“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
Albert Einstein
Is It an Acronym or an Initialism
Abbreviations come in several sizes:
1. Acronym
Refers only to abbreviations that sound like—and are read like—actual words: North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO (pronounced NAY-toe). Some acronyms spell out real words: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS. And some acronyms become “real” words: laser began as the acronym LASER (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation).
2. Initialism
Refers to a series of letters that you say individually: ATM (automated teller machine), BBC (British Broadcasting Company), FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation).
3. Contraction
Refers to abbreviations that include the first and last letters of the full word: Ms. (miz), Mr. (mister), amt. (amount), Gov. (governor).
When to Use a Semicolon
1) To join two independent clauses: Some travelers like to plan their own trips; others like to use a tour company.
2) To link clauses connected by conjunctive adverbs or transitional phrases: Travelers who use a tour company prefer to have everything planned for them in advance; however, they pay a premium price for that luxury.
3) To separate items in a list that includes commas: He packed a toilet kit that included a toothbrush, comb, and toothpaste; a computer bag that held his laptop, cables, and mouse; and a daypack that contained his water bottle, energy bars, and maps.
Sage Writing Advice from 1751
If you think today’s emphasis on clear and concise writing is a rather recent, historically speaking, concern of good writers everywhere, think again.
Here is some sage advice from the Earl of Chesterfield in December 1751 to his illegitimate son, Phillip, after “setting the boy up in the world”:
“The first thing necessary in writing letters of business, is extreme clearness and perspicuity;
every paragraph should be so clear and unambiguous, that the dullest fellow in the world may
not be able to mistake it, nor obliged to read it twice in order to understand it. This necessary
clearness implies a correctness, without excluding an elegance of style. Tropes, figures,
antitheses, epigrams, etc., would be as misplaced and as impertinent in letters of business, as
they are sometimes (if judiciously used) proper and pleasing in familiar letters, upon common
and trite subjects. In business, an elegant simplicity, the result of care, not of labor, is required.”
(excerpt from The Atlantic, “How to Write a Business Letter: Advice From the 18th Century,” Shannon Chamberlain)
Simplicity Is the Key to Writing—and Most Other Worthwhile Human Endeavors
“It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple.” Steve Jobs
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Albert Einstein
“You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of the parts that are not essential.” Jonathan Ivie, Senior Vice President of Design for Apple [replace a product with an idea and parts with words and the quote now applies to writing.
On Serial Commas
The serial comma (also known as the Oxford or Harvard comma) is the comma placed before a coordinating conjunction (usually and and or, sometimes nor) that precedes the final item in a list of three or more items:
“I visited Norway, France, and Germany.”
The Chicago Manual of Style says to always use it. The Associated Press Stylebook, however, says you do not need it in a simple series (“I like the colors red, blue and yellow.”) but you do in a complex series (“While in Barcelona, we ate at three tapas restaurants, walked down Las Ramblas, and ran along the beach.”).
The trend in professional writing over the last decade or so has been: “the less punctuation, the better.” So you will see some articles in major publications that to not have a serial commas in a complex series, do not use commas to offset a non-restrictive clause beginning with which, do not have a comma before too when it comes at the end of a sentence, and other uses (or non-uses) of punctuation which appear to be errors.
So what’s the final verdict? Use the serial comma at your own discretion, that is, follow your Writer’s Intuition. The reason often quoted for using the serial comma is to prevent sentences like this one which refers to Merle Haggard and appeared in a major newspaper:
“Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall.”
However, common sense and your Writer’s Intuition tells you such a sentence needs a comma before the and to clear up the confusion. So put one in. But your Writer’s Intuition will tell you the serial comma is not necessary in other cases. For example, “Among those interviewed were Kris Kristofferson, Robert Duvall and Haggard’s two ex-wives.”