February 2nd, 2021 by Jane Turner
Welcome to my new series on punctuation! Exciting, huh? Oh, believe me – I know. *nods sagely* Dashes Today, we’re going to look at dashes – or, more specifically, the different types of dash and how they should be used according to New Hart’s Rules, the common Style Guide for writing in UK English. […]
January 20th, 2021 by Jane Turner
A Style Sheet for Business? Yes, companies use Style Sheets. And YOU should be using one! There. I said it. (Phew! Feels good to get that out!) Yes, it’s true that Style sheets are most commonly used by authors. Because you can’t go changing your main character’s eye colour half way through a […]
June 10th, 2020 by Jane Turner
The Royal Order of Adjectives is instinctive for most writers – but well worth understanding. Did you know there are specific rules as to the order of adjectives in writing? This is one of those largely unspoken rules – so unspoken that I’m not surprised how many writers don’t know about it. Yes, there […]
March 9th, 2020 by Jane Turner
Brilliant news today – The OED are cleaning up sexist language! The Oxford English Dictionary, or OED, that bible and bastion of all things British English, has begun looking into their sample sentences for sexist language. YAY! No more nagging wives or rabid feminists! Can I have a cheer?! via GIPHY The Guardian reports, […]
March 6th, 2020 by Jane Turner
One of my LinkedIn contacts, Helen Stevens, posted this amazing article. The English language challenge in academic publishing There is absolutely nothing here I disagree with. The challenges facing those submitting articles to scientific journals are immense. Let’s hope this goes viral.
March 6th, 2020 by Jane Turner
How to increase your vocabulary – *wisdom from an editor (*a totally subjective opinion!) People constantly ask me how to increase their vocabulary. Why me? In case you didn’t […]
March 2nd, 2020 by Jane Turner
The Oxford comma, also known as a serial comma, is often argued. When I was at school, it was forbidden, verboten, tiltott, prohibida, interdite – you just did not use it. I was told it was only used by those who didn’t know anything about grammar, punctuation or the rules of English language. Oh, […]
February 25th, 2020 by Jane Turner
I’ve noticed through my working life that a good percentage of people have trouble with apostrophes – when and how to use them. I agree they can be confusing, so here I aim to provide a list of the main things to remember. Firstly, remember that apostrophes are mainly used to indicate ownership/possession or contractions. […]
