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Staff
Newsletter Articles
'Citing Writing' Series
short articles on public sector
writing skills for staff newsletters
The 'Citing Writing'
series of articles is designed for publication in public sector staff
newsletters. You are welcome to use these copyright articles in your
organisation's internal newsletter without cost. You may not use these
articles for any other circumstances without the prior written
permission from Rushworth Consultancy Pty Ltd.
The articles focus
on public sector writing issues, providing simple rules and approaches
to creating documents. Written in an amusing and informal tone, the
articles are an average of
227 words long.
Francis Walsh is
a specialist in public sector writing. Over 270 client organisations use his consultancy and training expertise.
Please visit the other pages of this website to gain an insight into
his work.
It is a requirement
that the articles appear in their totality without change, including the
sign-off at the end. Please copy them from this web page.
If you have
suggestions about other issues that Francis Walsh could address in
similar articles, on writing or communication in the public sector,
please
email your ideas to Rushworth Consultancy.
Yes, I intend to use these articles.
I have a query about these articles.
Article 1
(229 words)
Citing Writing
Francis Walsh
The 'postrophe
Recently, I saw a sign painted on the window
of a new-car dealer. It read: For Sale. New Vehicles'. The message
played on my mind. What was it that the new vehicles owned? This was
brilliant advertising, no doubt.
It reminded me that people ponder perpetual
problems with 'postophes. The wriggly little devils go missing in headings,
are lost in lists and collapse in colloquialisms. How many pedants have made
a career from knowing how, when, where and why to use the apostrophe?
Okay, let's beat 'em at their own game.
Apostrophes show that letters are missing:
couldn't, o'clock, 'postrophe. They also show ownership: the cat's
whisker, the Parliament's members, the Jones's home.
To show ownership, write the word in full
(singular or plural), add the apostrophe, then add the extra s if you
would normally say it.
Imagine that two dogs own a kennel. Write the
word in full (dogs). Put in the apostrophe (dogs'). Say it
aloud. Do we need another s? No. We don't say: the dogses kennel.
So, the correct form, in this case, is the dogs' kennel.
Be careful with its. The word its,
without an apostrophe, is a possessive pronoun. It doesn't need an
apostrophe. However, the word it's is short for it is. The
apostrophe shows that something is missing.
No-one gets it right all the time. However,
it doesn't hurt to try.
Francis
Walsh
www.franciswalsh.com
© Rushworth Consultancy
Article 2
(226
words)
Citing Writing
Francis Walsh
Completely Dotty
It's
raining dot points. My office has so many dot points that they pour out of
my monitor screen and cover my desk like confetti. Since when was I married
to dot points? What's this all about?
Dot
points are fine. Don't get me wrong. I love a good bullet, but why do so
many paragraphs start with a dot?
Dot
points are simply lists, long lists, made easier to read by changing their
format. Use parallel construction (start each dot with the same grammatical
form) and parallel punctuation (end each dot, except the last, with the same
punctuation).
Americans start each dot with a capital letter. Australians do that only if
the dot is a full sentence. I still finish non-sentence dot points with a
comma (if it is a short fragment) or semicolon (if it is a clause with a
verb and an object). The last dot point gets a full stop.
Many people leave out some or all of the punctuation. I can't cope with
that. I learned to do it the 'right' way so I'll try to stick with what I
know.
In
a public sector organisation I worked in recently, I was told not to use the
word 'bullets'. The in-house style police said 'bullets' was too violent a
term. I had to call them 'dot points'. Completely dotty, I'd say.
Francis Walsh
www.franciswalsh.com
© Rushworth Consultancy
Article 3
(214 words)
Citing Writing
Francis Walsh
Dash it All!
When
you see a long dash in text, think of a hammock between two palm trees
on a beach. We are talking here about Hawaiian shirts and relying on
others for support.
That long dash is
always informal and lies within the sound structure of a sentence. It's
always a bit, well, slapdash.
People use long
dashes (called 'em dashes' or 'em rules') instead of parentheses. The em
dash—the American version looks like this—is usually the width of a
capital 'M' in the font you are using. The British em dash – why are
things so difficult? – looks slightly different: shorter, with a space
either side. Australians use both styles.
Sometimes, there's
only one em dash. The other is implied at the start or end of the
sentence. Sometimes, there is one but it has a different purpose. You
are supposed to use an em dash when there's an abrupt change so that you
warn the reader—a large spider has just crawled onto your desk!
Using Microsoft
Word? Go to Insert then Symbols then Special Characters. You'll find the
em dash there.
To make parentheses
more formal, use commas. To let them laze around in a hammock on a
beach, use the em dash—oh, that sea breeze makes me so lazy.
Francis Walsh
www.franciswalsh.com
© Rushworth Consultancy
Article 4
(219
words)
Citing Writing
Francis Walsh
Capital Idea
I found an
old, musty volume on my grandmother's dusty bookshelf. Bound in Moroccan
leather, it has a spine that splits when it's opened. Inside the cover,
there's marbled paper and a half title page followed by a full title page in
Gothic font.
It is so utterly
different from today's books and electronic publications in almost every
respect. Look, for example, at the capital letters.
My grandmother's book is
so old that each chapter starts with an exaggerated first letter. It is
called a 'capitula'. 'Capital letter' comes from that ancient Latin word.
The long-gone typesetter also started a word with a capital at every
opportunity: people's names, place names, titles, national groups, holidays,
events, days, months, political entities and points of the compass.
'Upper case' and
'lower
case' refer to type (individual characters made of lead) that typesetters
stored in upper and lower boxes or drawers. Some people call them
'majuscules' and 'minuscules'.
So, there is no surprise
to see the world-wide debate about capitalising 'Internet'. The word
'intranet' always begins with a lower case 'i', so, it is argued, the word
'Internet' really doesn't need the excessive status suggested by the
capital. Almost certainly, the proponents of lower case (I call them the 'minuscules')
will win this battle. They have won so many in the past.
francis
walsh
www.franciswalsh.com
© Rushworth Consultancy
Article 5
(239 words)
Citing Writing
Francis Walsh
Cul8r
Alligator
You have seen it a hundred times: someone waiting for a bus or drinking
a coffee, mobile telephone in hand, using their thumb to write a
message. They may be using a shorthand that is truly of our age. Even
the Oxford Dictionary has a section devoted to chat line, phone and
Internet shorthand.
People in the public
sector are not immune. I receive emails that make me lol (laugh out
loud) or even rotfl (roll on the floor laughing).
Avoid these informal
abbreviations unless they are appropriate. In any case, I don't think
they will last.
A word processing tsunami is on its way.
Voice recognition
specialists say that within ten years the keyboard will be gone. Goodbye
to the clicking and clacking; goodbye to the QWERTY keys; goodbye to the
flying two-finger technique. The computer will soon learn our speaking
style (accent, tone and the rest) and translate it into text. Voice
recognition is not new but it is about to get much better.
Things will change:
sound proof partitioning; headsets and microphones for everyone; and a
different writing style. If we speak to the word processor, our writing
may become more conversational. We may correct this with the grammar
checker, which already has tone settings: informal, standard and formal.
Probably, we will strike problems we haven't even thought of yet.
Personally, I have
decided to seek shelter from this word processing tsunami. bbl (be back
later)
Francis Walsh
www.franciswalsh.com
© Rushworth Consultancy
Article 6
(212 words)
Citing Writing
Francis Walsh
Parallels Bar
None
You probably watched the Olympics on television. Remember the
gymnastics? I particularly enjoyed the parallel bars. It's not over in a
millisecond like the vault and it doesn't have the sickening falls of
the high bar.
I love the parallel
bars competition because it reminds me of grammar. Yes, I know ... 'Get a
life!' You see, parallels occur in writing often. They make the reader
understand, remember and believe.
First, parallels
occur in arguments. Show how one experience or event compares with
another, then the reader can judge whether the outcomes may be similar.
Contrasts show how things are not parallel.
Second, parallels
occur in powerful writing. Winston Churchill wrote, 'We shall fight on
the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in
the fields ...' He used 'we shall' ten times, building a tremendous
crescendo. Not that you'll be writing Churchillian speeches at work, but
the technique is powerful.
Third, we use
parallel construction in lists. We repeat the same grammatical form to
show readers that the ideas are related: 'She loves to read
books, to write speeches and to amuse friends'.
It doesn't matter
how you do it, when you do it or why you do it, as long as the parallels
are there.
Francis Walsh
www.franciswalsh.com
© Rushworth Consultancy
Article 7
(210words)
Citing Writing
Francis Walsh
Avoid
Agreement Annoyance
There's nothing nicer than the icon of a handshake. It's about people
supporting each other, coming to a common purpose. So, too, it is with
grammar.
Note how you feel
when you read: 'The cat are sleeping tonight'. Something is
radically wrong. The issue is agreement: subject–verb agreement.
You see, the subject
is singular or plural, so the verb must be similar; it must agree. 'The
cat' is singular, so it takes a singular verb 'is': 'The cat is
sleeping'. The word 'cats' is plural, so the verb must be 'are': 'The
cats are sleeping'.
Some people
mistakenly think an organisation is plural: 'The CSIRO are
investigating'. It should be: 'The CSIRO is investigating'.
Sometimes you seem
to be breaking the rule but you should do it anyway: 'The police are
on their way' and 'Their bread and butter is selling insurance'.
Here are the rules.
Singular and
singular (use a plural verb): The cat and dog are
sleeping.
Singular or singular (use a singular verb): The cat or the
dog is sleeping.
Singular plus extra information (use a singular verb): The dog,
with the cat, is sleeping.
If you are confused,
make that subject closest to the verb agree with it: The cat or
the dogs are missing.
Francis Walsh
www.franciswalsh.com
© Rushworth Consultancy
Article 8
(244 words)
Citing Writing
Francis Walsh
Comma and And
It
was like a hydrogen bomb. That was the reaction when my supervisor, many
years ago, found a comma before an 'and' in a letter I had written. It
was my mistake. His eyes glowed radioactively and a small mushroom cloud
formed over his bald dome.
Of course, now I'm
more sensitive when my boss knows better. Back then, I grabbed every
style guide and punctuation text I could find. I wanted a rule.
American style
(except for The New York Times) is to put a comma before the 'and' in
a simple list: 'red, white, and blue'. Australian style says the
comma before the 'and' isn't needed.
However, all
guidelines say that, if you have a complex list, you may need a comma
before the 'and': 'We shall meet with staff from three departments:
Treasury and Finance, Infrastructure and Industry, and Transport and
Regional Development'.
More importantly,
use a comma before a conjunction if clauses before and after have
different subjects. Huh? Here's an example: 'I am going to the shops,
and my friends will meet me there'. 'I' is the subject of the first
clause and 'my friends' is the subject of the second.
So, you should use a
comma before 'and' in some circumstances. My free punctuation ebook on
my web site has all the rules.
Be careful. When I
showed the rules to my boss, he scowled, but at least, after that, he
got his commas right. So did I.
Francis Walsh
www.franciswalsh.com
© Rushworth Consultancy
Article 9
(227 words)
Citing Writing
Francis Walsh
To Split or
to Completely Split
To
split or not to split, that is the question. However, this question is
probably not as profound the one that Hamlet had to face, sitting with a
skull in his hand, contemplating murder or suicide at Ellsinore Castle.
Some will say,
'Don't split the infinitive'. They learned the rule back in 1954 and
will stick with it.
Experts say the rule
is doubtful. HW and FG Fowler (The King's English, 1908) wrote
that we should be careful, but 'no one should give way to superstitious
reverence for an absolute rule'.
The infinitive verb
has 'to' before it: 'to love', 'to jump', 'to go'. A word between
the 'to' and the verb splits the infinitive: 'to deeply love', 'to
foolishly jump', 'to boldly go' (that last one is for 'Star Trek'
fans).
Putting the adverb
(deeply, foolishly, boldly) before or after the infinitive can solve
most problems: 'to love deeply'. Make sure the meaning is right.
The rule comes from
'traditional grammarians', a rare breed, who believe we should follow
the rules of Latin. In Latin, 'amare' means 'to love'. The infinitive
can't be split because it's created by the word's ending (-are). That's
where the 'rule' in English came from. Crazy stuff, really.
Of course, if you
are told at work not to split the infinitive, then don't. Sometimes, we
have to carefully play the game.
Francis Walsh
www.franciswalsh.com
© Rushworth Consultancy
Article 10
(228 words)
Citing
Writing
Francis Walsh
Which:
Which or That?
You're at your work station staring at your computer monitor. Your
fingers are flying over the keyboard. You have your grammar checker
turned on and the dratted green line appears under your words. Your word
processor is complaining about 'that' and 'which'.
So, you either turn
off the grammar checker and ignore the complaint or try to sort out the
problem.
Things have changed
with 'which' and 'that'. Well, I think they have changed in Australia. I
seem to remember that we used them interchangeably, but now there is a
rule. We are all supposed to follow it. This rule and many others are in
my free grammar book on my web site.
If you are defining
something, use 'that': 'This is the house that has a curved front
drive'. Although it seems to describe, 'that' tells you to take 'a
curved front drive' as a definition.
If you are
describing something, use 'which': 'This is the house, which has a
curved front drive'. 'Which' tells you that the information
about the drive is a description.
Sometimes 'which'
helps to explain something: 'The car crashed into the house, which
stands on a steep curve in the road'.
Use a comma before
'which' and a comma or full stop at the end of the description or
explanation.
Now, that you know
which one to use, that should help.
Francis Walsh
www.franciswalsh.com
© Rushworth Consultancy
Article 11
(240 words)
Citing Writing
Francis Walsh
Save the
Comma!
'Come
on! Come on, comma!'
I feel like Lleyton
Hewitt hitting that winning, down-the-line backhand. It's a real fight
back: a fight for commas and for all punctuation.
You may use a
'closed' or an 'open' approach to punctuation. A closed approach means
to include all the punctuation possible. An open approach means to put
in only the essential.
I like the closed
approach but I don't always get it right and that can be disastrous. 'After eating the police went home.' It sounds as though cannibalism
is rampant in the police service. The comma saves the day: 'After
eating, the police went home'.
You should use a
comma before an introductory word: 'However your concerns are
justified'. This is ambiguous. Does 'however' mean 'but' or 'in
whichever way'? If it means 'but', you must use a comma.
You can see why
punctuation is important. Download my free ebook Punc. from my
website, if you want to get your punc. right.
I worry about
semicolons, too. We see them in dot points but rarely between clauses:
'I am happy; they are not'. Some people require a semicolon
before 'however' when it is followed by a second clause: 'I am happy;
however, they are not'.
The colon is used
for lists, even lists of one: 'We should do one thing: run for our
lives'. Use the colon for explanations, too.
So, let's save the
comma. Come on, colon! Long live punc.
Francis Walsh
www.franciswalsh.com
© Rushworth Consultancy
Article 12
(234 words)
Citing Writing
Francis Walsh
Try Type
Training
Try saying that heading three times! I'm not sure why we need training
in tripe. But, knowing more about type is a good idea.
I am a 'word' rather
than a 'visual' person, but words' first impact is visual. A good layout
attracts the reader and provides information in a logical form.
First, I look for
space. Wide margins (at least the width of a thumb) and short line
lengths usually make reading easier. The best line length is ten to
twelve words. I look for lots of space around headings, too, so I can
easily navigate through a document.
Readers start at the
top left corner of a page then their focus curves down to the bottom
right corner. A knowledgeable writer puts headings, illustrations and
breakout boxes in the way of what’s called 'reader's gravity'.
Readers are confused
by words that are broken across lines. So, flush left and ragged right
is usually the easiest for them. The educated elite is comfortable with
justified type; everyone else finds it hard going.
Finally, I look at
the type. Fonts are either serif (Times New Roman) or sans serif
(Arial). The serif is easier to read in large chunks like paragraphs.
The sans serif is easier to read in short spurts like headings and
breakout boxes.
Make the text easier
to read, especially for those whose eyesight is not perfect. Avoid
tangled typographic traps.
Francis
Walsh
www.franciswalsh.com
© Rushworth Consultancy
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