Hyphens, ‘en’ dashes, and ’em’ dashes are three distinct punctuation marks that all tie to the same key on most keyboards. This makes it easy to misuse the useful marks, so it’s helpful to know how each one is used. Hyphens (-) are the shortest of the dashes. Use them: Between words in compound adjectives-words…
When in doubt-leave it out? If you think you might need one, maybe you do-or don’t? Most people have difficulty with that persnickety hyphen. Here is some guidance that may help you: 1. Don’t hyphenate between an adverb and an adjective. Great! What’s the difference? Adjectives modify (describe) nouns and pronouns; adverbs modify verbs, adjectives,…
To quickly change the capital letters in a word, 1. Highlight the word. 2. Hold down the ‘Shift’ key and then press the ‘F3’ key. 3. Continue pressing down the ‘F3’ key until your word is in the format that you want: lower case, initial capital, or all capitals. Now you try it! Copy and…
If you are traveling down the often bumpy road of becoming a Grammar Geek (or Goddess), you may be frustrated by the following sentence: The attendee left their briefcase in the auditorium. Unless you are talking about one attendee leaving a briefcase that belongs to more than one person, this sentence is grammatically incorrect. Let’s…
Your high school English teacher probably taught you that splitting an infinitive is an earth-shattering offense. Let’s straighten this out right now. Sometimes it is okay! “And what is an infinitive?” you (might) ask. An infinitive is the bare form of a verb with the preposition ‘to’ in front of it (e.g., to eat, to…
When you are writing or editing for a British company, it’s important to remember that some spelling rules change when you cross the Atlantic. To be safe, however, ask before you edit spellings, as some companies use a mixture of both! -or Color Labor Favorite -our· Colour· Labour· Favourite -er· Center· Theater· Kilometer -re· Centre·…
The word or phrase Why it’s nonstandard Say this instead Irregardless The prefix Ir- and suffix -less both mean ‘without,’ making ‘irregardless’ a one-word double negative. Regardless Impact (as a verb) Shortening ‘has an impact on’ to ‘impact’ is a sign of laziness. Some nouns just aren’t ready to be verbs. Affect Conversate Chopping the -ion…
The verbs ‘assure,’ ‘insure,’ and ‘ensure’ share a similar meaning-“to make certain or secure.” They aren’t completely interchangeable, though. Learning their differences will ensure your company’s assurance in your ability to insure documents against mistakes. Assure-to build confidence or remove stress. He assured her that everything was fine. Insure-to protect against financial loss or to…
You can quickly calculate values based on numbers in a selection in a Word document. For instance, you could highlight text such as 14*7+7 and quickly calculate that the answer is 105. To add a button for calculating numbers, to the Quick Access Toolbar, follow these steps if you are using Word 2007: 1. Click…
Creating a Custom Shortcut Key Most symbols or commands have shortcut keys assigned to them. For example, Ctrl + C copies selected text, while Ctrl + V pastes it. But you can set your own shortcut for any command using whatever keys you like. For Word 2003: 1. Under ‘Tools,’ click ‘Customize.’ 2. Click the…