----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BETTER WRITING SKILLS NEWSLETTER, March 2012 By Tim North of Scribe Consulting www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the Better Writing Skills newsletter. IN THIS ISSUE 1. How do we write compass directions? 2. "Less" or "fewer"? 3. "The media is ..." or "the media are ..."? 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. How do we write compass directions? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My first correspondent this month, Breandan, wrote in asking about the preferred way to write compass directions: I have a specific question relating to discussion of directions in reports. When describing a direction what form should this take? "... to the southeast..." "... to the Southeast..." "...to the SE..." Would you settle for none of the above? :-) The UK English dictionaries and style manuals that I consulted all spell such compass directions in lower case with a hyphen. For example: to the south-east in a north-westerly direction I'd suggest avoiding the unnecessary use of acronyms like SE or NW in most styles of writing. (They may be appropriate in tables, though, where space is usually limited.) Breandan continued: And then when adding a "by" how do you structure it, "south by southeast", "southsoutheast", "south-southeast", "SSE"? The trick here is to use plenty of hyphens: We headed south-south-east for an hour. The camp is south by south-east. My sources for this advice are: The Oxford English Dictionary The Macquarie Dictionary The Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers (6th edn) Hope this helps. -- (c) 2012 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. "Less" or "fewer"? ----------------------------------------------------------------- I was asked recently if there was a difference between "less" and "fewer". The question came up in the context of a "10 items or less" sign in a supermarket, and there was heated insistence from one party that it should be "10 items or fewer". Now if English isn't your first language -- and even if it is -- you may be a bit puzzled by all this. After all, what's wrong with a sign that says "10 items or less"? Well, at issue is the proper use of the words "less" and "fewer". Traditionally -- and I'll come back to this soon -- formal usage has been to use "fewer" with anything that can be counted. Now that doesn't seem very clear, so let me put it differently. Use "fewer" with things that could be preceded by "a" or "an". For example: * 10 items or fewer ("an item") * Fewer than ten minutes remain. ("a minute") * Fewer than a hundred tickets were sold. ("a ticket") * Drink fewer glasses of alcohol. ("a glass") Conversely, formal usage has been to use "less" only with uncountable quantities. That is, use "less" if it doesn't seem right to precede the item with "a" or "an". For example: * Use less oil next time. * Drink less alcohol. * Less time remains. Now here's the thought-provoking question: Should you, as a careful user of English, worry about this traditional distinction? After all, have you ever stood beneath a supermarket sign that said "10 items or less" and scratched your chin wondering what it meant? No. Neither have I. Does that allow us, though, to ignore the traditional distinction between "less" and "fewer"? And what about other similar distinctions: "who" versus "whom" or "further" versus "farther"? Can we ignore these? Ignoring these distinctions may (and I say "may" advisedly) be incorrect, but is a difference that makes no difference really worth bothering with? Is it time to prune English back a little? Like it or not, contemporary English *is* shedding many of these traditional distinctions. You're free to embrace that change or ignore it. You'll probably never be free of the debate about it, though. :-) Hope this helps. -- (c) 2012 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. "The media is ..." or "the media are ..."? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My final question this month came from Sascha who wrote: ... one of our members gave a speech last night on the subject "The role of the media". A discussion arose as to whether to say "the media is" or "the media are". Can you give me some help on the issue, as the opinions were very diverse. It is common to have trouble choosing between phrases such as "the media is ..." and "the media are ...". For example, which sentences from these pairs do you prefer? The committee IS going to support the motion. The committee ARE going to support the motion. Kelloggs IS making a new cereal. Kelloggs ARE making a new cereal. The government WAS likely to face a backlash. The government WERE likely to face a backlash. Each of these sentences starts with a noun that represents a group of people. The question is do we follow such nouns with singular verbs ("is" and "was") or plural verbs ("are" and "were")? Although usage is mixed and often inconsistent, both US and UK English are more likely to use the singular form: "is" or "was": The media IS often complicit in such matters. The committee IS going to support the motion. Kelloggs IS making a new cereal. The government WAS likely to face a backlash. Let's try to put some numbers on this by looking at online usage. When I Googled for the phrase "the committee is", I received 15.4 million hits (89%). Searching for "the committee are" returned a further 2 million hits (11%). When I reran the search and limited myself to the ".uk" domain (British English), the split was a little more even but still rather decisive: 78% versus 22%. Clearly, even among users of British English, the singular forms ("is" and "was") are more commonly used, at least in online writing. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2012 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Just for fun ---------------------------------------------------------------- Regular commenter, Denise, wrote in with this gem of a question: "Uxorious" is the word for a husband's inordinate affection for his wife so what is the word for a wife's inordinate affection for her husband? With a completely straight face, let me quote from the Oxford Dictionary web site: There's no word in common use that can be used to describe a wife who is similarly fond of her husband. The only candidate is the invented word maritorious, from the Latin word for a husband, maritus. But it's extremely rare: the 20-volume historical Oxford English Dictionary has only two examples, one from 1607 and one from 1978. Source: http://oxforddictionaries.com/page/oppositeuxorious I shall refrain from commenting further. :-) 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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