National Punctuation Day - Today, Sept. 24th

National Punctuation Day:

Think an ellipsis is when the moon moves in front of the sun?

Well, today is National Punctuation Day, and as someone for whom punctuation does not come easily, I'm not so sure it's a day to celebrate. It's probably more a consciousness-raising day. But, however you feel about punctuation, you may enjoy founder Jeff Rubin's advice about how to celebrate National Punctuation Day today:

Here’s a game plan for your celebration of National Punctuation Day®. A few words of caution: Don’t overdo it.

• Sleep late.
• Take a long shower or bath.
• Go out for coffee and a bagel (or two).
• Read a newspaper and circle all of the punctuation errors you find (or think you find, but aren’t sure) with a red pen.
• Take a leisurely stroll, paying close attention to store signs with incorrectly punctuated words.
• Stop in those stores to correct the owners.
• If the owners are not there, leave notes.
• Visit a bookstore and purchase a copy of Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style.
• Look up all the words you circled.
• Congratulate yourself on becoming a better written communicator.
• Go home.
• Sit down.
• Write an error-free letter to a friend.
• Take a nap. It has been a long day.

Visit their site for lots of information, pictures submitted by readers of egregious punctuation errors on signs, punctuation games, and plenty more.

Well, I'm off to look up all the punctuation I circled that I'm unsure of. There are lots of red circles on the articles I read this morning.

# 74: Punctuation Matters: Are Hyphens Obsolete?

I'm not one to obsess about punctuation when I'm writing a grant, but I make an effort to ensure the text reads clearly. I like to be correct, though, so I pause during my final edit to look up things I'm not sure of, unless that deadline is minutes instead of days away. (Where do the commas belong in that last sentence?) But, I'd swear I never learned anything about hyphens in school.

Marilynne Rudick has a post about hyphens that I find useful. Maybe you will, too.

Writing Matters: Are Hyphens Obsolete?: "So, are hyphens obsolete? Can you use them willy-nilly? Before you jettison the hyphen, consider the hyphen’s most important raison d’être: clarity.

1. Use a hyphen to avoid ambiguity (relay / re-lay; re-sent / resent).
2. Use a hyphen when it clarifies the meaning (little used car / little-used car; twenty odd people / twenty-odd people).
3. Use a hyphen to avoid “letter collision” (shelllike / shell-like).
4. Use a hyphen to indicate that the word is con-
tinued on the next line. (Happily we don’t have to think about this too often since most word processing programs hyphenate automatically.)"

I both learn and enjoy reading Marilynne Rudick's and Leslie O'Flahavan's Writing Matters blog and recommend you take a look.

Photo by dvs

#51: Use Readability Statistics to Improve Your Grant Application

I find it hard to believe that I've offered fifty grant writing tips and I haven't included readability statistics yet. If you use WORD you'll find this an invaluable feature.

These are the statistics for a draft of a grant I was working on last week. I check on the statistics periodically, and always before I start serious editing.

Here's what these statistics tell me to look for when I'm editing:

Sentences per Paragraph 2.9 -- that's low. Low is good. It means lots of white space; separation of ideas. But, it's probably skewed by my frequent use of bullets.

Words per Sentence 17.6. TOO LONG! Well, now I know that as I edit I should look for sentences that include more than one thought.

Passive Sentences: 6% -- Good girl, Ruth! I've work hard to build the habit of writing in the active tense. I've written about that elsewhere.

Flesch Reading Ease Score: Rates text on a 100-point scale; the higher the score, the easier it is to understand the document. For most standard documents, the 'experts' aim for a score of approximately 60 to 70. Hmmm, mines only 36.1.

The formula for the Flesch Reading Ease score evaluates average sentence length (the number of words divided by the number of sentences) and average number of syllables per word (the number of syllables divided by the number of words). So, if I can reduce my sentence length by eliminating unnecessary wordiness and limiting sentences to one thought, I can probably get this score up.

Flesch - Kincaid Grade Level -- Rates text on a U.S. school grade level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can understand the document. For most documents, aim for a score of approximately 7.0 to 8.0. 12.6, my score, not good. Eighth grade can be tough a tough target for some grant applications, but I'll do what I can. This grant dealt with the court system and had significant court-related language.

How to Turn Readability Statistics on: Tools>>Options>> Spelling & Grammar>> then check 'Show readability statistics.' Once you've turned this option on, Readability Statistics display every time the spell-checker completes its review of your document.

(Note: In this same screen, you can also click settings to adjust the grammar checker to reflect your preferences regarding style and punctuation issues. OOPS! Does that count as resource #52?)


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Grant Writers' Proofreading and Copy-editing Test

If you're one of those people for whom test-taking is another way to prove how smart you are, here's one for you. How strong are your proofreading skills?

Freelance Proofreading and Copy-editing - Proofreading test:

"The following passage contains several common errors of the type you are likely to come across in a set of proofs (though not as closely clustered as here, I hope). This test should not be taken too seriously, but since you have nowhere better to be at 9:15 on a Thursday morning than here, I hope that you'll find it fun, at least."

Thanks to Visual Thesaurus for pointing me here. Yes, I took the test on a Thursday morning. I'm glad I have spell check, grammar resources, style guides, and good friends to edit my work.

How did you do?

#33: Eliminate the Dreadful 'his/her' from Your Grant Narrative

Don't you just hate to write sentences like "The most improved student will present a portfolio of his/her work?"


But, I'm a feminist. Gender neutrality matters. So, try out these techniques.

• Convert those sentences to the plural, if that will work
  
• Avoid the pronoun altogether -- "The most improved student will present a portfolio of work."
• Use the singular "their" -- "The most improved student will present a portfolio of their work."

I only recently read about the singular 'their' and intend to use it more often.

Yes, generally singular nouns take singular pronouns. But as you aptly note, 'his/her' is awkward and using only 'his' skews the meaning of a sentence. Using 'their' as a singular, inclusive pronoun has historical precedent and promotes the meaning better than those choices.

This choice has historical legitimacy, is acceptable for all informal writing and — if used consistently — for formal writing as well (though some will raise their eyebrows).

Sources: Professional Training Company: Communication Strategies for Scientists and Engineers and The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 3rd edition. NY:Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992

Photo by Henrik Ahlen

#29: Serial commas, grant writers, and proper punctuation

I can't tell you how often I find myself adding that last comma in a series - the one before the 'and' that so many people think you should omit. My proofreaders often want me to put them back in.

I thought the final comma was optional -- that the rule was either way, but be consistent. I plugged it in because I believe it facilitates clear communication.

Now I've learned that the only style guide that advocates leaving it out is the Associated Press Stylebook. The rule according to all other authorities requires that final comma.

We don't write newspaper articles. We write grant applications. So there! My instincts were right for a change. (Generally, I don't trust my grammar or punctuation. I'm forever looking things up.)

For a more authoritative discussion than this:

The Case of the Serial Comma--Solved!: "My original assertion stands, with minor qualifications: Except for journalists, all American authorities say to use the final serial comma: 'He went to the store to buy milk, butter, and eggs.'

The reason for the final serial comma is to prevent the last 2 items' being confused as a unit (butter-and-eggs)."