Writing: grammar

• Don’t use a semicolon (;) when you’re about to list things - often semicolons are used incorrectly where colons (:) are more appropriate. (E.g. When we write at Catalpa we try to focus on three things: keeping it simple, keeping it short, and keeping it fun). Do not write the above sentence with a semicolon instead, or do this; and this; and this to list things 🙅‍♀️.

  • A simple rule for knowing if a colon (:) should be used in a sentence is to imagine that the colon means the word ‘namely’ and see if the sentence makes sense. Try it with the example in the previous point!

• For numbers under 10, write them out as words (e.g. five) but for double-digits or longer write out as digits (e.g. 55 or 12,712).

• You can use a full stop after a bracket unless there is a full sentence within the brackets. If a sentence is like this, use a full stop outside the bracket (after). (But if a sentence is like this, include the full stop inside.) In Australian English, the same rule applies for where to put a full stop when using quotation marks (“”).

• The main use of apostrophes (‘) is to show possession - meaning that you use an apostrophe followed by an ‘s’ when the following word belongs to someone or something (e.g. Catalpa’s education team).

  • If a word is singular but ends in a ‘s’, you do the same thing (e.g. Anders’s laugh).

  • Acronyms also require apostrophes (e.g. DIRD’s requirements). But not in their plural form (e.g. URLs).

  • When there is more than one owner, use the apostrophe after the ‘s’ (e.g. donors’ requirements for NGOs).

  • You do not need to use an apostrophe for pronouns that show possession (e.g. yours, theirs, his, hers, its, ours).

  • You do not need an apostrophe for decades (so 1970s NOT 1970’s).

• Apostrophes are also used to show a contraction (you are = you’re, it is = it’s). Don’t get ‘you’re’ and ‘it’s’ mixed up with the ‘your’ and ‘its’ above, though. ‘Your’ and ‘its’ are used to show that the person you’re talking to, or the thing you are talking about, owns something NOT to show that two words have been joined together into one. 👉👈

• Commas can be used where it would be natural for one to pause in a sentence. Additionally, they are used to provide information that is not an essential part of a sentence with one comma on each side (e.g. Catalpa, which practices Human-Centred Design, is committed to designing with, not for people). To test whether commas should be used this way, ask yourself if the sentence would still make sense without the middle part. In this case, ‘Catalpa is committed to designing with not for people’ is a complete sentence of its own without the gray part, which means the commas have been used correctly 😁.

• Use the Oxford comma, or don’t, but be consistent throughout a document. The Oxford comma means that when you’re writing a list, you include a comma after the last item (before ‘and’). (E.g. stakeholder interviews, card sorting, and design review sessions).