Spelling and other mistakes to avoid

From Lauraibm

In our article summaries ...

Contents 1 Attitude 2 Spelling 3 UK English, rather than American English 4 Sentence construction

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, jsut remove the 'exclusive'.
• We need to be concise and non-academic. We should display slightly more certainty than an academic would. Therefore
  • Avoid phrases like 'it appears that' or 'it seem that'.

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.