It’s mine – apostrophes explained

apostrophes

Two things to remember: Apostrophes indicate either ownership or a contraction of words.

Contractions

The apostrophe takes the place of the missing letters:

  • Do not = don’t
  • Does not = doesn’t
  • Is not = isn’t
  • Cannot = can’t
  • Could have = could’ve
  • I am = I’m
  • We will = we’ll
  • They are = they’re
  • Let us = let’s

Ownership

  • Vusi’s cell phone
  • Sarah’s car
  • The children’s toys

Add an apostrophe and an S, except for plural words that already end with an S: My parents’ house

The odd one out: “its” is possessive, “it’s” stands for “it is” or “it has”.

Ownership by more than one

When two nouns possess the same entity, only the second takes an apostrophe:

  • I went to my aunt and uncle’s house yesterday.

When two nouns possess different entities, both possessives take an apostrophe:

  • My sister’s and cousin’s houses are on the same street.
  • When it’s hot, friends’ and neighbours’ children spend the day at our pool.

When words end with an S

If a word is only one syllable, use an apostrophe and an S:

  • Boss’s Day is on 16 October.

For plurals just add an apostrophe after the S: The Millers’ house is next to ours.

Follow this simple rule for the possessive: Add an extra S when you actually say it.

Sometimes singular and plural sound the same, you’ll only see the difference in writing:

  • My boy’s school is closed today. My boys’ school is closed today.

Wrong use of apostrophes

Never use an apostrophe to indicate a plural: PCs – DVDs – TVs – 1950s

©Andrea Paulsen

When to use italics

Italics

Italics make words stand out from the rest of the text – the modern equivalent of underlining. But there are rules – there are always rules. Here are some useful tips when to apply italics.

Titles of books, songs, movies, and works of art

Long literary works, such as book titles and names of newspapers and journals are written in italics. This includes reports, dissertations, and theses.

Shorter works – those that appear in books or journals, like poems, shorts stories, and articles are surrounded with quotation marks.

  • Example: Financial Mail published the article “How to invest wisely”.

 Like long literary works, music albums and CDs are in italics, but the songs on the albums get quotation marks.

  • Example: Michael Jackson’s album Thriller is the all-time bestselling album worldwide. Seven singles were released from this album, among them the song “Thriller”.

Movie titles, TV and radio shows, plays, and works of art are also written in italics. But the names of episodes of TV shows are in quotation marks.

  • Example: “Song Beneath the Song” is the 18th episode of the seventh season of the TV drama Grey’s Anatomy.

Foreign words and phrases

Words or phrases in a foreign language, unless they have become part of everyday use, are written in italics.

  • Examples: inter alia, vice versa, déjà vu, à la carte.
  • Not in italics: spaghetti, chef, kindergarten, boerewors, etc.

For emphasis and contrast

Please note, never use underlining for emphasis. And if you use italics, use them sparingly.

  • Example – emphasis: She arrived three hours late for dinner.
  • Example – contrast: I usually go to gym twice a week. But last week I went five times.

Citing English words

Example: Many people don’t know when to write they’re, their, or there.

Names of vehicles

Ships, trains, aircraft, spacecraft, etc: Titanic, Orient Express, Challenger.
But don’t italicise brand names of vehicles, ie Ford Explorer, Audi X3, Airbus A330.

Legal cases

Smith v Jones

Don’t use italics

  • For titles of sacred works, such as the Bible, the Torah, the Qur’an.
  • For public documents, like the Bill of Rights, the Constitution.
  • For text between quotation marks.

©Andrea Paulsen

Business emails made easy

Business email

An email consists of a subject line, salutation, body, greetings, and sometimes attachments.

And it’s “email” – no hyphen. In the early days instead of writing “electronic mail” it was abbreviated to e-mail. Over time “email” has become a word in its own right, so the hyphen has fallen away.

The subject line should be specific

Don’t refer to something ambiguous like “Your email” or “Our meeting”. Be specific. The recipient should immediately recognise what it’s about. That’ll also determine how fast they’ll respond.

Keep the email chain going. If you’ve replied and are waiting for feedback, use your last email to follow up. Don’t respond to an earlier email with new questions. That later complicates trying to establish what happened when, and where you’re at.

And DON’T use an email on a different subject to write to a person about something else. That creates confusion and wastes time. First upon receipt, and later when you’re looking for emails on a certain subject, you’ll have to wade through unrelated material again.

If an email was sent to a group, but your response is of no interest to the entire group, don’t hit “reply all”. In addition to the sender, only copy in those people who need to read your response.

Addressing the recipient

“Dear” plus their name for most emails; for colleagues or people with whom you have a good relationship “Hi” plus their name is also fine.

The body of your email

The contents of the email should be easy to read and laid out in a logical manner. If you’re covering several issues, it helps to have sub-headings in your email.

Have you ever noticed that many people only respond to the last question you asked and totally ignore all the others? And then you have to write back and ask again. To avoid that, repeat at the end what you need to know by listing your questions again.

CU@8

This is not social media – use words. A business email is equal to a business letter. The only difference is the means of delivery. It should look professional and be written in business language.

Among close colleagues, your writing style can be a bit more informal. But keep in mind that emails are often forwarded and nothing in your email should be so casual – or personal – that it’s inappropriate for somebody else to read.

Greetings

“Regards” is the most used form, “Kind regards” is also fine (but then “regards” is all lower case).

In letters we still write “Yours sincerely” or “Yours faithfully” (if it’s very formal), but these forms aren’t used in emails.

No comma after “Dear …” in the beginning of the email, nor after “Regards”.

© Andrea Paulsen Communications