----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BETTER WRITING SKILLS NEWSLETTER, July 2012 By Tim North of Scribe Consulting www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the Better Writing Skills newsletter. IN THIS ISSUE 1. "Its" versus "it's" 2. How should we pronounce "the"? 3. Punctuating the word "however" 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. "Its" versus "it's" ----------------------------------------------------------------- My first correspondent this month, Rose-Mary, wrote: I stumbled on and really enjoyed your list of writing tips. Have a query about this line. The ampersand (&) is an often over-used abbreviation for the word 'and'. Its use should be limited to a few situations. "Its use" OR "It's use" (meaning 'the use of it'). Any thoughts on this one? Ah yes. This is a common source of confusion. "Its" (without an apostrophe) means "belonging to it". For example: The Macquarie Dictionary is currently in its fifth print edition. (the fifth edition of it) What is its publication date? (the publication date belonging to it) "It's" (with an apostrophe) is short for "it is" or "it has": It's not hard to turn off the lights. (It is not hard.) It's too loud. (It is too loud.) It's been a long time. (It has been a long time.) Hope this helps. -- (c) 2012 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. How should we pronounce "the"? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My next correspondent, Tony, wrote in with a question about pronunciation: I have a beef with newsreaders. It is not a writing thing, it is a reading thing which I think is frightfully poor English usage. There are two ways to pronounce the word 'the': 'Thee' and 'Thuh' I was taught and all educated people I hear say 'Thee East' not 'Thuh East' as all our newsreaders seem to do now. The key being if the word following starts with a vowel then Thee is thuh way to go. Why are our younger speakers mucking this up? Tony correctly notes that many English speakers use "thee" in front of vowel sounds and "thuh" otherwise. For example: thee orange thee elephant thee hour (note the silent 'h') thuh cat thuh desk thuh pen Let's call this best practice for standard English pronunciation. Even so, I'm not concerned when people don't follow this convention, nor do I believe that this practice is necessarily associated with education. As English is becoming more successful globally, variations in pronunciation are becoming ever more prevalent. It's hard enough to control people's use of spelling, punctuation and grammar. Trying to control minor variations of pronunciation strikes me as impractical. There are just too many accents and too many established pronunciations of too many words. I may seem liberal in my attitudes to this one, but I think it's necessary to pick your battles. Your comments, as always, are very welcome. -- (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. Punctuating the word "however" ----------------------------------------------------------------- My final correspondent, Michael, asked how we should punctuate sentences containing the word "however": My question: What is the proper punctuation when using "however" in a sentence? I was taught to precede it by a semicolon and follow it by a comma. Is this correct? This is a great question. There are two common contexts in which we use "however". The first uses the punctuation described by Michael. The second uses a pair of commas. Let's take a look at each of them. Context #1: joining short sentences together -------------------------------------------- When writing short sentences one after the other, you often end up with a stop-start effect. For example: This is good. Let's go again. I'm Carol. This is Bob. This is George. They scored seven. We scored nine. The above examples are correctly punctuated, but perhaps not punctuated in the best way as the very short sentences may seem a little abrupt. You might prefer to punctuate using a semicolon (;). The semicolon allows us to link together two (or more) short sentences to form a single, longer sentence: This is good; let's go again. I'm Carol; this is Bob; this is George. They scored seven; we scored nine. I note in passing that "semicolon" is written as one word; there's no space or hyphen. (See what I did there?) When punctuated like this, very short sentences tend to run together more smoothly than they would if written as separate sentences. Where does "however" fit into this? Well, another way to join short sentences is to use a semicolon together with what I'll call "the big joining words". These include "accordingly", "consequently", "for example", "furthermore", "however", "moreover", "namely", "nevertheless", "otherwise", "therefore", "that is" and "thus". For example: Today is fine; however, tomorrow may be wet. Notice the complicated punctuation. A semicolon is used before the big joining word and a comma is used after it. Here are some other examples: Ore sample number twenty-five was contaminated; accordingly, the experiment is to be repeated tomorrow. The meeting scheduled for Wednesday was cancelled; however, we will meet sometime next week. Newer computers have lots of memory; that is, they usually have at least four gigabytes of RAM. Context #2: "however" as a non-essential word ---------------------------------------------- Now let's look at the second context for punctuating the word "however". Pairs of commas are used to set off words or short phrases that could be removed without substantially changing the meaning of a sentence. For example: Lynne, our CEO, is from Adelaide. This still makes sense if we remove the words that are within the commas: Lynne is from Adelaide. Here's another example: Chapter six, the one on the desk, is to be shipped before lunch. This still makes sense when shortened to: Chapter six is to be shipped before lunch. Sometimes, we use the word "however" in this way: It is, however, a matter of concern. This still makes sense when shortened to: It is a matter of concern. Notice how the punctuation of "however" in this example is different from the examples presented in context #1. -- If you'd like a more comprehensive treatment of punctuation, have a look at my ebook "Editing and Proofreading" on my new web site: http://www.scribe.com.au Hope this helps. -- (c) 2012 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Just for fun ---------------------------------------------------------------- The Bulwer-Lytton writing contest aims to create the worst possible opening sentence for a piece of fiction. Here are some truly wonderful (terrible?) examples: "For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss -- a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil." "As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in the echo chamber he would never hear the end of it." "Although Sarah had an abnormal fear of mice, it did not keep her from eeking out a living at a local pet store." You'll find many years of winners here: http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/winners.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 will help you with business proposals, report writing, term papers, technical writing, grant writing, creative writing and more. I also run in-house training courses for government and industry. http://www.scribe.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------- 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 my web site. 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. -----------------------------------------------------------------