The Low-Down on Slang Usage

New words are added to the English dictionary every day. Ever wonder why some words make it into the dictionary and become official words while others are still considered slang?

Today, we use slang like cool, sweet and texting. Our parents used slang like groovy and yuppie. Slang changes and evolves all the time so it can be nearly impossible to keep up with all the new words and their meaning. This is why we need to be careful how we use slang when writing since it is only used by a particular subgroup, not everyone will understand its meaning.

It is important to know the distinction of when it is appropriate to use slang in your writing. Below are a few tips:

1. Slang as long as it is not vulgar or offensive. It works well in quotes if the context helps define its meaning
2. Confirm whether slang is widely known or considered offensive, check the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Be wary of using slang not found in the dictionary.
3. Use when appropriate (this is not always)
4. It can be tempting to us truncated words but make sure it is used in the proper context or if you are trying to have a casual effort. When in doubt, don’t do it!
5. Don’t turn nouns into verbs unless the word has already made the jump into common usage as a verb.
6. Avoid using quotation marks unless it is a new or unfamiliar term for your readers.

Keep in mind that you need to think before using slang careful not to offend anyone. Make sure the story is understandable to those who may be unfamiliar with the terms. Slang can enhance stories by making it leap off the page. It can help boost emotions and enhance your readers’ reaction to a story. Never be afraid to use slang but remember the rules! If your audience can’t understand a word that you are writing then your story is useless.

Group activity

Divide up into your groups – or just groups of 5 people.

You have all read our blog CP Stylin’. We would like you to consider the posts you’ve seen on there for a little bit.

Did you do that? Good! Now it’s time for your group to write your own little blog post that would fit right in on CP Stylin’.

The post needs to be 100 to 300 words in length. For this, you will have 8 minutes. Your topic must cover something from the CP stylebook and it has to be something we haven’t discussed yet! All the blog posts will be read out loud, to the class when finished.

You could pick topics like:

- How to properly use names, nicknames and initials.

- How to properly use (or not use) slang and jargon.

- How to properly use brackets.

- How to properly use a dash.

- How to properly use abbreviations and acronyms.

You do not have to pick one of these topics. You may also pick any other topic from the Stylebook that you like.

Up close and personal with CP Stylebook Editor James McCarten

I asked James McCarten, a senior national editor at the Canadian Press, to distill his thoughts on our beloved CP Stylebook. From what drives decisions to update the guide to a very honest question and answer period about his personal grammar qualms, McCarten takes us through a close look at the Stylebook’s survival in the age of new media.

McCarten reveals some of the most common CP errors in news media, and even finds one during our interview in the current edition of the Stylebook *gasp*.

Is it the World Trade Center or World Trade Centre? American defense department or defence department? Find out some of the most contentious issues behind the desk of CP editors.

Intrigued yet? You don’t want to miss his answers to the full interview on Wednesday, November 30th at 8 a.m. Media Relations. Be there or be square.

The Exclamation Mark

The proper use of exclamation marks is essential to the understanding of a sentence or statement’s tone. It is important not to overuse this strong mark of punctuation. It is used to denote great surprise, a command, deep emotion, emphasis and sarcasm. Use an exclamation mark with questions that are exclamatory in form. Remember to not use an exclamation mark to end a mildly exclamatory sentence, or to use a comma or period after an exclamation mark. Finally, ensure that the exclamation mark is inside quotation marks when it is part of the quoted material, and outside when it is not.

I got all my holiday shopping done.
I got all my holiday shopping done!

The use of an exclamation mark instead of a period changes the tone of this statement from a regular sentence, to one indicating surprise. It is important that this statement is surprising because it is four weeks before Christmas Day and that’s not typical of my character. Everyone that knows me can tell you I love to procrastinate, and especially on my Christmas shopping.

Just because I don’t prioritize shopping for my loved ones in my busy schedule doesn’t mean I love them any less. I just love the thrill of last minute shopping. Even the crowds and the waiting times aren’t so bad. I just pass the time sending messages to my friends filled with exclamation marks indicating surprise, command, emphasis and sarcasm.

“How is the Christmas shopping coming along?”
“Amazing! Looks like I’ll get all my gifts in one day.”
“You better! Tomorrow is Christmas Day!”
“Have some faith, shopping is what I do best.”
“Oh, sure!”

So naturally it would be surprising that I got all my holiday shopping done this early.

Figure it out: Numbers, CP Style

Did Tiger Woods have 9 mistresses, or nine mistresses? Should the menu say the martini is 9 dollars or $9? If you’re scratching your head over the whole numbers and figures ordeal, rest assured that you are not alone. With the help of our beloved CP Stylebook, this post will distill the common myths around using numbers and figures in your writing.

Let’s begin with the general rule of thumb: Spell out whole numbers below 10 and use figures for 10 and above.

Three cats, nine trees, 10 friends, the 23rd day, a man in his 60s

Some other general rules:

For numbers in official names, follow the organization’s spelling style even when it is at odds with Canadian Press practice.

7Up, The FAN 590, the film 7 Fathers

To be meaningful, a percentage loss or gain should normally be accompanied by a dollar or some other amount.

Sales fell 20 per cent to $25,000. Kim Kardashian, said she lost 10,000 followers on Twitter after her split with hubby, Kris Humphries, a 15 per cent decrease.

When to use figures:

In addresses:

172 Beatrice Ave., 500 Steeles Ave. West

Note: Spell out First through Ninth as street names.

Fifth Ave., 23 59th St.

In ages standing alone after a name:

Sarah, 3, has two brothers, eight and nine. Joshua, two months old, was born at Princess Margaret Hospital in June.

In monetary units preceded by a symbol:

The martini is $9 (not $9.00), nine dollars; two euros, 25 euros; $1 million (but one million people); $2 billion

In times:

1 a.m. (not 1:00 a.m), 2 o’clock, 10:15 p.m.

In dates and years

Dec. 8, 8th of December; 1987, ’87; the 1950s, the ‘50s; he’s in his late 20s.

In decisions, rulings, scores, votes and odds:

The court ruled 5-4, a 5-4 ruling. Toronto beat Montreal 3-1 (but a two-goal margin). The decision was passed by a vote of 25-6; or a 25-6 vote. Odds of 5-2, a 10-1 longshot

When to spell out

At the start of a sentence, if you must start with a number:

Twenty to 30 students attended CPRS’ annual kick-off event.

Note 1: Do not spell out the year at the start, but avoid: 1987 was the year Beatrice was born.

Note 2: When numbers from 21-99 must be written out, use a hyphen: Seventy-five students were enrolled in the 2011-2012 Corporate Communications program at Seneca College.

In informal or casual usage:

Entries to win tickets to see Lady Gaga poured in by the hundreds and thousands.

In figures of speech and the like:

Ten Commandments, Big Ten, Twelve Apostles, wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole

So by now you should know that Mr. Woods had nine mistresses and that much-needed martini reads $9. Don’t be intimidated by the extensive list of CP rules for numbers; the more you use them, the easier they are to remember. Bonne chance!

Me, myself and I

Everyone who cares about this sort of thing has a grammar “pet peeve.” My mom hates it when people say nauseous when they mean nauseated. My dad always (annoyingly) corrects me when I say less instead of fewer. Someone out there is probably writing an angry letter to the newspaper about a split infinitive.

My biggest grammar pet peeve is the misuse of the pronoun myself. Myself is a reflexive pronoun. The other English reflexive pronouns are yourself, himself, herself, itself, yourselves, ourselves and themselves. A reflexive pronoun is used as the object of a verb or preposition when the subject and object in a sentence refer to the same person, people or thing(s). Take the sentence:

Plaxico Burress shot himself in the thigh.

This is a correct usage of the reflexive pronoun, because Plaxico Burress is both the subject of the verb (the shooter) and the object (the shot).

I don’t hear a lot of mistakes with the other reflexive pronouns; it’s only myself that seems to cause confusion. Let’s go over some common errors.

WRONG: Tanja, Bianca and myself prepared this presentation.

This is an incorrect usage because a reflexive can never be used in subject position.

RIGHT: Tanja, Bianca and I prepared this presentation.

WRONG: Please return your completed form to Tanja, Bianca or myself.

WRONG: Tanja can ride with Heather, and Bianca with myself.

The reflexive is used incorrectly in these examples because a reflexive can only be used if the subject and object refer to the same thing. If they don’t, the objective pronoun me should be used.

RIGHT: Please return your completed form to Tanja, Bianca or me.

RIGHT: Tanja can ride with Heather, and Bianca with me.

A handy trick when you’re in doubt is to take the other people out of the sentence and see if it still makes sense. You would never say, “Myself prepared this presentation,” so it is incorrect to say “Tanja, Bianca and myself prepared this presentation.” Another is to try your sentence with a different grammatical person. You wouldn’t say “return the form to himself,” so you can’t say, “return the form to myself.”

The other correct way to use reflexive pronouns is for emphasis.

I swear I wrote that essay myself.

There is nothing to fear but fear itself.

In these examples, the reflexive adds emphasis. Taking it out changes the tone of the sentence but not its meaning.

The Ellipsis

Do you ever make notes for a test and realize how much unnecessary information is in the text? Or, conduct an interview where your interviewee has talked for an hour, when you really only need a couple of snappy quotations?

The CP stylebook offers guidelines to properly use the ellipsis. The ellipsis is the use of three periods to indicate an omission, preceded and followed by a space. The ellipsis is an efficient way to indicate an omission from your text or quotations. In condensing a text, use an ellipsis at the beginning, inside or at the end of a sentence. Except when writing news stories, use an ellipsis only inside a sentence. If it is at the end, put the punctuation before the ellipsis.

I wanted to share the CP guidelines on ellipsis with my friends. I just signed up for a twitter account, and I was going to tweet about ellipses. I don’t know how to write in the Twitterverse yet, but I figure I will learn. But, I realized 140 characters is not a lot. I don’t know how I can possibly convey everything I have to say about ellipses in this format.

Maybe, “The CP stylebook offers guidelines to properly use the ellipsis … to indicate an omission from a text or quotation.” Seems like an efficient tweet. I don’t think it’s worthy to retweet, but it gets the point of my entry across. At least it sums up this post in 19 words, right?

“… Sums up this post … right…?” I mean, “… Sums up this post … right?...” I don’t think I like the ellipsis anymore. I think the ellipsis along with twitter may be detrimental to my writing style. Both have the potential to stifle my writing. Make of it what you will. Remember to follow these CP rules when using ellipses.

The wonderful world of apostrophes

Do you guys remember what a greengrocers’ apostrophe is? I bet you do.

It’s that horrible little thing when people mean to say the plural of a noun and then write it with an apostrophe that isn’t supposed to be there.

A few funny examples of greengrocers’ apostrophes that I’ve found:

I also bet you’ve wondered why people screw it up so much. Now I can’t speak for any native speakers here, but as a Dutch speaker that speaks English as a second language, I know why we Dutch tend to mess it up. It’s because of our Dutch grammar.

In Dutch there are different rules for using the apostrophe and thanks to this, the Dutch folks not as well versed in the English language are more likely to slip up when using apostrophes.

The rule that gets the Dutch into trouble mostly is this one:

The apostrophe is used with words in plural that end with a, e, i, o, u or y that are preceded by a consonant or syllable boundary. Syllable boundary means that the ‘e’ at the end sounds like /ee/.

Then you get plurals like this:

Opa’s, azalea’s, ski’s, auto’s, accu’s, baby’s. (See how we stole most of these words? Opa means granddad by the way).

This even comes with a bunch of exceptions. I won’t bore you with those.

Now you can see why (certain) foreigners can be horribly confused when using apostrophes. The aforementioned rules aren’t of impact on you natives though, so I’m going to move a little deeper into the wonderful world of the apostrophe; I’m going to give you the actual CP stylebook rules! Yay!

These are:

1. Use an apostrophe to denote possession.

Santa’s socks, Rudolph’s nose, a llama’s hat etc.

2. Use an apostrophe to indicate the omission of letters or figures.

She’d, it’s, couldn’t, rock ‘n’roll, “Give ‘em hell!”, the early ‘30s etc.

3. Use an apostrophe with verbs formed from capitals.

OK’s, OK’ing, KO’d, MC’ing, X’d out.

4. Use an apostrophe in plurals of lowercase letters.

Mind your p’s and q’s. Dot your i’s and cross your t’s.

5. In general, do not use an apostrophe with plurals of capital letters or numbers.

She graduated with straight As, the three Rs, the ABCs, two VIPs, a formation of F-18s, the Dirty ‘30s.

There is an exception to this rule however; you use an apostrophe with plurals of capital letters if it helps avoid ambiguity. E.g. A’s in math and physics are hard to come by.

6. Do not use an apostrophe to form the plurals in expressions like the whys and wherefores.

Here are a few dos, don’ts and maybes. I don’t want any ifs, ands or buts. Just give us straight yeses or noes.

You use an apostrophe to form the plurals of words being discussed as words though. E.g. three as’s, too many is’s, not enough the’s.

7. Do not use an apostrophe with shortened forms that have become accepted as complete words.

Cello, copter, flu, gym, phone.

This is all you need to know about apostrophes. The next time you browse the Internet, just remember, not everybody is a native English speaker…

(Disclaimer: this does not include horrible 13 year old spelling and the like).