Writing rules are important. And not just William Safire’s hilarious list of self-contradictory writing rules, but also the grammatical basics—the obvious and the obscure.
If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.” ~ William Safire, Self-Contradicting Rule #13
Today, we discuss three important but rarely-remembered writing rules:
1. Know Your Acronyms from Your Initialisms
Did you know there is a difference between the mechanics for NASA and the FBI? While they are both abbreviations, one is an acronym and the other is an initialism. (Thank you, GrammarBook, for this clarification!)
While each letter in NASA designates a particular word (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), you don’t pronounce each one (i.e., you don’t say n-a-s-a; you say it as a word, NA-sah). Thus, NASA is an acronym.
On the other hand, FBI is an initialism. Even though each letter still designates a word (Federal Bureau of Investigation), you pronounce each one separately (i.e., f-b-i, not good-luck-trying-to-pronounce-those-three-letters-together).
Why is this information relevant (besides being cool to know)? Well, when dealing with an acronym, you don’t use the definite article “the” before it, whereas with initialisms you do. Case in point: “While employed with the FBI, Nick longingly remembered his days working for NASA.”
Like every rule in English, there are exceptions. In general, however, this is helpful to remember. Now when someone asks you what NASA is, you’ll have an excellent answer: NASA is an acronym, an abbreviation to be distinguished from an initialism; to be pronounced as a word in its own right; and without the necessity of a definite article to introduce it. Boom. Instant brainiac status (that’s something to be proud of, fyi*).
*Brownie points: Is fyi an acronym or an initialism?*
2. Know When to Hyphenate
Grammar Girl describes hyphens as a “look-it-up” punctuation mark. There is a plethora of rules about them. However, here’s one that is constantly useful and that you’ll never forget—once you beat it into your head.
When dealing with compound adjectives (multiple descriptive words for something), hyphenate before the object; don’t hyphenate after.
What does this mean? If you’re talking about Nick’s ready-made, chocolate-filled, glazed-covered donut, definitely use the hyphens. But if you’re describing a donut Nick eats that is ready made, chocolate filled, and glaze covered, omit the hyphens.
So with compound adjectives, hyphen before, no hyphen after.
3. Know When to Use the Oxford Comma
First of all, what is the Oxford comma? Also known as the serial comma, it just denotes the final comma in a list: “Nick drinks his coffee with milk, sugar, and cream.” (Which he’ll definitely need with his job, along with that chocolate-filled donut…) In this example, the comma after sugar (before the last item in the list) is the Oxford comma.
One of the most heated debates in the grammarian community, the controversy surrounding this notorious little mark has yet to be completely resolved. So how do you know when to use it?
The short answer is always (well, that’s my answer, anyway…). The long answer is that it depends on your style guide and sometimes on your instructor’s/editor’s preference. Grammarly sums it up for us by saying that AP (the style guide newspapers use) omits it, but other than that, it’s pretty much up to you (and your school or editor).
However, here’s a quick defense for the Oxford comma: “Nick loves working his two jobs, drinking coffee, and eating donuts.”
With the Oxford comma, this makes sense. But watch what happens when we murder it and drag it away kicking and screaming: “Nick loves working both of his jobs, drinking coffee and eating donuts.” Now this sentence could be misread as Nick’s two jobs are drinking coffee and eating donuts. While those sound like awesome ways to make a living, they aren’t real—we know he’s really a top secret FBI agent. So beware—an Oxford comma can really make a difference in the meaning of your words!
We’ll close with one more rule from William Safire, that fount of good ol’ English wisdom:
Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”” ~ William Safire, Self-Contradicting Rule #44
Which rule was your favorite? Which one do you think is the most useful?
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