Punctuation:

Spacing

Hello! What shall we do today? Three ideas: study, read, or exercise.

In a sentence, parentheses (like these) or brackets [like these] are surrounded by spaces.
There is no space before following punctutation (like this period).
Quotes work the same way: "Hello", not " Hello "

Then he said "hello", and I shouted "hi".

"Let's go to the library," he suggested.
Then he said "I would like to read your thesis."

Did he say "I don't know"?
Then he said, "What would you like to do?"

Apostrophes

"it's" ALWAYS means "it is": It's raining today.
"its" is a possessive: His car, her house, its colour.

The PTA's meeting on ABCs went well.
NATO's F18s are expensive.

Colons:

The part of the sentence preceding the colon must be a complete sentence!!! So the sentence ...

Our ideas are: idea 1, idea 2, and idea 3.

Our ideas are idea 1, idea 2, and idea 3.

We have three ideas: idea 1, idea 2, and idea 3.
We have the following ideas: ...
Our report is very interesting: reason 1, reason 2 ...

I have a great idea: let's read a book on grammar.
My thesis contains a profound result: the solution to cold fusion.

• If the two phrases are completely separate, it is best to separate them with a period.
• If the two phrases are somewhat related, but not that the latter directly serves to clarify the former, then a semi-colon may be used.
• If the two phrases are related, and the second serves to clarify or define the first, then a colon is appropriate.

Three ideas: idea 1, idea 2, and idea3.

An overview of our algorithm: step 1, step 2, and step 3.

We will develop an algorithm; we'll also do other stuff.

The use of the comma is more subtle and errors are frequent! If in doubt, leave the comma out; I see more bad commas than I do missing ones. You won't go wrong if you stick to the following:

• Do not put a comma between phrases connected by "and":

  (phrase 1) and (phrase 2).

  I like this and I like that.

• Do use a comma with phrases connected by "but":

  I would like to go, but I can't.

• Use a comma to separate items in a list:

  I would like this, that, whatever, and that.

• Use a comma to denote optional words in a sentence. The sentence has to make perfect sense with the words between commas removed:

  I would like to read excellent grammar, if possible, from my students.

  Removing "if possible" from the sentence still leaves us with a meaningful statement.

Words

Latin Acronyms:

They are latin acronyms, so the periods are required; furthermore they must be followed by a comma, since their English equivalents are phrases which would have to be followed with a comma in the same way. Finally, do NOT interchange i.e., e.g., and n.b. They do NOT mean the same thing!

Acronym	Latin Meaning	English Translation	Actual Meaning
i.e.,	Id est	That is	That is, specifically, thus
e.g.,	Exempli gratia	For the sake of example	For example
n.b.,	Note bene	Note well	Note well
QED	Quod erat demonstrandum	Which was to be demonstrated	End of proof

Note the differences in the following three sentences:

I need a new workstation; i.e., a fast, expensive toy.
I would like a new toy; e.g., a new computer.
I want a new computer; n.b., it had better be fast.

Articles:

• To refer to some particular thing or things you MUST use a definite article. You use this only to refer to some specific noun, which must be very clear in the reader's mind.

  Do you see THE dog?
  What are THOSE people doing?
  THIS book is interesting.

• To reference an object whose specific identity is not clear, use an indirect article.

  Was that A dog?
  Are people doing bizarre things?
  Do you want AN interesting book?

• To state a general property, idea, or fact, you may use an indefinite article (usually "some") or no article at all, but the noun is always pluralized and a definite article is never used.

  Dogs like to run.
  SOME people do bizarre things.
  Books are interesting.

Prepositions:

Who are you going with?
Where are you coming from?
That is the idea I came up with.
That's something I won't put up with.

Whence are you coming?
That is the idea with which I came up.
That is something up with which I will not put. (credit to W. Churchill)

With whom are you going?
From where are you coming?
I came up with that idea.

If / Whether:

"If" always introduces a condition, making some part of the sentence subject to the condition introduced by "if":

If it is raining, we won't go outside.

Can you tell me whether it is raining outside?

Can you tell me if it is raining outside?

Commonly Confused Words:

Plurals:

the suffix *um pluralizes to *a, *a pluralizes to *ae, *us pluralizes to *i

One criterion, Two criteria.
One datum, Several data.
One medium, The television media.

The dataset is ...
The results are ...
The collection of data is ...

This group of people IS smart.
This bushel of apples IS heavy.
The apples in this bushel ARE red.
The set of points IS irrelevant.

Sentences and Paragraphs

Lists:

Individual preferences will vary widely, and to the extent that a list is meant to look like point-form writing no grammar rules really apply. However in a formal document I would recommend the following rules for all lists:

Documents:

• EVERY report and project has to have an Introduction and a Conclusion. Projects and theses MUST suggest future work or recommendations for future study, however it is permitted to include this material as part of a Conclusions section.

• EVERY document needs to have numbered pages. Why you wouldn't number pages is something I can't understand.

• EVERY document longer than about 4 pages needs a Table of Contents. A List of Figures or List of Tables is required only for theses.

• For technical reports, it is strongly recommended that sections be numbered. Relying on font size and capitalization to imply sections is ambiguous.

• I consider it poor form to have a chapter or section that moves directly to a subsection without introductory material:

       Chapter 2:  Background material
         2.1 Linear Operators
         2.1.1 Wavelets 
             The text for all of Chapter 2 starts here, in some detailed discussion of wavelets ...
  

  Since Chapter 2 consists of much more than Section 2.1.1, presumably there is something which you might like to tell the reader about Chapter 2 as a whole. Thus the following is preferred:

       Chapter 2:  Background material
         A paragraph describing Chapter 2 as a whole, perhaps giving a brief overview for the reader.
  
         2.1 Linear Operators
           A brief overview of this section, now limited to the topic linear operators.
  
         2.1.1 Wavelets 
             This is no longer the first text of chapter 2.  This text focusses only on wavelets ...
  

• Don't number sections past three levels of depth (e.g., Section 3.2.4). Four levels of numbering gets tedious and suggests that the document is poorly organized. Also, you shouldn't have a section number and/or Table of Contents entry for anything less than about half a page in length. I routinely see Tables of Contents with about ten entries for three pages --- this is bad.

• Avoid chapters having only one section, or sections having only one subsection - the document structure looks awkward and poorly thought out. In other words, if you have a section 2.1, there should be a 2.2 also. Otherwise, consider absorbing the lone section into its parent.

• Use consistent spelling. Half American / half British spelling reads very poorly. For submissions to American journals, American spelling is encouraged. For projects and theses submitted in Canada, British spelling is preferred.

• Bullets and lists are perfectly fine, however these must appear within paragraphs consisting of complete sentences. No part of the actual writing (prose) of your document can be in point form.

• For theses and projects, it is not adequate to just give a list of references at the start of a section. Every time you introduce a non-obvious idea you need to give the reference(s) right at that point. Most importantly, if you say anything about "the field" or "the literature" or "other researchers" then you MUST have a reference to back this up (I see this problem ALL the time).

  Any time to state a major fact or idea that you don't develop yourself then you require a reference. Without a reference you could just be making things up. Also, use only last names in referencing other people's work, never first name or initials.

Figures:

Style:

• Flow is one of the most crucial, and difficult, elements to incorporate into writing. Paragraphs should meaningfully follow each other, as should subsections, sections etc. It is crucial that ideas follow one another in logical order!

• Do not change more than one aspect of an idea at a time. That is, in going from A to B, go one step at a time!

• Avoid excessive quoting of other authors - it reads awkwardly. Instead, paraphrase / rewrite whenever possible.

• Do not try to explain mathematical ideas using prose (this happens all the time, it is a serious problem!). It makes sense to you, but not to the reader. Use mathematical notation, symbols, and equations for mathematical ideas.

• Do not use arbitrary mathematical notation! Good notation takes work!

• Do not try to explain algorithmic ideas using prose! Use a figure, table, pseudocode etc.

• Whenever you use an acronym, define it in its first usage. In longer documents, such as theses, you may need to define acronyms more than once (that is, don't assume that the reader has read every obscure section in your thesis in using an acronym). Certainly avoid the excessive use of acronyms; if you absolutely have to use a lot, then define them all in a table.

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