by Laura A. DeCarlo
WORDS THAT MEAN THE SAME THING AND ARE INTERCHANGEABLE:
Forward = Forwards
Regime = Regimen
Because = Since
Lend = Loan
Preventive = Preventative
Entitled = Titled
Toward = Towards – (toward is more common in US and towards in UK)
That = Which (see above)
ELEMENTS OF GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION & STYLE
Verb Tense:
If the situation being described is an ongoing or current one, the present tense is needed, even in a past-tense context:
Pairs of verbs that go together logically have to be kept in the same tense.
Lots of people get into trouble with sentences that describe a hypothetical situation in the past:
Another situation that creates confusion is the use of interjections like “along with,” “as well as,” and “together with,” where they are often treated improperly as if they meant simply “and.”
Phrases in a series separated by commas or conjunctions must all have the same grammatical form.
Number of Verb: In long, complicated sentences, people often lose track of whether the subject is singular or plural and use the wrong sort of verb.
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Apostrophe: | |
Don’t Use: If you add an “s” to make the word plural. Possessives of pronouns never get apostrophes: theirs, not their’s; hers, not her’s; its, not it’s. Do Use: To indicate omitted letters in real contractions: “do not” becomes “don’t.” House Style: When a singular noun ends in s, most style guides prefer s’s as in James’s house. However, journalism usually uses “James’ house”. |
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Colons: | |
Acts to connect what precedes it with what follows. Think of the two dots of a colon as if they were stretched out to form an equal sign:
In bibliographic citation a colon separates the city from the publisher. Colon also separates minutes from hours in times of day when given in figures:
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Semicolons: | |
Imply separation rather than connection.
A sentence made up of two distinct parts whose separation needs to be emphasized may do so with a semicolon:
When a compound sentence contains commas within one or more of its clauses, escalate to a semicolon to separate the clauses:
Use semicolons to separate one series of items from another–a series within a series:
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Commas: | |
Often marks a brief pause in the flow of a sentence, and helpfully marks off one phrase from another.
Commas: Separating a series. Authorities differ as to whether that final comma before the “and” is required. Follow the style recommended or defer to use the final comma and remove ambiguity. Series with a string of adjectives modifying a single noun. Use a comma.
Series with a string of adjectives that modify each other instead of a noun. Do not use a comma.
Comma Splice: When two unrelated phrases are strung together with a comma instead of a semicolon.
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