----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BETTER WRITING SKILLS NEWSLETTER, March 2009 By Tim North of Scribe Consulting www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the March 2009 Better Writing Skills newsletter. IN THIS ISSUE 1. What is the plural of names like "Smith" and "Jones"? 2. Using fewer acronyms (continued) 3. More on "who" versus "whom" 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. What is the plural of names like "Smith" and "Jones"? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My first correspondent this month, Diane, writes: When referring to a family some people write "The Smiths" and some write "The Smith's". I've always felt the first one was correct. Am I right? Could both be correct? If your intention is to refer to more than one member of the Smith family then no apostrophe is needed. I'd be happy to write: I invited the Smiths over for lunch. Here the "s" is used to make the plural form of Smith. There is no need for an apostrophe. The following example is subtly different: I invited the Joneses over for lunch. Words that end in an "s" or "z" sound (like "Jones") usually form their plural by adding "es", hence the usage above. We still don't need an apostrophe, though. One example of when an apostrophe will be needed with the word "smith" is if you're talking about a blacksmith. For example: I returned the smith's anvil to the forge. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2009 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Using fewer acronyms (continued) ----------------------------------------------------------------- You may remember that in last month's newsletter I presented a strategy for making our writing clearer by using fewer acronyms. You can review this (and previous) issues here: http://www.scribe.com.au/newsletter.html During the month Ian wrote in to say: I have one question about the use of acronyms. Working in IT myself, surely this would depend on the situation and intended audience? For example in your newsletter you give the example of CPU. I can't see how and why you would want to abbreviate this to 'the unit' or 'the central unit' as CPU is the generally accepted form. Ian has come up with a good counter example. Not all acronyms should be replaced. A few are so well known (at least in certain circles) that it's natural to retain them. "CPU" is an interesting example. If I was writing for a general audience, I'd replace CPU with "the processor". Not only is a potentially confusing acronym eliminated, but the new term is (at least slightly) descriptive of what the object does. Having said that, I agree with Ian that -- when writing for a technical audience -- "CPU" may be quite acceptable because of its common use amongst the technically literate. Ian went on to ask: Is it not the case that acronym usage depends entirely on the audience and purpose? Our style of writing should certainly be strongly influenced by our audience and our goals. However, it's also our responsibility as writers to use a style of language that will be understood by our audience. Most of the time, I think we serve an audience best by removing most of the acronyms. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2009 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. More on "who" versus "whom" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Back in the December 2006 newsletter, I discussed when to use "who", and when to use "whom". Around that time, I also placed an abbreviated form of the article on my web site. Let's quickly review what I wrote, because I've recently had an interesting follow-up question. Consider the following sentence: To who/whom do I send this? Here's how to decide whether to use "who" or "whom": Step 1: Look at the words after who/whom. In this case, they're "do I send this?" Step 2: Rephrase these words to include "he" or "him". That gives us: "Do I send this to he/him?" Step 3: If it sounds better with "he" the original sentence should use "who". If it sounds better with "him" the original sentence should use "whom". So, which sounds better? "Do I send this to he?" or "Do I send this to him?" Well, in this case, "him" sounds better, so the original sentence uses "whom": To whom do I send this? Having read the shorter article on the web site, my next correspondent, Yulia, writes: As far as I remember (about 10 years ago) we were taught to use this type of wording: * Who should I talk to? * Who shall I bring this to? * Who does this belong to? and so forth. Yulia is pointing out that my strategy above suggests that we should use "whom" in these examples rather than "who". Oops. That's my fault. When I shortened the article for the web site, I shortened it too far. I've updated the web site article with the following addition: If you choose to follow this traditional usage, one extra piece of advice is worth noting: It was common not to use "whom" as the first word in a sentence. Thus, even with traditional usage, you might prefer to write: Who am I speaking to? rather than: Whom am I speaking to? Thanks to Yulia for drawing my attention to the omission. I've rewritten and extended the article, which can be found in full here: http://www.scribe.com.au/tip-w023.html 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 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.scribe.com.au/newsletter.html Thanks for helping to make this newsletter so successful! ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Just for fun ----------------------------------------------------------------- This month have a look at Wordle. To quote from the Wordle web site: Wordle is a toy for generating "word clouds" from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. It's one of those things that will make sense as soon as you see an example. Here's the link: http://www.wordle.net 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're welcome to reproduce the articles from this newsletter that are copyrighted by Tim North, but please don't modify or sell them. 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