In my town, flags are flying at half-staff to honor a fallen firefighter, including the one at my office. Yesterday, I had to verify that flags do indeed fly at half-staff and not half-mast as some media outlet in town were reporting. Luckily, my favorite argument settler, the trusty AP Stylebook settled this question. Per the … Continue reading Half-mast vs. half-staff
That vs. who: A Grammar Lesson
Maybe its the anonymous nature of comments, bad grammar school or never learning to diagram a sentence, but the number of people who can't figure out when to use who or when to use that in a sentence appears to increase every day. To review from the AP Stylebook Who is for human beings and … Continue reading That vs. who: A Grammar Lesson
Spelling, still important
In 2013 this post really shouldn't have to be written. Sadly, it does. Not two, but three hiring managers recently confided that they've received resumes from job applicants with serious spelling errors. Not cover letters, but resumes. Yikes! If you aren't a strong speller, get to know spell check in your favorite word processing program. Even if you are a strong speller and winner of elementary spelling bees, use spell check.
Lay vs. Lie: A Grammar Lesson
Even though I know this grammar rule, I still always double check in my trusty, well-worn, AP Stylebook. Simplified: lay is for objects, lie is to recline. You lay an object on a table. You lie down.
Adviser vs. Advisor
I recently had to break out the trusted AP Stylebook for grey vs. gray (gray is the preferred, just so you know. Grey is ok for greyhound, but that's it). While I was there looked up adviser vs. advisor because spell check kept telling me advisor was wrong. Turns out, spell check is right by … Continue reading Adviser vs. Advisor