Write It Well

Some brilliant writers are terrible role models to imitate when you write your business documents. This beautiful passage about e-mail manners includes a bush-league grammar mistake:

In some instances, we are told that our e-mail went into spam, a statement that activates either our inner skeptic or our sympathy. (“It’s the permissible white lie,” Ms. McKean said. “It’s the equivalent of ‘I can’t go to your party, I came down with food poisoning.’”)

— Henry Alford, “When Your E-Mail Goes Unanswered,” nytimes.com, July 15, 2011

That orange comma creates a comma splice — a run-on sentence that could be corrected with a period or colon.

This writer can get away with a nonchalant comma splice because the rest of his prose is carefully crafted and error free. His grammar error is a conscious choice to strike an informal tone. But a comma splice in a high-stakes business document could make an educated stranger think you’re simply uninformed or careless.

Thorough grammar knowledge helps your writing project reliability. Building up your grammar knowledge is an ideal way avoid mistakes, maintain your professional credibility, and earn some confident elegance of your own.

•

•

Write It Well’s e-learning module Just Commas includes self-paced quizzes to help you test your knowledge of punctuation, and our book Essential Grammar includes a full chapter on commas.

We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to double-check your punctuation? Just use Write It Well’s editing services.

We’ll make sure your prose is correct, clear, concise, and engaging so your readers will follow all your ideas easily and respect your voice.

•

•

Many business writers trip up when they add or omit commas. Here’s a comma that many writers would mistakenly leave out:

[A recent survey] ranked San Francisco sixth among U.S. metropolitan areas [in] providing goods or services that help the environment. San Jose [ranked] 26th, behind such contenders as Kansas City, Mo., and Albany, N.Y.

— David R. Baker, “S.F. ranked 6th in U.S. for green jobs by survey,”

sfgate.com, July 13, 2011

It’s necessary to mention Missouri in that sentence since there’s also a Kansas City, Kansas. And it’s necessary to include commas both before and after the state name since the quoted sentence continues after it.

Commas are the most frequently misused punctuation marks in U.S. English. Using them correctly makes your own prose look carefully written, and careful, correct writing boosts your credibility as a businessperson.

•

•

Write It Well’s e-learning module Just Commas includes self-paced quizzes to help you test your knowledge of punctuation, and our book Essential Grammar includes a full chapter on commas.

We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to double-check your punctuation? Just use Write It Well’s editing services.

We’ll make sure your prose is correct, clear, concise, and engaging so your readers will follow all your ideas easily and respect your voice.

•

•

Bulleted lists can help readers follow your ideas as easily as they’d step down a staircase. Here are two illustrations, starting with an intricate sentence about an array of covers you can buy to protect an iPad 2:

There is the shockproof CoverBuddy from SwitchEasy.com, available in 10 colors (plus ultraclear) for $25; the Snap Shield cover from Belkin.com, which comes in clear, Apple Pink and Smoke and sells for $30; the BackBone from ifrogz.com, which sells for $35 in matching Smart Cover colors, plus white and clear; or the higher-end iFrogz Summit for $60, which combines a folio style with a snap-in core.

— Mickey Meece, “Options Abound to Protect the iPad,” nytimes.com, July 6, 2011

The same information is much easier to read when it’s unpacked and reformatted as a bulleted list:

Here are four cover options for the iPad 2:

• The shockproof CoverBuddy from SwitchEasy.com is available in 10 colors (plus ultraclear) for $25
• The Snap Shield cover from Belkin.com sells for $30 and comes in clear, Apple pink and smoke
• The BackBone from ifrogz.com sells for $35 in matching Smart Cover colors, plus white and clear
• The higher-end iFrogz Summit sells for $60 and combines a folio style with a snap-in core

Any time a series of items gets longer than about 30 words, back up and ask yourself if the information would be easier to follow in list format. Your readers may thank you for helping them move forward.

•

•

Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar is a thorough review of the fundamental grammar you need to project credibility, clear thought, and professionalism through all your writing. The book includes two user-friendly chapters on punctuation, tips for using colons correctly in list introductions, and tips to maintain parallel structure inside a list.

Do you have an important document but not enough time to polish it? Just use Write It Well’s editing services. We’ll make sure the prose is correct, clear, concise, and engaging so your readers will follow all your ideas easily and respect your voice.

•

•

Long sentences can be correctly punctuated, but too intricate for busy readers to follow easily. Here’s an example:

Employers who fail to provide timely and accurate performance appraisals risk exposure to age discrimination claims, but more importantly, they deprive themselves of good workers who, with proper guidance and honest feedback, could be productive employees for years to come.

— Laurie McCann, “Do Older Workers Need a Nudge?”

nytimes.com, June 15, 2011

That intricate sentence is correctly punctuated with four commas. One clear sentence with four commas could read, “Employers should provide [A], [B], [C], [D], and [E].”

But the quote isn’t a simple list of items: it’s three complex ideas glued together. Busy readers could absorb the information more quickly in two or more sentences:

Employers who fail to provide timely and accurate performance appraisals risk exposure to age discrimination claims. More importantly, they deprive themselves of good workers who could be productive employees for years to come if they received proper guidance and honest feedback.

A simple sentence break can solve a host of punctuation problems.

•

Write It Well’s new book Essential Grammar is a thorough review of the punctuation and grammar knowledge you need to project a credible, professional image through your writing. Our book Professional Writing Skills helps you craft concise, clear sentences.

Our book Writing Performance Reviews helps you write performance objectives, reviews, appraisals, and other documentation that is clear, descriptive, objective, and acceptable in today’s workplace.

Do you have an important document but don’t have enough time to polish it or make it easy for your readers to understand? Just use Write It Well’s editing services. We’ll make sure the prose is correct, clear, concise, and engaging so your document will create an excellent impression.

•

People sometimes make punctuation mistakes because they don’t type the way they speak. Here’s an example:

[The view from the rear of the property] displays the canopy of a 150-year-old, live-oak forest.

— “Killingsworth ‘Case Study’ home in Piedmont,” sfgate.com June 10, 2011

That comma is as incorrect as it would be in this parallel sentence: “I saw an old, oak tree.”

Punctuation should often reflect the patterns in how we speak. You wouldn’t pause between the adjectives if you said the words “old oak tree” out loud.

By speaking sentences out loud and trusting your ear, you can usually avoid these kinds of incorrect commas in your own writing.

•

Write It Well’s e-learning module Just Commas covers everything business writers need to know to use commas correctly.

Our new book Essential Grammar includes a full chapter on commas. The book is a thorough review of the fundamental grammar you need to project a credible, professional image through your writing.

Do you have an important document but don’t have enough time to polish it? Just use Write It Well’s editing services. We’ll make sure the prose is correct, clear, concise, and engaging so your document will create an excellent impression.

Things that aren’t practical on the iPhone due to its small size are natural and almost magical on the iPad.

— Daniel Eran Dilger, “Hands on with Apple’s iPad (with videos and photos),”

Apple Insider, January 27, 2010

Imagine this sentence were longer. Would it still be correct without any commas if it read this way?

Activities like looking at large webpages and reading e-books that aren’t practical on the iPhone due to its small size are natural and almost magical on the iPad.

Yes, it would still be correct. That’s because those highlighted words are crucial to the author’s meaning. The sentence would mean something else without them.

It would be incorrect to use commas in either sentence – e.g., “Activities like reading e-books, that aren’t practical on the iPhone due to its small size, are natural and almost magical on the iPad.”

•

For more guidelines on how to use commas correctly and confidently, see our updated book Professional Writing Skills: A Write It Well Guide, which will ship on March 5th!

After months of speculation, Apple launched its tablet, the iPad on Wednesday.  The lightweight device (1.5 pounds) features a luminous touchscreen and a user interface similar to the iPhone. The iPad, which can cost $500 to $830 depending on the model, runs an expanded version of the operating system used in the iPhone.

— Priya Ganapati, “Apple iPad’s Display Is More Like a TV Than a Laptop,”

Wired magazine, January 28, 2010

This quote’s first and last sentences are good illustrations of when you need two commas — not just one — to surround information inside your sentence.

The last sentence would still be true if you left out the prices inside the orange commas, so those two commas are correct. That’s also why the single comma in the first sentence is incorrect.

The sentence would mean the same thing without the product name (as “Apple launched its tablet on Wednesday”). So the product name needs to be set off with commas: “Apple launched its tablet, the iPad, on Wednesday.”

•

For more guidelines on how to use commas correctly and confidently, see our updated book Professional Writing Skills: A Write It Well Guide, which will ship on March 5th!

Peter Frenette of the U.S. jumped during a training session in Whistler, Canada, on Thursday.

— Jeré Longman, “Battle of Weight Versus Gain in Ski Jumping” (photo caption),

New York Times website, February 11, 2010

Commas like the one after “Canada,” above, are always required. If a place name or street address includes one comma, add the second comma if your sentence goes on to include further information.

•

For more guidelines on how to use commas correctly and confidently, see our updated book Professional Writing Skills: A Write It Well Guide, which will ship on March 5th!