Author Archives: Kari Hasselriis

Conclusions often don’t get the time they deserve. Typically, they are dashed off with little thought, and therefore are full of clichés, bulky, bureaucratic phrases and missing information. There are three things to keep in mind when crafting your conclusion. … Continue reading →

Have you ever read the introduction to a letter, only to find that it doesn’t relate well – if at all – to the rest of the it? It’s always an unwelcome surprise. In business letters, the goal is not … Continue reading →

Many things influence whether or not you express numbers in figures or in words. Sometimes it’s your profession, and sometimes it’s the editing style of your organization. Here are some common number usage guidelines to follow in order to produce … Continue reading →

Continual and continuous can’t be used interchangeably. While some people consistently use continuous, other people consistently use continual. For the most part, it’s because they don’t realize that there is another similar word to use, or they have forgotten that … Continue reading →

The semi-colon has a reputation as being a difficult punctuation mark. In fact, it’s one of the easiest punctuation marks to use! Read these two short sentences: We discussed the business proposal. We decided not to give the group its … Continue reading →

How many of you have read a sentence like this before: Mike and me are the newest members. Yikes! That sentence needs a serious edit. It should read: Mike and I are the newest members. Why?…Here’s a helpful editing trick … Continue reading →

The error in the above sentence is with the word their. We can’t use their because it’s plural, and the subject of the sentence – everyone – is singular. This is an error in agreement. It’s very common to treat … Continue reading →

Many of our grammar errors are due to the errors we make when we use a structure in speech.  However, if we want to write correctly, we need to not only identify those errors, but to also understand why they … Continue reading →