Blog Archives

Writer's terms: APOSTROPHE (')

25/7/2014

Girl’s, Girls’ and Girls
By DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

An apostrophe is a powerful punctuation mark which can change the meaning of a sentence, just by changing its position in a word.

An apostrophe gives 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 (e.g. 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. E.g. Girls are playing (meaning many girls). This does not give the meaning of ‘belong to’.

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

The following writing was displayed outside a school building:

Old Girl’s (2008)

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

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

This was on the wall for some time until somebody detected the mistake and corrected it:
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.

1 Comment

Writer's terms: JARGON

17/7/2014

0 Comments

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.

The jargon of a specific group can be meaningless or give 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 is not the ‘gutter’ in the printing department.

Hence, good knowledge of jargon is essential 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 the precise use of words and follow a formal writing style. Slang, 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 audience members. Thoroughly consider your audience before using any term as 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/

0 Comments

Writer's terms: RUNNING HEAD

10/7/2014

0 Comments

RUNNING HEAD
by DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

A ‘running head’ or ‘header’ is generally a line of copy placed at the top of 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 the review process where the author’s name is not revealed.

To fix a running head to your MS Word document, press ‘insert’ in the toolbar and then ‘header’. What you type here will automatically appear on all pages.

You can also have a different running head on the first page from the rest of the document.
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 the chapter title on the right (recto). In academic writing, the running head may have a 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 should only be in upper case letters.

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).

0 Comments

Writer's terms: ABBREVIATIONS

4/7/2014

0 Comments

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 the United States of America. However, it may depend on the House Style of the document.

Guardian Style Guide does 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 are used instead of Mr. Mrs. and Ms.

According to Hart’s rule, in the 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 spelt 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 the 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 (e.g. NASA, AIDS, scuba). In Alphabetism each letter is pronounced separately (e.g. USA, UN).
Truncation use only the first part of a word (e.g. Cell for cellular phone and Cal for calculator) and Clipped use the middle or the end of the word (varsity for a 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)

0 Comments

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

Archives

Categories

JARGON in academic writing
by DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

RUNNING HEAD
by DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

ABBREVIATIONS
by DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE