----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BETTER WRITING SKILLS NEWSLETTER, August 2010 By Tim North of Scribe Consulting www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the Better Writing Skills newsletter. IN THIS ISSUE 1. Do school subjects like "art" need an initial capital? 2. The capitalisation of metric units is confusing 3. How do I become a better writer? 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. Do school subjects like "art" need an initial capital? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My first correspondent this month, Margaret, writes in to ask about the capitalisation of school subjects: When we are writing end-of-year reports for students we have been directed to use initial capital letters only for subjects which use the name of a language. Thus English and French would have the initial capital letters but art, history and geography would not. I'm uncertain about this because I would have thought that, acting as the title of a subject, they would be proper nouns. Can you help with this? I certainly agree with Margaret that the initial capital is needed for subjects like French and English. My preferred style manual (an Australian publication) refers to academic subjects such as chemistry, geology and astronomy without an initial capital, though. It thus tends to support the style that you've been directed to use. This is just a convention, though, and other style manuals may differ in their recommendations. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2010 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. The capitalisation of metric units is confusing ----------------------------------------------------------------- The metric (or SI) system of units is the official measurement system in almost all countries in the world. While most users would agree that it has many advantages over the older imperial system, it has a rather pedantic and confusing set of capitalisation rules. Let's see if we can clear them up in this article. 1. When written out in full, the names of all metric units (except Celsius) are written in lower case; thus, we write metres, grams and watts; not Metres, Grams and Watts. Yes, that's right. Even though the watt is named after James Watt, it's written in lower case. The same is true for joules (James Joule), pascals (Blaise Pascal) and others. 2. Did you notice that I made an exception for Celsius? Why does this unit get an initial capital when the others don't? Well, it turns out that the unit is correctly called the "degree Celsius". Like all the others, it does start with a lower-case letter -- the lower-case "d". Why the second word (Celsius) gets a capital letter is known only to the French committee that made this decision. :-) 3. The correct spelling of the unit of length is "metre", and this is used consistently in the official standard (both the French and English editions). The alternate spelling "meter" is not used. (A meter is a device for measuring something, not a unit of distance.) 4. When written out in full, the names of all the metric prefixes are written in lower case. We thus write milli, kilo and mega; not Milli, Kilo and Mega. Thus we would write "kilogram", not "Kilogram". Still with me? Hang on as it starts getting a bit confusing now. What do you mean you were already confused? 5. The symbols (that is, the abbreviated forms) for most metric units are written in lower case; for example, g for grams, s for seconds and m for metres. The exceptions are the symbols for units named after people. Despite the full words being in lower case (see above), these symbols are capitalised. I know. I know. It doesn't make sense. Blame the French! So we have: J for joules, W for watts and Pa for pascals. Just because this wasn't confusing enough, the symbol for litre is a capital L, even though the unit isn't named after a person. This is because a lower case l looks similar to a digit 1, and this could cause confusion. Stay with me now; we're almost finished. 6. The symbols for the metric prefixes up to and including k for kilo are written in lower case; for example, n for nano and c for centi. The symbols for the prefixes mega and upwards are upper case; for example, M for mega and G for giga. * * * Still with me? Here's a table with examples of correct usage: ------------------------------------------------------ Full form Symbol form ------------------------------------------------------ 1.2 milligrams 1.23 mg 7.8 kilograms 7.8 kg 27 millilitres 27 mL lower case 'm' = milli 27 megalitres 27 ML upper case 'M' = mega 14 metres 14 m 10 kilometres 10 km lower case, lower case 4.0 gigawatts 4.0 GW upper case, upper case! 13 megajoules 13 MJ ------------------------------------------------------ On the off chance that you'd like to know even more about this (No I didn't think so), you can obtain the official specification for the SI (or metric) system of units here: www.bipm.org/en/si/si_brochure/general.html Have Aspirin on hand. :-) -- (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! ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. How do I become a better writer? ----------------------------------------------------------------- There's an old joke that goes like so: A guy gets into a cab in New York City and asks the driver, 'How do I get to Carnegie Hall?' The cab driver replies, 'practice, practice, practice'. Okay it's not very funny, but we can adapt this joke to writing, like so: How do I write a great report? Preparation, preparation, preparation. Here's how it may work in a typical office. Imagine that your manager summons you and a colleague, who we'll call Bob, into her office, early on a Monday morning. She tells you that she needs you both to separately write important reports but only briefly details what should be in them. Neither of you have written these types of reports before, and you both feel a bit overwhelmed by your tasks. She ends by telling you both that your separate reports are due 4.00 p.m. Friday. Bob returns to his cubicle, fires up Microsoft Word and starts typing. You applaud his enthusiasm but feel he's going about his report the wrong way. Instead, you wander the halls and find a senior colleague. You ask him who he thinks would read the kind of report you've been asked to write. He tells you that the lawyers will probably go over it with a fine-toothed comb and the accountants should want plenty of say in what goes into it. You spend much of the rest of the day finding and taking meetings with legal and accounting colleagues. Come the end of the day, you have a detailed who- needs-what table taking shape. The next day, having slept on the problem, you wander over to the HR office. You ask the HR manager if she's interested in the subject matter. She is. She's tells you that she's pleased you asked her for input because she's sick of having to send reports back. She details what she'd like to see in the report, and you add her comments to your who-needs-what table. Returning to your cubicle, you start Microsoft Word and create a series of headings based on the information you've gathered from your colleagues. You write a few lines under each heading then take this outline back to one or two of the colleagues you spoke with yesterday. They like it and make a few helpful suggestions. You return to your cubicle and begin incorporating them into your outline. Bob pops his head into your office, and you're surprised to discover that it's lunchtime already. Over lunch, he asks you how you're coming with your report. You tell him that you haven't really started. He's shocked and tells you he's two-thirds of the way though his. You congratulate him but wonder how he can know what other people need without having asked them. After all, it's taken you a day-and-a-half just to find out who's going to read it, what they want, what type of language to use and how much to write. Over the next few days you work hard on your report. Come Thursday afternoon, you have a draft that you're satisfied with. You email it to a few people and ask to discuss it with them on Friday morning. Most don't have time to read it that soon and decline to help. The HR manager says she'll read it on the way home, though, and will talk to you on Friday morning. She does, and makes minor suggestions, which you incorporate into the report prior to turning it in Friday afternoon. Bob smugly tells you that he handed his report in on Wednesday. The following week you're both summoned to your manager's office. Bob is handed his report together with a long list of criticisms and change requests from the people who received it. He's told to do a second draft and leaves dismayed. Your manager praises you for a good report and tells you there's a bright future ahead of you. Okay, okay. That's a long -- and yes contrived -- story, but it makes several points clear: 1. It's difficult to satisfy your readers without suitable research and preparation: * Who is going to read it? * Why do they want it? * What will they understand? * How much do they want? 2. Doing this research tends to lessen your workload, not increase it, as it makes rewrites rarer. 3. Most people don't write especially well, so it's relatively easy to carve out a niche in most workplaces as 'the good writer'. This can only help your career. -- This article is an extract from the latest edition of my book "Report Writing: Business and Technical Reports Made Easy". You can find it (and my other books) here: http://www.scribe.com.au/ebooks.html It's only US$12.95 and comes with an unconditional, 30-day money- back guarantee. (c) 2010 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Just for fun ---------------------------------------------------------------- I rediscovered a wonderful piece of text the other day by Jack Winter of the New Yorker. It's called "How I met my wife". It starts: It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner. She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total array. Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled, and she moved in a gainly way. I love it! You can find the whole thing here: http://beebo.org/smackerels/how-i-met-my-wife.html 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. 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