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Tips for writing style, grammar, punctuation and spelling conventions in different regions (e.g. Australia vs US).
Although Avoid starting a sentence with although, unless it is followed by a clause (another short ‘sentence’ containing a verb), e.g. He received no awards. Although he did a good job. – Incorrect He received no awards. Although he did a good job, it was a waste of time. – Correct To improve your performance, you …
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Commas should aid understanding. Too many in one sentence can be confusing.
Semi-colons should be used to mark a pause longer than a comma and shorter than a full stop. Don't overdo them. Use them to distinguish phrases listed after a colon if commas will not do the job clearly.
Sometimes idioms and expressions are so overused that they grate on the ear. I still believe colourful language can paint a more vivid picture and present ideas clearly, but of course there is no point using technical (I D 10 T computer error) or business (acronyms!) jargon to confound others; or overusing idioms for the sake …
A balance has to be struck between so many capitals that the eyes dance and so few that the reader is diverted more by our style than by our substance. The general rule is to dignify with capital letters organisations and institutions, but not people. ... Even these, however, leave some decisions to individual judgment. If in doubt, use lower case unless it looks absurd. And remember that ‘a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds’ (Emerson). More exact rules are available on the website cited below.
Use an before words that begin with a vowel sound and words that begin with a silent h.
Ampersand The ampersand (&) is not used for general purposes in printed text. Its use is restricted to company names and titles in display work, and it is sometimes used in references to the work of joint authors or editors, in bibliographies or in parentheses, e.g.: Bell P & Bell R (eds) 2007, Americanization and …
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Agreement refers to the matching of words within a sentence in terms of their number (singular and plural), and in terms of gender or person. A traditional name for the concept in English and other languages is concord.
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