A loose collection of tips on more effective communication

Between and Among
Between comes from the word 'tween', which is an ancient version of 'two'; consequently, "between" always refers to two things: One can be between a rock and a hard place or between the devil and the deep blue sea, but one cannot be between a rock, a hard place, the devil, and the deep blue sea.  If there are more than two things, the correct word is "among".  By similar reasoning, among can never refer to only two things (this is not an error one sees very often).

Commas in series
Also known as commas before a conjunction
The previous example puts one in mind of commas in series: There are two ways to do this, and the resulting sentences have different meanings, in spite of the claims of some modern Americans.  If you have a bunch of things to list, put commas between them and before the last conjunction, usually 'and' or 'or', to show that they are individual items.  (This is sometimes called the "Oxford comma".)  If you leave the comma before the conjunction out, then it means the last two things are really one item.

Adapting the example sentence from above:

One cannot be between a rock, a hard place, the devil, and the deep blue sea.  This series refers to four different items, which is the intent of the sentence.
If you take out the last comma, you get: One cannot be between a rock, a hard place, the devil and the deep blue sea.  This series refers to only three things:  Not using the comma before the conjunction makes the sentence mean that the devil and the deep blue sea are, in fact, one composite item. 

Effect or Affect?
This one can be tough; one way to think of it is in terms of action: can/will something happen, or did it already happen?  If you are discussing something which is going to take place, then effect is correct:  An effect of the sun going nova is that the earth will be toast.  Or, what will be the effect of the sun going nova?  If it already happened, use affect:  Life on earth was negatively affected by the sun going nova. 

To really confuse things, we come to anticipation:  What will be the effects on earth if the sun goes nova (specific case), but What will be affected if the sun goes nova (general case).

That - Which
This is simpler: If you are referring to a specific thing, use that; if you're speaking in general, like a whole class of things, use which. 

Easy examples: To which item are you referring?  (Or commonly, Which one are you talking about?)  These are general.
I am referring to that one.  This says (often accompanied by a gesture) specifically which one is under discussion.

Insure - Ensure
The vast majority of people think that the prefixes in- and en- mean the same thing: well, folk, they don't.  The exact meanings are dependent on the rest of the word, and sometimes the usage or other conditions.  That gets way further into Latin roots and Olde English grammar than I think any of us want to go.  For these two, the importance is in the actual meanings of the complete words, because both are rooted in the largely-archaic word surity.

Insure means a way of valuing something so that it can be replaced in the event of loss, damage, etc.  Thus, you insure your car against theft and damage.  This usually refers to money - either you get paid so you can buy a new car, or the insurance company pays for repairs or buys a new car for you; either way, bucks changed hands somewhere.

Ensure means to make certain - usually, to make certain that something happens.  Thus, to ensure you have a way to get to work, you insure your car against theft.

Due To - Because Of
Although commonly misused, these two also don't mean the same thing.

Due to refers to something for which payment is to be made, either in money or a service of some kind - The minimum amount is due to us on the first of each month.
Because of refers to causality: A is responsible for B happening - The drought is because of the change in climate.

Preventive - Preventative; Oriented - Orientated
If you check your Webster's, you'll see that "preventative" has no definition: it just says "preventive".  This means that they put it in, but it's really another word, and you should look up that one to see what it means.  For many dictionary publishers, the way a word gets into the dictionary is by counting (statistically) how many people use (or misuse) it.  This is the case with preventative.  A few years ago, enough people were misusing it to get it added to some dictionaries.  The origin of this misuse is ancient, but it was more-recently popularized by World War II US military ignorance and obfuscation (not that our military would ever try to hide the truth from us).  From there, it spread to the government in general, and thence to those who try to impress people by misusing words (a.k.a. yuppies and the like).  OK, no more proselytizing (for now): just because a word can be found in the dictionary doesn't mean you should use it.  The word is "preventive".

The same is true of "orientated": The word is "oriented".

Quotation Marks and Punctuation
Do you put in the quotes and then the punctuation?  Or punctuation then quotes??  Simple, actually: If the whole sentence is in quotes (like when you include a verbatim sentence from another document) it's punctuation first.  Thus, "The sly brown fox jumped quickly over the lazy dog."  Period (or full stop if you're so inclined), then close quotes.  If you are citing a partial reference, it's quotes first.  For example: The typing exercise above makes reference to a "sly brown fox" and a "lazy dog".  Close quotes, then period.  Again, some modern Americans say to always put the punctuation first, but that's yuppie, not English, and it really makes stuff difficult to read. 

Parentheses and Punctuation
The same basic rule applies here as above:  If the entire sentence is in parentheses, the punctuation goes inside.  (On the other hand, does anyone ever read this stuff?)  Punctuation, then closing parenthesis.  If only part of the sentence is in the parentheses, the punctuation goes outside.  It was, indeed, a sly fox (or perhaps just a lazy dog).  Parenthesis, then punctuation.  (By the way, lest there be insufficient confusion, "parentheses" (plural) is both marks - open and close (); a "parenthesis" is only one of the marks, such as just ( or just ).)  (The previous construct, by the way, is what is called a "parenthetical remark", "parenthetical comment", etc. -- it's an extra bit of information which usually isn't necessary to understanding the primary material - like with this parenthetical comment.)

To further aid the confusion (just in case), these are parentheses ( ); these are brackets[ ]; and these are braces { }.  It pretty much only matters in mathematics, where a hierarchy governs their use.  If you want to really get technical, there is, according to some, a hierarchy for use in text, too: ( { [ ] } ).

A or An and Words Starting with H
Just thought I would throw this one in - proof that English is a weird language.  For words beginning with "H", the correct pronoun depends on the pronunciation of the word.

If the primary emphasis is on even syllable, use "an": an homology
If the primary emphasis is on an odd syllable, use "a": a hologram
But just to confuse things, always use "an" if the "H" is silent, as in honor or the American pronunciation of herb.
Confused yet???

Ellipsis - 3 dots or 4?
If you have more to say regarding the left-out part, use 3 dots (...); if you're just going to leave it hanging, and not say anything else about it, use 4 (....).  You should not leave a space between the last letter and the first dot: the ellipsis replaces "normal" punctuation.  You also should not put spaces between dots (. . . .).

i.e. - e.g.
Some folk have started using these interchangeably - well, actually, they tend to just use "i.e." for everything.  Sometimes, they even leave out the periods, although this is technically incorrect for any abbreviation.  In reality, "i.e." means "that is", and "e.g." means "for example", which are two very different things.  In addition, to use them correctly, there usually should be a comma after the second period, just as if you were writing out the words in English (i.e., e.g.,).  If you really wanna get weird, they should be in italics - the (usually ignored these days) rule for printed English is that words (or abbreviations) in non-English languages are to be italicized.  Example: The abbreviation e.g. is Latin for exampli gratia, which means "for example", while i.e., which is short for id est, means "that is".

And - Or
Occasionally, we come across a misuse of these two conjunctions.  It's really pretty simple: "and" may be thought of as mandatory - the items joined by the "and" are always connected: Select one from Column A and one from Column B; i.e., do both.  "Or" is an option word, e.g., Select one from Table A or one from Table B; don't do both, you may only select one.

its - it's
This is the exception that tests the rule for making possessive nouns and pronouns in English.  (Yes, it's tests not proves - a common misquote.)  The possessive form of "it" is "its", which is backwards from the rule.  This is because the apostrophe was already used to form the contraction "it's", or "it is".

Verb - Adverb
You use an adverbial ending, such as -ly, to modify a verb which describes another verb (how's that for confusing?).  For example, you don't say "He's acting strange", you say "He's acting strangely".  Strangely is an adverb which describes the verb acting: it describes "how" he is acting.  Of course, you could just say "he's weird" and get it over with....

Punctuation and Spaces
These are very general rules which aid readability; they originated in the world of letterset (movable type) printing and publishing way way back in the olde days.  When you compare a document which follows these rules with one which doesn't, the advantage is readily apparent.

1  After a comma (,) or semicolon (;), use one space.
2  After a period (.) or colon (:), use two spaces.

If you think of the above the way the Brits do, the rationale for this is obvious.  A period and a colon are both "full stops" from the standpoint of pausing and breathing when you're talking (that is, you take a full breath); a comma and a semicolon are half-stops.

3  Do not use spaces with hyphens; a hyphen is a single, short dash used for separating parts of a compound word or name (as in Zeta-Jones).  Hyphens also have many other uses.
4  An actual dash is as long as one-and-a-half to two hyphens.  It is used, for example, when setting off a phrase in a sentence.  It is written with one space, the dash, and another space.  If your word processor, like the web, doesn't directly support long dashes, you can use two short ones instead:  The fox -- which was brown -- was sly.

As an aside, for an example of how quickly English can change, when I was in public school, it was "semi-colon".  The hyphen had been dropped ("semicolon") by the time I went back to college after military service and other adventures -- about six years total.  In English, the typical progression is two words -- hyphenated word -- one word.  This used to take a hundred years or so; it's more like ten years these days, if that long.

Say What You Mean
Sometimes, you can get pretty seriously tripped up by word order, so be sure the sentence you write says what you want it to.  Consider this headline ripped from CNN.com a while back.

Ex-French official faces probe in Angola arms sale

What this says is that the official used to be French, implying that now he isn't but that he's still an official.  What the writer intended for it to say is that the person used to be a government official (specifically the Interior Minister per a subsequent sentence).  The assumption is that he is, in fact, still French.  (Actually, "Interior Minister" is also technically incorrect: this says he is a minister inside of something -- which is not specified -- when actually he is (or was) the official in charge of internal affairs for France -- i.e., Minister of the Interior.)  (We won't discuss possible interpretations of the rest of that headline....)

Infer - Imply
These depend on who is doing the action.  If I write a sentence which suggests something, instead of saying it right out, then I imply that hidden meaning.  If you read the sentence and understand what I mean, then you infer the hidden meaning.  In other words, implication refers to the "sender", while inference refers to the "receiver".

That - Who
"That" only refers to non-human things -- rocks, dogs, rutabagas, etc.  If you're talking about people, use "who" (or whom if appropriate).  So, for example, it would be "She is the person who....", not "She is the person that...."

"Hidden" Redundancies
This is something which has cropped up mostly in the last few years, with the world going nutszoid for acronyms.  It has become quite common to see (or hear) things like "LCD Display".  Well, folk, that's redundant:  The "D" stands for display.  The problem arises mostly with people who don't deal with this kind of thing on a daily basis:  They tend to read the words, not the acronym, so it comes out "liquid crystal display display".  Review what you wrote, and try to eliminate this kind of thing.  (This note courtesy of the Department of Redundancy Dept.)

1 Datum, 2 Data
We all misuse this one -- "data" is the plural of "datum":  one point is a datum, more than one constitute data.  Therefore, you can't have "data is", it's "data are".  Sounds funny, but you get used to it.    For "data is" it's doubly bad, because it implies you only have one reference point, which is insufficient in anyone's book.  (This is another case of a misuse which has become accepted by some: Webster's defines "data" both ways: as above, and to be either singular or plural, like with "deer".  Wishy-washy, I say.)  And speaking of pronunciation, the origin is Latin, not Greek, so the correct pronunciation is with a short first "A", as in 'ram', not long as in 'day' (relax the second 'a' some to make it come out more like 'uh').

At About
ICK!!!  "At" means "precisely"; "About" means "approximately".  See the problem?

Folk?
Just thought I would throw this one in because it's really rather obscure:  It's "folk", not folks, because by definition it's already plural.  It sounds funny to say (or see) folk, though, after all these years of having it wrong.  Not one I would worry about....

Alot
Ain't no such word at all period end of discussion.  Well, not quite...  It's "a lot", 2 words, meaning "a bunch", "a great deal", etc.  There is, though, allot, which means "to assign" -- as in, The company will allot funds for public relations.

"AM in the morning", "PM in the afternoon/evening"
These are from the Department of Redundancy Dept.  "AM" means ante meridiem, which is Latin for before the meridian (or noon), which therefore means morning.  "PM" means post meridiem, or after the meridian, which therefore means after noon -- and also evening, by extension.  So if you use the example incorrect phrases, you're really saying "morning in the morning" or "afternoon in the afternoon" (etc.).

Media/Medium
"Media" is plural for "Medium".  Television is a medium; radio is a medium; print (like in newspaper) is a medium.  Together, they are media.  So when those Terminally Vacuous idiots say "media" for "television", you know that they are examples of, and contributing to, the general "dumbing down" of the population.

Irregardless
They ain't no such word.  Its "regardless".  The prefix ir- means "without", and regardless means "without regard", so if you say "irregardless", you're saying without without regard.  Since a double negative makes a positive, you're really saying with regard, which probably isn't what you really mean.  (No, that doesn't mean that two wrongs make a right.  However, three often do.)

Slashes
This: /  is a "slash", "forward slash", " stroke", or "oblique stroke".  This: \  is a "backslash".  The backslash is not used in World Wide Web addresses, no matter how many advertisements you hear it in.

A Brief Sports Note
This one is a real nit-pick -- not really that important, just a subtlety most Americans don't know about.  You toss the javelin, hurl the discus, put the shot, and throw the hammer.  The difference is based on the motions involved.  The next time you watch a Track & Field meet, observe the field events, not just track -- the techniques are completely unrelated to each other, hence the different names.

Who - Whom
Use "whom" in the objective case:  that is, when you're talking about a third person, even if that person is implied.  For example, "To whom are you referring?" (You, me, and the unknown person about whom we are talking.)

A Group Of Commonly Misused and/or Mispronounced Words
De-acceleration (de-accelerate, etc.) -- It's deceleration (decelerate, etc.), the opposite of acceleration.
Cache -- The US military, among others, likes to pronounce this 'ka-shay'; it's 'kash'.  If it were spelled with an accent grave (caché), then it would be pronounced 'ka-shay'. There is also 'cachet', which is pronounced 'ka-shay'. 
Nuclear -- George Bush notwithstanding, this word is pronounced 'new-klee-uhr', not 'noo-kewh-luhr'.
Chastity and Celibacy -- as in vows of.  'Chastity' means not having sex; 'Celibacy' means not being married.  Bad jokes aside, they are not the same thing. The widely-touted vow that priests make is to not get married (they may also vow not to have sex, but that is different).
Erudite -- This one is really common: Many people say 'air-ee-oo-dite', which is just way too much trouble.  It's 'air-oo-dite'.
Principle and Principal -- Use 'principal' if you're talking about money or things which are first, paramount, most important,     etc.  The principal due on a loan, the principal of the local school.  Otherwise, use 'principle', as in "the principles of     operation" of something. 'Principle' refers to how something operates.
Memento -- As in a souvenir. Many people say (and write) 'momento', which isn't a word (in English, anyway).
Capital and Capitol -- Capitol refers to a building, as in the U.S. Capitol, which is the building where the Congress meets. 'Capitol' was an American invention, apparently showing up for the first time in the Foundation Documents.  Otherwise, it's capital, as in Washington, D.C. is the capital of the U.S.  This is also the correct spelling when talking about money.
Diva -- Diva is commonly misused to mean an obnoxious, self-important person. Originally, it was only misused to refer to females. Thanks to a certain vitamin company, it is now being misapplied to males, too. In actuality, a diva is a performing artist who is female, and is widely acknowledged as a legitimate "star". It is a completely positive term; in fact, a term of endearment. That obnoxious, self-important person is a prima donna -- a term which is also exclusively feminine in gender. It is a completely negative term, a term of derision.

Spell Check Errors
Microsoft is arguably responsible for more spelling errors than any other source in history. One major example is that there is a general rule in English that when a word ends in a consonant preceded by a vowel, the consonant is doubled when the word is modified to the adverbial or adjectival forms, or in the plural. Thus 'cancel' becomes 'cancelled', for example. There are exceptions, but few and far between, as it were. Two which actually predate Microsoft are 'gas' and 'bus'. They should be 'gasses, gassed, gassing', and 'busses, bussed, bussing'. There are other examples, but this is not the place to detail them. By the way, the grammar checker isn't very good, either, but it's better than nothing -- usually.

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