© 2011, David Bowman All rights reserved No part of this document may be copied, sold, or distributed, in either printed or electronic format, without the written permission of David Bowman For more information, contact info@PreciseEdit.com, http://PreciseEdit.com Smashwords Edition, License Notes This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author What People Say about Precise Edit’s Writing Guides …A choice pick! (Midwest Book Review) I compliment you on an excellent compilation of expert advice (Pam H., Sunshine Valley Writers Group) David Bowman’s advice on grammar, style, and English usage is both sound and effective because it reflects current scholarly research and best workplace practices (Scott Sanders, Associate Chair for Core Writing, Director of Professional Writing and Internships, University of New Mexico) I love the concise, no nonsense format of the guides They are easy to read and reference, and they make me a better writer Written concisely in plain English with examples for each topic an incredible and inexpensive tool writers of all abilities should possess (Gary Hawk) Precise Edit’s tips offer serious value to anyone who wants the edge that polished communications can bring This pithy, clever, slightly irreverent series should help writers of all skill levels avoid mistakes, communicate with confidence, and stand out from the crowd (Will Reichard, CrossCut Communications Public Relations & Marketing) The Precise Edit Training Manual is an excellent reference for any writer keen not only to communicate clearly but also to ensure correct use of grammar and punctuation (Pauline) Bang! has been a good read (D Dericotte) I've been looking for a good book/document that deals with common writing problems and I'm glad to say I've found it in your training manual (Aaron Ng) Good advice that many writers should read! (W.W.) Bowman explains complex ideas in interesting and approachable ways (John UpChurch, Amazon reviewer) About the author David Bowman is the owner and chief editor of Precise Edit, a comprehensive editorial service provider with specialized services for authors, students, business professionals, and other individuals who need to communicate well in writing Core services include content editing, copyediting, and documental editing Mr Bowman is an editor with over 20 years of experience He has advanced degrees in both comparative literature and business administration He is a popular writing instructor for the University of New Mexico and a communications consultant to small and medium-sized organizations He uses the writing strategies in these books to help clients reach their goals You can read more information about Precise Edit and the author at http://PreciseEdit.com Precise Edit can help you: • publish books that others will buy, read, and enjoy; • communicate clearly and effectively with stakeholders and business partners; • submit better academic papers; • inform and persuade your readers For more information Visit http://PreciseEdit.com, e-mail info@preciseedit.com, or call 888-474-4393 Information and purchasing For more information about the writing guides and to purchase them, visit Hostile Editing: http://HostileEditing.com Your Writing Companion Writing Tips for a Year 300 Days of Better Writing Zen Comma Precise Edit Training Manual Bang! Writing with Impact Which Word Do I Use? A Quickie Guide to the Most Confusing Word Pairs Table of Contents Bowman’s Concise Guide to Technical & Academic Writing Introduction From Chapter 3: Style From Chapter 6: Sentence Structure 300 Days of Better Writing Introduction Day 1: Use the rhetorical subject as the grammatical subject Day 2: Place a comma before a conjunction that joins two independent clauses Day 3: Be concise Day 4: Avoid over-generalizing Day 5: Finish sentences with the most important information Day 6: Place ending punctuation inside the quotation marks Day 7: Use you only when you are writing to or about the reader Day 8: Limit adjective use Zen Comma Introduction Sample Chapter Structure Comma Topics in Zen Comma Commas When Joining Sentences Bang! Writing with Impact Introduction Sample Strategies for Impact Emphasize alternatives by adding the conjunctions “or” or “nor” between all items in a series 19 Emphasize a particular characteristic by pairing it with its opposite 39 Attack the credibility of your critics to emphasize the superiority of your ideas 58 Increase reader engagement by omitting the conclusion to a logical argument 96 Provide a summary of previous content to emphasize how it relates to the next topic Precise Edit Training Manual Introduction It Is What It Is (Starting sentences with it) Which Word Do I Use? That vs Which Good vs Well Information about these Guides INTRODUCTION The Society of Technical Writers describes technical writers as people who “research and create information about technical processes or products directed to a targeted audience through various forms of media.” This description touches on two foundations of technical writing: information and targeted audience With this in mind, technical writing is far more than creating user manuals Technical writing is an approach to presenting information to a defined reader in an objective, direct, easy-to-understand manner Technical writing is a strategy for providing what the reader needs in a manner that the reader can most easily use it In other words, technical writing is good writing Technical writing follows several principles • • • • • • The reader is more important than the writer The style must be consistent with the purpose Clear, simple writing increases understanding Logical organization shows how ideas connect The reader needs to know how to find information Information sources must be given credit • Correct grammar, punctuation, and word choice enhance credibility The purpose of this book is to help you implement these principles and write well From Chapter 3: Style B Language Complexity Some writers use simple, straightforward sentences with few modifying phrases and clauses Others use complex sentences with many modifiers, interjected descriptions, and multiple clauses and phrases Example B.1, simple sentence: “Lisa bought a red car.” This simple sentence contains a simple subject (Lisa) and a simple predicate with an object (bought a red car) This sentence has two modifying words (a, red) but no other phrases or clauses Example B.2, moderately complex sentence: “When the day ended, Lisa, a sales clerk at the downtown market, bought a red car.” This moderately complex sentence has an introductory descriptive clause (when the day ended), a simple subject (Lisa), an appositive for the subject (a sales clerk at the downtown market), and a simple predicate with an object (bought a red car) Example B.3, very complex sentence: “When the day ended, which couldn’t have happened soon enough, given the type of day she had had, Lisa, a sales clerk at the downtown market, a grimy, dark nook in an old building, bought what she mistakenly thought was a new, or, at the worst, slightly used, red car.” This very complex sentence has an introductory descriptive clause (when the day ended), a description of the introductory clause (which couldn’t have happened soon enough), a description of the description of the introductory clause (given the type of day she had had), a subject (Lisa), an appositive for the subject (a sales clerk at the downtown market), a description of the appositive for the subject (a grimy, dark nook), and a description of the description of the appositive for the subject (in an old building) And then we finally get to the predicate, which is similarly complicated As these three examples show, the two key features of language complexity are the number of descriptive phases and clauses and the levels of description (such as description of description) A careful writer considers sentence complexity in light of the readers’ needs Simple sentences can be read quickly and understood easily As sentences become more complex, they contain more information and “flavor,” but they require more work from the readers and increase the potential for misunderstanding As with all style issues, the level of language complexity needs to fit the readers’ needs Simple sentences are the most easy to understand They present minimal information in a straightforward manner, with no interruptions in the main thought being communicated On the other hand, using too many simple sentences, or a string of simple sentences, makes the writing appear amateurish For technical manuals, lists of instructions, user guides, and other documents that present single action steps, stick with simple sentences For most other types of documents, the writer can present more complex information and create better reader interest and engagement by using a mix of simple and moderately complex sentences If your goal is reader understanding and interest, avoid very complex sentences Overall, you will communicate best by • using a mix of simple and moderately complex sentences, • limiting the number of descriptive phrases, • presenting only one descriptive phrase at a time, and • avoiding descriptions of descriptions Sentence structure will be addressed in greater detail in Chapter 6, Sentence Structure C Objectivity Feelings, emotions, opinions, and beliefs are called, collectively, individual perspective An individual perspective indicates the perspective of one person: the writer In all forms of technical writing, your individual perspective is inappropriate Think about your reader Your reader is seeking believable, credible information Your opinions, etc are not believable, credible information They only apply to you; they not apply to your reader The most obvious cases are sentence that contain such phrases as I feel that, I believe, and in my opinion If you can express the idea as a fact, so If you cannot express the idea without those phrases, remove the sentence entirely Writers also interject their individual perspectives by using particular words and by making judgments, as explained below Word choice: Writers damage the objectivity of their writing (and its value) by using adjectives and adverbs that indicate an individual perspective For example, these two sentences contain opinions: Example C.1: “The marketing plan indicates exciting opportunities for the company.” Example C.2: “The friendly sales associates will greet our valued customers by name.” In these samples, the words indicating the individual perspective are exciting, friendly, and valued Some words indicate individual perspectives with greater subtlety through their connotative meanings The connotation of a word implies more than the objective meaning of the word This not only increases the likelihood for misunderstanding but also reflects the writer’s opinion For example: Example C.3: “Rescue crews sorted through the carnage from the plane crash.” Here, carnage implies the writer’s impression of the scene It evokes visions of war, of disaster, and of tragedy A more objective word is wreckage Moral Judgments and Persuasion: A writer expresses an individual perspective by using such words as should, must, and ought to (The technical term for this type of word is modal auxiliary.) In most cases, writers use these words to persuade the reader to act or think in a specific manner This is a problem for several reasons First, these words will always create conflict with the reader They communicate your belief that you have the right to tell the reader what to The reader is unlikely to share that belief Second, they state an opinion as a moral judgment Moral or otherwise, an opinion is still just that: an opinion The reader will recognize that you are providing your opinion and can, therefore, reject your ideas Third, they disrespect the reader They communicate that you don’t trust the reader to decide what to As a persuasion technique, this rarely works In technical writing, it is inappropriate A better approach is to state ideas as facts and to connect the facts to a desired outcome A reader can argue against, or simply reject, your opinions easily However, the reader cannot argue against objective facts In the following examples, example C.4a communicates an opinion, and example C.4b communicates a fact Example C.4a: “The WHO should provide funding for sanitation projects in third-world countries This will reduce the incidence of diarrhea in third world countries.” Example C.4b: “The WHO will reduce the incidence of diarrhea in third world countries by providing funding for sanitation projects.” Example C.4a makes a moral judgment In the writer’s opinion, the WHO will the “morally right” thing by providing funding Example C.4b provides a fact The reduction in incidences of diarrhea will occur if the WHO provides funding Moral judgments create conflict Facts persuade Personal Pronouns: Writing in an objective style does not mean avoiding I and we These personal pronouns are acceptable if you are describing your actions or processes You can write “We did this” or “I did that.” This approach is preferable to writing such artificial phrases as “the author of this report found ” The reader knows that you are the author Use I When you write I or we, examine your sentence critically and ask what you are communicating If you are communicating a fact, the personal pronoun is acceptable If you are communicating an opinion, it is not Describing Opinions: At times, you may need to provide opinions, feelings, and beliefs It is possible to so in an objective manner Although you don’t want to offer your own individual perspective, you can describe the individual perspective of others For example, rather than stating “I believe the president is doing a good job,” you can state “22% of survey respondents believed the president is doing a good job” or “The president believed he was doing a good job.” In this way, you are simply providing the facts about others’ opinions That other people believe, feel, etc this way is a fact Technical writing is not about you, but it can be about other people Unlike coordinating conjunctions that join two complete, separate thoughts, because is part of the meaning of the second part I could not sleep isn’t the whole idea Without because, the overall meaning would change Thus, sample 2.8 is the correct version In most cases, you won’t need a comma before because (Later chapters will show a few cases where you do.) Explanations of the Koans Koan 3: When the teacher stands before the students, saying nothing, all his words are implied What Bumbo learns is that whether the sentence contains all the words or whether some words are purposefully left out, a writer needs to use commas as if they were all there The comma left behind by the teacher indicates that comma rules apply even when some words are missing from a sentence Koan 4: The word because is a conjunction It is a subordinating conjunction, which means it starts a dependent clause The teacher hits Bumbo to teach him not to put commas in front of all conjunctions, only in front of coordinating conjunctions that join two independent clauses He answers because to indicate that a comma before the word because is the most common mistake that writers make with putting commas before conjunctions If you put a comma before because, your reader may “hit” you because that comma is wrong *This sample is incorrect Back to top INTRODUCTION Welcome to BANG! Writing with Impact This writing guide will provide you with strategies for making your words stand out and your readers pay attention Whether you are writing a letter to a client or colleague, preparing a proposal for funding, developing technical manuals, or publishing a book, you need to write with impact Who is this book for? This book is for all writers A writer is anyone who communicates in writing, not just novelists, journalists, etc This book is for any person who desires to • • • • • • • • Change the reader’s mind about a topic, Convince the reader that you are right, Convey the importance of an idea, action, or belief, Make the reader respond or act in a desired manner, Influence the reader’s behavior, Propose or set policy, Establish credibility and leadership, and Write with power How to use this book Use this book any way you want to use it This is your book On the other hand, I have some recommendations for using these strategies productively Write your document Get the words on paper Don’t more than very light editing as you write Identify your main points, action steps, concluding arguments, controversial statements, and other ideas that are critical to communicate These are things you want your reader to do, understand, and believe Underline them The words you underlined in step are the places to apply these strategies Take a look at how you wrote them, and peruse the strategies found in this book Ask yourself these questions: What am I trying to accomplish?” What strategies have I already applied? Am I using a variety of strategies? What strategies have I not applied? If you used the same strategy three times in a row, replace one with a new strategy If you have not applied a strategy to one of the underlined sections, so Find the strategy that produces the effect you need or accomplishes your purpose You might not use all the strategies in this book Actually, I would be surprised if you did You will make choices based on your purpose, writing style, and habits You didn’t buy this book so that you can use every possible strategy You bought this book because you have a purpose to accomplish Find the strategies that you need The point is to help you reflect on the strategies and your purposes, as well as to encourage you to use new strategies By using new strategies, you bring greater variety to your documents More variety means more impact because using any strategy repeatedly reduces its effectiveness Also, more variety in your strategies allows you to make new forms of impact to accomplish specific purposes This is similar to having more tools in your toolbox You can perform more tasks, and you can perform your tasks better Format for the strategies Each strategy is formatted this way: • • • • Short description of the strategy and purpose academic name (only useful for impressing your colleagues) Description / explanation / use / instruction Caution(s), if any Sample(s) What’s not in this book This is not the book for learning to write clearly or using grammar and punctuation correctly This book has a very specific purpose: learning how to make an impact with writing Those other issues are also important If you want help writing clearly and correctly, take a look at our other guides, which are described on the final page of this guide They are available at http://PreciseEdit.com and http://HostileEditing.com.You can get a sample of all three books, and a sample subscription to the writing instruction series Precise Edit Training Manual: a comprehensive examination of the 29 most common editing strategies we apply and errors we fix 300 Days of Better Writing: 300 easy-to-use strategies per volume for writing clearly and communicating effectively (300 strategies from our Writing Tips for a Year service) “Writing Tips for a Year”: Daily writing instruction for an entire year—one tip, strategy, or resource for 365 days—delivered by e-mail Sample strategies from Bang! Writing with Impact Emphasize alternatives by adding the conjunctions “or” or “nor” between all items in a series polysyndeton Adding “or” or “nor” between all words in a series emphasizes their differences This is especially useful when you want to show a string of options or alternatives that cannot be combined Also, by adding “or” or “nor,” you place individual emphasis on each item in the series This strategy helps the reader to pay attention to and remember each item The final items in the series will carry the most emphasis by nature of their placement, so think carefully about which items to place there “We could buy or lease or rent or steal our office equipment, but we could not own or build it.” Emphasize a particular characteristic by pairing it with its opposite oxymoron An oxymoron creates a paradox of words by describing or naming a thing using contradictory terms (e.g., “joyously grieving”) The primary effect of this strategy is to emphasize a characteristic of the thing described It does this through two means First, an oxymoron catches the readers’ attention Second, a seemingly contradictory expression makes the reader consider what the oxymoron means in the given context When your reader participates in the sensemaking process, he or she will be more engaged in the content and more likely to respond to what you write If two adjectives or adverbs are used to create the oxymoron, the first adjective or adverb carries the most impact This occurs when the first descriptive word contradicts the normal connotation of the term being described “Cautious indifference leads to worried peace.” “He is a well-educated fool.” Attack the credibility of your critics to emphasize the superiority of your ideas procatalepsis Another way to state this strategy is as follows: Demonstrate that your critics are not a valid source of information Predict their arguments against your idea, and then either disparage their knowledge or demonstrate the greater validity of your own As seen by these examples, both strategies can be used at the same time Be careful with this strategy It might help you win an argument, but it won’t win you any friends This strategy raises ethical considerations, so use it cautiously, if at all “The press corps is fond of saying we not know how to handle corporate finances They went to journalism school We have advanced degrees in finance administration They are not in a position to tell us how to handle corporate finances.” “Farmer Bob in the country has a good point about the need to protect natural resources We need to protect our resources Our 20 plus years of municipal planning experiences have taught us how.” Increase reader engagement by omitting the conclusion to a logical argument enthymeme When you omit the conclusion to a logical argument, the reader will have to reach the conclusion himself, in a sense, making your argument for you This is a powerful way to gain reader acceptance for your conclusion Furthermore, this strategy will increase the reader’s engagement and participation in your ideas Your reader is participating in discussing the content, which always increases engagement Here’s how it works Major premise, the general truth: Popular novelists can make a lot of money from book sales Minor premise: Stephen King is a popular novelist [Conclusion, omitted: Stephen King has made a lot of money.] Two cautions: 1) Make sure the conclusion is the only logical result of your premises (politicians and political commentators often forget this caution) or your reader may reach a different conclusion; and 2) Make sure the conclusion is obvious or your reader may be confused, reducing engagement and preventing acceptance for your idea “The Algoma Lumber Company will only process raw logs that contain a minimum of 1,400 board feet Your logs are significantly below this standard.” [Missing conclusion: The Algoma Lumber Company will not process your logs.] Provide a summary of previous content to emphasize how it relates to the next topic metabasis After having a lengthy discussion of one topic, you may need to focus on a new topic Providing a summary of the just-finished discussion gives you an opportunity to introduce a new topic and emphasize its relevance to the previous topic This produces two effects First, the reader is reminded of essential points, ideas, and action steps Second, you can emphasize the importance of the upcoming topic This strategy is only effective in long documents Otherwise, the reader may consider it “padding,” i.e., unnecessary text written to lengthen the document artificially “Now that we have explained how stakeholder participation improves internal company processes, we can examine the most important ways that stakeholders interact with a company.” “Thus far, this report has examined the need for greater fiscal control, the need for clear direction from leadership, and the need for improved accountability practices The need for improved flexibility, which will be discussed next, is no less important.” “Similar to the idea that students are capable of high academic achievement is the idea that students are capable of civil social interactions.” Back to top INTRODUCTION Welcome to the Precise Edit Training Manual The manual offers practical writing advice and strategies for practical people Each chapter provides a full discussion of strategies we employ and problems we fix Of the 29 chapters, 15 provide comprehensive advice for writing clearly and effectively, and 14 demonstrate how we solve issues with punctuation, grammar, and word usage Writers from across the globe and benefited from the Precise Edit Training Manual, and have consistently expressed the usefulness of this important writing guide Written concisely in plain English with examples for each topic, the manual is an incredible and inexpensive tool writers of all abilities should possess Gary Hawk Free lifetime updates as they become available It Is What It Is (Starting sentences with it) It’s a bad habit to start sentences with it It causes your readers to pause momentarily while they figure out what it is It makes your sentences clumsy It is true that doing so is an easy way to write a sentence, but usually it is not good writing It even becomes a bit annoying when you it too often It is bad to annoy your reader Starting sentences with it is a bad habit Your readers will need to pause momentarily while they figure out what it is, and your sentences will be clumsy Writing this way may be easy, but starting sentences with it is usually not a good idea If you this too often, you may annoy your readers, which is never a good idea Problems Caused by Starting Sentences with It a Buried subject: In most sentences starting with it, the real subject is buried somewhere later in the sentence By real subject, we don’t mean the noun or pronoun performing the verb in the predicate, which is called the grammatical subject We mean the person, idea, place, or thing that is the focus of the sentence, which is called the rhetorical subject Consider this (poor) sentence: It is a real challenge to find a good deal on a car In this sentence, it is serving as the grammatical subject because this word is in the subject place followed by the verb is But what is this sentence about? It is about finding a good deal [Note: We are willing to start this sentence with it because we have already told you what it is this sentence.] Finding a good deal, therefore, is the rhetorical subject When we put the rhetorical subject in the place of the grammatical subject, we get To find a good deal on a car is a real challenge This can be further simplified to read Finding a good deal on a car is a real challenge Now the grammatical subject and the rhetorical subject are the same The sentence is more direct, and the reader immediately knows what we are writing about without having to wait, even momentarily, to figure out what it is On the other hand, let’s say you and your buddies are comparing all the daring, challenging things you have done in your lives Everyone’s life seems so exciting compared to your boring, unadventurous life You want to prove that you are exciting, too, so you want to emphasize the challenge of finding a good deal on a car In this case, you could rewrite the sentence as: A real challenge is finding a good deal on a car (Oh, boy! That will really show them who’s boss.) They may still doubt your derring-do, but they won’t doubt your ability to write well With this sentence construction, the rhetorical and grammatical subjects are the same, as in the revisions above Fix 1: Make sure the rhetorical subject is also the grammatical subject at the start of the sentence b Redundancy: Precise Edit has a very firm rule about redundancy: Remove it By redundancy we mean writing or more words/phrases/clauses/etc that have the same meaning As seen in the discussion of the first problem, using it to start sentences has the added problem of two subjects (grammatical and rhetorical) that mean the same thing: It means finding a good deal on a car We only need one of these Of course, we want to use the more specific subject, not the vague it, which has no meaning by itself When we place the rhetorical subject in the position of the grammatical subject, we are left with only one subject, and the redundancy has been removed Fix (again): Make sure the rhetorical subject is also the grammatical subject at the start of the subject Sometimes it is buried in the sentence and still causes this redundancy Consider this sentence: We don’t like it when writing is redundant In this case, it means when writing is redundant To remove this redundancy, ask: What is it? You will answer: redundant writing We get rid of it and add the answer to the question Now we have We don’t like redundant writing Removing the redundancy has produced a far more economical and graceful sentence Fix 2: Remove redundant words and simplify the details c Context confusion: Sometimes, the word it is used when the writer (or speaker) doesn’t know what the subject is, doesn’t want to reveal it, or thinks it is already clear Of course, from the reader’s perspective, the sentence may lose all meaning The problem here is one of context By context we mean the topic in which the sentence exists (i.e., what the sentence is about) The subject of a sentence, indeed, the entire sentence, needs to refer to the context, and using it may not that If someone asks you, Do you like this car? and you answer, It is really nice your listener will know what you are talking about He or she already knows the context of your statement: the quality of the car However, if you walk into a colleague’s office and say, It is difficult for me you might get a strange look in response Your colleague doesn’t know what you are talking about and might ask, “What is?” He or she is confused, rightly so, and you will need to explain the context of your statement Instead, you could have originally said, Making coffee is difficult for me You may still get a strange look, but at least your colleague knows what you are talking about Fix 3: Make sure the subject refers to the context of the sentence Burying It You have to be careful with your revisions The word it might be buried in the sentence and still cause the same problems Consider this sentence: You know it is bad to tease angry dogs This sentence doesn’t start with it, but it suffers from problems and You might consider how this sentence comprises one primary sentence and an embedded sentence The primary sentence is You know, and the embedded sentence is It is bad to tease angry dogs The embedded sentence has the problem, but it can be revised to read Teasing angry dogs is bad The entire sentence will now read You know [that] teasing angry dogs is bad (Hmm We may now have a problem with the tone If the person already knows this bit of wisdom, why are we saying it? Admitting that he or she already knows this seems a bit condescending If we must make this statement at all, perhaps we should simply say Teasing angry dogs is bad and pretend that this is new information.) Some Fun (?) Examples It is clear to me that our main problem is the inability to fly without wings Our main problem is the inability to fly without wings [Since you said this, it must be clear to you! Saying It is clear to me is redundant.] It was a dark and stormy night The night was stormy [It means dark and stormy night, and most nights are dark.] It only happens once every 70 years Tomorrow night Halley’s Comet will appear Halley’s Comet only appears once every 70 years, but it will appear tomorrow night [This solves the context problem of the first sentence.] It is a nice car you have in your driveway You have a nice car in your driveway [An even better solution might be A nice car is in your driveway, but this seems to lose the idea of ownership.] Some people like it when the traffic lights aren’t working because they can drive right through it Some people like broken traffic lights because they can drive right through the intersection [We would be very amused to see someone drive through the light!] Back to top Which Word Do I Use? A Quickie Guide to the Most Confusing Word Pairs This book does not contain every confusing word pair That would be more information than most people need Rather, this e-book addresses the most common word pair problems If you master these words, you will solve most word usage problems Learn to use these words so you don't have to keep looking them up, and so you can be confident about your writing You will learn to use these word pairs correctly: accept/except; all ready/already; all right/alright; although/while; anxious/eager; because/as; between/among; compose/comprise; continuous/continual; effect/affect; everybody/every body; farther/further; good/well; hopeful/hopefully; i.e./e.g.; if/whether; in/on; lay/lie; less/fewer; like/such as; realize/think/believe/feel; skim/scan; that/which; was/were; who/that; who/whom Based on nearly 20 years of editing clients' documents, these are the word pairs that confuse most people This handy guide will help you write professionally and say what you mean That vs Which Mistakes using that and which are probably the most common grammar problems we fix To understand how to use that, you need to understand restrictive phrases It’s not too difficult, actually Think of a category of things, such as cars at a repair shop or trees surrounding a house A restrictive phrase focuses the reader’s attention on particular items in a category, such as one specific car or tree Consider this sentence “The car that is being repaired needs new brakes.” Based on this sentence, multiple cars exist, but we want to identify one particular car: the car “that is being repaired.” In this way, we restrict, or limit, the reader’s attention from all the cars to one particular car Here is another example “We removed the tree that was struck by lightning.” Here, multiple trees exist We want to restrict the reader’s attention from all the trees to one particular tree: the tree “that was struck by lightning.” Here’s the simple rule for remembering this If you need to tell the reader which one, use that, not which To understand how to use which, you need to understand non-restrictive phrases A nonrestrictive phrase provides additional information about some noun The information is not essential for the reader to know which thing you are describing It can be removed from the sentence, and the reader will still know what you are talking about Consider this sentence “Legal counsel approved the brief, which was well written.” In this sentence, we already know which brief we are discussing The information “which was well written” provides an additional description of “brief.” The phrase is not essential to the meaning Thus, “which was well written” is a non-restrictive phrase Remember to set the non-restrictive phrase apart from the rest of the sentence with commas If you forget the commas, your grammar check may suggest adding them Be careful, though The real problem may be that you don’t need which but that For example, if we had written “Legal counsel approved the brief that was well written,” then we know that legal counsel considered multiple briefs but only approved the well-written one “That was well written” is a restrictive phrase because it tells us which brief was approved As you can see, that and which communicate different information Using the correct word helps you communicate accurately Here’s the simple rule If the reader already knows which one, use which If you need to tell the reader which one, use that Good vs Well If I had a dollar for every time I had to correct this error… Good is an adjective This means that we can use it to describe a person, place, thing, or concept In short, like all adjectives, good is used to describe a noun It cannot be used correctly to describe an action, which is the most common error CORRECT: The good dog barked (Good is describing the dog.) CORRECT: This pie is good! (Good is describing the pie.) CORRECT: She had a good idea (Good is describing the idea.) Well is an adverb This means that it can be used to describe an action (verb), an adjective, or another adverb I have never seen someone use well to describe a thing INCORRECT: The man sings good (Good cannot be used to describe the action of singing.) CORRECT: The man sings well (Well is describing the action of singing.) INCORRECT: The music was played good (Good cannot be used to describe the action of playing.) CORRECT: The music was played well (Well is describing the action of playing.) The error that I see is people using good to describe an action Remember, you have a good thing You it well Here’s the sentence I use to remember the difference: Good writers write well Back to top Precise Edit’s writing and editing resources for anyone who communicates in writing—and wants to it well More information and purchase: HostileEditing.com or PreciseEdit.com 300 Days of Better Writing 300 Top strategies for writing clearly, persuasively, and directly—one strategy at a time presented in plain language Includes a topic index $9.95, PDF download, 191 full-size pages $9.95, Kindle (on Amazon.com) $13.95, Paperback, 262 pages, perfect bound Bang! Writing with Impact 114 strategies in 18 categories with one purpose: Make your readers pay attention What the strategies do, how they work, and how to use them successfully $6.67, PDF download, 51 full-size pages Precise Edit Training Manual The 29 most common strategies we use and the problems we fix A comprehensive, but practical, examination of good writing and effective editing Acclaimed by writers worldwide $6.67, PDF download, 58 full-size pages Which Word Do I Use? Learn to use the most confusing word pairs Be confident about your words and say what you mean! $1.99, PDF download, 15 full-size pages $1.99, Kindle (on Amazon.com) Zen Comma Commas are confusing, but Zen Comma helps you use them correctly This isn’t just about professionalism; it’s also about writing clearly and correctly Commas help readers understand you, so they must be right $2.99, PDF download, 45 full-size pages $2.99, Kindle (on Amazon.com) One More Resource Writing Tips for a Year 365 days of writing instruction, delivered directly to your e-mail address You will receive • • 218 writing strategies with explanation and samples; 73 tips on writing mechanics; • • 37 tools and resources; and 37 quotes on writing with instructive commentary • $6.67, e-mail delivery for an entire year For a 5-day sample subscription and yearly subscription, visit http://HostileEditing.com Back to top ... dog barked (Good is describing the dog.) CORRECT: This pie is good! (Good is describing the pie.) CORRECT: She had a good idea (Good is describing the idea.) Well is an adverb This means that... man sings good (Good cannot be used to describe the action of singing.) CORRECT: The man sings well (Well is describing the action of singing.) INCORRECT: The music was played good (Good cannot... believe the president is doing a good job,” you can state “22% of survey respondents believed the president is doing a good job” or “The president believed he was doing a good job.” In this way, you