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1. Using Google to write right
2. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane writing courses next month

Using Google to write right

Hi,

Believe it or not, Google can improve your writing.

A trainee on one of my courses asked me a tricky question recently: Should an apostrophe be used in this phrase or not?

"one night's accommodation"

i.e. does the night "own" the accommodation?

What if it was plural, as in "five nights accommodation"?

Do you know the answer? If you aren't sure, and want to do a quick 'n' dirty check, try Google.

The trick
Just Google both options, using inverted commas (" ") around your search phrase, to see which gets the highest results. So you'd first search for "one nights accommodation" (26,000 hits), then "one night's accommodation" (114,000 hits). Clearly the latter is the most used version, and, as it happens, is correct.

But now try the plural version: "five nights accommodation" (8,000 hits) vs. "five night's accommodation" (112 hits). Again, a resounding win for the former, this time without the apostrophe. And it's correct. [Source: Aust. Govt Style Manual, 6th edition.]

The exception
The only caveat is that the number of Google hits must be wildly different. If similar, don't trust them; look it up elsewhere. For example, "two night's accommodation" yields 64,000 hits, while "two nights accommodation" gets fewer hits, 61,000, yet is correct.

This method isn't foolproof (because a lot of fools write badly on the Web), but is a quick way to double check your hunch. And if American vs. British spellings cause problems, use the country-specific version of Google, e.g. www.google.co.uk.

Have your say...
...on our blog! Got any other tips you'd like to share?

Paul sig

Paul and Petrina

   
 

Better reader =
better writer

Pyramid Power

Hyphen Syphon

To space or not two space?

Know thy readers

Exterminating errors

Tone up your flabby phrases

Writing in your underpants

Apostrophe catastrophe

Make it rare to
get “Well done!”

Writing for sheep

Keep it short, sport

Fat-free writing

ALL back issues

   

BRAIN GYM
Use the technique above to take an educated guess at which of these is correct:

"I hope to effect the result."
"I hope to affect the result."

See the answer
(and learn a tip to remember which is which)
 

Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane
writing courses next month

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www.magneto.net.au
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