Mind Your Yesses and Nos

Lots of little words mess us writers up. Here’s a list of some with their proper spelling (and note whether they are capitalized or not).

You may want to put these in your notebook and keep handy at your desk:

• yesses and nos and maybes
• dos and don’ts
• MAs, PhDs, BSs, US, DC, ID, US, CIA, FBI (the style is to leave out the periods)
• ifs, ands, and buts
• I sent thank-yous
• coworker (used to be hyphenated but now it’s not)
• How many “to be continueds” should we expect? (put the s inside the quotes if you are pluralizing a word or expression)
• Mind your p’s and q’s
• Dot your i’s and cross your t’s

We’ll be covering more of these from time to time, but too many at once might give you a headache!