Quick Tips

Time for some quick tips:

• Cannot or can not? While Grammar Girl says either is correct, the Gregg Reference Manual only uses cannot.  The only time to use can not is where can means “to be able” and is used with not only
  • I can not only see the movie, but the sound is so loud, I can hear nothing else.
• Capitalization of city and state.
  • Capitalize city only when it is actually part of the name of the city or part of an imaginative name
    • Kansas City
    • the Windy City (Chicago)
    • the city of Phoenix
  • Capitalize state only when it follows the name of the state or is part of an imaginative name
    • Washington State
    • the Grand Canyon State
    • state of Arizona
  • Do not capitalize state when used in place of the state name
    • She works for the state.
• None is/are. None is a singular pronoun in formal usage, but in general usage can be either singular or plural, depending on the number of the noun.
  • None of the job positions were filled.
  • None of the programming was working correctly.
• Two, to, and too. For some reason, people seem to struggle with which of these is correct in their sentence.
  • Two – represents a number.
    • She ate two bowls of cereal.
  • To – toward
    • He went to the doctor’s offce
  • Too – more than enough, also
    • He wanted to take his cousins to the zoo too.
• Last, but not least, proofreading isn’t just about typos. When you are proofreading, proof the details, but make sure to read the text to make sure it makes sense and conveys the story correctly. Don’t make edits because you think a word is wrong without making sure that your suggested replacement makes sense.

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