Italics, Capital letters and Spelling

Italics are equivalent to underlining in longhand. They are used for the titles of complete works and foreign words and phrases like ab initio.

Words from other languages which have been fully absorbed into English e.g. sputnik and bourgeois do not need italics.

For more effective business-writing try to replace words not yet fully absorbed with English equivalents.

E.g. phrases like vis à vis can be replaced with “face to face”, prima facie with “on the face of it”, and so on.

Think of italics as a sign to search in a dictionary of synonyms like Roget’s Thesaurus for an equivalent from the rich and flexible language.


Capital letters are used much less often now than they used to be. Use them for specific purposes only:

1. For the first letter of the first word of a sentence, a direct quotation within a sentence, a title or a subtitle.
E.g. She asked, “Have you ever been in a submarine?”

2. For proper nouns or names given to individual people or things.
E.g. Tang Li La instead of the common noun, the manager, or Fiat instead of the common noun, car.

3. For “I” wherever it occurs in a sentence.

E.g. He asked whether I would go to the party.


Spelling
Faulty spelling can cause ambiguity, and can detract credibility from their writers.

A problem in English spelling arises from the fact that the spelling often gives no help to the pronunciation.

E.g. –ough in words like cough, bough and although. In these cases you just have to become familiar with the spelling and pronunciation of such words.

Another problem is that most of the spelling rules have exceptions (except perhaps for the rule that in English “q” is always followed by “u”.

You can decide to use either British or American spelling, but whichever you choose, keep to it consistently except when using words within a quotation or are part of an official title.

E.g.
“My American friend wrote, “ The flavor of the soup in the restaurant you recommended was delicious.”
OR
Theresa Lee’s article, Organizational Behaviour, has just been reprinted.

TIPS
- Keep to whatever system you choose (and add British/ American spellings to dictionary)
- Keep a list of words you often misspell to help reduce common errors that trip you up
- Use a dictionary to check doubtful words to ensure you used correct meaning
- It’s hard for even the best writers to see their own mistakes- get others to read your work
- Use a reliable, up-to date dictionary e.g. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary