Grammar & Spelling
Punctuation:
- Apostrophe
- Used in contractions and to show possession.
- No additional space.
- Colon
- Used to indicate a forthcoming list or further explanation.
- One space after the colon if what follows is not a complete sentence, two spaces if what follows is a complete sentence.
- Comma
- Used to separate words and phrases within a sentence.
- The second to last item in a series does need a comma (use the Oxford comma)
- One space follows a comma.
- Hyphen
- Used to separate ideas or in hyphenated words (ex. seven-years-old).
- One space follows if used to set off part of a sentence; no additional space if used within words.
- Parentheses and Brackets
- Used to enclose additional information.
- No additional space.
- Period, Exclamation Mark, and Question Mark
- Used to end a complete sentence.
- One space follows each.
- Semicolon
- Used to separate two dependent clauses and in some lists.
- One space follows a semicolon.
Possession:
- Possession shows ownership and is indicated by an apostrophe. For most nouns, singular is ‘s and plural is s’. The main exception to this is the possessive form for it, which is “its”.
- Examples:
- Singular possessive: Kat’s office is in the Graphics and Marketing room.
- Plural possessive: The cats’ toys are under the refrigerator.
Noun-Verb Agreement:
- If a plural noun is used, the verb must also be plural. Please note that Roberta’s Art Gallery and Career & Leadership Development are singular nouns and would therefore use a singular verb.
- Trick: Many plural nouns end in s whereas many singular verbs end in s. Therefore, within one sentence you cannot have both the noun and verb end in s.
- Ex. Career & Leadership Development presents…
- Ex. Career & Leadership Development and Roberta’s Art Gallery present…
Prepositions
- A preposition is a linking word that shows a relationship. Some examples are on, through, under, over, etc.
- You should never end a sentence with a preposition. An easy way to tell if a word is a preposition is to add the phrase “the box” after the word. If it makes sense, it’s a preposition.
- Ex. In (the box); on (the box)
- Ex. Incorrect: I have no one to dance with.
- Ex. Correct: I have no one with whom to dance.
Numbers
- Numbers ten and below should be spelled out, 11 and above should be numeric. Decimals must be written numerically, fractions are at the discretion of the author.
- Ex. Six students are employed at the UC Graphics and Marketing Office.
- Ex. I designed 14 posters this semester.
- The exception to this rule is when the majority of numbers used in a series or list are over ten, then they all should be numeric.
- Ex. I have 3 chickens, 14 goats, 19 cows, and 27 dogs.
Abbreviations and Formatting:
- Phone Numbers
- (262) 472-5724 or 262.472.5724
- Emails
- Fiscoj@uww.edu
- Time
- am or pm, not a.m. or p.m.
- Titles
- Mr.
- Mrs.
- Dr.
- Professor
- Directions and Locations
- Street: St.
- Road: Rd.
- Wisconsin: WI
- North: N
Spelling
Homophones:
- Their, They’re, and There
- Their: Pronoun to indicate plural possession. Ex. Their dog is lazy.
- They’re: Contraction of ‘they are’. Ex. They’re arriving shortly.
- There: Noun meaning a location. Ex. Let’s meet over there.
- You’re and Your
- You’re: Contraction of ‘you are’. Ex. You’re coming with us.
- Your: Possessive form of you to indicate ownership. Ex. Your lunch is cold!
- To, Too, and Two
- To: Preposition that indicates a direction. Ex. We’re going to edit this poster.
- Too: Synonym for ‘also’ or ‘as well’. Ex. Please include my email too.
- Two: Spelling of the number 2. Ex. I need two copies of that document.
Know the Difference!
- affect (verb) vs. effect (noun)
- accept (approve) vs. except (not including)
- among (more than two things involved) vs. between (just two things)
- and vs. to (and is not an infinitive and cannot be used as such)
- assure vs. ensure vs. insure
- compliment vs. complement
- principal vs. principle
- that (use for first word of essential phrases/clauses) vs. which (use for nonessential phrases/clauses)
- than (conjunction for linking) vs. then (adverb indicating time)
- which (things) vs. who (people)
- who vs. whom (substitute he/him to determine—he indicates who, him indicates whom)
Tricky Words
- anyway
- Anyways is not a word.
- Career & Leadership Development
- Always use an ampersand, not the word ‘and’ .
- email
- No hyphen and not capitalized unless it is the first word of a sentence or in a title.
- résumé
- Remember the two accents (ex. é).
- University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
- Note the hyphen.
- Willie’s 360°
- Remember the degree symbol.
Spell Check:
- Always, always, always spell check every project before handing in a draft or printing out a final copy. You can find the spell check function in Illustrator and InDesign under Edit > Spelling/Check Spelling.