If you wish to rely completely on your device’s spellchecker without enlisting the services of a professional proofreader, it can be a false economy. The sections below will help to explain why you should use a competent proofreader as part of your documentation production process. The reason is simply this: spellcheckers will only detect a …
Latin has a great influence over the English language; it is, in fact, the root of the Romance languages. Numerous Latin terms and phrases remain intact from their creation in antiquity to this day, and continue to survive within the English language. Due to their foreign origins, however, such terms and phrases can sometimes be …
Interested in playing word games? Here are 20 words that you might like to note, as they may come in handy at times when you have a q, but not a u. faqir – fakir. miqra – Hebrew biblical text. qabab – kebab. qadi – Muslim civil judge. qaf – letter of the Arabic alphabet. …
The word pangram comes from the Greek pan gramma, which means “every letter.” A pangram is a sentence that contains every letter of the alphabet. You can use a pangram in typing exercises to involve (and thereby test) all the alphabetical keys; you can also use pangrams to display all the letters of a font’s typeface to check …
“People, in the coming year we need to literally recontextualise our synergy.” The business world of today is flooded with overused buzzwords, usually related to past management trends of the day. You know the ones: they appear in motivational posters hung on office walls, or maybe you’ve even heard them during work meetings. Be careful …
“Quote” is a verb, used as in “I like to quote Shakespeare” – in other words, when the speaker is making a reference to the person who made the original statement. “Quotation” is a noun, used as in “Here is a quotation from Shakespeare.” As a noun, it can also be used within a statement …
Ever had to stop and think about the difference between practicable and practical, or legible and readable? Which one should you use? There are a number of words in English whose appearance closely resembles another word; this sometimes causes the inappropriate one to be used, resulting in the wrong meaning being communicated to the listener. …
Whether, weather and wether are homophones, i.e. words that sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings. That is to say… Whether: i. A conjunction used to express doubt, or a choice between alternatives, as in “They seemed undecided whether to go or stay.” ii. To express an enquiry, as in “I’ll check whether …
If you’re a native English speaker and think that learning a foreign language is difficult, spare a thought for those trying to get to grips with our pronunciation rules. For instance, the letters “ough” in a word might well cause some to scratch their heads in bafflement! Imagine our overseas friends, in the early stages …
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So you want to publish something about your business. Or your website. Or your society’s monthly newsletter. Or you have a business plan to deliver to a potential financial backer. Or you need to hand in your university dissertation. You think that your document is finished, and you’re raring to go. But… Someone has to …
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What is a technical writer anyway, and who uses one? A suitably-qualified, formally-trained technical writer is a professional writer who undertakes technical writing to produce technical documentation to enable readers to understand and use a product or service effectively. A technical writer describes processes, procedures, products and technologies using clear, accurate and unambiguous text. Professionals …
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