Lynn Gaertner-Johnston, Author at BusinessWritingBlog

Etiquette

A New Way to Address and List Married Couples

It’s 2011. It’s time for a new way to address married couples on envelopes and to list their names in programs. I regularly get messages like the one I received today from Carol, who works in higher education: Hi Lynn: I found your website helpful,… continue reading

Punctuation

How New Is That Rule?

Maecey, a director of corporate communications, wrote to me with a question. She wanted to know when the comma rule for direct address had become proper usage. She was referring to the commas in these sentences, which address the reader directly: Brandy, will you attend… continue reading

A red and white background with the words discrete vs discreet

Grammar and Usage

Discrete vs. Discreet: Understanding the Difference

The English language is full of words that sound similar but have different meanings, and one common pair that often causes confusion is “discrete” and “discreet.” These two words, although they sound alike, have distinct meanings and uses. Understanding the difference between them can help… continue reading

Grammar and Usage

Find the Error I Missed

Every month in my monthly e-newsletter, Better Writing at Work, I include a feature called Error Quest. In it, I challenge readers to find the one error I have purposely included in a short paragraph. Every now and then, a reader recognizes an error I… continue reading

Capitalization

Capitalizing Hyphenated Words in Titles

Recently, a question from one of our readers regarding our Business Writing Tune-Up class came up: in a hyphenated compound word, shouldn’t a little word like up be lower case? As is often the case with capitalization, it depends what part of speech up is. In tune-up,… continue reading

Grammar and Usage

Passive Verbs in a Father’s Day Card

Yesterday I bought a Father's Day card for my dear husband. Of course, I don't have to recognize him on Father's Day, but he is a wonderful father to our daughter and a terrific partner. So I wanted to get him a card. I found one… continue reading

Grammar and Usage

What I Learned Thanks to Sunny, a Korean Writer

I was teaching The Keys to Error-Free Writing yesterday, when Sunny, whose first language is Korean, asked me about the use of articles in a series. Sunny wanted to know whether to repeat the articles a and an in a series of items. For example, she… continue reading

Punctuation

The “Overuse” of Quotation Marks

Lately I have been seeing unnecessary quotation marks "everywhere." The quotation marks I just used in the previous sentence are unnecessary, as are the ones in the title of this post. Quotation marks are perfect when you want to help your readers recognize you are using a word… continue reading

Grammar and Usage

A Passive Verb to Change

I was reviewing an email today for our Email Intelligence online class, when I came across a good example of a passive verb to change. Here is the context: The writer, whom I will call Kelly, is emailing managers to ask them to find volunteers for… continue reading

Punctuation

The Place for Parentheses

Last week in a Better Business Writing class, Bryan asked where to use parentheses. He worried he was using them too often. I explained that parentheses are perfect when you need to enclose extra information that would otherwise break the flow of the sentence. But he… continue reading

Author Archives: Lynn Gaertner-Johnston