“If you are persistent, you will get it. If you are consistent, you will keep it.”
– Harvey Mackay
This is also true of your writing. For a variety of reasons, consistency is critical in your writing.
The effect of consistency
Several authors have examined consistency with various topics, including design and productivity.
There’s no denying that the more you write, the more experience you get as a writer when it comes to writing. But, of course, whether writing too much might lead to burnout is something writers must decide for themselves.
Even if a writer has figured out what amount of output is optimal for them at any given time in their lives, they must pay attention to how they write as much as how much they write.
In this article, we’ll look at some common consistency mistakes and how to avoid them.
Punctuation, numbers, and hyphenation
Determine how you’ll deal with your writing’s diverse syntax and details. Know the rules and self-edit your work along. Use these guidelines to ensure that your writing is consistent.
- Parentheses and periods with quotation marks
- Apostrophes and contractions
- Acronyms
- Commas
- Dates, timings, and numbers
- Hyphenation
When does the period belong inside the parentheses and go outside the parentheses?
When it’s part of a complete and independent sentence, put the period inside the parentheses. Put the period outside the parentheses if the content in the parenthesis is not a separate sentence.
When should I put a period after an acronym?
If you’re using acronyms, you can use periods or not. Regardless, you must adhere to the same formatting and guideline throughout your paper and other writing efforts.
When do you need to use a comma?
While building an assertion, we use commas to isolate statements, phrases, ideas, appositives, numbers, dates, titles, locations, citations, and separated words. At the point when we address somebody by their first name, we likewise utilize a comma. For coherency, it’s basic to utilize commas reliably.
Five Comma Rules
1. Utilize a comma later as a starting expression or statement.
2. Use commas prior and then afterward an incidental expression or proviso.
3. Utilize a comma to isolate two autonomous provisions connected by an organizing combination (and, yet, for, nor or, along these lines, yet).
4. Utilize a comma to isolate things in a series.
5. Utilize a comma before a citation when an early on express with a word like saying or answer goes before the citation.
What is the best way to write numbers?
Consistency is crucial when writing with numbers. Decide whether you’ll write the word or the numeric symbol using the appropriate style guide. Use a handbook that best suits your writing and communication requirements.
The Chicago Manual of Style indicates you to write out all numbers from zero to one hundred for non-technical writing.
When writing in the AP style, you can utilize numbers more than ten while putting out numbers one through nine.
Employ the same rules across your manuscript and linked papers, regardless of the style you use.
What is the best way to write dates?
Choose your format again based on your style guide, which is defined by the objective of your work. That is the rule to follow. The way your format dates will vary depending on where you are in the world.
When using the month-day-year format, always include a comma after the day and year in a statement. Likewise, utilize the same rule throughout your article if you use abbreviated terminology for the months.
What is the best way to write times?
For general use, here is a fast reference. Always follow the style guide you’ve chosen and be consistent.
- When writing time in lower case, use periods. To specify the time, you write 9 a.m.
- When writing time in upper case, only use the capitalized abbreviation. For example, to specify the time, you write 9 a.m.
- To avoid confusion, always spell noon or midnight.
- Do not write “9 a.m. in the morning” as the time of day because it is redundant.
What is the best way to hyphenate words?
A Hyphen (- ) is an accentuation mark that is utilized to join words or portions of words. It’s not exchangeable with different kinds of runs. Utilize a dash in a compound modifier when the modifier precedes the word it’s altering. Assuming that you’re uncertain about whether a compound word has a dash or not, actually take a look at your favored word reference.
Hyphens are like commas in that they have rules to obey. You must take your time and study punctuation. Have a professional line editor look over your manuscript before sharing or disseminating it.
When the modifier comes first, use a hyphen and the word it modifies. Generally, you really want the hyphen provided that the two words are working together as a descriptor before the thing they’re portraying. Assuming the thing starts things out, forget about the hyphen.
When you’re starting your first round of self-editing, the Purdue University Online Writing Lab is a great resource for learning how to utilize a hyphen.
Your writing will be more consistent and coherent if you use rules. In addition, it allows your readers to engage with your message without feeling frustrated or perplexed. This also guarantees that you produce a professional and stylish first impression.
Capitalization
It’s critical to capitalize (or lowercase) a term consistently if you’ve opted to do so. A grammar checker tool can help you locate all words and apply consistent capitalization with this method. In addition, this tool, unlike a basic find and replace, can take context into account. As a result, you won’t have a lowercase word at the start of a sentence.
Spelling
When you have numerous ways to spell the same word, it might be not easy to pick one and stay with it, especially if you don’t have a strong preference.
Get assistance
Check with academic writing services for correction of the content. If all else fails, you may always rely on a decent style guide, which serves as a reference book as well as a grammar, spelling, punctuation, and formatting guide.
Maintaining your professionalism and consistency
It’s difficult to recall all of the complexities and restrictions around commas, dates, and hyphens. Your writing is checked for accuracy, clarity, and consistency using a grammar checker. This tool’s writing suggestions will warn you if you utilize apostrophes and quotation marks differently.
Inconsistencies will be highlighted, and the program’s recommendations will apply your desired style to the entire manuscript.
Readers value consistency. It’s more fun to read anything simple to comprehend and written without obvious stylistic or grammatical errors. While consistency is important in academic, technical, and business writing, I would argue that it is also important in more informal forms of writing, such as blog posts. It also matters, in my opinion, when a writer is attempting to develop an author platform.
Remember,
There is often no right or wrong style, except for grammar and spelling restrictions. Experts and guidebooks aren’t always in agreement. As a result, the golden rule is first to follow the company’s internal style guide if one exists, and if not, create your own and follow it.
Inconsistency in writing leads to misunderstanding and reflects poorly on your professionalism. In addition, your writing will be used to judge you by your readers and clients.
