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Archive for the ‘On Writing Well’ Category
How to Start an Attention Grabbing Cover Letter
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009“It’s” vs. “Its”
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008As I was explaining the difference between “can I” and “may I” to a rather stubborn granddaughter, her brother announced for all the world that “Grandma is the grammar police.” Alas, I confess that on certain subjects I can be very much the grammar police.
I tell you that to warn you, dear reader, that I am moving into “grammar police” mode for this post.
The pesky little apostrophe serves a dual purpose. First, it combines contractions. A contraction, as you probably already know, is the combination of two words into one, as in “do not” to “don’t” or “can not” to “can’t.” The apostrophe is there to indicate where the missing letters are.
But, just to confuse things, an apostrophe is also used to indicate the possessive form of a noun or a pronoun. And “it” is a pronoun.
The correct form of the contraction “it is” is to use the apostrophe, as in “it’s.”
The correct form of the possessive for the pronoun “it” should also have an apostrophe, but, contrary to all the rules you learned about possessives, it does not. In order to indicate whether the contraction or the possessive is being used, the apostrophe is NOT used when “it” is written in the possessive.
So . . . when writing “it’s” to mean “it is,” use the apostrophe. When writing “its” to indicate possessive, do NOT use the apostrophe, as demonstrated in the following sentences:
“It’s [contraction] beginning to rain and the chair is going to get wet. Please put its [possessive] cover on quickly.”
In the course of your job search, you will be sending out resumes and cover letters, and you may be tempted to add or remove the “its” apostrophe incorrectly. In addition, you will undoubtedly be composing correspondence and e-mail at some point as part of your job responsibilities. Knowing the correct form is ALWAYS good form.
And please do not complain to me about this. It was determined by grammar police who are far higher on the pecking order than I will ever be. Ours is not to reason why . . .
~ Anne Follis, CPRW
The Elements of Style & The Secret to Writing Well
Thursday, June 14th, 2007The cardinal rule of good writing is to keep it simple, direct, and concise. In what have been called the “63 words that could change the world,” the late great William Strunk, professor of English at Cornell University, said it all:
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. (William Strunk Jr., and E. B. White, The Elements of Style, 3rd ed., New York: Macmillan, 1979, p 23)
As a writer I have gone back to this paragraph many times. When you draft a resume and cover letter, I recommend that you ask yourself repeatedly: “What am I telling busy personnel directors who are eager to make a dent in pile of resumes?” If the anser is nothing, or more than they care to know, or less than they need to know about how your abilities may benefit them, then edit your material accordingly until you get it right.
~ Anne Follis, CPRW
