In today’s post, the serial comma—also known as the Oxford comma. For those of us who may become rather focused on such things, the debate about “serial comma, yes or no?” can be serious business. Commas are wonderful tools. They convey changes of direction, clarify sentences, indicate pauses, and flag upcoming dialogue. In marketing communications, [...]
Posts Tagged ‘grammar’
Check Your Jargon—Please.
Your Highness: I’m clued in enough to laugh at those parodies of over-the-top business jargon that periodically make the rounds… but I’m also quite aware of the need to keep my job fit in by embracing the specialized language of my professional peers. What’s an English major turned midlevel marketing manager to do? My dear [...]
Sorry, No, That’s Not What You Mean At All
Your Highness: I’m not much of a writer but, like so many of your loyal subjects, I have a job that often requires me to write. I want to be professional—and avoid embarrassing mistakes. I need an on-call editor. Or at least a cheat sheet. Please help! My dear Subject, Ah, English! Constantly changing, constantly [...]
Quotation Dos and Don’ts
Your Highness: I hold a job that requires I write articles, press releases, and similar pieces in which I quote others. You’d think I’d have such matters down by now, but I’ll come clean: I never really learned the rules for using quotation marks. To complicate matters further, I’m a bit of an Anglophile—only the [...]
The Anti-Valentine: Seven Things Not to Say or Write on February 14
You’ve made it through 364 days without killing your relationship. Good for you! Now it’s Valentine’s Day – the day your Significant Other will scrutinize everything about you. Even your grammar. If you can just get through February 14 without committing a major gaffe, you should be OK for another year. Here are seven costly [...]
Feeding the World With Good Grammar
An ingenious teacher uses a UN-sponsored online game to teach grammar–and philanthropy.
Excuse Your Typos? No I Won’t, Actually
As our fingers fly across our smartphones, we’ve developed a shorthand way to dash off messages without spending too much time on the finer points of spelling and grammar. “C U later” and “gr8” substitute for actual language when we’re communicating via the small screen. Makes you wonder what the great writers would have done [...]
How to Write a More Readable Marcomm Asset
When we’re aiming for highly readable text, we should use words with fewer syllables and write sentences that don’t ramble. Here’s how to follow the stats to top readability.
What’s My E-mail Saying Behind My Back?
Your Highness:
Many of my business contacts and coworkers know me primarily through e-mail; the impression I make is almost entirely via the written word. What can I do to avoid embarrassing myself in writing? The Grammar Queen points the way.
