Write for Business - Blog

Unless they cannot be expressed in one or two words, use words for numbers that precede a compound modifier that includes another number.

She sold twenty 35-millimeter cameras in one day.

The prescription called for 120 25-milligram doses.

Note: You may use a combination of words and numerals for very large numbers.

6-8 million

2 billion to 2.9 billion

7 trillion

(From Write for Business, page 212, and Proofreader's Guide PDF, page 14)

Use words to express numbers when they begin a sentence.

Twelve customers have complained so far.

Note: If this rule creates an awkward sentence, reword the sentence.

Clumsy: Seven hundred forty-two employees signed up for dental care last year.

Better: Last year, 742 employees signed up for dental care.

(From Write for Business, page 212, and Proofreader's Guide PDF, page 14)

If you're like most people, the word "grammar" makes you cringe. It conjures up memories of long, dull classes in fifth grade, of rules that choke the life out of writing and then dissect it like a dead frog.

Happily, there are actually not just one but four grammars. Let me explain why that's a good thing.

Prehistoric people invented talking before there were any rules at all. You can still see this in the way children learn to speak. They just start gabbing, putting words together, discovering what gets the point across and what doesn't. This sort of communication is Grammar One: The way people speak.

Grammar Two is the study of the way people speak. This grammar isn't of much interest to anyone but linguists. The closest it comes to daily life may be when parents attempt to correct a child's usage - "I went," Tommy, not "I goed." Of course, we all know what Tommy meant by "I goed," but that isn't Standard English. (And Tommy doesn't yet know that "I goad" has its own, very different meaning.)

Grammar Three is the way people write. Writing brings an added level of formality to language, because it can't rely on the context of speech. Even the most lax dialog in a summer novel is less chaotic than real conversation. Similarly, even the most personal letters are more controlled than a face-to-face talk. Instruction manuals, business proposals, and marketing plans require even more care, to ensure that the point gets across. Let me restate this: Grammar three requires more care than grammar one simply to ensure that the point comes across clearly.

Grammar Four is the study of the way people write. This is the language of grammarians. It's purpose is not communication but classification. And classification inevitably brings about rigidification. When you're sorting things into boxes, and you come across something that doesn't fit, it's tempting to pitch it out rather than figure out how it could fit - or admit that it's time to make a new box.

You can consider these four grammars as a continuum:

Speech > Study of speech > Writing > Study of Writing

This is the direction I've introduced in the paragraphs above. It provides a common-sense reason for being casual in speaking and taking more care in preparing important documents.

There is a danger in reversing the continuum:

Study of writing > Writing > Study of speech > Speech

When we start to believe that rules create communication, rather than the other way around, we give up our natural human legacy as makers of meaning and become little more than code talkers, at risk of choking on our words.

What are your own experiences with and opinions of grammar? Are you someone to whom grammar "comes naturally" or a person who has to struggle with it? Do you love it, or does it make you crazy? We'd love to hear your comments.

- Lester Smith

"What should you say on the phone: 'It is me' or 'It is I?' Maybe you should just hang up the phone and send a fax."

- Laurie E. Rozakis, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style

You can find top ten (or 20) lists covering just about anything: Top business schools, top crime novels, top angry comedians, most unusual pets,…even the most unusual Japanese chewing gums. Very funny. There are entire books devoted to lists; that's how popular they are. Some of these lists inform us (safest cars); others entertain us (just tune in to the David Letterman Show).

I'm not sure why we're so attracted to lists. Do we have a deep-seated need to rank things or an innate desire to have information classified and pre-packaged? Certainly all of our technological gadgetry lends itself to classifying and ranking.

Anyway…if you Google "most common errors in writing," you will (surprise, surprise) have instant access to any number of helpful lists. There are general-usage lists as well as more specific lists, such as one devoted exclusively to business letters and another devoted to accountants and their writing.

One of the lists that I find most useful was compiled by Andrea A. Lunsford and Robert J. Connors. They analyzed the errors in 3,000 college-level papers as marked by college instructors, and compiled their list according to the frequency that certain errors appeared. Here are the first five errors that they identify:

1. No comma after a longer introductory element.

   With a devil-may-care attitude and a bowl of chips Rico marched into his man cave to watch another Detroit Lions' loss.
   
   (A comma is needed after the long introductory prepositional phrase: With a devil-may-care attitude and a bowl of chips, Rico…)

2. Vague pronoun reference.

   While Samantha talked with Yvonne, she offered advice about dealing with the Neanderthals in shipping.
   
   (As stated, it is unclear who is offering the advice. She should be replaced by Yvonne or Samantha, depending on who is the advice giver. Example: While talking with Yvonnne, Samantha offered advice…)

3. No comma in a compound sentence.

   Mr. Peabody said he was truly humbled about his promotion yet he spent more than 10 minutes blathering about it.
   
   (A comma is needed before the coordinating conjunction yet.)

4. Using the wrong word.

   Let their be no mistake about the sale's figures. Their awful.
   
   (The first their should be there; the second one should be they're.)

5. No comma in a nonrestrictive element.

   J.J.'s Sandwich Shop which makes the best hard rolls ever now has delivery service.
   
   (The clause which makes the best hard rolls ever should be set off by commas because it offers unnecessary information.)

Another useful list compiled by Maxine Hairston focuses on errors as viewed by business people. The top errors are the ones that bothered the participants the most. Scroll down to "The Non-Educators View of Grammatical Errors." Here are the first five errors that Hairston identifies:

1. Nonstandard verb forms

   Anxious Inc. has went through two takeovers in the past three years.
   
   (The correct verb form is has gone.)

2. Lack of subject-verb agreement

   Neither Boris nor Bruno are attending the wellness fair.
   
   (Singular subjects joined by nor take a singular verb - in this case, Neither Boris nor Bruno is…)

3. Double negatives

   After carefully reviewing the new Web designs, we don't think none of them are cutting edge.
   
   (Any should replace none to avoid the double negative.)

4. Objective pronoun as subject

   April and me will edit the new employee's manual.
   
   (Use the nominative pronoun I in the subject position: April and I will edit…)

5. Sentence fragments

   HM Investments offers a great opportunity. If you're into high-risk, no-reward employment.
   
   (The fragment if you're into high-risk, no-reward employment should be connected to the sentence that comes before it: …great opportunity if you're…)

Note: As you might guess, incorrect spelling is, far and away, the most frequent and obvious error and, thus, not included in either study.

Do you use a list as a guide when checking your business writing for errors? If so, how closely does it match one or the other of these? Your business writing handbook (if you use one) may provide an editing checklist based on an error analysis. For example, the editing guide on pages 156-157 in Write for Business is based on the Lunsford and Conner study.

Final Thought: According to grammar authority Constance Weaver, if you try to edit without using a top-ten (20) list, you may find yourself "falling into a big black hole of errors," not really knowing what to look for once you get past checking for spelling, capitalization, and end punctuation. If you need more convincing, check online for a list of the most compelling reasons to use a top-ten errors' list. I'd put your odds at finding one at one in twenty.

- Dave Kemper

How correct should you be in your business writing? The safe answer, of course, is perfectly correct, especially if you are of a certain age, and attended Catholic grade schools. Correctness, according to most nuns, was next to godliness. But times have changed, as have Catholic schools (where have all the nuns gone?) - and so has the way we communicate.

We speak face to face, we text message, we tweet, we e-mail, we blog, we write letters, we write reports.… If you put the forms of communication on a continuum, the honest answer to the opening question might be, "That depends on the form."

Do we expect error-free conversations in text messages? Of course not. What would constitute an error when texting, anyway? How about in e-mail? An error here or there in a message to a colleague shouldn't be cause for concern, whereas errors in an e-mail to a client or customer should be. How about a departmental memo? By all means, take care whenever your writing is exposed to multiple readers.

But why this concern about correctness in the first place? Does it really matter if you misplace an apostrophe or use to in one sentence when you really mean too. Not if you ask me. But you'd get a different answer from the "correctness Nazis" out there, individuals who thinks that the world begins and ends with perfect punctuation and grammar.

Some people say that it's a matter of clarity - a missing or misplaced comma can change the meaning of a sentence, or a shift in verb tense may cause serious confusion. There are plenty of books that address slip ups like these. Eats, Shoots and Leaves is one. This #1 New York Times bestseller has the following subtitle: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.

The title, of course, shows how a misplaced comma can completely skew an idea. It should read "Eats Shoots and Leaves," describing an animal's eating habits. But if you put this idea within the context of a complete text, the mistake becomes far less an issue. We would get the message. Am I condoning this error? No, I'm just saying that these things happen, and they seldom deprive the reader of following a writer's line of thinking.

Other people say that the issue is a matter of respect - that providing clear, accurate copy shows that you truly value the reader's time and interest. It's hard to dispute this argument. But no one in his or her right mind would send out an important letter or share a quarterly report without making sure that the copy is clear and correct, even if that means having a professional copyeditor check the writing for errors. (Remember the communication continuum.)

The best argument in my mind is completely self-serving. You want your letters and reports to be clean because it makes you look good. Image may not be everything in the business world, but it's right up there. Making a good impression in your writing may help you secure a job, and later, help you advance your career. For this reason alone, pay attention to correctness.

Final Thoughts
There is a time and place for everything, including checking for errors, and that time is late in the development of a piece of writing. Focus on your ideas first. Once you're satisfied that you have something worthwhile to say, then carefully attend to the accuracy of your writing. It makes no sense to do otherwise.

"We will sell no wine before its time" was once a successful slogan in the wine industry. Turn that a bit - "I will not check my writing for errors before it's time" - and the slogan will serve you well as an editing reminder.

- Dave Kemper