336 Index
Balanced sentences. See also Clarity;
Sentences
clarity and, 206–7
conjunctions for, 160–64
correlative conjunctions for, 158–60
defi ned, 154
parallel construction and, 154–56
parallel verb forms for, 157–58
trimming unnecessary words and,
167–70
Be, 34–35
Being verbs, 34–36
Between, among, 258
Brackets, 123–24
Bring, take, 259
Capitalization
brand names and, 133
broken quotations and, 132
of days, months, holidays, and special
days, 130
for deities, place names, street names,
persons’ names and initials,
organization names, languages, and
specifi c course names, 129–30
of each new line of poetry, 129
of fi rst letter of fi rst word in sentence,
129
of fi rst word of direct quotations, 132
historical events, documents, periods, or
movements, 130–31
history of, 127–29
for interjection O or Oh, 129
of languages, races, and nationalities, 131
of letters of fi rst major topics in outlines,
131
of organizations, businesses, and
institutions, 131
for pronoun I, 129
of religions and their followers, 131
reports of something said and, 132
of Roman numerals, 131
of sacred persons and things, 131
of specifi c places, structures, or
geographic locations, 131
of titles of books, plays, and fi lms,
133
of titles of persons, 130, 133
-ceed endings, spelling words with,
240–41
Clarity. See also Balanced sentences
avoiding unclear pronoun references,
195–98
balanced sentences and, 206–7
commas and, 97
correcting illogical statements, 204–6
deleting unnecessary words, 200–204
placing descriptive words correctly,
198–99
placing important information last,
191–93
semicolons and, 104–5
in sentences, 191–93
using verbs instead of nouns, 193–95
Climactic, climatic, 262
Colons, 114–17
explanations and, 115–16
lists and, 115–16
salutations in business letters and,
117
showing time and, 117
Comma fault, 175