How do I know when to use ‘affect’ versus when to use ‘effect’? Affect is a verb. It means to influence. Think of ‘affect’ as an ‘action.’ Both ‘affect’ and ‘action’ begin with the letter ‘a.’ Examples: Your response to this question will affect my opinion of you. His screaming didn’t affect her at all.…
‘Compose’ and ‘comprise’ are two verbs that are easy to mix up if the writer isn’t aware of their differences. ‘Compose’ means ‘to form by putting together,’ while ‘comprise’ means ‘to include, contain, or consist of.’ In both cases, we are dealing with parts and a whole. Hint: when using ‘comprise,’ the whole always comes…
The technician and/or the coordinator (meet, meets) with the manager . . . First, you have to determine if the subject is singular or plural. “Technician and coordinator” implies that the subject is plural, but “technician or coordinator” implies that it is either one or the other, so the subject would be singular. (Remember that…
When is it okay to use ‘myself,’ and when must I use ‘me’ or ‘I’? All three words are pronouns. That means that they take the place of nouns. So if my name is Elvira and I say, “Please give it to me,” I mean, “Please give it to Elvira.” ‘Me’ and ‘I’ are personal…
The abbreviation ‘e.g.’ comes from the Latin exempli gratia, which means ‘for example.’ The abbreviation ‘i.e.’ comes from the Latin id est, which means ‘that is.’ Great. So what does that mean? Use ‘e.g.’ to precede items that are examples of the term that precedes it but not necessarily an exhaustive list. Example: Green vegetables…
Dave Johnson of Southern Union Gas has a pet peeve that bugs us, too. And don’t assume that just because you’ve seen the misuse of this phrase in print, that it’s okay to be WRONG! Here’s the dilemma-which is correct? I will try and make a lot of money this year. or I will try…
Any shortened form a word is an abbreviation. Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations, but not all abbreviations are acronyms or initialisms. An acronym is a special kind of abbreviation that uses (usually) the first letter of each word that it represents to form an all-letters-capitalized abbreviation (e.g., North Atlantic Treaty Organization is NATO). A true…
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…