Spelling and other mistakes to avoid

From Lauraibm

Revision as of 11:54, 1 November 2007

In our article summaries ...

Attitude

• We need to be slightly pro-IBM, anti-competitors and unbiased about other third parties.
  • We need to acknowledge sources, but we're not here to advertise for anyone else, so there's no need to say 'Exclusive research by CBR has found...' . In this sentence, just remove the 'exclusive'.

Style

• We need to be concise and non-academic. We should display slightly more certainty than an academic author would. Therefore
  • Avoid phrases like 'it appears that' or 'it seem that'.
  • Some journals will put inverted commas around terms such as "green" to indicate that this is a new expression with which some readers may be unfamiliar. But we know that our readers will be familiar with this particular term, so we shouldn't use the inverted commas.
  • Use the shortest familiar rendering of each company name -- e.g. Sun, rather than Sun Microsystems Corporation.

Spelling

• over time vs. overtime.

This is incorrect: 'overtime this group has expanded...'

UK English, rather than American English

• Use hyphens to connect nouns in adjectival phrases, where possible.
  • Americans might say 'board level pressures are making a difference' .
  • In the UK, it is better to say 'board-level pressures ...'
    • because this makes it clear that pressures (and not board) is the subject of the sentence.
• An exception to this rule occurs in abbreviations, for example:

If 'AIM' stands for Application Interface Marketing, neither the UK nor the USA puts hyphens between the nouns.

Sentence construction

• Avoid joining two sentences with a comma.

For example, this is incorrect:

Within the UK, IT accounts for 4% of total greenhouse gas emissions, it is vital for CIOs to act now in order to reduce these emissions.

It should be expressed either separately as:

Within the UK, IT accounts for 4% of total greenhouse gas emissions. It is vital for CIOs to act now in order to reduce these emissions.,

or with the use of an appropriate conjunction such as:

Within the UK, IT accounts for 4% of total greenhouse gas emissions, so it is vital for CIOs to act now in order to reduce these emissions.

• Use commas liberally, if they assist understanding.
  • Imagine that the reader has to read the passage out loud to an audience, without having read it before. So if you intend a natural pause, and there could be any doubt, insert a comma (at least).

Arguably, the first-time reader may miss the pause in this sentence:

'Despite concerns government pressures are making a difference.'

Whereas this leaves nothing to chance:

'Despite concerns, government pressures are making a difference.'