Write for Business - Blog

Use a singular pronoun to refer to antecedents such as either, neither, each one, anyone, everyone, everybody, somebody, nobody, another, none, and a person.

One of the reports is missing its [not their] cover.

Note: When a person or everyone is used to refer to both sexes or either sex, you will have to choose whether to offer optional pronouns or to rewrite the sentence.

Everyone will turn in his or her time card.
(optional pronouns)

All employees will turn in their time cards.
(rewritten in plural form)

(From Write for Business, 2nd ed., page 325, and Proofreader's Guide PDF, page 75)

A customer wrote us recently about trouble "getting words down before I forget them." She explained that she finds writing slow and difficult, and that when sentences do begin to come, they fly too quickly to be recorded. So her best thoughts are often forgotten.

I'm certain that many of us have felt the same way. It's as if those phrases are stray birds leaping into the sky, glimpsed once and then gone. The fact is, however, that stray thoughts can always be recaptured. Even birds have to land sometime. The trick to catching them is to use a net.

That is to say, the early stages of a writing project are messy. Feathers should fly. Snatch a bird and stuff it in your sack and move on to the next. Later, you can decide how to arrange what you've captured - which ones to put together in which cages, which ones to let go because they don't belong, what order you want to display the cages themselves.

Usually when people can't get started with a writing project, and then can't keep up once the ideas start coming, it's because they're subconsciously hoping to do it all in one draft. Often, they've come to think of writing as so difficult that they just want to get it over with. But again, even birds have to land sometime. A migration of a thousand miles isn't accomplished in one long swoop but as a series of shorter trips, each growing nearer to the final goal.

That's my best advice in this case, but what ideas would you offer? Have you experienced a similar situation in your own writing, and if so, how did you overcome it? We'd love to hear your comments.

- Lester Smith

Photo by mikebaird

A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number, person, and gender. (The antecedent is the word or words to which the pronoun refers.)

Susan paid cash for her lunch.

Note: The antecedent in this sentence is Susan; it is to Susan that the pronoun her refers. Both the pronoun and its antecedent are singular, third person, and feminine; therefore, the pronoun is said to agree with its antecedent.

(From Write for Business, 2nd ed., page 325, and Proofreader's Guide PDF, page 75)

Than (conjunction) indicates a comparison; then (usually an adverb) refers to time.

Michael did not know any more about this than I did.

First write your résumé; then look for a job.

(From Write for Business, page 238, and Proofreader's Guide PDF, page 50)

Stationary is an adjective meaning "immobile"; stationery is a noun referring to writing materials used in letters.

(From Write for Business, page 238, and Proofreader's Guide PDF, page 50)

A tenant is one who rents or leases property from a landlord; a tenet is a principle, belief, or doctrine.

(From Write for Business, page 238, and Proofreader's Guide PDF, page 50)