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Grammar and spelling

Not everyone has excellent English language skills. If you are one of these people, don’t be afraid to ask someone who has these skills to look over your document. Here are some commonly confused or misused words.

Proofing

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

Just running the spell check won’t guarantee your document is free of errors. Nothing beats a good proofreading. Besides spelling, be sure to check for grammar, spacing, alignment, widows and orphans, and photograph quality, to name a few. If your document will be printed on both sides of the paper and viewed as facing pages, check how the pages look side by side. It can be difficult to proof your own work so have someone else look over the document for you.

Punctuation

Punctuation helps break up the text into meaningful chunks. It helps readers understand meaning and clarifies thoughts and ideas by identifying the relationship of words to each other. If you think of writing as merely the visible translation of speech, then punctuation becomes easy. The pauses in speaking are signaled by marks in writing. There are punctuation rules that will override the speaking element to clarify grammatical use. Generally speaking, you can test for appropriate punctuation by reading the text aloud and exaggerating the pauses. Would you really pause at that comma if you were speaking?

Punctuation pauses

Here is more information on punctuation.

Hyphens and dashes

Hyphens are used in hyphenated words and compound adjectives. Use en dashes and em dashes where appropriate and not two hyphens, which is a throwback to typewriter days since true en and em dash characters weren’t available. An em dash is a true dash—like these—used to set off an idea. It is usually as long as the point size of the typeface you are using. For example, if you were using a 10-point typeface the em dash would be ten points in length. An en dash, typically half as long as an em dash, is used to indicate a range such as in dates: September 2–5, 2001. Don’t put spaces before or after these dashes.

True quotation marks and apostrophes

The quotation marks and apostrophes you enter directly from your keyboard are not really quotation marks, but rather hash marks (or tick marks) used to represent inches, feet, seconds and minutes. Use “directional quotes” instead. These are the quotation marks and apostrophes you normally see in printed matter. You need to be sure they’re going in the correct direction, however. You should use these when you need real quote marks or apostrophes. Remember there are opening quotes and closing quotes. The apostrophe that is used in front of year numbers to indicate missing digits should be a single closing quote (’99, ’01). However, when you want to use these as abbreviations for inches and feet or seconds and minutes, you should not use directional quotes. To avoid this problem, use words instead (in., ft., min., sec.).

Abbreviations

The fewer abbreviations used in running text, the better. To avoid confusion spell out the word rather than use an abbreviation. The question of punctuation in abbreviations is tricky, and there are no official rules. Too many little punctuation dots and periods may disturb the eye in reading. The tendency today is to avoid periods, especially in abbreviations of agencies and organizations such as CIA or NBC. Another thing to keep in mind is the use of the “@” symbol. Use it only in e-mail addresses; use the word “at” in all other cases.

Nevertheless, in the following list of common abbreviations, the periods have been included—so you know where to put them if you decide to use them. Also notice that, although the abbreviations here usually derive from Latin phrases, they are not italicized. The general rule is that if a foreign word (or abbreviation) is familiar, it should be treated like any other word—in Roman (normal) type. Obviously, there are a lot of decisions left up to you. Just be consistent. Handle the same abbreviation the same way throughout your publication.

ad lib.
(Latin ad libitum), at will
a.k.a.
also known as
cf.
(Latin confer), compare
d.b.a.
doing business as
e.g.
(Latin exempli gratia), for example
et al.
(Latin for et alia or alii), and others; use instead of etc. when referring to people
etc.
(Latin etcetera), and so on
et seq.
(Latin et sequens or et sequentes), and the following
f. or ff.
(Latin folio), on the following page or pages
ibid.
(Latin ibidem), the same (meaning the same source as the preceding footnote)
i.e.
(Latin id est), that is
inf.
(Latin infra), below
N.B.
(Latin nota bene), mark well, take careful note
op. cit.
(Latin opere citato), in the work cited (referring to a previously cited work by the author mentioned)
PS
(Latin postscriptum), written later, postscript
PPS
(Latin post postscriptum), after the postscript (an additional postscript)
q.v.
(Latin quod vide), which see
Rx
(Latin recipe, meaning “receive, or take”), a medical prescription
o.d.
(Latin omni die), daily (i.e., once a day)
b. i. d.
(Latin bis in die), twice in one day
t. i. d.
(Latin ter in die), thrice a day
q. i. d.
(Latin quater in die), four times a day
stet
let it stand, used imperatively as a direction on a printer’s proof or manuscript to retain material previously deleted or re-written
ult.
(Latin ultimo), last month
viz.
(Latin videlicet, from videre [“to see”] and licet [“it is permitted”]), to wit, namely
v. or vs.
(Latin versus), against
A.D.
(Latin anno domini), in the year of Our Lord
B.C.
before Christ
C.E.
common era
a.m.
(Latin ante meridiem), before noon
p.m.
(Latin post meridiem), after noon