----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BETTER WRITING SKILLS NEWSLETTER, December 2011 By Tim North of Scribe Consulting www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the Better Writing Skills newsletter. IN THIS ISSUE 1. One-size-fits-all headings for report writing? 2. A question about apostrophes 3. Formatting numbered lists 4. Just for fun Your comments and questions are always welcome. Just send email to: info@scribe.com.au Cheers, Tim North (Perth, Western Australia) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. One-size-fits-all headings for report writing? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My first correspondent this month, Kylie, writes: I have been asked to write a discussion paper on workforce planning and am seeking a template (or at least some headers) that may be appropriate to use. Report writing can be daunting can't it? If only there were a one-size-fits-all set of headings that guaranteed a good report. Sadly this isn't the case. There can't ever be a universal set of report headings. Why not? Well, different reports will be for different audiences, and these audiences will have different questions. This will necessitate potentially different structures for each report and thus different headings. How then do you decide what headings to use? In short, the process I recommend is as follows: 1. Find out who'll read your report. Finance folk? I.T. folk? Teachers? Students? Commonly it will be a combination of several groups. 2. For each group who'll read your report, find out what questions they want answered. Reports are all about answering your readers' questions, so naturally you have to know who your readers are and what questions they have. This may require hours or days of investigative work on your part. 3. These questions should suggest a series of headings for the body of the report. Let's say you're writing a report for a committee that has finance, legal and HR staff on it. You discover that they each have their own questions. This suggests the need for separate chapters that cover finance, legal and HR issues. Each of these may have suitable subheadings. 4. Add an executive summary, conclusions and recommendations. 5. Bask in the glory of a successful report. :-) The overly simple process above is covered in far more detail in a free, twenty-five page PDF file on my web site. You can download it here: http://www.scribe.com.au/report-writing.html Hope this helps. -- (c) 2011 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. A question about apostrophes ----------------------------------------------------------------- My next correspondent, Mircalla, writes: Please refer to the sentence below: The purpose of this summary is to present the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) Periodic Review results for [name of clinic]. The company is called the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards and the results belong to them, so how should I write "Australian Council on Healthcare Standards?" Should it be: Australian Council on Healthcare Standards' The issue here is where should we place the apostrophe in the word "Standards". Let's look at our choices: 1. ... the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards ... Omitting the apostrophe would be an error. The review results are the possession of the Council, so an apostrophe is clearly needed somewhere. 2. ... the Australian Council on Healthcare Standard's ... This would suggest that the name of the organisation is the "Australian Council on Healthcare Standard". Clearly this is not the case, so this would also not be a good choice. 3. ... the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards's ... This correctly names the organisation as the "Australian Council on Healthcare Standards" but is awkward to pronounce. An acceptable choice, but not a popular one I suspect. 4. ... the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards' ... Purists may argue that this isn't technically correct, but it's easier to pronounce and probably the most common choice. It's fine. Having said that, I wouldn't choose any of them. :-) My own feeling is that the original sentence is long and awkward. Further, I'd try to avoid all of this debate and uncertainty surrounding apostrophes. How? My tried-and-true rule of thumb is as follows: If in doubt about how to punctuate something, add a full stop somewhere. 5. This summary presents the results of the periodic review of [name of clinic]. This review was conducted by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS). This seems simpler and clearer. Also, you don't have to worry that you may have an apostrophe in the wrong place. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2011 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. Formatting numbered lists ----------------------------------------------------------------- My final correspondent for 2011, Lisa, writes: A fresh-faced younger co-worker asked if it was necessary to put two spaces after a listed item or outline as in: 1. This is the first item 2. This is the second item Is this, too, another place where two spaces is considered "old school"? Let's start by saying that in word-processed documents it's more common (and more flexible) to use a tab character, rather than any number of spaces. A tab character allows the amount of space to be adjusted easily. It also allows the word processor to format the list using a "hanging indent". If you're not using tabs, though, a single space seems sufficient. If you look through this newsletter, you'll see that I've followed that convention throughout. (For those interested in such things, I write this newsletter using a text editor, not a word processor.) I should note that I'm not aware of a strong convention that says that one space is preferable to two. This is simply my own usage. Note, though, that if there are ten or more elements in the numbered list, you'll need to use two spaces in order to maintain proper alignment: Here TWO spaces are used after the single-digit numbers: 1. Blah blah blah. 2. Blah blah blah. 10. Blah blah blah. If you use only one space after each number, the alignment will be "off" like so: Here ONE space is used after each number: 1. Blah blah blah. 2. Blah blah blah. 10. Blah blah blah. (This formatting problem will only be obvious if you're viewing this message in a fixed-width font like Courier New.) Hope this helps. -- (c) 2011 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Just for fun ---------------------------------------------------------------- The Oatmeal is a wonderful web comic that I've linked to several times in the past. This month The Oatmeal has an interactive quiz that tests your spelling skills: http://theoatmeal.com/quiz/twitter_spell Enjoy. As always, I'll be taking a publishing break in January and will send out the next newsletter in early February. See you all then. 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. 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