----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BETTER WRITING SKILLS NEWSLETTER, June 2010 By Tim North of Scribe Consulting www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the Better Writing Skills newsletter. IN THIS ISSUE 1. "Personal" versus "personnel" 2. More on the active and passive voices 3. More on capital letters 4. Do I need capital letters in these examples? 5. 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. "Personal" versus "personnel" ----------------------------------------------------------------- My first correspondent this month, Meredith, wrote in to describe a battle she's having with her HR department: Could you please assist with a 'discussion' between our Records Management and Human Resource departments regarding the use of 'personal' or 'personnel' to describe and record staff files. Records management believe that official files about staff created and held by an organisation are personnel records and that personal files would be something individuals would create and keep themselves for personal use. Human Resources have indicated that their manual refers to personal files because everything in such files are personal and that personnel is an old-fashioned and out-of-date term. I'm with you on this one, Meredith. I can find no evidence to support HR's position that "personnel is an old-fashioned and out-of-date term". Dictionaries usually include usage notes when this is the case. None of the ones that I consulted indicated that "personnel" was archaic or deprecated. The relevant definitions were: personal: adjective 1. of or relating to a particular person; individual; private: a personal matter. 2. ... personnel: noun 1. the body of persons employed in any work, undertaking, or service. 2. ... [From the Macquarie Dictionary] Hope this helps. -- (c) 2010 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. More on the active and passive voices ----------------------------------------------------------------- In last month's newsletter, we defined the terms "active voice" and "passive voice. You may wish to quickly review this here: http://www.scribe.com.au/newsletter.html Gary wrote in and asked: Is it OK to mix active and passive in the same article? Certainly. Passive voice isn't wrong -- it's just longer than necessary. A reasonable goal is to minimise it rather than to try to eliminate it. Rosemary wrote in with some insightful observations: I think there is more to say about this. The problem with passive voice comes when the sentence: "The decision was reserved by the Council." is shortened to "The decision was reserved." ... making it unclear who reserved it, so there is NO subject. The writing then not only becomes tortuous and stiff, but makes the actor unclear or missing. Rosemary is quite right. Omitting the do-er of the action (as passive voice allows us to do) can make one's writing confusing. I have to smile, though. When I run my business-writing training courses, public servants often argue that this sense of anonymity is exactly the reason they like the passive voice. :-) -- (c) 2010 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. More on capital letters ----------------------------------------------------------------- Last month I included a list of all of the times in English when we need to use a capital letter. About five seconds after pressing the "Send" button I realised I'd forgotten acronyms (USA, ABC etc.) and symbols. The latter category includes the symbols for chemical elements (H, He, O, N etc.) and some, but not all, metric units (W, J, Pa etc.) Deidre wrote in during the month to add that we often use an initial capital letter for row and column headings in a table. Indeed, some writers also use them for each cell in a table. I've since updated the article to include these additional ideas. You can find it here: http://www.scribe.com.au/newsletter.html Are there any other uses of capital letters that we haven't thought of? -- (c) 2010 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. Do I need capital letters in these examples? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Let's continue our discussion of capital letters. My final correspondent this month, Vanessa, wrote: In regards to capitals, I typed a letter for a client and didn't know whether to use capitals for the following: 1. deposited plan 2. local government area of Parramatta 3. development application 4. Registered Surveyor (both in capitals?) Let's look at these one at a time: 1. The general rule at work here is that we would use capitals for proper nouns. "What's a proper noun", you ask? Proper noun: Nouns that name a specific (usually one-of-a- kind) entity are called proper nouns and are written with an initial capital letter. Examples include Tim, Perth, England and Microsoft. So if you were talking about a specific deposited plan, you'd use initial capitals. For example: The missing document is titled "Montessori Development Plan". However, if we were talking about deposited plans in general, no initial capitals would be necessary. For example: Staff are reminded that all deposited plans should be checked for errors. 2. I'd leave it the way it is. For example: That footpath is the responsibility of the local government area of Parramatta. 3. This is similar to number 1. It could go either way depending on whether or not it's the name of a specific document: Please send "Development Application 2010:37 -- Park St" to the printers. The example above is written with initial capitals as it's the name of a specific development application. The following, though, wouldn't need initial capitals: Where are the development applications stored? 4. As a general rule, the names of professions or trades do not need initial capitals. Bob is a registered surveyor. Bob is a doctor. Bob is a builder. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Job titles, though, are written with an initial capital: This is Registered Surveyor Bob Smith. This is Doctor Bob. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2010 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Just for fun ---------------------------------------------------------------- You can find anything on the Internet, even a very funny comic explaining how to use a semicolon ("The most feared punctuation on Earth"). Think I'm kidding? Have a look at this: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon Cheers, Tim. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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