My son caught this at a convenience store near his house. I don’t even know what this sign means. He said he thinks it means that shoppers need to leave backpacks or bags at the front while they are shopping. I think if that’s what they meant, that’s what they should have said.
I caught this one driving by one of my favorites, Pita Jungle, recently. It’s a nice sign, except for the misspelling of “occasions.”
A good friend asked if I would write on the use of foreign words/languages in English writing, particularly whether we should include the foreign characters, accent marks, etc. in our legal writings.
The basic answer is sometimes.
If a foreign word has become a part of the English language, like résumé, it does not need to be italicized. NOTE: I am using italics here just to emphasize the words I am talking about. Some words and phrases will retain the diacritical marks, such as the accent marks in résumé, vis-á-vis, and the circumflex in paper-mâche, but the words are not italicized.
According to The Bluebook A Uniform System of Citation, foreign words and phrases that are used often in legal writing and are familiar to the legal community are not italicized, but foreign words and phrases that are very long, obsolete, or uncommon Latin, should be italicized. For instance, do italicize:
But not:
Note, however, that id. is always italicized (including the period), but e.g. is only italicized when it is used as a signal as in See, e.g., Smith v. Brown. In re and ex rel. and other such procedural phrases are always italicized.
Avoid using Latin or other foreign words and phrases where it is not necessary and where an English word or phrase will work just as well and that will avoid the issue altogether, but when you do use them, if it is well known to the legal community or well integrated into the English language, retain its diacritical marks, but do not italicize.
I found this in a grocery store in Albuquerque. If I were to read this sign literally, I would see that it is $9.99 for the Cod Fillet’s 16 oz. bag, which sounds significantly overpriced unless it is a designer bag. And to warrant a sign, that Cod Fillet must have more bags than some of my friends do. I’m pretty sure they meant to say that the $9.99 was for a 16 oz. bag of cod fillets, but that’s not what it actually says.
This picture came from a recent trip to Albuquerque. While the sandwich sounds like it would be pretty good, I’m a little worried about whether they are trying to spell “sweat” or “sweet.”
I saw this business card today and knew it was a Grammar Giggle. While it is a nice thought, it is an incomplete sentence. Do they want YOU to treat their customers that way or do THEY treat their customers that way. I’m all for saving space, but not to the detriment of your message.
Copyright: / 123RF Stock Photo
In this blog post title, I’m singing the song lyric of “For the Love of Money” by the O’Jays (and yes, I know my age is showing). I came across something in proofreading at work today that I thought I should cover. The phrase was “$1 million dollars.” My thought was that since the dollar sign is there and means “dollars,” the word “dollars” is superfluous. So I decided to research the Gregg Reference Manual rules on money.
The first choice with money is to use the dollar sign and numbers.
You can spell the money reference out when it is isolated and you don’t want to emphasize it.
Indefinite amounts of money should be spelled out.
When your sentence contains a whole dollar amount, you do not need to add a period and two zeros UNLESS it is in the same context as an amount with dollars and cents or you need to give special emphasis to an exact amount.
If you have numbers in a column, all of the numbers should have the decimal and two zeros so the numbers line up and look consistent.
When you have very large amounts of money, it is appropriate to use numbers and words, but use EITHER the dollar sign OR the word “dollars,” not both.
Fractional amounts of money should either be spelled out or all numbers, but not an actual fraction.
For amounts of money under a dollar, normally use figures and the word “cents.”
However, do not use the dollar sign and decimal point with cents except when related amounts of money require the dollar sign
Where you use the dollar sign or cents sign for a range of numbers, use the symbol with each amount.
Also, to be clear, if you are using words for the dollar amount, use it after each number.
However, where you are spelling out the numbers, you can add the dollar amount after the last number.
In legal documents such as contracts and agreements where it needs to be crystal clear, you should spell out the dollar amount and then put the numbers in parentheses right after.
When you are describing foreign money, it usually is shown with an abbreviation or a currency symbol at the front.
Well that didn’t increase my coffers any, but now we all know more about writing about money. Please add a comment below or email [email protected] with your burning questions and we can all learn a little something perhaps we didn’t know.
I hope everyone had a great Administrative Professionals Week this week. I found this ecard on Google. Not only is the comma unnecessary, but where you can add the word “single” between every and day, it should be two words and not just one. Here’s a previous article on this very topic – We Appreciate Proofreading Tips Each and Everyday.
Email is not just a method of communicating with others over the computer. It is a reflection of you and your firm when you are using your company equipment to send emails to others—whether regarding work subjects or not. Email is just the same as sending a letter or any other type of communication. You need to make sure your message is clear and error free.
Keep these things in mind:
Who knew email was so complicated? It really isn’t complicated, it is just good common sense. And it is good business sense to make sure your email represents you and your firm in the best way possible.
This was sent to me by a reader last season. This is something that spell check might not catch. Don’t just rely on spell check! Obviously, newspaper editors don’t pay enough attention as headlines seem to be a constant source of Grammar Giggles!
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