Six Reasons Why Businesses Should Want Error-Free Documents

Posted on October 27, 2017November 4, 2017 by Joy

Error-free documents help you avoid embarrassment

When writing something others will read, poor grammar and spelling mistakes can be embarrassing. Furthermore, errors can undermine all the time and effort you’ve put into a piece of writing.

Avoid damage to your reputation

Poor attention to grammar can damage your reputation. Benjamin Franklin said, “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation and only one bad one to lose it”. Error-free documents are possible. Whether you’re writing a newsletter or content for your website, attention to detail is worth the effort.

Protect your credibility

People will judge you and your business on what they see. If you’re similar to many other businesses, your website functions as your ‘shop front’. This is the first opportunity you have to sell yourself to a new client/customer. You want them to believe you are capable, competent and worthy of their custom. Don’t let errors in your writing affect your credibility.

Safeguard your authority in your field of expertise

If you want to set yourself up as an expert in your field, you’ll want to present a professional, clean image to your clients. Documents that are error free will contribute to this image.

Save money

When writing documents that specify policies, guidelines, procedures, expectations and contractual issues, a spelling mistake or a simple comma in the wrong place can be costly. It could be advisable to engage a lawyer to ensure your important contracts are watertight—mistakes in these can be expensive.

Ensure your writing communicates your intended message

Clarity in communication is critical. Often, you’ll only get one opportunity to get your message across to your customer—make sure it’s the right message. In advertising, newsletters, and in other business documents, ensure there are no mistakes in your writing that might leave your intended message open to a different interpretation.

Finally: review, review, review—a fresh set of eyes can pick up things you may have missed. As the author, not only will you often read what you intended rather than what you actually wrote, you could be making a mistake you are simply unaware of. No amount of checking by yourself will pick up on errors you don’t even realise you’re making.

Using a proofreader will help you create error-free documents and avoid the above problems.

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Simple Rules: Which Words in a Title Should Be Capitalised?

Posted on October 19, 2017January 7, 2019 by Joy

As you write, you’ll no doubt end up at some stage with titles and headings. Chapter headings, report headings, articles, etc. can all cause you to stop and ask yourself, “Which words in this title should be capitalised?” Here’s a simplified set of rules that I hope will help.

Golden Rule

Capitalise the first and last words—always. This “golden rule” trumps all others.

Capitalise

All nouns and pronouns (this includes smaller words such as it and he).
All verbs (including is and be).
Adjectives and adverbs—all of them.
That. (That can work as different parts of speech).
Conjunctions that are four letters or more (such as with, since and because).
Prepositions that are five letters or more (such as beside, toward and beneath).
The first letter following a hyphen or a dash—although this is optional . . . it’s a question of style preference.
For example: Re-enter or Re-Enter: You could use either. However, I prefer to use another rule: Apply the standard rule to the word following the hyphen. In this example, as enter is a verb, it should be capitalised. If you applied the same rule to how-to, you would write it How-to, as to is a preposition of less than five letters.

Do Not Capitalise

Conjunctions with fewer than four letters (such as and, but and or).
Prepositions with fewer than five letters (such as on, of and over).
Articles (such as the, a, and an).
As and to.
The first letter following a colon (unless it’s a proper noun). In some American Styles, capitalisation is acceptable where the colon introduces a complete sentence.

Remember

Sometimes the same word can act as different parts of speech. This may affect your decision on whether or not to capitalise it.

For example, in these two sentences below, the word up is first a preposition (which should not be capitalised as it’s a preposition with fewer than five letters) and then an adverb (which you should capitalise as all adverbs are capitalised).

Running up the Mountain (preposition)
Running Up to the Summit (adverb)

If you’re unsure of a word’s part in speech, try Google or a dictionary. If you’re still not sure, and if it looks strange to you in lowercase, then capitalise it.

Reference: The McGraw-Hill Desk Reference for Editors, Writers and Proofreaders.

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What’s a Schwa?

Posted on August 30, 2015November 3, 2017 by Joy

A fascinating word: Schwa—a word for what is said to be the most common sound in the English language.

Schwa:

Is represented by the phonetic symbol /ə/ (an upside-down e)
Typically occurs in unstressed syllables in English
Sounds like ‘uh’

Any vowel can be pronounced as schwa, and the pronunciation can change depending on whether the syllable it is in is stressed or not. E.g. man and woman. Notice that the second syllable of woman is the unstressed syllable, and the letter ‘a’ is pronounced as schwa, whereas in the word ‘man’, it is not.

Some examples of schwa:

E – petition | celebrate | synthesis | excellent | the

I – president | experiment | decimal

Y – syringe

Ai – mountain

Oe – does

Ou – you

Ough – thorough

Er – weather | father | mother

How accents affect Schwa

There is some variation with different accents, and sometimes it seems to depend on the sentence you’re using the word in (e.g. ‘You’ could be pronounced /yu/ or ‘yoo’ as in “You and I”, or /yə/ or ‘yuh’, as in, “when you get here”. Even with this last example, it could be pronounced /yu/ if you spoke slowly, placing stress on the word ‘you’, but not if you are speaking at normal speed and the ‘you’ is unstressed.

In words with more than one syllable, not every syllable is given equal emphasis when spoken. Three levels of syllable stress are possible:

stressed
secondarily stressed
unstressed

Every multi-syllable word has a single stressed syllable. The single stressed syllable of the word has the most emphasis. The remainder of the syllables may have a secondary stress or may be unstressed.

The word emphasize has all the levels of stress. The first syllable is stressed, the second syllable is an unstressed syllable pronounced as schwa, and the third syllable has a secondary stress.

As I researched different words that were identified as containing the schwa sound, I came to the conclusion that some people would not agree. English speakers from different countries have different accents, and the way we pronounce certain words is not always the same. The examples I’ve given here, I believe, are reasonably relevant for New Zealand accents.

For further reading and more detailed information, this is an interesting link I found:

A Maverick Vowel: The Notorious /ə/ (Schwa) by Richard L. Brown

http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/12715753131277171865624/p0000027.htm

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Writing Your Story

Posted on July 6, 2015September 27, 2017 by Joy

Have you ever aspired to write—perhaps you’re already writing? Susan Rushmore said, “I think there’s a story inside every one of us.” The challenging part is getting that out onto paper, creating something that others will enjoy reading, and then finding a publisher who will accept your work.

Self-Publishing

You also have an opportunity to self-publish. This means you don’t necessarily need to find a publisher who agrees your manuscript is worth investing in—you can do it all by yourself!

Printabook is a company in New Zealand that helps authors prepare their manuscript for printing. They have a free book you can order off their website: Print a Book – a Guide to Self Publishing. It’s a small book, easy to read and full of useful information. A variety of topics are covered, including launching and selling your book, e-books, paper choices, etc. If you’re even considering going down this path, I recommend you get one for yourself. No doubt there are other, similar options available that you could find with a Google search.

So tell me, have you ever wanted to write a book? Have you ever dreamed that maybe, one day, you would sit down and put all those memories onto paper. Or perhaps your dream has been more along the lines of a “how-to” e-book, or maybe a biography or a children’s story. The success of Harry Potter 18 years ago no doubt sent many people racing to their keyboards, wondering if that story inside their head could be just as successful. Well, it could!

Just Write

The only way you will ever find out is to write it. Procrastination has killed many a vision, and waiting for the perfect opportunity could mean that your dream will never be realised. There will always be a reason why you should not start today—why you should wait until after this happens, or that happens. You’re too busy, or too broke, or too young … or too old! None of these are valid excuses, of course. If you have a story inside you, the best place for it is on paper. Just write. If you’re thinking you don’t know how to write, learn! NZ Institute of Business Studies provides writing courses that train you in the skills of writing. I recommend them as an organisation that seriously wants you to succeed. Set yourself some goals and make the decision that it’s going to happen. Make sure you set a date by which you intend to start—and finish. A goal without a deadline is just a dream.

What Next?

So now you’ve written your story and you’re not sure what to do next. It’s your baby. Freshly born. Fragile. You’re feeling very protective. All this is quite normal. You don’t want anyone to read it just yet. Perhaps you feel any suggestions for changes would be critical of you and your writing style, and you’re not quite ready for that possibility. So your story sits in the drawer.

Find a Good Proofreader

Know this: It is YOUR story. You are the author. You have the final say. Proofreaders do not change your story. They work with you to help you express yourself more clearly, to ensure there are no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors in your writing. Your story is no better off in the drawer than it is in your head. Why did you write it? Didn’t you want someone to eventually read that baby? Who’s going to read it while it’s hiding in the cupboard? Take a deep breath. Decide what outcome you want for your writing: to be published and read? Or hidden away—never even given a chance—languishing in a drawer for the sake of . . .? Identify what the problem is here: Is it pride? Fear? When you have the courage to name whatever it is that’s holding you back, you can more easily meet it head-on. Giving birth is not generally a painless process. Is the birth of your baby worth any struggle you may face? Is it worth the fight? I would think, “yes”.

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