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Was vs. were (1/2)
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Were you wondering what the "1/2" meant in today's subject line, or was it obvious to you? We're back to quizzing you this week, and it's part one of two on was vs. were.
Thank you to everyone who shared editing challenges with us. We're using them to inspire our quiz questions. You can share yours here. And don't forget: If you want to join our beta-testing program to get a sneak peek of the new product we're developing, apply here before time runs out. The application deadline is just one week away. We didn't have a quiz last week, so there's no answer to go over today. However, some of you who left feedback about this newsletter have asked us to share more Stylebot case studies. Stylebot's website has a whole page of case studies from our clients, and one we'll highlight today is from CalMatters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers California's state government. CalMatters maintains a database of state lawmakers, and in order for it to work properly, the information about each one needs to be exactly right in each story. So CalMatters got a custom version of Stylebot that combines our style guide with information on each legislator, as well as CalMatters' house style. For CalMatters, Stylebot is an all-in-one resource that helps everyone get the details right the first time. “The only asset any news organization actually has is trust and credibility,” Neil Chase, CalMatters’ CEO, said. “Little things like getting names right, getting terms right, these days is a huge credibility boost.” Read the full case study here. ❤ Team Stylebot
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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...