Grammatically Correct: The writer's essential guide to punctuation ...

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STYLE First paragraph: Introductory sentence; what a slide should look like; what a slide should contain; what to do just before you start. Second paragraph: What to do during the presentation (in chronological order); concluding sentence. BETTER: The important thing to remember about an oral presentation is that you have only about ten minutes to tell the world about your work; hence, preparation is crucial. Design your slides so that you don't find yourself apologizing for tiny details that aren't showing up clearly, and avoid dark colors, which often do not project well. There are no absolutes about how much information should go on a single slide, but use judgment. Don't put in too much text, as it's often better to give details orally, and don't include anything that you are not planning to talk about. If possible, familiarize yourself beforehand with the slide equipment; for example, ensure that there is a pointer available and that you know how to handle the projector and the room lighting. Begin your talk by explaining the objectives of your study, and then move on to the methods and findings. Keep each slide in mind as you talk, so that there is no mismatch between your oral and visual messages. Leave enough time for a mention of what future directions you hope to take. And finally, try to end on a strong note: Don't trail off on some feeble line like "Well, that's all I've got to say." A VOIDING REDUNDANCY A common flaw in formal writing is to make some point, then immediately restate the same information a different way. Sometimes writers do this out of forgetfulness, but more often they do it intentionally, under the mistaken belief that repetition will make their points come through more clearly or emphatically. (Some have even specifically been taught to do this in high school writing classes.) The effect is actually the opposite: Since it is reasonable for readers to expect that every sentence will have something new to say, they may find it disconcerting or confusing to reencounter the same information, and end up referring back to earlier sentences to see if there's some subtle distinction they missed. (Of course, another reason why some writers employ redundancy is to pad out skimpy content, hoping no one will notice that not much is actually being 313
GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT said. It's an old term-paper trick that didn't fool your profs then, and won't fool your readers now.) The following passages present some illustrations of needless repetition: EXAMPLE 1 In our survey of pediatricians, nearly all our respondents indicated that their clinical activities should include both diagnosis and subsequent follow-up of child abuse cases. Over 97 percent of those returning the survey said that they believed that they should be detecting and treating this problem. The second sentence adds little here. The terms detecting and treating are really just restatements of diagnosing and following up (or ifthereis a distinction, it's a pretty fine one), and respondents are obviously the same people as those returning the survey. The only actual addition is a specification of what was meant by nearly all, and this information is easily incorporated into the first sentence. BETTER: In our survey of pediatricians, nearly all our respondents (over 97 percent) indicated that their clinical activities should include both diagnosis and subsequent follow-up of child abuse cases. EXAMPLE 2 The validity of a test that measures coping traits is restricted to the population for which the test was designed. A measure that is valid when administered to one type of population may not be valid for another, and there are no standardized tests in this field that are appropriate in all situations. It is not possible to develop or refine a test for measuring coping traits that can meet all requirements and perform well in all circumstances. Therefore, researchers must be careful to select a test that is appropriate for their specific situation. The second-to-last sentence here merely restates what is already clear, so the passage does not lose any information if this sentence is deleted. 314 BETTER: The validity of a test that measures coping traits is restricted to the population for which the test was designed. A measure that is valid when administered to one type of population may not be valid for another, and there are no standardized tests in this field that are appropriate in
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The WRITER'S ESSENTIAL GUIDE to pun
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C R E D T S American Psychological
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The En Dash 162 2-Em and 3-Em Dashe
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Readers may wish to know when to sa
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P A R T 0 N E Spelling In this age
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Misspellings COMMONLY :MISPELLED WO
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SPELLING Haemorrhage and manoeuvre
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SPELLING may spell these words the
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SPELLING Did you spot the errors in
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The car comes with duel airbags. Th
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SPELLING it doesn't, the ending wil
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SPELLING Philbert knew he would hav
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SPELLING effect these might have on
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SPELLING EIAE, OE For words origina
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SPELLING alternate spellings is the
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Hyphenation I worked with [William
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a dead on guess/a dead pan manner d
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SPELLING If one part of a compound
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SPELLING tively) unique constructio
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SPELLING With a fraction that inclu
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Frequently Misused Words Homonyms (
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PROBLEM WORDS common usages for eac
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PROBLEM WORDS Parents are assured t
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PROBLEM WORDS things that make a re
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PROBLEM WORDS fairness, some words
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ight of way passerby rights of way
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SOME WORDS OF ITALIAN ORIGIN THAT E
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PROBLEM WORDS HEBREW WORDS ADD IM (
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COUNTER- DE- DIS- DYS- E- Opposite
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PROBLEM WORDS construction (uncommu
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P A R T T H R E E Punctuation The w
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Basic Sentence Structure In order t
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The storekeeper/looked at the money
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SENTENCE FRAGl\1ENT PUNCTUATION A s
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PUNCTUATION The commas in the follo
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In Part II of the exam, answer ques
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PUNCTUATION Exception If both the i
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PUNCTUATION If no comma appeared af
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PUNCTUATION She waited impatiently
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PUNCTUATION SETTING OFF PARENTHETIC
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PUNCTUATION Exception If a parenthe
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PUNCTUATION Zelda apparently has on
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For example, compare the following
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PUNCTUATION Ensure that the power s
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PUNCTUATION The panel consisted of
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She wore a pale green dress. [pale
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PUNCTUATION Do not set a quoted ele
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Semicolon (;) It was her prose that
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PUNCTUATION Put semicolons between
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PUNCTUATION USE SEMICOLONS IF COMMA
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PUNCTUATION this disk; and the revi
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PUNCTUATION intentions, but on its
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Colon(:) The colon acts as a signal
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PUNCTUATION Only one thing would sa
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PUNCTUATION reconcile the last sent
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PUNCTUATION Aside from the impact o
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PUNCTUATION • With regard to capi
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DON)T INCLUDE A PERIOD FORA GRAMMAT
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PUNCTUATION If you are not obliged
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PUNCTUATION GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES Opti
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Here are the topics that will be co
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PUNCTUATION Of course St John River
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PUNCTUATION Muriel said, "Once I wa
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INDICATING UNCERTAINTY PUNCTUATION
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'Are you guilty?' said Winston. PUN
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DRAWING ATTENTION TO A POINT PUNCTU
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Hyphen(-) This section looks at the
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No a-do i-vy i-dea tax-i a-bout e-n
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Consider the following sets of word
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PUNCTUATION This sentence is fine i
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PUNCTUATION DO NOT USE A HYPHEN WHE
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The salesman was fast-talking. The
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PUNCTUATION 'So he is, to be sure,'
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Slash(/) The slash (also known as t
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PUNCTUATION The tent offers suitabl
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PUNCTUATION Dalgliesh said: " 'Now
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• Working in digressions • Maki
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PUNCTUATION if you ask me, but that
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PUNCTUATION BETTER: A validity coef
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PUNCTUATION • It is permissible t
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Dashes Dashes come in several sizes
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PUNCTUATION Several of the neighbor
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PUNCTUATION but I am sure that you
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And when I found the door was shut,
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"How was I supposed to-" she sputte
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PUNCTUATION the discussions of the
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PUNCTUATION a quote. Another use is
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PUNCTUATION or editorial comment, i
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PUNCTUATION words italics mine, ita
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PUNCTUATION By Mrs Hurst and Miss B
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"Aces drawn after a deuce are high?
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PUNCTUATION 'Oh, but I think,' said
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PUNCTUATION it would look as if the
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it in quotation marks to alert the
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PUNCTUATION 6s and the closing ones
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PUNCTUATION Perhaps it would be bet
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ORIGINAL QuoTATION: Dear Theo, PUNC
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PUNCTUATION 'No, dear. Not Homer, t
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PUNCTUATION came to his room, inser
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Apostrophe(') The apostrophe often
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PUNCTUATION In other cases, the con
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the people's choice the alumni's lo
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Achilles' heel Euripides' plays Gra
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\ PUNCTUATION of the term itself. W
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P A R T F 0 U R Grammar The very me
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Agreement Between Subject and Verb
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Problem Category 1: The Subject, th
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GRAMMAR but that would slightly alt
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Pat, like the others, was determine
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DISTRACTING PREDICATE NOUNS GRAMMAR
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the components are included my cous
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Headquarters~ waiting for an answer
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GRAMMAR A generation ago, no one in
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GRAMMAR realize that there is more
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GRAMMAR that constitute a multimedi
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Achieving Parallel Structure The ve
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GRAMMAR The bankruptcy proceedings
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GRAMMAR It may be necessary to eith
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GRAMMAR action will follow; for exa
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GRAMMAR Rebecca seizing life with h
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GRAMMAR Dangling modifiers occur wh
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GRAMMAR The suspect's condition was
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The following sentences contain squ
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GRAMMAR that represents the entity
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GRAMMAR should be obvious that you
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GRAMMAR 4. Old King Cole was a merr
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GRAMMAR WHEN DO YOU USE WHO AND WHE
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GRAMMAR of spider; hence, it is not
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GRAMMAR • Its is the possessive o
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GRAMMAR Although the termjree-jorma
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AGREEMENT BETWEEN PRONOUN AND ANTEC
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GRAMMAR • Collective nouns are th
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GRAMMAR person plural. Many readers
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Bugbears and Betes Noires: Some Gra
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GRAMMAR Virtually every modern styl
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Page 312 and 313: Writing With Finesse BEN . ... But
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