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Many editors, style guides and university professors will ask writers to use active voice for preference, some professors have been known to go as far as forbidding their students to use the passive voice. They can’t all be wrong, can they? The short answer is ‘no’, they’re not wrong – most of the time. As the name suggests, active voice is more energetic and makes your writing more dynamic. Passive voice should mainly be reserved for occasions when:   a] the person(s) carrying out the action is/are unknown;   The bank has been held up three times this year! (passive) vs Thieves have held up the bank three times this year! (active)   b] the recipient of the action is far better known, and has a far higher level of recognition, than the ‘ac ...

What does February mean to you? Groundhog Day? The ‘love’ month? Lunar New Year? Spring just around the corner? All of the above? None of the above?  Love is always good, of course, unless you’re lonely, single or broken-hearted, in which case the 14th is just a very sad day that you’d love to ignore. As for spring? When Prompt Proofing was based in BC, signs of spring could definitely be seen in February – Victoria even runs a flower count in that month. Here in Ontario, however, it just seems to be another month of snow, and more snow…       So what does this have to do with the apostrophe? Absolutely nothing! (Though the sharp eyed might pick up on the (correct) use of the apostrophe in the title.) But, let’s be honest, grammar bl ...

How’s 2019 working out for you so far? The beginning of the year is a great time for forward planning; taking concrete steps towards creating your goals for the year can help you maintain some of those resolutions you embarked on so enthusiastically just 10 days ago. Practicing what we preach, we’ve planned 12 topics for monthly blog posts in 2019. As we edit clients’ writing, we tend to find the same issues arising repeatedly. Often, they’re areas we have to watch for in our own writing also. With this in mind, our 12 blog posts for this year – to be published on the second Friday of each month – will focus on 12 frequently occurring errors/problems. We start with what is arguably the most common issue of all; the use – and misuse – of the humble hyphen. To hyphenate, or not to hyphenate? ...