CORAL STYLE AND GRAMMAR GUIDE Updated September, 2014 Thank you in advance for helping to reinforce CORAL’s brand by following these established guidelines. Please do not hesitate to contact the communications team with suggestions, corrections, and questions about writing and usage preferences. Writing tips Avoid the passive voice. Although it’s very common in academic and scientific publications writing, when writing for a general audience using the passive voice can make you sound unsure or can seem like you’re avoiding responsibility. What is a passive sentence? When the noun or noun phrase that would be the object of a sentence appears as the subject of a sentence. Look for sentences with “to be” verbs and past participles, which often end in “-ed.” Always ask yourself “who will do the action?” Examples: . Passive Voice: Funding guidelines will be created and results will be evaluated to measure the performance that is achieved. (Who will do it?) . Active Voice: The foundation will create funding guidelines and hire a consultant to evaluate the grantee’s performance. Avoid abbreviations. It’s OK to use MPAs, U.S., and other common abbreviations, but otherwise you should avoid alphabet soup. If an abbreviation is appropriate and will be used repeatedly throughout the piece, put it in parentheses after spelling out the name the first time. Example: . Bay Islands Conservation Network (BICA) will study the issue. BICA’s experts will... Avoid weak modifiers and meaningless words (very, really, a lot, key, crucial, critical, essential, serious, etc.). These aren’t banned words, but they tend to weaken your writing. It’s better to use strong verbs and to be specific. Real-world examples and compelling statistics make writing more persuasive and interesting to read. Example: . Avoid: Our efforts really increased underwater visibility in the area. 1 . Do: We increased visibility by 80% in the area. Avoid repetition. Don't repeat words more than absolutely necessary. If you've already called something "significant," call it "important" next time. Write simply and avoid jargon. Less is more! Ask yourself: have I said something in a more complicated way than necessary? Funders and decision makers don’t want to spend a lot of time reading. The faster you get to the point the more interested they will be. Given our line of work, the words below are sometimes exactly the right word, but they are overused and don’t mean as much to people outside of the conservation field. Think twice about using the words below and refer to a thesaurus when needed. ambitious . key . analytic(al) . leverage (verb) . assessment . massive . campaign . mechanism . capacity . mitigate (mitigation) . core . optimum . critical . policy(maker) . crucial . priority . decision maker . prioritize . engage(ment) . resources . etc. rigorous . expert(ise) . serious . impact (verb) . strategic . implement (verb) . technical . institution(al) . utilize . intense . venue . issue . world-class Other words and phrases to avoid or use with care: . Through this [effort/program/etc.] (and other related phrases) - Beginning a sentence this way often ends up not truly making sense, lacking clarity, or just sounding jargony. Although it is occasionally the most efficient and accurate way to describe something, use with great caution. Train [someone] on how to [do something] - Not wrong, just clunky. Rework when possible. (Example: Rather than "CORAL trained fishermen on how to use 2 the guide," try "CORAL trained fishermen to use the guide," or "CORAL trained fishermen on the guide's proper use.") . What he/she said was… Instead of using so many words, try to be more concise and write “he/she said…” Grammar and Mechanics Avoid dangling modifiers. A dangling modifier occurs when a modifier can be misinterpreted to be associated with a word other than the intended word. Example: . Incorrect: Organizing files every three months, the office seemed to run better. (The office can’t organize files on its own.) . Correct: Anne made the office function more smoothly by organizing files every three months. Use commas to set off phrases. Lists, phrases, and clauses that are non-restrictive or parenthetical (i.e., the sentence would make sense and have the same meaning without them) must be set off by commas, meaning that they must **both start and end** with commas. Examples: These animals, including sea stars, periwinkles, and sharks, are fascinating. The whales, having eaten many small fish, swam away. Which vs. That Basic rule: Use commas with "which," but not with "that." Explanation for when to use each: http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/which.htm This and That "This" and "that" (and "these" and "those") are demonstrative adjectives—they generally can't stand alone. For instance, it's technically incorrect to say "This makes us happy." You need a noun for "this" to modify. A correct sentence would be "This decision makes us happy." (I think it's totally fine to ignore this rule most of the time, but not in more formal writing.) 3 Between vs. Among Use "between" when only two parties are involved; if there are more, you need to use "among." For example, "CORAL fosters relationships between operators and conservation managers" vs. "CORAL builds connections among managers, operators, and other stakeholders." Hyphens A good rundown of hyphen use: http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/hyphens.asp Prepositions Make sure you've got the right preposition to go with your verb. (There may be some discrepancies between American and British English here.) For instance, you train someone "on" or "in" something, but you teach someone "about" something. Comprise "Comprise" is one of the most frequently misunderstood and misused words in the English language, so there's a good chance people won't notice if you use it incorrectly. However, if you happen to reach a grammarian (like Joe), he or she will frown mightily. It's tricky, because "comprise" sounds like and has a similar meaning to "compose." However, "comprise" is a synonym for "include." Although it's correct to say "the group is composed of many stakeholders," to say "the group is comprised of many stakeholders" would be like saying "the group is included of many stakeholders." (Your English teacher vomits.) The correct phrase is: "the group comprises many stakeholders." In another common form, "The group, comprising many stakeholders, was quite large." (NOT "The group, comprised of many stakeholders, was quite large.") Make material easier to digest with lists and bullets. Use a semicolon instead of a comma if lists are long, complicated, or have items with commas. • At the staff retreat, Michael baked pies, cookies, and muffins; played Hawaiian music; and danced late into the night, amusing his guests. Use a colon to let readers know a long list is coming, especially if you use semi- colons as separators. 4 . Use bullets if your list has more than two or three items—they’re great for breaking up big blocks of dense text. o Press tab to indent and make a subpoint. But think twice about going to a third level or beyond. Give each bullet the same syntax (for example, all of the items in this bulleted list begin with a command). In addition, if one of your bullets is a sentence, they all should be sentences, and vice versa, for consistency. Don’t put commas or semicolons at the end of bullets; use a period only when the bullet is a complete sentence. Maintain parallel structure for both lists and bullets o CORAL seeks to decrease destructive fishing, improve marine park management, and tackle other local threats. o NOT: CORAL seeks to decrease destructive fishing, improvements in marine park management, and tackling other local threats. Formatting and punctuation With a few exceptions, CORAL uses Associated Press (AP) Style since it puts a premium on clarity and brevity. It’s also what guides many English-language newspapers and magazines, so it’s familiar to readers. Some CORAL-specific style rules you should master: . Colons: do not capitalize the phrase or sentence that begins after a colon (this is an exception to the AP style). Commas: use the serial or “Oxford” comma (a comma before the last item in a list) - Madhavi has dived in Fiji, Palmyra, and Honduras. - Use a comma to separate two independent clauses; otherwise use your judgment. Read out loud and listen to where the reader might need to take a breath. Examples: Headquarters staff celebrated the holiday by going on a crazy scavenger hunt, and three of them felt nauseous afterwards. (Those are two full sentences connected by the conjunction “and.” CORAL’s headquarters staff celebrated the holiday by going on a crazy scavenger hunt and found several unusual items on the list. (To be a complete sentence “found several unusual items” would need a “they” in 5 front of it.) . Dates: when including the date on memos, letters, reports, and footers, follow this format: month day, year • January 1, 2014 . Quotation marks: Periods and commas go inside the quotation marks, regardless of whether the punctuation is part of the quoted material. (American rule. Sorry, but that's the way it's gotta be.) Other punctuation goes inside if it's part of the quote, but outside if it's not. Example: "I think this rule is hella stupid!" said Sarah. (Can you believe Sarah said "hella"?) . Footnotes: o Place footnotes at the end of a sentence or at the end of a clause. o The number follows every punctuation mark except for the dash, which it precedes . Formal titles: capitalize formal titles before the name, but use lowercase after or when alone o Executive Director Michael Webster met with President Obama today. After President Obama hires Michael to be in charge of the world’s coral reefs, CORAL will need to find a new executive director.