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.If people don't understand what you'resaying, how on earth are you going to persuade them to do what you want them to? Let's have a quick look at our new best friend.It sounds simple doesn't it? Use a ful stop at the end of a sentence.But where is the end of a sentence? A lot of people have trouble deciding.This fault is most usual y demonstrated in the form of the so-cal ed comma splice, where a sentence runs on to another, joined by a commainstead of being separated by a ful stop.Look at these examples:Our customer service department now has five staff, we will recruit two more in the next month.Customers are important to us, without them we have no business.Our plan is for 50 per cent sales growth over the next two years, after that we will consolidate and concentrate on profitability.In each case, the comma has been wrongly used: a ful stop is required.Cast your mind back to school and your third-year.English teacher,Miss Syntax.She told you that a sentence contains a subject, a verb and an object.In the first example above, our customer service department is the subject, has is the verb and Jive staff is the object of the first sentence.We is the subject, recruit is the verb and two more is the object of what should be the second sentence.When you introduce a new subject, you arestarting a new sentence.That means you need a ful stop before you go any further.My best advice on ful stops is to use them early, and often.Early because that means you have written a short sentence.Often, because thatmeans your average sentence length is less.Unless you have compel ing reasons for doing so, avoid semicolons and colons in favour of ful stops.Your writing may lack a little elegance,but the gains in readability and comprehension far outweigh the losses.(Of course, if you can write elegantly and concisely then carry onregardless.)Question markQuestion marks go at the end of questions.Duh! But make sure what you have is a genuine question.The fol owing two examples wil showyou what I mean:John Jones asked what we were doing with our surplus widgets?“What are we doing with our surplus widgets?” asked John Jones.The first is incorrect.It is a straight declarative sentence including indirect speech.The second is fine: the question IS a question and isenclosed in inverted commas for good measure.Inverted commasSometimes cal ed speech marks, inverted commas are most commonly used to enclose quotes, ie somebody's direct speech.Whether you use singles—‘blah, blah, blah’—or doubles— “blah, blah, blah”—is a matter of taste, whether personal or corporate.Here are twoexamples, one right, one wrong, of how to use inverted commas to report speech:Jenny Smith, our CEO, said, “We are on target to achieve 35 per cent growth this year”.Jenny Smith, our CEO, said, “the company was going to be on target to achieve 35 per cent growth this year”.In the first example, the words enclosed by the inverted commas are the actual words Jenny Smith said.In the second, they are not.Never use inverted commas to enclose a figure of speech, a metaphor or a piece of jargon.Al of the fol owing examples contain needlessinverted commas:We will have to “think outside the box” if we want to achieve our targets this year.It's a case of putting our “nose to the grindstone” and getting the job done.This copy writing guide is the marketing industry's “bible”.Why are these wrong? Because, in each case, the function of the enclosed words as metaphor or figure of speech is clear to the reader in thefirst place.Nobody imagines a group of executives locked in a box, trying to think outside of it.Nobody thinks of workers literal y applying theirnoses to a fast rotating carborundum stone.And nobody thinks a guide to copywriting is the Bible.What's happening is that the copywriter isdrawing attention, self consciously, to their writing.Saying, in effect, “look at me, I'm using a metaphor.” It's the written equivalent of those people who do that double-finger dink in the air when they're speaking metaphorical y.Exclamation markPlease don't imagine that using an exclamation mark is going to make someone excited about what you're saying.If you've said somethingdul , or expressed an interesting idea badly tacking an exclamation mark onto the end won't repair the damage.In fact, you are sending severalnegative signals to your reader:“Look at me, look at me, I've said something cool.”“I am at the same level as Internet spammers.”“I am an unoriginal copywriter who fondly imagines you will be impressed by exclamation marks.”It's the linguistic equivalent of canned laughter, or, as F Scott Fitzgerald had it, the sound of the writer applauding himself.ApostropheApostrophes cause more trouble than any other piece of punctuation.But the rules are clearer than for almost every other mark.Rule 1: Use an apostrophe to indicate missing letters (contractions).Like this:Order now and you'll receive a free MP3 player worth £19.99.[You wil.]I've enclosed your gift vouchers.[ I have.]You haven't responded to my invitation to our champagne reception.[Have not.]Used subtly, contractions can impart a conversational tone of voice to your writing.Yes, they are frowned on in academic circles, butwe're business people not professors of English.Rule 2: Use an apostrophe to indicate possessionThis is where people go astray.But it's simple.To form the possessive, use ‘s regardless of the final consonant, unless it's a pluralending in s.So it's:Fred's ballCharles's ballThe children's ballBut:The monkeys’ ballThe boys’ ballThere are a few exceptions (aren't there always?) to the rule.Possessive pronouns don't take an apostrophe …HisHersIts (Not to be confused with it's meaning it is.)OursYoursTheirs… and ancient and religious names omit the final s even though they are singular.Jesus’ teachingsMoses’ lawIsis’ templeYou DON'T use apostrophes to indicate plurals; despite what your local greengrocer might think, the word is tomatoes, not tomatoe's.And it'sCDs not CD's, FAQs not FAQ's and RFPs not RFP's.Ellipsis pointsEl ipsis points are those three dots you see in the middle of sentence … or, occasional y, at the end, like this…They properly indicate missing words, although you can also use them less formal y to give the sense of a mid-sentence pause or a cliffhangerending to a sentence
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