Business Writing

Happy Thanksgiving!

A blog reader asked whether to capitalize the word happy when it comes before Thanksgiving.

The answer? It depends.

In an exclamation, capitalize like this:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

In a sentence, do this:

We wish you a very happy Thanksgiving.

*******************

Dear Reader,

If you celebrate the holiday this week, I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Whether you observe Thanksgiving or not, I give thanks for you reading this blog.

Warm wishes,

Lynn
Syntax Training

 

 

 

Website, Web Page, the Web, Etc.: How to Render Evolving Terms

Katherine wrote for advice on rendering terms such as website, web page, email, and Internet. Well, I have just typed them the way I prefer to render them. But let's see what the experts in print prefer. Then you can make your choices based on the reference manuals you follow and what looks good to you.

website/Web site

website
My reference books that vote for website (no capital letter, one word) are The Associated Press Stylebook 2011 (AP), The Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition (Chicago), Garner's Modern American Usage 3rd Edition (Garner), and The American Heritage College Dictionary 4th Edition (AH). Note: AH votes for the next version too.  

Web site
References favoring Web site (capital W, two words) are The Gregg Reference Manual 11th Edition (Gregg), Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 11th Edition (M-W), and AH.

Web page, webpage, web page

Web page: AP, Gregg, and AH vote for this form. (But AH votes twice.)

webpage: Garner and AH prefer this one-word form.

web page: Chicago votes for this rendering.  

the Web, the web

the Web: AP, Garner, Gregg, AH, and M-W prefer this form.

the web: Only Chicago recommends this version.

E-mail, email, e-mail

E-mail: This term gets a vote from Garner, Gregg, and M-W, who vote yes for all three forms.

email: AP, Garner, Gregg, and M-W support this form.

e-mail: Chicago, AH, Garner, Gregg, and M-W okay this form.

Internet: All my reference books capitalize Internet.

the Net, the net

the Net: AP, Gregg, AH and M-W capitalize Net when it refers to the Internet. M-W lists both forms.

the net: Chicago recommends this version, and M-W lists it.

Given all these variations, what is a writer to do? You may choose one guide and follow it consistently. Or you may select the forms you like, as I do. But you must be sure at least one current, respected dictionary or style guide supports your choices--if you want to be correct and be able to defend your work. 

I love reading and responding to your comments. However, I prefer that you not ask about additional words such as webmaster, e-zine, and intranet. Instead, invest in one or more reference guides and look them up, which is exactly what I would do!

Enjoy!

Lynn
Syntax Training 

Do You Know What You Don't Know?

While making a comment on Marcia Yudkin's excellent Marketing for More forum, I realized I was not sure of the spelling of a word. I was writing a comment something like this:

When a website doesn't contain an About Us page, I bail. (Or do I bale?)

Do you know which word is correct?

All I knew was that I did not know for sure. So I looked up both bale and bail.

It turns out that I wanted bail: "to abandon a project" or "to extricate from a difficult situation."

If you are feeling smug because you knew the correct word and I did not, I caution you about hubris. In the business writing classes I teach, MBAs and PhDs catch themselves making mistakes with principal/principle, peak/peek/pique, flush/flesh, complement/compliment, home/hone and many other homonyms and near homonyms.

It's always a good idea to use a dictionary if you are not sure, and it's an even better idea to have a friend who loves words help you by proofreading your important messages.

If you would like to test yourself, the current issue of my free e-newsletter Better Writing at Work, includes a 375-word test passage filled with errors for you to find, most of them involving punctuation.

If you are near Seattle and would like to review the rules of punctuation, grammar, and usage, take my Keys to Error-Free Writing workshop on November 3 in Everett, Washington. (We have just scheduled the class, and it is not yet posted on our website.)

Or get my "60 Quick Word Fixes," a guide to the most common word usage errors. It provides you with easy memory devices and aids to choose the correct word.

But no matter how much you study, please remember this: To air is human.

Just kidding!

Lynn
Syntax Training

When Should I Use Ellipses? Never.

Yesterday I led a business writing class for a group of sales managers and other sales professionals near Portland, Oregon. As in other classes, these questions came up: "What about dot dot dot? When should I use that?"

The answer: Never.

Well, almost never.

These days business messages are filled with dot dot dots, whose official name is ellipses. People are using ellipses to pause, shift gears, trail off, and figure out what to write next. Unfortunately, none of those uses inspires confidence in readers, who wonder what the writer is doing. Does the pause mean something ominous? 

Just yesterday I received an email from someone who was worried about what the ellipsis after his name in an email might mean. He wrote, "I am trying to discern the tone of the email and the use of the ellipsis following my name." The email he had received began something like this:

David . . . thank you for offering a suggestion about the new incentive program.  

Why did the person who wrote to David (not his real name) use an ellipsis? My guess is that the writer had simply developed the bad habit of sprinkling ellipses here and there in his writing.

David wanted to know when an ellipsis is appropriate following a greeting. The answer: Never.

Yes, I admit there are appropriate uses of ellipses when quoting. I have written about those uses in the post "Using . . . Ellipses," which you will find here. But for sales managers and everyone else who does normal business writing without the use of extended quotations, an ellipsis is never the solution. Don't waste a moment worrying about them.

Lynn
Syntax Training

Gay Apparel? Yes, Language Changes

Over the weekend I was singing Christmas carols, when I came upon a familiar line in "Deck the Halls": "Don we now our gay apparel."

Gay apparel? Yes. When the song was written, the word gay meant "joyful, happy" and "celebratory"--not homosexual.

Singing "Don we now our gay apparel" gives us an opportunity to recognize how language changes. These days we don't don gay apparel. We wear something fabulous or put on our party clothes.  

Language and business writing change. It is pointless to argue that we can never end a sentence with a preposition, when the sentence "What are you looking for?" makes perfect sense. It is silly to argue that paragraphs must be indented, even in email, when doing so makes an online message difficult to read. It is senseless to criticize others for using "can you" rather than "are you able," when "can you" is clear and more concise.

As we count down to 2010, I encourage you to say goodbye to any old notions about writing, just as you say goodbye to 2009. Get a new style guide. (See my recommendations.) Stop saying "This is the way I learned it." (If you aren't sure about a rule, ask me to address it here.) Forbid yourself from thinking that others are lazy because they don't do things the way you have always done them. Practice acceptance.

Then don some gay apparel and enjoy the holidays!

Lynn
Syntax Training

More From the Undersigned

I was teaching in Canada last week, and I came up against an issue that has also surfaced in U.S. business writing seminars. It has to do with that supremely formal "undersigned" person who appears at the end of letters in statements like these:

• If you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned.
• If you have any questions about the above-mentioned, please contact the undersigned.

I argued politely with my Canadian writing class participants that "the undersigned" could be simply stated as "me":

• If you need any additional information, please contact me.
• If you have any questions about this information, please contact me.

They were not so sure. They felt that using "the undersigned" communicated an important degree of formality. They also believed the third-person "undersigned" indicated that they were writing for the company in a way that the word "me" did not. They suggested that even with their company name in all capital letters and their title beneath the complimentary close, "me" could suggest personal liability.

Not being a lawyer, I argued only on ground where I felt safe: in support of conciseness, clarity, and warm business relationships. On those issues, we agreed.

But today I call a witness: lawyer and lexicographer Bryan Garner, editor of Garner's Modern American Usage. About "the undersigned" Garner writes in that book, "Even in law it's a silly way of avoiding the first person."

Yes, my Canadian friends--I admit my source is Garner's Modern American Usage. But unless you can find a Canadian expert who defends "the undersigned" as necessary and meaningful, I invite you to join in using "me."

Any questions or comments? Please write to the undersigned me.

Lynn
Syntax Training

Dear Comma, Semicolon, or Colon

Kathryn from Hershey, Pennsylvania, wrote asking a question I should have answered a long time ago. Kathryn wants to know whether this punctuation is correct:

Dear Ms. Gaertner-Johnston;

What do you think? Is a semicolon correct after the greeting? How about a comma or a colon?

The semicolon is dead wrong. It is NEVER correct after a greeting. Never in a letter and never in an email. 

Kathryn said she started using the semicolon unconsciously, and hers is the only explanation I can imagine for the widespread incorrect use of the semicolon in salutations. 

Here's the correct punctuation: a comma for a personal letter, a colon for a business letter, and either punctuation mark in an email. (The colon is formal.) But remember: Dear isn't required in email, even when writing to a stranger. Try one of these two openings if you want to sound professional without using Dear:

Hello, Ms. Gaertner-Johnston.

Ms. Gaertner-Johnston, I found your website, and . . .

If you want to sound friendly with a stranger, try these:

Hi, Lynn.
Hi Lynn, (English teachers don't like this choice. They want a comma between Hi and the name.)
Hello, Lynn.
Greetings, Lynn.
Lynn, thanks for the . . .

I've written a lot about greetings and salutations. If you want more examples, use the search term salutations in the search box on this blog. 

And now I've written enough for someone on vacation. The lightning has passed, the pavement is dry, and the pool is open again!

Lynn
Syntax Training

 

A.M., P.M., a.m., p.m.: What Is the Correct Time?

Pam wrote to me to settle a debate between the younger and the older employees in her office. Her brief question was this:

4pm or 4:00pm?

My answer: Neither!

Both of Pam's renderings are incorrect. She needs to insert periods and a space before the abbreviation, like this:
4 p.m. or 4:00 p.m.

In email, many people seem to be dropping both the periods and the space, but don't follow the crowd. The prominent style guides do not support that choice. Here is a sampling of recommendations:

The Associated Press Stylebook:
4 p.m.

Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications:
4 P.M.

The Chicago Manual of Style and Garner's Modern American Usage:
4 p.m. or 4 PM (with PM in small capitals)

The Gregg Reference Manual:
4 p.m. or 4 P.M. (with PM in small capitals)

Whatever style you choose, be consistent. I always use lowercase letters: 4 p.m.

Pam's coworkers were apparently arguing about whether to include the zeros. Omit zeros when the time is on the hour, but include them in a list of varying times like this one:

7:00 a.m. Registration
7:30 a.m. Breakfast
8:00 a.m. Announcements
8:15 a.m. Speaker

Pam, it's time for you and your coworkers to pitch in and get a style manual. See the recommendations on my website.

Does your style guide recommend a different approach to time? If so, please share it here.

Lynn
Syntax Training

Paragraphs in Email--To Indent or Not to Indent?

Early one recent morning I got a phone call from someone whose name, let's say, was Adam. Adam called because he and a coworker were having a disagreement about whether paragraphs should be indented in email.

I said, "No, paragraphs are not indented in email. You can indent bullet points, or you can block indent text to set it off, but paragraphs aren't indented."

It was immediately clear which side Adam was on when he said, "But could you indent paragraphs in email if you wanted to?"

I responded, "No one indents paragraphs in email. It's just not standard."

Adam countered, "But people used to think the world was flat."

I could not argue with that historical truth, so I ended the call.

But the issue of indenting paragraphs in email has not ended. Twice in the last week class participants have submitted email samples with indented paragraphs.

Do three people who want to indent paragraphs set a new standard? No. But I am beginning to wonder where this idea is coming from or going.

Yes, indenting paragraphs is still done in books and magazines. And it's still done in handwritten notes. In these cases, the indenting helps readers identify where a new paragraph begins, since there may be little space between one paragraph and the next. 

But in email the blank line before a new paragraph clearly signals the paragraph change. Indenting doesn't make sense. It takes time we don't have, and it looks old-fashioned.

If you live outside the U.S. and indented paragraphs are common in email in your country, please let me know. The world we knew as round has become flat, again. I need to know if email is changing too.

Lynn
Syntax Training

Want to Be Concise?

In all my writing classes, people tell me they want to be more concise. That's a worthy goal, especially since our readers get slammed with so much they have to read on the job. If a message isn't short, often they won't read it.

I recommend Marcia Yudkin's downloadable report "Shorter: Say It in Fewer Words." The report offers 58 specific ideas for shortening your documents. Here are three items I took from Marcia's list that were good reminders for me: 

"Pare adverbs and adjectives: In most people's writing, adverbs don't add nuance and should be cut. 'Literally': out! 'Actually': gone! When the adverb does add significance, try to replace the adverb and verb combination with a more specific word, like changing . . . 'cut carefully' to 'sliced' or 'divided.'

"Make verbs active and vivid. Question every instance of 'is,' 'are,' 'was,' or 'were' and try to reword your sentence without the weak pseudo-verb 'to be.' To do this, you'll tighten wordy constructions and change passive verbs to active verbs. Thus . . . 'The program was started in 1988 and was run without investors until 1997' becomes 'The program launched in 1988 and gained investors in 1997.'

"Excise intensifiers. Paradoxically, words like 'very,' 'absolutely,' 'really,' 'certainly,' or 'undoubtedly' weaken your message. Strengthen your point by getting rid of them."

Marcia provides 10 ways to identify content to cut, 10 formatting changes that slim down documents, and 38 editing suggestions. When you are finished digesting those, you will be ready for the three realistic practices she includes--not editing exercises, but actual pieces to shorten.

Want to say it in fewer words? (I just used Marcia's tip "Change statements to questions.") Then get "Shorter: Say It in Fewer Words," by Marcia Yudkin.  

Lynn
Syntax Training