about "the Park" versus "the park". Let's settle on "the park". This is in accord with the suggestions of the style manual cited above. It is also consistent with the tendency of modern English to use fewer capital letters than in the past. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2009 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- Do you know someone who'd like this newsletter? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Do you have a friend or colleague who'd find the Better Writing Skills newsletter helpful? 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.scribe.com.au/newsletter.html Thanks for helping to make this newsletter so successful! ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. How can we use fewer acronyms? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Ah acronyms. Is there anything more mystifying than reading a document full of terms like EAD, IANTD, MSW and VENTID? Most of us love to complain about how overused they are, and it's usually with some justification. How then can we reduce the confusion caused by the overuse of acronyms? When I ask this question in training classes, someone usually says that they spell out an acronym in full the first time they use it. For example: The CPU (central processing unit) is also known as the processor. The CPU fetches from memory the instructions that make up a piece of software and then executes them. The CPU also … While common and well intentioned, this practice isn't particularly effective. Consider the following quote. (It uses the term "abbreviations" several times, but I'm assuming the author meant "acronyms".) The abbreviations to avoid are the ones you think it is necessary to explain in brackets the first time you use them. Each time you do this you set a memory test for your reader. We have tested this by asking ten managers to read a two-page memo with two abbreviations explained on the first page. When they turned the page and read the abbreviations, we asked them what they stood for. Only one person correctly stated what one stood for -- a 95% failure rate. http://tinyurl.com/d9yvom While only anecdotal, this comment suggests (probably rightly) that readers usually don't remember what acronyms stand for -– even when they're spelled out the first time. What then should we do? Should we spell acronyms out in full every time? Clearly that seems a bit excessive. What we need is a middle-of-the-road approach. Let's say that I have to write a report about a training practices survey. I'm going to go out of my way never to write "the TPS". The world just doesn't need another three-letter acronym. (A TLA!) Instead, my usual approach is to write "the training practices survey" the first time then "the survey" the next three or four times. Let's look at another example. Let's say that this time I have to write a report about an environmental protection plan. Here's how I could avoid writing "the EPP": The environmental protection plan is designed to ... . The plan will ... . The plan can ... . Questions about the plan ... . A copy of the environmental protection plan can be found ... If you have any questions about the plan ... . You can see that I've used the full form the first time. I've then used a shortened form ("the plan") three or four times. This pattern can be repeated as many times as needed. Using this technique I can usually remove most of the acronyms from any document. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2009 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Just for fun ----------------------------------------------------------------- This month have a look at a list of unintentionally funny names for web sites. For example, do you think the designers of "Pen Island dot net" really intended their web site address to be "penisland.net"? :-) Yes it's a real site, and yes it sells pens. (And that's all!) Well maybe they did. It could be a stroke of marketing genius. We're talking about it right? So without further ado, have a look at: http://agylen.com/2006/07/17/unintentionally-funny-company-urls/ Enjoy. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Would you like more help with your writing? ----------------------------------------------------------------- On my web site, you'll find my range of jargon-free, downloadable e-books that will help you to become a better writer. These e-books will help you with business proposals, report writing, term papers, technical writing, grant writing, creative writing and more: http://www.scribe.com.au/ebooks.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- REPRODUCING THIS MATERIAL You are welcome to reproduce the articles from this newsletter that are copyrighted by Tim North, but please don't modify or sell them. Also, please provide a clickable link back to: http://www.scribe.com.au FUTURE MAILINGS You can prevent (or receive) future mailings by visiting this page: http://www.scribe.com.au/newsletter.html This is a GENUINE service, and you will not receive any unsolicited e-mail as a result. You have my word on it. -----------------------------------------------------------------