Your draft, with the editor’s pencil already on it.
Please be advised that it is our intention to undertake a review of We will review the rota in the near future next week.
Who does what, and when. That is most of the job.
Flintword is a small publication about writing at work: plain English, grammar, reports and emails. Each piece answers one question, then shows the edit.
How do you proofread your own writing?
You read what you meant to write. Every useful method is a way of stopping that.
Also on the sheet
How do you write an executive summary for a report?
Write it last, keep it to about a page, and assume it is the only part of the report anyone will read.
Is the passive voice wrong?
It is correct English, and sometimes the better choice. The trouble starts when it hides who is going to do the work.
How should you start and end a work email in the UK?
Copy the formality of the person writing to you. When there is nothing to copy, start a notch more formal than feels natural.
Which or that: what is the rule in British English?
With commas, always which. Without commas, take your pick. Almost everything else is about the commas.
What is plain English, and how do you write it at work?
Writing your reader understands the first time. It is a skill for grown-up documents, and it loses no precision if you do it properly.
How to read these pages
We edit in public. Most articles show a real kind of sentence with our changes marked on it, so you can see what moved and why. The example sentences are made up for the purpose.
Have a view on minutes, tenders or the serial comma? We take guest pieces.
struck- Take this out.
- underlined
- Put this in.
- pencil
- A note from the editors, in the margin where there is room.
- 1, 2, 3
- Paragraph numbers on wide screens, handy when you are quoting us to a colleague.