Writing Tips for Non-Writers Part 1
Published on Monday, March 1st, 2010 by Mason Hart
- Unless you’re still pounding the keys on a manual typewriter, stop using two spaces between sentences. Just one space is fine. Really. Personal computers, word processors, and proportional fonts make double-spaces unnecessary and obsolete.
- The correct figure of speech for adding content to an outline is “fleshed out,” not “flushed out.” If the outline is a skeleton, then details are the flesh. Or “meat,” if you prefer. Gruesome, isn’t it?
- Periods and commas should be placed before (inside) a quotation mark. For example: “If at first you don’t succeed,” the saying goes, “try and try again.”
- Apostrophes have three jobs: possession (Mason’s desk), contraction (won’t be clean), or omission (‘til doomsday). NEVER use an apostrophe to create a plural. For example: I have too many DVDs and CDs (not DVD’s and CD’s).
- It’s (with an apostrophe) is always a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” Its (without apostrophe) is always possessive — like his, hers, theirs, and yours. No apostrophe needed. For example: It’s [it is] not clear how the iPod got its name, but it’s [it has] certainly made its mark.
- You’re (with an apostrophe) is always a contraction of “you are.” Your (without apostrophe) is always possessive — like his, her, their, or my. For example: When you’re not your own worst enemy, you’re your own best friend.
- An ellipsis (…) should have spaces before and after it. And just three points, not four. Even when an ellipsis follows a period, it should have spaces around it. For example: A is for apple. … Z is for zebra.
- Nobody gets this one right: the word comprise means “include” or “embrace.” It replaces (and can be replaced by) the phrase “is/are composed of.” One large thing comprises many small things, while many small things compose one large thing. Nothing is “comprised of” anything. Ever.
- A semicolon (;) marks a significant break in a sentence — stronger than a comma but weaker than a period. It can separate items in a series that are especially complex or have their own punctuation, and it can join sentences without a conjunction.
- Avoid using the word impact as a verb if you can possibly help it — use affect or influence instead. And remember that an impact is a forceful, destructive blow — impacts are not good things.
- Most of the time, affect is a verb and effect is a noun. For example: Rain and weather affect traffic; the effect is frustrating, but predictable.
- Your palate is the roof of your mouth, or your sense of taste. A palette is the flat tray on which an artist mixes paints, or a menu of artistic choices. And a pallet is a platform on which things are stacked. For example: I burned my palate drinking hot coffee while stacking art supplies (palettes and paint) on a shipping pallet.
- “They’re” is always a contraction of “they are.” “Their” is always possessive — like his, her, your, or my. “There” is multitalented — adverb, adjective, pronoun, noun … whatever you need it to be. For example: They’re different over there, with their strange foreign ways.
- There’s (with an apostrophe) is always a contraction of “there is” or “there has.” Theirs (without apostrophe) is always possessive — like his, hers, yours, or mine. For example: There’s [there is] no other music like theirs today, and there’s [there has] never been any like it before.
- For a strong break in a sentence, use a full dash (—), not a small dash (–) or hyphen (-). A full dash is usually called an “em-dash” because it’s approximately the width of a capital letter M in most fonts.
- Hyphens (-) can break up numbers like your phone number or social security number. But when you want to show a range of values between two points, you should use a small “en-dash” (–) instead of a hyphen. For example: 10–15 minutes, pages 155–192, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., Monday–Friday, May 1 – June 31
- Be careful not to use the word irony when you really mean coincidence or tragedy. It’s only ironic if you think the universe might be laughing at you. Lots of people have a hard time with this. I blame Alanis Morissette.
