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Writer's terms: APOSTROPHE (')

25/7/2014

Girl’s, Girls’ and Girls
By DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

Apostrophe is a powerful punctuation mark which has the ability to change the meaning of a sentence, simply by changing its position in a word.

Basically, an apostrophe give two meanings: (1) possession (2) contraction.

Possession: To give the meaning of ‘belong to’.

For example, look at these two words: Girl’s, Girls’

Girl's:
Here, the apostrophe is placed before ‘s’. This signifies the possession of one girl. Eg. Girl’s hair band (the hair band belong to one girl).

Similarly, cat’s plate means ‘plate of a cat’ and doll’s house means ‘house of a doll’.

Girls':
Here, the apostrophe is placed after ‘s’. This denotes the possession of many girls. Eg. Girls’ hostel (the hostel where many girls live).

Same way, cats’ plate means the plate belonging to several cats and dolls’ house means the house belongs to several dolls.

However, in plural nouns (eg. people, children), the apostrophe is placed before ‘s’ as the noun already gives the many meaning.

So, it is a children’s playground; NOT childrens’ playground.

Contraction
A word can be shortened by omitting some letters and placing the apostrophe at the site of the missing letters.

Eg. it’s (it is or it has), don’t (do not), what’s (what is or what has), it’ll (it will), you’ll (you will), doesn't (does not), you've (you have), I've (I have)

What happens if there is no apostrophe?

When an apostrophe is not used before or after ‘s’, then the word becomes a plural. Eg. Girls are playing (meaning many girls). This does not give the meaning of ‘belong to’.

Thus, girl’s, girls’ and girls are three words giving three different meanings.

Following writing was displayed outside a school building:

Old Girl’s (2008)

What the writer wanted to say was that this building was constructed by using the funds donated by the Old Girls’ Association (2008).

However, the meaning of the writing was that the building was donated by a single old girl of the school!

This was on the wall for some time until somebody detected the mistake and corrected it as:
Old Girls’ (2008).

Apostrophes can be very tricky. Insert the apostrophe at the correct position to convey the exact message to your audience and it’ll greatly improve your writing.

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Writer's terms: JARGON

17/7/2014

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JARGON in academic writing
by DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

“You must learn to talk clearly. The jargon of scientific terminology which rolls off your tongue is mental garbage."
Martin H. Fischer (1879 – 1962)

Jargon is the particular language concerning the vocabulary and grammar, used by people who belong to a specific group.

A doctor may speak Medical jargon which will confuse a layman but will be perfectly understood by another doctor.

Similarly, businessmen speak business jargon, military men speak military jargon, policemen speak police jargon and lawyers speak legal jargon.

Jargon of a specific group can be meaningless or gives an entirely different meaning to others. For instance, a ‘widow’ in the Social service department is NOT the ‘widow’ in a publishing house. Likewise, a ‘gutter’ for road construction services in NOT the ‘gutter’ in the printing department.

Hence, it is important to have a good knowledge about jargon if you intend to use it in your writing.

Can we use jargon in academic writing?

An academic writer should focus clearly on the subject with precise use of words and follow a formal writing style. Slangs, idioms and jargon have no place in academic writing.

If you are writing a college essay, a research paper for a scientific journal or a presentation for a conference, do not include jargon unless it is well-understood by all members of the audience. In fact, think clearly about your audience before using any term which you may consider as a jargon.

As a rule-of-thumb, avoid jargon during academic writing unless it is ‘Academic
jargon’ and is necessary for your script.

Some examples of Academic jargon:
analysis / assessment / concept / context / definition / data / research / formula / factors / function / hypothesis / interpretation / method / percent / principle / procedure / sector / source / structure / theory / variable …

Link: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/alzsh3/acvocab/

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Writer's terms: RUNNING HEAD

10/7/2014

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RUNNING HEAD
by DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

‘Running head’ or ‘header’ is generally a line of copy placed at the top of each and every page of a book. Or, it may be on every other page of a document.

Running heads are a great way to divide sections of a book. It will help to identify the pages of a manuscript and keep it together, especially during review process where author’s name is not revealed.

To fix a running head to your MS Word document, simply press ‘insert’ in the tool bar and then ‘header’. What you type there will be automatically appear in all pages.

You can have a different running head in the first page from the rest of the document too, if that is how you want.
See: http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/running-head.aspx

Typically, a running head shows the book title on the left side page of a book (verso) and chapter title on the right (recto). In academic writing, running head may have page number and author’s last name or it can be an abbreviated version of the main title.

I prefer to use upper and lower case letters and italics for a running head. However, it may differ according to the writing style.

For example, in APA writing style, a running head can have around 50 characters including spaces, and will be in upper case letters only.

Links:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
http://www.uhv.edu/ac/style/pdf/format.headers.pdf

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826).

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Writer's terms: ABBREVIATIONS

4/7/2014

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ABBREVIATIONS
by DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

An abbreviation is a shortened version of a written word or a phrase used, instead of the original word.

Abbreviations are formed using either a letter or a group of letters from the word or phrase. For example, UN is the abbreviated term for United Nations while BOC is for Bank of Ceylon.

You may use upper or lower case letters to form an abbreviation. Usually it depends on the original word. Sometimes, a full-stop is placed after an abbreviated word;
U. S. A. for United States of America. However, it may depend on the House Style of the document.

Guardian Style Guide do NOT use full-stop or spaces between the abbreviated letters; BBC but not B B C nor B.B.C.; 4am but not 4 a m nor 4 a.m. Same way, Mr, Mrs and Ms is used instead of Mr. Mrs. and Ms.

According to the Hart’s rule, in British style, an abbreviation should have a full-stop but a contraction should not. Accordingly, Reverend Silva is abbreviated as Rev. Silva and Doctor Thomas is contracted as Dr Thomas in UK English.

In American style, abbreviations as well as contractions do have a full-stop. Therefore, Reverend Silva is abbreviated as Rev. Silva and Doctor Thomas is contracted as Dr. Thomas in US English.

Certain grammatical contractions make a written report easy to read; ‘is not’ written as isn’t, ‘cannot’ as can’t and ‘you will’ as you’ll. But the report may not look professional!

In academic writing, any abbreviated word or phrase should be spelled in the first occurrence. Subsequent usage of the word or phrase can be abbreviated.

Sometimes, abbreviations make things complicated since the same abbreviation may describe different things. ABA can be American Booksellers Association but it can also be Abscisic acid which is a plant hormone! TIFF is the Tagged Image File Format for a publisher while it is Toronto International Film Festival for a movie fan!

Therefore, you have to be really careful when using abbreviations in your writing. It is a good practice to avoid unfamiliar abbreviations whenever possible.

Abbreviations are formed in different ways.
Acronyms take the first letter from each word and make a new word (eg. NASA, AIDS, scuba). In Alphabetism each letter is pronounced separately (eg. USA, UN).
Truncations use only the first part of a word (eg. Cell for cellular phone and Cal for calculator) and Clipped use the middle or the end of the word (varsity for university, flu for influenza).

Some popular abbreviations in publishing community are,
ISBN: International Standard Book Number, JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group, PDF: Portable Document Format and FTP: File Transfer Protocol.

Links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide
http://www.oup.co.uk/academic/authors/AuthorGuidelinesMain/HouseStyle/#lev16
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/all-about-abbreviations/

“I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book. "
Roald Dahl (1916 - 1990)

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Writer's terms: APOSTROPHE (')

Writer's terms: JARGON

JARGON in academic writingby DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

Writer's terms: RUNNING HEAD

RUNNING HEADby DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

Writer's terms: ABBREVIATIONS

ABBREVIATIONSby DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

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JARGON in academic writing
by DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

RUNNING HEAD
by DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

ABBREVIATIONS
by DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE