----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BETTER WRITING SKILLS NEWSLETTER, October 2012 By Tim North of Scribe Consulting www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the Better Writing Skills newsletter. IN THIS ISSUE 1. "Provided" or "providing"? 2. Using "the" with place names 3. Do we need a comma before "and"? 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. "Provided" or "providing"? ----------------------------------------------------------------- My first correspondent this month, Brigit, writes in with a question about word choice: In the following sentence which is correct: "provided" or "providing"? Alternative test methods are acceptable, provided/providing the outcomes required in AS/NZS 3000 are met. "Provided" is considered by many sources to be more formal than "providing". The addition of "that" ("provided that" or "providing that") makes either one even more formal. We thus have four choices. From least formal to most formal they are: 1. Alternative test methods are acceptable, providing ... = 2. Alternative test methods are acceptable, providing that ... = 2. Alternative test methods are acceptable, provided ... 4. Alternative test methods are acceptable, provided that ... All of these are acceptable and may be used interchangeably. Business writers may prefer to use number four if they wish to write with a more formal tone. Hope this helps. -- (c) 2012 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Using "the" with place names ----------------------------------------------------------------- My next correspondent this month, Bianca, writes in with a question about place names: My colleagues and I were debating whether 'the' is required before place names when used in a sentence. Eg. A party will be held at Katherine Town Pool. vs A party will be held at the Katherine Town Pool. I prefer to use 'the' when referring to the Katherine Town Pool, however, not when referring to Casuarina Pool. A party will be held at Casuarina Pool. Let's start by simplifying these examples by removing the Australian place names: A party will be held at THE pool. Notice that we include the word "the" before the word "pool". When adding back the place name between these words, I would thus tend to retain the word "the": A party will be held at THE Katherine Town Pool. A party will be held at THE Casuarina Pool. Put another way, since the word "the" was already there, I don't see a compelling reason to drop it when we insert a place name. * * * Let's turn to a more general question now: Which places always include the word "the" as part of their name? A reasonable rule of thumb is to say that most place names don't need the word "the" before them. "If in doubt, leave it out" applies here. For example, we say "New York", not "the New York". There is a long list of seemingly arbitrary exceptions to this advice, though. For example, some country names are preceded by "the": the Philippines the United States of America The names of some geographic features or regions are preceded by "the": the Swiss Alps the south of France (often with a capital "s") the Nullarbor Plain the South Pole The names of seas, oceans and rivers require the word "the": the Sea of Tranquillity the Indian Ocean the Swan River the Amazon The names of some landmarks include "the": the Sydney Opera House the Golden Gate Bridge Another interesting exception is the Dutch city "The Hague". Not only does it include the word "the", but it also gets a capital "t". These are all exceptions, though, to our general rule to omit the word "the" from place names. Thus we write: Welcome to Australia. not Welcome to the Australia. 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. Do we need a comma before "and"? ----------------------------------------------------------------- I'm frequently asked how to punctuate the small joining words like "and", "or" and "but". Well, there's a simple rule that's very helpful. While I don't normally use jargon in this newsletter, I'm going to beg your indulgence in allowing me to define the term "independent clause". An independent clause is simply a group of words that could stand alone as a sentence. Consider: Today is Monday. Today is Monday, and tomorrow will be Tuesday. The first sentence contains one independent clause. The second contains two of them. "Today is Monday" is the first, and "tomorrow will be Tuesday" is the second. Here then is our simple rule: Use a comma before the word "and" if it comes between two independent clauses. These following sentences each consist of two independent clauses, so they DO have a comma before the word "and": This is red, and it's also green. I like this, and I would like to buy it. He's good at his job, and he's always on time. We have finished the work, and we are looking forward to the weekend. The following sentences don't consist of two independent clauses, so they DON'T need a comma before the word "and": This is red and green. I like this and would like to buy it. He's good at his job and always on time. We have finished the work and are looking forward to the weekend. The same principle applies for all seven of the small joining words: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so These can be remembered with the acronym FANBOYS. For example: This is nice, but it's too expensive. I like it but not enough to buy it. Notice that only the first of these needs a comma. The second one doesn't consist of two independent clauses. Hope this helps. -- Shameless plug: You'll find a full coverage of punctuation (and more) in my ebook "Editing and Proofreading". There's more information and a full table of contents here: http://www.scribe.com.au/editing-proofreading.html -- (c) 2012 Tim North: http://www.scribe.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Just for fun ---------------------------------------------------------------- A pangram is a sentence that contains every letter of the alphabet at least once. The best known example is: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. But are you familiar with these ones? How quickly daft jumping zebras vex. Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs! Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward. Who knew? You can find more here: http://rinkworks.com/words/pangrams.shtml 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. 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