When the student got to school, they realised they had forgotten their lunch.
 
There are three examples of the singular they in that sentence. Did you notice? Would you have written it any differently?
 
Of course, I could have written:

          When the student got to school, he or she realised he or she had forgotten his or her lunch.

That’s a bit unwieldy! And potentially wrong. But definitely not inclusive. 

​Italic font was first used in presses in Italy the 1500s and was designed to replicate the handwritten manuscripts of the time. Italic font was used differentiate informal manuscripts created for leisure reading from formal manuscripts, which used Roman type. It wasn’t until the sixteenth century that italic font was used for emphasis.

Today it has several more uses, but it’s important to not overuse it, as this can lead to readability issues, especially when taking into account accessibility.
​
As an aside, the first letter of italics is pronounced the same as the i in sit – not as eye. 
​

Related article:
NZE: How to write times and dates.
 
​
We all know the rhyme 1, 2, buckle my shoe. 3, 4, knock on the door.

​Or should it be One, two, buckle my shoe. Three, four, knock on the door?

This article is about how to use numbers and numerals within formal and informal writing to make sure it is consistent and easy to read. These rules are not applicable to very technical or scientific writing, and in those cases the appropriate style guide should be referred to.
​
When using numbers in writing, whether it’s fiction, non-fiction or business documents, the main issue is whether to spell out the number or whether to use figures, but there are some other rules and exceptions to consider.

​We use abbreviations and acronyms every day without thinking about them, and we instantly know the meaning of many of them – abbreviations like FAQs, ETA, IQ, DVDs … And today's text language is full of abbreviations LOL (or lol if you are of the younger generation).

When writing, it can be confusing knowing how to write abbreviations and acronyms correctly, and as there are only small style variations, it doesn’t always look wrong to use one or the other.

However, to make your writing look professional, there are some style decisions you will need to make when writing in New Zealand English text, so we’ll have a look at what the options are.

As always, rule number one is to be consistent within a document, and even across all your writing. It doesn’t look professional, and can cause confusion, if you have, for example, 9 am in one place, but
​9 a.m. in another.
​
But first things first: what are abbreviations and acronyms?

There are different ways to get your book published (that's a whole other topic!). But once you have made the decision to self-publish your book, there are more decisions to make.

Will you make print copies or e-books? Or both?
Will you use a local designer and printer, or one of the many platforms to create your book yourself?
Which platform should you use?
Will you print many books and hope they sell, or will you print only as they are ordered?

It can be overwhelming.

​So, let’s break it down.

​1. What is dialogue?
2. Punctuation rules for dialogue
3. Internal dialogue (thoughts)
4. What next?

Dialogue is notoriously complicated to punctuate and many writers struggle to get it right. It also doesn’t help that there is a difference in the way dialogue is punctuated between New Zealand English and American English. But readers will notice if you get it wrong (even if they can’t say why they think it’s wrong!).

Last week I renewed my membership for the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP), which is based in the UK, and last month I renewed my membership for the Institute of Professional Editors Ltd (IPEd), which is based in Australia.

I am a Professional Member of both organisations.

To be able to renew my SfEP membership, I had to answer a question on the SfEP Code of Practice. Doing this was a good reminder of one reason why I am a member of these professional editing associations.

As these memberships all need to be budgeted for, I thought it would be a good exercise to write down all the reasons I continue to roll over my membership.

​“I have written my book and done a spell check. Is my book ready for publishing?”

Well, you can publish it now. In this age of self-publishing, you can publish anything. Nothing is stopping you from uploading it onto Amazon or other e-book sites and putting it out there.

But you'll want people to want to read it. And you want your book to sell. Or you might want an agent to offer you a contract.

​If you do, then the answer is most likely no. 

Anyone writing a cookbook or a food blog will need to know how to format recipes so that the reader has an enjoyable experience making the dish.
​
There is an art to writing recipes that will inspire but are also easy to follow and make sense to the cook or baker – there is nothing more frustrating for a than trying out a new recipe and finding the instructions ambiguous, that something should have been prepared hours in advance, or that the ingredients are not easily obtainable.

​Just like all punctuation, dashes provide information so that we can understand the intended meaning and nuances of a sentence.
​
Hyphens, en dashes and em dashes (also call en rules and em rules) all have different roles to play, but many people don’t know what each of them does – or have never noticed that there are actually three types of dashes. And it doesn’t help that only one is easily found on the computer keyboard.