Executive & Professional Development

Grammar, Punctuation and Proofreading Boot Camp

Commas, semi-colons, split infinitives, and typos. Atten-hut! Grammatical and proofreading errors call into question your ability and your organization's credibility. Getting it right builds confidence – for you and your reader. Grammar, Punctuation and Proofreading Boot Camp will help you understand modern English usage. Tips and techniques will be covered to enhance your use and understanding of the rules of grammar and punctuation. Proofreading techniques will also be discussed so that you can catch mistakes before your readers do. Participants are encouraged to bring their grammar gripes and proofreading peeves to class.

Participants will receive a copy of The Chicago Manual of Style by the University of Chicago Press Staff.

Grammar, Punctuation and Proofreading Boot Camp is an elective seminar for the Certificate in Business Communications.

Completion of this seminar as part of the Certificate in Business Communications entitles you to register for Individual Writing Analysis.

PROGRAM CONTENT

Grammar

• Common mistakes
• Tips for remembering what's right and what's not
• Pronoun use
• Plurals and possessives
• Subject/verb agreement

Style versus Usage

• What is grammatically correct?
• Acceptable business usage
• Current trends in business and email writing

Punctuation

• The dreaded comma
• Using the semi-colon, colon, and dash
• Hyphen hype

Acceptable Usage

• Readers' expectations
• Using the US or UK model

Finding the Right Word

• Commonly misused words
• Unravel the confusion for good

Proofreading for Quality

• Proofreading versus editing
• Methods to catch mistakes before your readers do
• How to find glitches even after reading and re-reading