Recent Posts
An ‘infestation’ of ‘inverted commas’
“Anything that causes you to over-react or under-react can control you, and often does,” reads the quote in the book I’m reading. It’s a book about improving productivity and the quote is absolutely correct. However, it was more relevant at the moment I read it than the author could possibly have imagined.
I found myself very much over-reacting to his over-use of quote marks. He’s wrapped them around anything and everything. On one page alone there are nine instances of totally unnecessary inverted commas. And the very fact I’ve bothered to count them shows I’m over-reacting, and that these seemingly innocuous little punctuation marks are indeed controlling me.
I find them distracting. They force me to pause and emphasise the framed word in a particular way and with a very particular voice in my head that I heartily dislike. So that (and counting the marks) means my productivity is slowed right down: the total opposite of the book’s point.
So when and where should quotation marks be used?
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It’s just so ironic
Let’s start with a little sing-song. All together now…
“It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
And isn’t it ironic … don’t you think?”
Well, no actually I don’t. Bad luck – yes. Ironic – no. So when should you use the word ironic?
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Separated by a common language, guest post by Roy Jacobsen
The first time I ended up on Elaine’s blog, I found myself giggling about her article “A few little words – why straplines matter.” I knew immediately from the context what she was talking about, but for this American reader, straplines are what show up on a woman’s sun-tanned shoulders. So straplines matter here, as well; just not for the same reasons.
England and America are indeed “separated by a common language.”
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Mind your language – setting your Word default to UK English
Making sure the language default in Word, or Pages if you’re a Mac user, is set for UK English isn’t about being patriotic. It’s about writing for your audience. If I were writing for an American audience, I would expect to use American spellings. So if you want to know how to eliminate those ‘z’s and other peculiar spellings.
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Does your CV get you noticed?
Guest post by Kate Walker, career transition consultant and CV expert
Did you know that on average a busy recruiter spends only 60 seconds reading your CV? Sad but true. Especially when you think of the blood, sweat and tears you spent writing it.
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