Proofreading services in Nottingham and other University Sources

If you want to learn more about editing and proofreading your work, university websites are often excellent sources for material about grammar, punctuation and all manner of English language issues that cause writers difficulty. Why is this the case? Let’s consider the proofreading service at Nottingham University.

Abbreviations guide – ‘Is alright all right’

There are many different forms of abbreviation and contraction in the English language, some more clearly and universally defined and accepted than others. The use of the apostrophe to form contractions, for instance, (can’t, shouldn’t, I’d, he’ll, we’d) is widely acknowledged as standard usage, though it may be frowned upon or considered out of place in more formal or academic writing.

British and American English

Winston Churchill in his memoirs discusses a rather animated debate with his American counterparts in the heart of World War Two. A disagreement arose in the discussion of a particularly sensible wartime matter, which when the British side argued it should be tabled, the American delegation insisted most strongly it should not. Mutual antagonism continued [...]

Should I use ‘who’ or ‘whom’?

This is one of the most common grammatical mistakes of all and one I come across very frequently when editing work at all levels. The problem seems to arise from the fact that, unlike other common grammatical constructs, the word ‘whom’ is not very often used in day-to-day life. In fact, its use is often omitted entirely in both spoken English and informal writing, leading to widespread confusion regarding the substitution of ‘whom’ or ‘whomever’ for ‘who’ or ‘whoever’.