We often write the word ‘however’, but the many ways to use it cause punctuation grief. Here are some guidelines: 1. Use ‘however’ to begin a sentence ✅ Maddie ran a highly professional campaign. However, she lost the election. Note we need a comma after ‘However’. 2. Use however to join two simple sentences ✅ Maddie ran [...]
Does the spelling of any of these words surprise you? These are all the Macquarie Dictionary’s preferred spelling. The English language changes quickly, often without us realising. Transcripts of John Curtin’s wartime speeches show ‘to-day’ as hyphenated. I haven’t come across anyone who still writes ‘to-day’ with a hyphen. However, while the Macquarie prefers ‘statewide’ [...]
Are you clear about the use of ‘premise’ and ‘premises’? The many COVID-19 instructions about self-isolating have highlighted an anomaly in English (and we know there are many!) Premises is a plural noun, but it is used to describe a single building, using a plural verb. (See the end if you are interested in [...]
Are you a chatty writer and it all gets a bit longwinded? Fortunately, there are several ways to tighten up your writing. One way is to avoid or delete words that double up on meaning. These are called tautologies. Here are a few examples. The words you don’t need are in bold: We enjoyed the [...]
‘However’ is similar in meaning to ‘but’, with a longer pause built in. What’s tricky is that ‘however’ isn’t interchangeable with ‘but’, and it’s punctuated differently. In fact, punctuating the word ‘however’ is about the most common problem we see as editors. Here are some guidelines: But But is a ‘conjunction’ in grammar, and it [...]
I was training government staff in plain English writing the other day, and one course participant asked me about the Oxford comma: when should one use it? And then Rajan Venkataraman, who supports Hit Send's fast-turnaround editing service, wrote a blog explaining exactly that. Thanks Rajan. Mel Roome Principal Editor ******* In sentences that [...]
For plain-English advocates who prefer short sentences, semicolons as a joining device are a no-no; but in the right document, for the right audience, they can greatly improve long sentences and bring variety to your writing style. At Hit Send we see some pretty odd sentences with semicolons, so here are some tips for [...]
Are your English skills keeping up with your modern lifestyle? Today is National Grammar Day – well it is in the US – and that’s my excuse to write to you about contemporary English. We all try to keep our skills up to date, and our English should be no exception. Short of time? Cut straight [...]
When editing, we encounter this fairly frequently. The question is: do nouns beginning with 'h' take the indefinite article a or an? Fortunately, the answer is easy – it depends how the word beginning with ‘h’ sounds – that is, whether the ‘h’ is pronounced or not. For example, in ‘a hot dog’ the h is pronounced, but [...]
Hit Send runs a series of grammar tips and thoughts on our Facebook page. Here's a selection of the best for you. Misspelled Monday On Misspelled Monday, I recall this useful spelling principle. A school principal is a prince and a pal (well, once you reach year 12), and the same applies to anything of foremost importance. A [...]
