Unnecessary Quote Marks Let's "knock down the door" and "barge in", ey. Single and double quotation marks Double quotation marks are reserved for 'quotes within quotes', whereas single quotation marks are used for quotations according to the Style Guide & Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Example: He said 'I don't like it when you call him …
Question Marks
The main function of a question mark is to indicate a question or query. 1. Use a question mark at the end of all direct questions: What is your name? How much money did you transfer? Did you send euro or dollars? 2. Use a question mark after a tag question: You're French, aren't you? …
Prepositions
A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition. A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence as in the following examples: The book is …
Fat-free writing (more on plain English)
Plain English Guidelines: Keep sentences short Over the whole document, make average sentence length 15 to 20 words. Muddle is more likely in a long sentence, unless the construction is simple and well-organised. Learning to cut repetition and verbiage, using lists and headings properly, and shortening sentences can make the world of difference to your …
Plain English and short sentences (less is more)
Some words add nothing but length to your prose.
Numbers, measurement and currencies
Numbers 1–9—write out one, nine, (i.e. single-digit numbers); from then on the number 10, 11 etc. If a mix of related numbers above and below nine appears in one sentence, use figures: Unbelievably, only 2 of the 110 people on the train were injured. Always start a sentence with a word: Two out of 110 …
Hyphens
Are you a short story writer? Or a short-story writer? Would you rather do business with a pickled herring monger or a pickled-herring monger? In the first example, the ‘short story writer’ is a writer who is short in stature, while the ‘short-story writer’ is some one who writes stories that are short. We don’t …
Effect and affect; Enquire and inquire
affect verb ( Influence ) - to have an influence on someone or something, or to cause them to change Both buildings were badly affected by the fire. The divorce affected every aspect of her life. It's a disease which affects mainly older people. I was deeply affected by the film (= It caused strong …
Ascension Editing 