April, 2010
Alternative remedies – simple words for clearer business writing
It really does grate on me when I read letters, adverts, leaflets, or whatever, that sound like the written equivalent of a telephone voice. You know what I mean – when someone suddenly adopts a style they wouldn’t normally use. I think they do it to appear intelligent. However, it makes them sound dull and stilted. It also makes the copy pretty unpleasant and uninviting.
This is going to be a regular post (every two months). I’ll feature two words that are common culprits each post and give you some alternatives. Together we can rid business writing of these stodgy intruders!
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End apostrophe abuse
There I was tucking into my porridge, when a leaflet from my local leisure centre dropped through the door.
I like having something to read with my breakfast so I started to flick through it. There was a rather large ad on the back page (so a good, prominent position that most likely cost quite a bit) and the heading read:
“Wedding Video’s.”
Oh dear. Not a good start. Misplaced apostrophes are my bugbear and for the life of me, I don’t understand why anyone thinks it’s correct to use one in a plural. Reading further down the ad, I came across:
“Children’s Party’s”.
Breakfast now totally ruined, and indigestion setting in, I decided to write about apostrophe abuse again.
