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Posted by: Catie Holdridge
19 / 06 / 17
With the summer holidays fast approaching (hooray), there’s a question you might soon find yourself pondering. Perhaps it’ll be when you’re penning a postcard from more tropical climes. ‘Having a lovely time,’ you write. ‘Though I haven’t been able to sit down for two days, as I’ve managed to get terribly sunbur—’ Oh. Hang on. […]
01 / 12 / 16
If you’re feeling generous and you’re offering money off something, is that a discount on or a discount off the usual price? This was recently the subject of much heated debate here at Emphasis HQ. Sides were taken, teeth bared and battle lines drawn, with both sides certain they were right. ‘Of course it’s “discount off“!’ […]
Posted by: Jacob Funnell
04 / 11 / 16
Two of the most commonly confused words in the English language are ‘stationary‘ and ‘stationery‘. It may come as a surprise that they are separate words, but they are different – ‘stationary’ and ‘stationery’ mean entirely different things, even though they happen to be spelled in a very similar way. So what’s the difference? And, more importantly, […]
16 / 10 / 15
When you’ve finished an email, all you need is a friendly, professional sign off. And there’s one popular choice. That choice is ‘Kind regards’. For most work emails, it’s hard to go wrong with this. It’s succinct and it’s professional. Yet every week, I get emails from people who sign off like this: ‘Kind Regards’. So […]
Posted by: Cathy Dann
07 / 05 / 14
Recently a reader asked us whether it was correct to put a space between a number and a unit (eg ‘4 cm’), or to close them up (‘4cm’). Well, what a can of contradictory worms that turned out to be. When it comes to units of measure, it seems some like to get up close […]
28 / 03 / 13
This is a nice, easy one to answer. No sitting on the fence, no ‘it’s down to personal preference’. Here goes: Should have, would have, could have – correct Should of, would of, could of – incorrect The error is widespread and dates back nearly 200 years. The cause? Simply that should’ve sounds identical to […]
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