Start, STOP Continue… is a series of guest blogs written by Yorkshire based experts sharing 3 key tips on what to Start, Stop & Continue to develop in this area.
Sharing their expertise in this issue is Ian Claughton, founder of Silverdale Professional Proofreading Services.
Ian, as a professional proofreader, when it comes to writing for our businesses what is the one thing we should start doing right now?
Can I make it clear from the outset that I don’t intend to tell you how to write a report, article or novel; or how to design a website. However, whilst English is a fantastic language, it contains a lot of quirks that can catch a writer unawares! so I thought it would be useful to provide a few tips on grammar, word usage and spelling before you put pen to paper or hit the keyboard.
So, in no particular order, here are some common pitfalls to bear in mind:
UK/US spelling:
Some words are spelled (or spelt) differently, such as analyse/analyze, colour/color and fibre/fiber. Depending on your audience, it’s probably a good idea to set up the relevant language in your Word settings.
Dates: If you write out the date in full, you don’t need to put st, nd, rd or th after the number for example Monday, 4 October 2021.
Apostrophes:
Should only appear for two reasons – contraction and ownership: He’s a dentist, who’s that?, it wasn’t me. Bird’s wings, Simon’s car etc. One exception to the rule is it’s/its – we only use the apostrophe for the contraction of ‘it is’ (it’s mine) and not something owned by it (its feathers).
Adjectives:
There is a specific order of adjectives we should use before a noun: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose. Whilst native English speakers do this without realising it, it can catch out those for whom English is a second language. ‘Leather scruffy football black boots’ – it just doesn’t sound right!
Quotation Marks:
The accepted form these days in British practice is single quotation marks, with double quotation marks when quoting within a quote (if you see what I mean). Here’s an example: I saw Mrs. Smith today. She said, ‘It looks like it will rain today, but if you tell my husband I said that, he’ll reply “What a load of rubbish!”’
Abbreviations: Abbreviations can be tricky, the correct way to write these common abbreviations is: i.e., etc., e.g.
May/Might:
We use ‘may’ when something is more likely to happen and ‘might’ when something is less likely to happen, or in a hypothetical situation.
Worse/Worst:
Worse describes something that is of a lower quality than something else, when two things are compared; Worst describes something that is of the lowest quality in a group of three or more things.
Practise/Practice: Practise is a verb, practice is a noun. So, Susan can
practise shooting at netball
practice.
I could go on, but I don’t want to bore you!
On the flip side, what should we STOP doing?
As a general observation, I would say that the use of company-specific jargon is sometimes confusing, but if the people who are looking at your website or reading your report are up to speed on what you are putting across, that’s fine; it’s a judgement call.
Also,
try to avoid inconsistency. Spell things the same the whole way through; use a consistent style for things such as phone numbers, staff members’ qualifications, time format, headings and bullet points.
Finally, what’s a valuable activity that we should continue doing or do more of?
Be more adventurous!
Most of us use the same words all the time, but there are plenty of alternatives. Use the Thesaurus function on Word (or treat yourself to a Thesaurus) to offer interesting alternatives and use them to freshen up your writing.
Finally, check and double-check what you have written before sending or publication. Once it’s out there, it’s too late to correct any mistakes!
Of course, what you could do is employ a Proofreader. Our job is to be a fresh pair of eyes and to identify any errors before bringing them to your attention. Unprofessional presentation could leave potential customers thinking your company could be unprofessional so they scroll on to another company in their search engine.
A website is your shop window, make it as brilliant as possible!
I hope this helps, and thank you Janet for inviting me to contribute.
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