This post details various strategies for reducing and simplifying sentences. 1. Sentence Combination Avoid consecutive sentences that end and begin, respectively, with the same word or phrase as occurs here: A common way to track the current state of systems is monitoring performance metrics. Performance metrics show how assets are performing at the transaction level. In such cases, replace the period between them with a comma and delete the second iteration of the word or phrase with which: “A common…

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Abbreviations are a sometimes necessary evil, but with the power to employ them comes great responsibility. This post outlines types of abbreviations and associated guidelines. An abbreviation is a shortening of a word or phrase, either by truncation or by abridgement by way of using only the first letter of each word of the term in turn (though sometimes more than the first letter is included, and occasionally, in the interest of creating an easily pronounceable abbreviation, one or more…

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A number of idiomatic expressions refer (often hyperbolically, or with lighthearted exaggeration) to units of English measure to describe something figuratively or make an observation. This post lists and explains many such phrases. To be “every inch a (something)” or “every inch the (something)” is to so closely match a stereotypical look or embody a trait that the comparison holds thoroughly, figuratively, from beginning to end. “Within an inch of (one’s) life” means “to an extreme degree”; to beat someone…

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One simple method for making a more compact, efficient sentence is to clear the way for the primary verb to do its job. In each of the examples below, other parts of speech obstruct a verb. Discussion after each sentence explains the problem, and a revision offers a solution. 1. As much as we love kids and pets, they are unpredictable and can cause a driver to be distracted. In this sentence, cause is positioned as the key verb, but…

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This post details the purposes of various horizontally aligned typographical symbols. Hyphen Hyphens perform various functions, including the following: They link standing compound words (mind-set, self-respect). They are used with some prefixes (anti-inflammatory). They represent expression in isolation of a prefix or a word element (pre-, -er). They link spelled out numerical terms representing different place values (twenty-four). They link words in phrasal adjectives preceding but not following a noun (“short-term investment,” “off-the-cuff remark”) and when combining similar-looking constructions that…

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For hundreds of years, France was a world power militarily, economically, and culturally, and thus its language became the political, well, lingua franca. Although the nation is no longer a superpower (yet influential in world affairs), the French language is still well represented in the vocabulary of diplomacy—as is its precursor, Latin. This post lists and defines words adopted directly from French (and Latin) into diplomatic discourse, now dominated by English. (Each term is followed by an English translation. Latin…

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This post discusses a number of idiomatic expressions that refer literally or figuratively to consuming food and include some form of the word eat. To say that someone will eat someone else for breakfast is to convey that the first person will easily defeat the other in whatever competition or rivalry they are engaged in. Meanwhile, a dog-eat-dog environment is a highly competitive one, with a hyperbolic notion that people within it are so ruthless that they are like animals…

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This post describes how to organize in-line lists, those that occur within a sentence, as compared to vertical lists, those organized by setting the items on the list apart from each other, distinguished by numbers, letters, or other symbols, on consecutive lines. (Vertical lists will be described in a separate post.) An in-line list may consist of a set of words, phrases, or clauses, or a combination of the three. The simplest in-line list is one that consists of one-word…

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This post lists and defines compound words in which the second element is the word port, derived from the Latin word portare, meaning “carry.” Airport, carport, heliport, and seaport refer to locations where the vehicles and vessels implied by the respective prefixes embark and return (and remain between uses). To apport (literally, “carry to”) is to move or produce something through supernatural means, and an apport is something so moved. To comport (“carry with”) is to agree or to behave….

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This post discusses the functions of parentheses and brackets, which are used to set off portions of text from the whole for various purposes. Parentheses, almost exclusively appearing in pairs, are usually employed in the same manner as a pair of commas or dashes, though they suggest de-emphasis of the content within (as opposed to commas, which convey a neutral insertion of information, and dashes, which highlight the text between them). Parentheses, in addition to being employed to interject examples…

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