Proofreading – Clean Composition by Rachel Elrom

You can have the Oxford comma when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Pact, my employer, uses AP Style, which favors brevity over anything else. Actually, the entire field of international development is moving toward using AP, an initiative led by USAID. Putting aside my other feelings about AP style in our field (e.g., how are we supposed to cite our sources?!), there is one entry in the APContinueContinue reading “You can have the Oxford comma when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.”

Abbreviations vs. Acronyms, and Why You Should Stop Calling It an Acronyms List

As with most fields, my primary field, international development, uses many standards and jargon that do not follow traditional rules of grammar, language, and spelling (and I’m a traditionalist). Some are harmless, such as capitalizing the “g” in “Government” when referring to a specific country (e.g., Government of South Sudan, Government of Nigeria); others are lessContinueContinue reading “Abbreviations vs. Acronyms, and Why You Should Stop Calling It an Acronyms List”

Proper Punctuation Matters

"Let's eat Grandma!" or "Let's eat -- comma -- Grandma!" Punctuation saves lives.

I’ve seen quite a few memes over the last year or so that highlight the importance of properly placed punctuation (say that three times fast 😉 ). Here are a couple of my favorites… (from the blog Bilinguish) (from Adult ESL Jobs) P.S., Grammerly is one of my favorite go-to sites for all things grammar.ContinueContinue reading “Proper Punctuation Matters”