----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BETTER WRITING SKILLS NEWSLETTER, July 2010 By Tim North of Scribe Consulting www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the Better Writing Skills newsletter. IN THIS ISSUE 1. I'm living in the future, and I like it. 2. Does "great-grandson" need a hyphen? 3. Does "rep's" need the apostrophe? 4. How can I search a web site with no "search" button? 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. I'm living in the future, and I like it. ----------------------------------------------------------------- I have a memory from a few decades back. I was imagining a science-fiction-like future in which I'd no longer receive a printed newspaper. Instead, I'd have a futuristic device that would magically pluck my newspaper out of the air like a TV signal and display it on a handheld screen. Every morning I'd wake up and a new edition would be there waiting for me. No ink-stained fingers, no papers to be thrown out, no dead trees. It occurred to me this morning that I was living in that future. PressDisplay.com provides the full content of over 1,400 newspapers and magazines from around the world. Of particular interest is that they also have an "app" (a small program) called "PressReader" that runs on Apple's recently released iPad tablet computer. For less than the price of the one printed newspaper I was having home delivered (and have now cancelled), I now read an Australian newspaper, a British newspaper and a US newspaper every day. I also scan featured headlines selected from other papers by Press Display's editors. I'm receiving an insider's view of Britain and the US that I never had (easy) access to in the past. I have access to more newspapers than I could conceivably read, and it's $5 a month less than I was paying to have a single newspaper home delivered. I'm living in the future, and I like it. -- (c) 2010 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Does "great-grandson" need a hyphen? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My first correspondent this month, Eileen, writes in with a question about family relationships: In a sentence which is correct: the great-grandson of Henry Smith OR the great grandson of Henry Smith In the context of family relationships, the prefix "great" should always be hyphenated. Thus, I'd write "the great-grandson of Henry Smith". It's worth noting, though, that the prefix "step" is not normally hyphenated; for example, we see "stepson" and "stepdaughter" usually written without the hyphen. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2010 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Does "rep's" need the apostrophe? ----------------------------------------------------------------- During the month, Peter wrote in to ask about the perennial topic of apostrophes: I was just writing an e-mail to a girlfriend of mine who is a mad keen gym junky. In the e-mail I asked her to do a few extra rep's for me in the gym because I was planning a fortnight of lazy indulgence on a cruise ship. I used rep's as a contraction of repetitions, which is the slang used in those circles. What's your opinion? I understand your usage, and it's not uncommon to see words written in this way. I'm averse, though, to using an apostrophe to indicate plurality (that is, more than one). In standard English, an "s" suffix (or sometimes "es") is the usual way of making a plural. Hence, I'd write "reps". Hope this helps. -- (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. How can I search a web site with no "search" button? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Eileen asked: Is there a "search" on the Scribe site -- I can't seem to find one to try to find answers for myself. I've been very lazy and haven't provided a search button on my site. Sorry. The good news, though, is that you can easily search any site, even if it doesn't provide a search button. How? You can tell Google to limit its search to pages from a single site like so: fonts site:scribe.com.au This will tell Google to search for pages that contain the word "fonts" but to limit its search to the specified web site. Try it; it works for any site. You can even limit your search to a specific country. For example, let's say that I want to learn about Singapore tourism from Singaporean sources. The following Google search will help me: Singapore tourism site:sg Hope this helps. -- (c) 2010 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Just for fun ----------------------------------------------------------------- Last month, I linked to a web site called The Oatmeal that ran a funny comic about semicolons. Here's the link if you missed it: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon This month, The Oatmeal strikes again with an equally funny comic explaining that most misunderstood of terms -- irony: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/irony [Warning: mild obscenity] Enjoy. 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. 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. 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 email as a result. You have my word on it. -----------------------------------------------------------------