Apple boasts that there are now more than 500,000 iPhone apps available. Some are useful, and some less so (we particularly love the virtual stapler). But which camp does University College London’s Interactive Grammar of English (iGE) app fall into? For many, grammar...
Catie Holdridge
Test your proofreading
The proofreading competition is now closed. Taking the time to proofread your writing – whether it’s a letter, report, proposal or even just an email – shouldn’t be an optional extra. After all, it can mean the difference between sending ‘I’ll definitely be done by...
Tips for perfect proofreading
It’s turned into proofing week here at the Emphasis blog. In this final part, we aim to finish turning you into mistake-spotting machines. How Stocking up on red pens is just the beginning. Follow these tips to ensure you always prove your proofreading prowess. •...
Hit or myth: you can’t start a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘but’
It’s a rule beloved by schoolteachers: starting a sentence with and or but is wrong. It’s also one of the few rules of grammar many people remember actually being mentioned at school. But could we in fact have ditched it, along with that uniform shirt on which...
The person that or the person who?
Should you write ‘the person that’ or ‘the person who’? Reader Simon Walters, of FD Solutions, wrote in about one of his language bugbears. Namely: ‘misuse of the word “that” when “who” would be more appropriate. It’s so annoying when people say “The person that...
Grammar hit or myth? Prepositions ending sentences
Grammar is about the rules that structure language. Knowing and using grammar effectively is a sure-fire way to make sure you are understood, which is always useful. But there are various erroneous ‘rules’ of grammar masquerading as law out there. Beware these...
A SEO or an SEO … ? 60-second fix
SEO (search engine optimisation) is often high on the business agenda. Being found online is vital for most organisations – and harder than ever to achieve. So those organisations may go looking for a company or tool to help them appear near the top of the...
Women too apologetic in the boardroom
The language women use in meetings could be holding them back in business, according to new research. The study, an 18-month long examination of the speaking patterns of men and women within seven major companies, was run by applied linguistics lecturer Dr Judith...
Unnecessary commas
Blog reader Bill Friar got in touch with us to air one of his professional writing bugbears: ‘I would dearly love to see an item on the creeping trend of putting commas between people’s names and their titles or descriptive terms. For example: “Prime...
Necessary commas?
It’s not often that punctuation makes the headlines. But the uproar over the apparent threat to the Oxford comma has proved that passion for punctuation can bubble just below the surface. (It also answers indie band Vampire Weekend’s question: who gives a **** about...
Harveys brew
A Sussex-based brewery has upset fans of punctuation with its inconsistent use of apostrophes. Apostrophe Protection Society member Jonathan Cook has taken to Facebook to campaign for Harveys Brewery to sort out its style. While the brewery usually omits the...
60-second fix: program or programme?
Program(me): it’s a useful word. It can refer to code for a computer (or the writing of such code), the printed running order of a performance or event (or the scheduling of either), a television or radio show, and more. But which spelling is right: program or...