Bull's Eye Business Writing Tips

Tip #454: To form the plurals of first names...

These FREE weekly business writing tips
will help you improve your business writing.

Tip #454: To form the plurals of first names or other proper names, add "s" or "es" but do not change the original spelling.

For example:

Gladys - Gladyses

Ralph - Ralphs

Three Texans

The Emmys and the Grammys

Weekly Exercise:

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This week’s quiz:

Can you answer Christine Carpentier's question?

Gloria, I am confused about a rule for their and there.  I wrote a document and the word 'their' was changed to 'there', because I was not talking about a person.

The phrase is as follows:

"She knows how to correct sentences without changing their meaning".

Can you please let me know what the rule is?

Quote of the week:

"Speak what you feel, not what you ought to say."

(Shakespeare from his play, King Lear)

Answers to this week's exercise:

    "Their" is a possessive pronoun.

    For example: Their complaints have proved to be unfounded. (Some people have complaints.)

    "There" is an adverb.

    For example: There are complaints that have proved unfounded. (This is a general statement that can be turned around (Complaints are there.)

    Christine's sentence is correct by using 'their' since the sentences own the meaning.

To send the above exercise answers to Gloria for her comments and review,  copy the questions,  paste  them into an email, answer them,  and send to Marsha@basic-learning.com.

 

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10 Easy Guides for Getting to Your Writing Target
By Gloria Pincu, M.A. , President of Basic Learning Systems, Inc.
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Here are some books on business writing that I recommend.

Bull's Eye Business Writing is also available from Amazon.com.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, author, Lynne Truss The Everything Resume Book by Steven Graber
On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction , by William Knowlton Zinsser  The Gregg Reference Manual, by William A. Sabin 
The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, White, E. B. White  How to Take the Fog Out of Business Writing, by Robert Gunning, Richard A. Kallan (Contributor) 

More books on business writing and other business subjects  (available from Amazon.com). 

Contact Gloria Pincu at Basic Learning Systems, Inc.

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