Infographics are so hot right now and ones that are done really well make me jealous of the people who created them. Check out this sweet example about Wal-Mart.
Today’s Sugar: Did you know that, according to AP Style, the company is called Wal-Mart, but when you go to the store, you are going to Walmart. The full name of the company is Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Thanks to GHNewsroom for the clarification.
Today’s post is about commas.
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Yesterday, I realized that I am bad with commas. I know that you need a comma when you join two independent clauses and that a parenthetical reference needs to be set off by commas, but for some reason I don’t always follow the rules when I type.
Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style discusses this prevalent punctuation mark in rules two through six. My goal for this week is to notice instances of rule number three, “enclose parenthetic expressions between commas.” A subset of this rule is the distinction between a restrictive clause and a nonrestrictive clause. A restrictive clause is one that changes the meaning of the preceding subject. Take these examples:
My cousin Emmett is a glass blower. (restrictive)
My youngest cousin, Emmett, is a glass blower. (nonrestrictive)
In the first example, you don’t know which of my cousins is a glass blower without “Emmett.” In the second example, because the sentence is about my youngest cousin, “Emmett” is simply extra information. We already know which cousin we are talking about, and so Emmett is nonrestrictive in this example. Set off nonrestrictive clauses with commas.
Today’s Sugar: Grab a book and see if you can point out restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses as you read. It’s easy to understand the difference between the two clauses but it’s not so easy to spot examples.
Just a quick post today.
The Associated Press Stylebook is the journalist or PR professional’s bible, or at least it should be. The people in charge of hiring you actually care if you get it right.
In going over my own resume, I came upon the following resource that points out top AP mistakes on resumes. To it, I’d like to add parallel structure as another issue that resume writers neglect. (Start your bullet points with verbs and use matching tenses.)
When editing your work, think beauty, fashion, and glamour. The Elements of Style (illustrated) by Strunk, White and Kalman makes the editing process feel classy and elegant rather than rocky and uphill.
Today’s Sugar: Proofread your resume, keeping the following AP style rules in mind. http://www.jobspage.com/2009/08/the-top-6-ap-style-errors-on-resumes/
PR Sugar 