Adviser

"New students are required to meet with an adviser."

Afterward.

"The police were called to the scene afterward."

All right.

"All of the people involved were all right."

Ax.

"The man owns an ax collection."

"She was asked to baby-sit."

"He was baby-sitting."

"She is a baby sitter."

Backward.

"The man drove his car backward into a parking meter."

Damage is for destruction.

Damages is for a court award.

Employee.

"The criminal was an employee at a local department store."

Forward.

Gray.

"The defendant drives a gray convertible."

Kidnapping (two p's).

"The victim of the kidnapping was found unharmed."

Likable.

"The professors of the local University are known for being easily likable."

Should you use a comma before a conjunction in a series? 

No.

Example:

"The national flag is red, white and blue."

Use a semicolon to set off a series within a series. 

In this case use the semicolon before the conjunction.

Example:

"I have lived in Tulsa, Okla.; Daytona Beach, Fla.; Gainseville, Fla.; Houston, Texas; and Austin, Texas."

Be careful with redundancies in telling time.

Use noon or midnight instead of 12 p.m. or 12 a.m. 

Don't use extra zeros and use periods with a.am. and p.m.

Yes: 6 p.m.

No: 6:00 p.m., 6 pm

Don't use extra zeros with sums of money:

$6 or $6.00?

When two or more adjectives express a single concept

use hyphens to link all the words in the compound.

Examples:

Four-year study. 

12-member council.

28-year-old woman.

WRONG: Not a very-good time. 

Right: Not a very good time.

Do not link words with hyphens when you have adverbs 

ending in -ly as part of the phrase.

Example:

Wrong: An Essentially-remembered rule.

Right: An Essentially remembered rule.

Injuries

Suffered or Received?

Innocent / Not Guilty

Should you use innocent or ot guilty?

Use innocent when describing a defendant's plea or a

jury's verdict to gaurd against the word "not" being

dropped on accident.

Capital or lowercase Mass.

Mass or mass?

Mass is celebrated, not said.

Always capitalize when referring to the ceremony,

but lowercase any preceding adjectives.

Example:

"high Mass, low Mass, requiem Mass".

Nouns / Verbs. 

1) Nouns that denote a unit take singular verbs and prounouns.

2) When used in the sense of two persons, the word couple takes plural verbs and pronouns.

Examples:

1) class, comittee, family, gorup, herd, jury, team.

"The committee is meeting to set its agenda."

2) "The couple were married Saturday."

Person / People.

Use "person" when speaking of an individual.

The word "people" is preferred in all plural uses.

Examples:

"That person is a student at Baylor University."

"There were 20 people in the room."

Raised / Reared.

Only use "reared" when talking about humans.

Anything living, including humans, may be "raised".

Examples:

"Many children are reared by single parents."

"He has raised animals his whole life."

Realtor.

The term "real estate agent" is preferred.

Only use "realtor" if the individual is a member of the

National Association of Realtors.

Words to Avoid.

Never use the following words in news stories.

kids,

irregardless,

ladies (as a synonym for women),

cop (except as quoted matter),

entitled (when you mean titled).