11 simple rules for capitalization

As writers and editors with years of experience in the corporate communications fun house all have stories about the crimes against the English language that we encounter. My latest crime story involves capitalization. I have documents to edit filled with words that shouldn’t be capitalized—such as “federal,” “state,” “statutes,” “cyber,” “laws”—but are uppercase. I have documents to edit filled with words that should be capitalized—such as “West Texas” and “Supreme Court”—but are not. When did random capitalization become acceptable?...

9 troublesome word pairs

Confusing word pairs are everywhere. I’ve been writing about them for years, and I had thought I had the topic well covered. Apparently I don’t. Here are nine more pairs to pay attention to: 1. Can vs. may Use “can” when referring to the ability to do something. Example: “I don’t think your brother can make you unconscious just by looking at you.” Use “may” when asking for permission to do something or when referring to the possibility of something. Example: “You may not throw knives at each other.” Example: “Your excessive use of exclamation...

11 examples of exclamation-point abuse

There’s a “Seinfeld” episode in which Elaine breaks up with her boyfriend over his failure to use an exclamation point. If you don’t remember it, Elaine’s boyfriend had written down some phone messages, one of which said that her friend had a baby. Elaine found it “curious” that he didn’t think someone having a baby warranted an exclamation point. “Maybe I don’t use my exclamation points as haphazardly as you do,” Elaine’s boyfriend tells her: I’ve had several conversations recently about the overuse, abuse, and misuse of exclamation points. These...

How do you deal with nitpicking co-worke...

If you’ve had co-workers and execs who think they can complete communications tasks better than you do, you’re not alone. Though from a designer’s point of view, a comic from The Oatmeal titled “How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell” chronicles the pain that know-it-alls inflict on PR pros and communicators. Projects can easily get derailed when executives, managers and random co-workers feel obligated to make changes to your work—all so they feel like they’ve done their job. How many times have you heard something like this? · “I made an A in my college...

Famous writers’ idiosyncrasies

Corporate communicators can be an eccentric bunch. Whether it’s because we write for a living or because we write for a living in a corporate environment, we all have idiosyncrasies—and may develop more as we continue to pen phrases. We balance the sometimes-unreasonable demands of clients and executives with the need to craft messages that are clear and concise. We argue with others about which lazy corporate verbs should be banned from our writing. We correct the grammar in the books that we read out loud to our kids. Throughout my career in corporate communications,...

17 words about words

There are an estimated 750,000 words in the English language —but the average college-educated American has a vocabulary of up to 80,000 words. That leaves hundreds of thousands of undiscovered words. Let’s explore words about language and writing. How many of these do you know? Definitions are from Dictionary.com, Urban Dictionary, Wikitionary and Oxford Dictionaries: 1. Cheville: an unnecessary word used to complete a verse. 2. Cledonism: avoidance of words thought to be unlucky. 3. Epeolatry: the worship of words. 4. Hadeharia: constant use of the word...

6 great things that happen when you brea...

Deviating from the rules can be a liberating experience. As writers and editors, we frequently enforce style, grammar, spelling and punctuation guidelines within our organizations or for our clients. However, we also know that it’s occasionally necessary to disregard those same edicts. Here’s what can happen when we break writing rules: 1. Your sentences flow better. Take the rule of never starting a sentence with a conjunction (and, but, nor, for, yet, so). Doing so has always been frowned upon, but “and” and “but” are two of the most useful devices for...

12 quotations that perfectly describe th...

To get an idea of what it’s like to write for a living, turn to those who can turn a phrase. Now that he’s in his teen years, my son and I have been having more serious conversations about his choice of career. (“More serious” means he no longer wants to be an astronaut paleontologist.) We’ve spent a lot of time talking about writing careers. From corporate communications to book editing, there are plenty of career options for people who love to write—but I also want him to understand what it’s like to write for a living. Here are a few quotations from...