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The tie-breaking lesson
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Spoiler alert: There were no wrong answers to last week's quiz, but there's still a writing lesson to be had. We asked, "When you go back to work on Monday, how will you write time?" Technically, we were simply inquiring about what you would write. But there were still answer choices that contained incorrect options. Here's how you responded: It's a tie between 9 a.m. EST and 9 a.m. EDT. While there is definitely more than one way to write time, our style guide advises using "9 a.m." Most of you are on board with that. Now we'll move on to the subject of time zones and break the tie. In time zone abbreviations, the "S" stands for "standard," and the "D" stands for "daylight." After the clocks "spring forward" in March, we enter daylight saving time, which means we're no longer on standard time. So there you have it: The answer we were looking for is 9 a.m. EDT. Use the "D" until November, when the clocks "fall back." Of course, you could just call the whole thing off and use the two-letter versions: ET, CT, MT, PT. We have another question for you, but it's not a writing quiz (we'll get back to that next week). We mentioned last week that we've opened applications for the beta-testing program for our forthcoming product. Being a beta tester means that you get a sneak peek of the new product and the opportunity to share feedback that will shape the product to fit your needs. Are you interested? Respond below and fill out the application to see if you're a good fit for the program. Spots are limited, so let us know now.
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Hone your writing skills and never use "hone in" again. Get writing tips, have fun with words and learn something new in a one-minute read each week by signing up for Stylebot’s newsletter.
To write the phrase do's and don'ts, you need to create your own list of do's and don'ts. Do you, for example, stay consistent on apostrophe use, or do you instead insert an extra apostrophe for clarity? You can see that we opt for the latter, but that's not what you prefer. The vast majority of you who took last week's quiz like "dos and don'ts." We can relate. As longtime newsletter readers know, one of our pet peeves is when people unnecessarily add an apostrophe along with the "s" to make...
If you picked "whomever" in last week's quiz, why did you do that? "Well," you might have said to yourself, "whomever is for objects." That's true. But consider this sentence: The boss said she'll recommend whoever/whomever performs best. Would you make the same choice? We can get two lessons out of last week's quiz. There's subjects and objects: Subjects carry out the verb of a sentence, while objects receive the action of the verb. In the sentence, "She will recommend him," "she" is the...
Last week's quiz question might have seemed confusing because of the lesson that preceded it about subject-verb agreement, but most of you got it right. "Neither" usually takes singular verbs, and even though "of the options" is right next to the verb, it doesn't affect the verb since it's a prepositional phrase. What writing challenges trip you up? Remember that we're happy to tackle them in this newsletter. Submit your questions here. In the meantime, here's this week's quiz: The boss said...