Susan Weiner Investment Writing

Can you use numerals at the start of a sentence?

December 7, 2021/2 Comments/in grammar/by Susan Weiner, CFA

One of the first writing rules I learned was that I can’t use numerals to start a sentence. But in recent years, my certainty about that rule has been shaken. Headlines can start with numerals First, I learned that it’s OK to start an article headline with a numeral, at least in Associated Press (AP) […]

MISTAKE MONDAY for November 29: Can YOU spot what’s wrong?

November 29, 2021/in proofreading/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Can you spot what’s wrong in the image below? This is an example from my blog. Yes, I make careless mistakes, too, including a mistake that I later fixed. As you see in this item, I initially spelled Emmy Favilla’s last name with one l instead of two. I post Mistake Monday items partly to […]

My 2021 reading with suggestions for you

November 23, 2021/in writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

This year I devoted much of my serious reading time to learning more about race through nonfiction and fiction. I also grappled with some issues of race on my blog in “How to edit articles about Black people” and “Working with a sensitivity reader.” Race—nonfiction Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin R. Banaji—I […]

Data are versus data is

November 18, 2021/in grammar/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Should you write “data is” or “data are”? Whenever possible, I suggest writing to avoid the use of the term “data” by itself. Why? Because, as Garner’s Modern American Usage says, “Data is a SKUNKED term: whether you write data are or data is, you’re likely to make some readers raise their eyebrows.” I think […]