Just about all of the authors I work with know their grammar. You guys are certainly not people who need to have a whole book on grammar sitting on your shelf. But there are a handful of grammarly things that trip up even people with masters and PhDs and who’ve been writing at work for years. Here’s my list.
Abbreviations
Don’t do anything weird to the term whose abbreviation you’re about to define.
No: Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC), demand response (DR), Electric Vehicles (EV)
Yes: combined heat and power (CHP), Department of Energy (DOE)
Dangling things
Data is/are
“Data” is probably more widely used as a singular noun these days than plural. And that’s fine. Most of the authors and organizations I work with, however, want to keep it plural yet often end up with a mixture. Do a search on “data” when you’re done with your report/proposal to make sure you’re consistent.
“It”/”they”
When talking about groups of people, it’s easy to refer to them as a singular entity (community) but use a plural verb ((they) “decide”). Make sure the verb or pronoun matches the subject you typed and not the subject you’re imagining. It’s especially easy to do if a lot of words come between the subject and verb.
No: The committee []
The Food and Drug Administration, building upon their recent announcement, should implement a strong rule requiring labeling of added sugars on food nutrition labels.
Yes:
Hyphens
When two words together modify a third word, hyphenate the two words.
Yes: future-oriented attitude, weather-dependent plans
-ly
Yes: computationally intensive, naturally occuring, federally funded
Parallel structure: “either,” “only”
In speech this doesn’t really matter, but in writing it’s good to be precise. Put the “either” or “only” before the thing that is actually either or only.
No:
Yes:
Parallel structure: lists
The elements of inline lists need to be parallel — all nouns, all verbs + nouns, etc.
No:
Yes:
Periods and footnote numbers
Place the period before the footnote number.
No:
Yes:
Periods and quotation marks
If you’re writing in the US or in US-based journals, place the period inside the quotation marks.
Yes:
Quotation marks
Almost never use single quotation marks. Whether you’re quoting dialogue (“this is grant proposal should be framed!”), highlighting a nonstandard use of a word (even in “sunny day flooding”), or [?], use double quotes. The sole use of single quotes is when the text containing the words around which you want to put double quotes is already inside double quotes.
Yes:
What other nitty-gritty details do you wonder about? What other little glitches do you see pass across your desk (or email) on too regular a basis?