.

| SEPT 98 | OCT 98 | NOV 98 | DEC 98 | JAN 99 |  FEB 99 | MAR 99 | APR 99 | MAY 99 | JUNE 99 |
| JULY 99 | AUG 99 | SEPT 99 | OCT 99 | NOV 99 | DEC 99 | JAN 00 | FEB 00 | MAR 00 | APR 00 |
| MAY 00 | JUNE 00 | JULY 00 | AUG 00 | | SEPT 00 | OCT 00 | NOV 00 | DEC 00 | JAN 01 | FEB 01 |
| MAR 01 | APR 01 | MAY 01 | JUNE 01 | JULY 01 | AUG 01 | SEPT 01 | OCT 01 | NOV 01 | DEC 01 |
| JAN 02 | FEB 02 | MAR 02 | APR 02 | AUG 02 | SEPT 02 | OCT 02 | NOV 02 | JAN 03 | FEB 03 |
| MAR 03 | APR 03 | MAY 03 | JUNE 03 | JULY 03 | AUG 03 | SEPT 03 | OCT 03 | NOV 03 | DEC 03 |
| JAN 04 | FEB 04 | MAR 04 | APR 04 | MAY 04 | JUNE 04 | JULY 04 | SEPT 04 | OCT 04 | NOV 04 |
| JAN 05 | MAR 05 | APR 05 | MAY 05 | JUNE 05 | JULY 05 |  AUG 05 | SEPT 05 | OCT 05 | NOV 05 |
| DEC 05 | JAN 06 | MAR 06 | APR 06 | MAY 06 | JUNE 06 | JULY 06 | AUG 06 | SEPT 06 | DEC 06 |
| JAN 07 | MAR 07 | APR 07 | MAY 07 | JUNE 07 | JULY 07 | AUG 07 | SEPT 07 | OCT 07 | NOV 07 |
| DEC 07 | FEB 08 | MAR 08 | APR 08 |  MAY 08 |

| WRITING TIPS | MEET THE DOCTOR | SPLEEN VENTING | SEAL | SITE RESUSCITATION | JUST THE WAY IT IS |
| EMERGENCY TREATMENT | WELLNESS PROGRAM | HOUSE CALLS | EMAIL THE DOCTOR | HOME |

• When should you capitalize the word "earth"? Though not all sources agree, here's my rule of thumb. Capitalize the word when referring to it as a planet, as you would capitalize Mars, Venus, etc. Otherwise it should be lowercased. Examples: "Where on earth do you think you're going?" (a mild oath) and "To the ends of the earth" (always lowercase when "the" precedes "earth").
  
  

• Be careful to distinguish between "on to" and "onto." "Onto" means "on top of," as in this sentence: "Climb onto the roof very carefully." Use "on to" in all other situations, e.g., "She went on to bigger and better things" and "We drove on to Edinburgh in the afternoon."
  
  

• Likewise, distinguish between "in to" and "into." "Into" suggests that something is moving from one place to another, e.g., "They drove into the tunnel with their headlights on." Otherwise, use "in to." For example: " He walked in to the tune of 'Yankee Doodle Dandy.'"
  
  

• According to the Associated Press, you should not capitalize the word "street" if you write a phrase such as "at the corner of Locust and Third streets." However, if you mention each of these streets separately, "street" is always capitalized. By analogy, this rule works in comparable situations.
  
  

• A minor point that many people aren't aware of: "audiovisual" is now written as one word, as is "multimedia." 

• If a sentence is italicized and a word or words within it, such as a book title or a word used as a word, would routinely be capitalized, then the only way to contrast the title or word with the rest of the sentence is to deitalicize the item.
  
  For example, if you write, “Several New York Times writers contributed to this report” at the end of an article, this sentence is italicized to set it off from the article itself. Since “New York Times” is the name of a newspaper, it would be italicized in ordinary text. But when it appears in a context where everything around it is italicized, it has to be deitalicized to contrast it with the rest of the sentence. 
  
  

• A writer once referred to a group of Jewish people as gentile. Doesn’t quite work, does it? The writer meant “genteel”! Unfortunately, spell checkers will never catch this type of error, and writers of all stripes can be hung out to dry if they hang such dirty laundry in public. Moral of this story: don’t take anything for granted (not “granite”).
  
  

• When numbering or lettering items in a series, it’s preferable to use a pair of parentheses [e.g., (1), (2), (a), (b)], just as you’d use pairs in other situations.
  
  

• When writing e-mails (and anything similar), be sure to observe the comma rule for nouns of direct address. For example, if you say, “Hello, readers,” be sure to use the comma to separate the noun of direct address (“readers”) from any other words in the sentence.
  
  

• A client called me recently to ask which was correct: “handicapped-accessible” or “handicap-accessible.” This was easy (even though most people are now doing this wrong). Here was my answer: “handicapped-accessible” is correct because the word “handicapped” refers to people. In the phrase “handicap-accessible,” the word “handicap” is an abstract term, so it makes no sense to say that something is accessible to an abstract idea.

• Finish what you start. If you start the English construction illustrated in the proverb “The more the merrier,” you have to finish it. Here’s a sentence written by a journalist who ignored this rule: “The harder he worked, his fastball crept up into the high 80s.” Possible revision: “The harder he worked, the more his fastball reached the high 80s.”
  
  

• As I recently exchanged business cards with a business owner, my heart sank when I saw that the name of the business was “Royal Occassions.” The word is “occasions.” I don’t know whether the name had been misspelled since the inception of the business, or whether the mistake had been made only on these cards. I swallowed hard and told the owner of the business about the mistake, making a mental note not to do business with that company.
  
  

• A couple of months ago I was asked to settle a question about subject-verb agreement. The subject was “Carillon Ringers,” the name of a handbell group. Should the verb be singular or plural? In other words, would you say, “The Carillon Ringers is (or are) planning a concert”? The answer: Use a singular verb, just as you would if the subject were “General Motors.” However, if you refer to the individuals in the group, you would use a plural, e.g., “The Carillon ringers (no cap because it’s not the name of the group) have just boarded a bus that will take them to the concert hall.”
  
  

• Would you say “many fewer” or “far fewer” when referring to more than one of something? The correct idiom is “far fewer.” For reasons that can’t be explained, “many fewer” is not idiomatic English. Example: “Far fewer people are riding on Firestone tires these days.”
  
  

• Sometimes writers can get overzealous about making sure that their sentences are clear. Specifically, they may repeat part of a structure to ensure that each item in a series is clear. Here’s an example: “Accidents can cost a great deal of money in lost time and production, in compensation for victims, in legal expenses and in care for the injured.” In this sentence, I believe the repetition of “in” at the beginning of each item is not necessary for the sentence to be clear.

• Little words still mean a lot. In late September, while listening to PBS, I heard a sentence that really took me aback: “Forces will be attacked by the air.” The word “the” obviously changes the meaning of this sentence. As written, the sentence says that the air will be making the attack. We know the real meaning, of course, but this example reminds us that we should take care with every word in everything we write.
  
  

• Word order is also important. There is an obvious difference between saying “We don’t have any more doughnuts” and “We don’t have doughnuts any more (or ‘anymore’).” In the first sentence, the seller has temporarily run out of doughnuts. In the second, the seller has quit selling doughnuts altogether.
  
  

• Some words are totally useless in some contexts. Look at this sentence: “This can be any combination of letters and numbers you want it to be.” If you chop off the last three words, nothing is lost, and you could also end the sentence after “numbers.”
  
  

• An example of a useless word occurs in phrases such as “that bad of a shape” and “didn’t have as solid of a business mix.” In both cases, the word “of” is useless and nongrammatical to boot.
  
  

• Be careful how you combine or separate words. One example is “in to” and “into.” “Into” means “inside of.” If you say, “He caved into the pressure,” you would be saying that he was inside the pressure, which is ridiculous. “Caved in” is really the verb, and “to” begins a prepositional phrase.

• There is some confusion about when to use “premier” and “premiere,” but there shouldn’t be. “Premiere” is a noun and a verb used only in reference to the opening of a movie, theatrical production, etc. “Premier” primarily means “best,” as in a sentence such as this: “She is the premier authority on the subject.”
  
  

• One of the strange little ironies in English concerns “a part” and “apart.” “A part” refers to togetherness, yet the two words are written separately. In this phrase, “part” is a noun. “Apart” can be an adjective or an adverb, and though it suggests separateness, the two syllables are written as one word.
  
  

• Use the word “where” to introduce a clause only when it refers to a place. In other words, it is appropriate to say “a place where” but not “a situation where.” In the latter case, “a situation where” should be written “a situation in which.”
  
  

• If you write the word “boss” as a possessive, you need to spell it “boss’s.” Why? The answer is straightforward: if you pronounce the “s” after the apostrophe, you must write it., and in the case of “boss’s,” the possessive “s” is always pronounced. And the reverse is true: if you don’t pronounce an “s,” it doesn’t need to be written. For example: “Dallas’ reputation as an international city.” (Some people may pronounce the “s” on certain words, but others won’t, but the spelling should mirror individuals’ pronunciation.)
  
  

• “Versus” has a very limited use. It is often incorrectly used in situations calling for “relative to” or “in relation to.” For example, it is incorrect to say, “The width of a rectangle versus its area is different from the width of a rectangle versus its length.” “Versus” should be used when discussing competing teams or parties opposing each other in lawsuits and similar legal disagreements.

TIPS FOR DECEMBER 2001

• Have you ever wondered why “equipped” has two p’s but “worshiped” only one? You may remember the rule that words with two syllables (with the accent on the second) double final single consonants preceded by single vowels. In the case of “equipped,” it appears that there are two vowels, but after “q,” the “u” is considered a consonant. With “worshiped,” the “p” is not doubled because the accent is on the first syllable of the root.
  
  

• When should you write out “United States,” and when is it proper to abbreviate it? There’s not universal agreement on the answer, but one rule you can use is to write the words out when they’re used as a noun and abbreviate them when they’re used together as an adjective. For example: “The United States has a long border with Canada” but “U.S. interests in several countries are subject to attack.”
  
  

• DO NOT USE ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS! Of course I just did that, but do as I say, not as I do. Do not even capitalize one word for emphasis on a regular basis—unless you’re preparing advertising copy or writing something very informal. If you break this rule, you’re likely to get caught up in the “cry wolf” syndrome.
  
  

• Hyphenation of compounds can bring on a headache. One rule of thumb is that two-word compounds should be hyphenated when the second word is a verb form. Examples: “decision-making,” “far-flung,” “web-footed.”
  
  

• Names of majors aren’t capitalized in resumes unless they contain a word or words that are always proper nouns, such as “English,” “Chinese,” and “French.”