Hone your writing skills and never use "hone in" again. Get writing tips, have fun with words and learn something new in a one-minute read each week by signing up for Stylebot’s newsletter.
Yep, it’s LVII
What about the Super Bowl (not Superbowl) appeals to you? Maybe it’s the commercials, maybe it’s the food. Maybe it's even the game itself. Or perhaps it’s nothing at all. Even if that is the case, you’re still likely to hear about the game this weekend. We’re here to tell you that when you do, you’ll see two high-profile examples of relatively low-profile features of writing.
You may have guessed the first one already: Roman numerals. While you shouldn’t automatically adopt them just because they’re part of an official name, you should do so in well-known uses, such as the Super Bowl. World War I and World War II are two other examples. And don’t forget about popes’ names. “Pius 12” just doesn’t quite do the job.
The second example is the elusive en dash. Maybe you’ve heard of — or used — the em dash like we just did here. It’s the longest of the dashes and is used for emphasis. You also probably use hyphens a lot. But where does the en dash (–) fit in? One place is, you guessed it, sports scores.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, this isn’t the first time we’ve used football to discuss the finer points of the English language. If you weren’t a subscriber in November, you can read our newsletter on dangling modifiers here.
What sports-related writing questions do you have? Hit reply and let us know.
❤ Team Stylebot
💌 A tip a week
If someone forwarded you this email, subscribe here to get one writing tip a week in your inbox.
💬 Need more tips?
Want to get writing tips like these on demand? Try Stylebot for free.
📝 About Stylebot
Stylebot helps media professionals save time without sacrificing quality by answering copy editing questions on Slack and Microsoft Teams. We're on a mission to make editing faster, easier and more fun ✨ Learn more about Stylebot or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
Stylebot
Hone your writing skills and never use "hone in" again. Get writing tips, have fun with words and learn something new in a one-minute read each week by signing up for Stylebot’s newsletter.
Have you ever had to alter a draft of your writing because you confused two homophones? It's easy to do online, but harder if you're using expensive stationery. And what about those instances where you didn't even realize you were using the wrong homophone? Knowing you've been doing it wrong for years can feel like a hangar-size mistake. Any idea where we're going with this? 😉 You might have spotted three sneaky homophones in the sentences above: alter, stationery and hangar. Each has a...
If you waited with bated breath last week for the Ides of March to pass, you can thank Shakespeare. We already told you that he gets the credit for the lasting power of the Ides of March as a bad omen. He's also responsible for keeping bait's homophone "bate" around in another enduring phrase. We don't use "bate" very much anymore, but it came about in the 1300s to mean "to diminish" (and yes, its origins are tied to a shorter version of "abate," which is still commonly used today)....
Today is Friday the 13th, the second one of the year. And if today's association with bad luck isn't enough for you, then look no further than Sunday's bad omen: the Ides of March. So what do we make of these two inauspicious days? The origins of Friday the 13th being unlucky are hard to pin down, though Christianity and Norse mythology regard 13 as an unlucky number of dinner guests, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Britannica also points to other biblical references that regard Friday...