 Welcome to my second collection of zombie rules! Zombie rules are instructions about writing (often learned in school or from parents) that have nothing to do with correct grammar. The are called zombie rules because they keep coming back from the dead! I have been posting a collection of zombie rules on LinkedIn, but I'm gathering them here for readers who aren't on LinkedIn or don't feel like scrolling through my feed to find them. You can find my first six zombie rules in Part 1.  Zombie rule:
I’m blaming this one on Microsoft! 😩 When you type a bullet or numbered list in Word, the default setting puts a capital letter at the beginning of each item, even if you typed a lowercase letter. It’s only natural for people to believe this must be how they should always write lists. After all, why would it autocorrect if it wasn’t wrong? (You can turn this default setting off. When Word capitalizes your first word, click the “lightning bolt” dropdown menu that appears under the capital letter and select “turn off automatic capitalization.” It will stay off for that document.) There is no overall rule for capitalization in lists. Here’s a quick guide. You should start items with a capital letter in either of these circumstances:
You should start each item with a lowercase letter if
It doesn’t matter whether the list is a bullet list or a numbered list. The same rules apply. If your list items have no punctuation and aren’t full sentences, you can choose to start them with capital letters or lowercase letters. Just be consistent throughout your document. This kind of detail doesn’t need to slow you down while you’re writing. Just write your list. When you finish your document, go through all the lists (or better yet, get an editor to do it!) and make sure they’re formatted properly.  Zombie rule: Always write foreign words in italics This rule has always had a dash of "it depends" thrown in. Most people don’t italicize "status quo" but they would italicize "nemo dat quod non habet" (you can’t give away what you don’t have), even though they’re both Latin. Let’s consider the main reasons for italicizing non-English words in English text: 1. To help the reader understand why they are seeing something unfamiliar. 2. To avoid confusion with a similar (or identical) word in English that has a different meaning. From a plain language standpoint, the easiest way to ensure your readers understand the text is to use familiar words. So, if a non-English word is familiar to your intended audience (for example, food words like croissant, ravioli, and schnitzel) then you should be able to use them without italics. There's no need to draw special attention to them. If the non-English word won’t be familiar to your audience, you can either replace it with a familiar English word or explain what the non-English word means (or provide a translation). In either case, italics aren’t necessary. In cases that fall under number 2, where there is an identical word in English with a different meaning, putting the word in italics can be helpful. But again, replacing the word with its English equivalent is usually easier on the reader. Before you accuse me of trying to “dumb down” your prose, I don’t think that multilingual texts should necessarily be avoided. If your intended readers are well-travelled, well-read, or familiar with international terminology used in a specific field (perhaps art history, cooking, or architecture), by all means use the most appropriate words to express yourself. Plain language isn’t about banning complex or sophisticated language, it’s about targeting your language to the readers you're hoping to reach.  Zombie rule: All Headings Must Be in Title Case Why Are Headings Important? Headings allow you to break up your text and make it easier for readers to find the information they’re looking for. Headings also make it easier for them to skip the parts they aren’t interested in, which saves them time. Headings are also helpful for writers, because they make it easier to categorize your content and put together a well organized document. Don’t We Need To Capitalize Every Word? Actually, most rules for title case don’t suggest capitalizing every word. (Did you hear that Microsoft Word?!) Conjunctions (and, or, but, if), articles (a, the) and short prepositions (in, on, over, for, etc.) are generally not capitalized in title case. This confuses a lot of writers, who end up making every small word lower case because who knows whether it’s one of the special words or not! We Need To Do This for All Headings, Right? Not necessarily. Using title case for headings is an option, but title case is harder to read than sentence case. Have You Ever Tried To Read A Whole Sentence Where Every Word Is Capitalized—Or A Whole Paragraph? It Gets Pretty Annoying. It’s Like The Author Is Saying, All My Words Are So Important They All Deserve Capital Letters! If the headings in your document are long, descriptive headings (which can be helpful for readers), writing them like sentences will make them easier to read. But how will readers know they’re reading a heading? Headings should stand out from the text by using a larger font size, a bold font, or a different font or colour. (Often they use a combination of these.) And every level of heading should look different than the others. This approach makes it easy for readers to understand how the document is organized.  Zombie Rule: Paragraphs must contain more than one sentence Like most zombie rules, this one has well-meaning origins in English classrooms. 👩🏫 Students need to understand that paragraphs aren’t just like sentences. They combine several sentences that are linked by a single topic. It’s a lesson we all need to learn when we start writing longer pieces, like essays. But that doesn’t mean you can’t ever have a one-sentence paragraph. Or even a one-word paragraph. Right? And as social media changes the way people read and write, paragraphs are becoming shorter. Readers have a low tolerance (especially online) for huge blocks of text. On the other hand, It’s a bad idea to make every paragraph one sentence long. It’s tedious and hard to follow because ideas are not connected together in a logical flow. But if you want to make a statement really stand out, let it stand alone!  Zombie Rule: Always capitalize Job Titles and Department Names 👨⚖️
As a Plain Language Consultant and former Communications Specialist who has worked in Business Development, Marketing & Communications, and Media Relations, I have encountered a whole lot of random rules about capitalization in various organizations. Capitalizing someone’s job title is usually a way to make them feel like they have an Important Role. But let’s face it, a job is a job—it’s not your identity (I hope) and shouldn’t be treated like your name. Exception: Sometimes jobs titles are indeed treated as part of someone’s name. Their title comes directly before their name when this happens: President Michelle Waitzman says… As for departments, they are simply ways to categorize functions in an organization. They don’t each carry their own brand or trademark, so why give them capitalized names? The finance department takes care of finances, the marketing department does marketing, and so on. If you can’t tell whether someone is talking about the department or the work (e.g., the marketing department versus marketing as an activity), it’s probably a sign that the sentence is not clearly written. Do I expect capitalized job titles and departments to disappear any time soon? No. They make people feel important, and nobody likes to have their importance diminished with puny lowercase letters!
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 Zombie rules are instructions about writing (often learned in school or from parents) that have nothing to do with correct grammar. The are called zombie rules because they keep coming back from the dead! I have been posting a collection of zombie rules on LinkedIn, but I'm gathering them here for readers who aren't on LinkedIn or don't feel like scrolling through my feed to find them. You can find more zombie rules in Part 2.  Zombie rule: Never end a sentence with a preposition. 🙄 This “rule” is one up with which advocates of plain language will not put! It is simply a preference on which certain sticklers have insisted for generations. It adds complexity that makes it more difficult to understand about what the sentence is. It makes me wonder for whom this so-called rule was intended. I believe it is something over which we must get!  Zombie rule: Never start a sentence with a conjunction. 😕 Conjunctions are the joining words in a sentence, like "and," "but," "if," "or," and so on. And many of us were taught in primary school that it’s wrong to start a sentence with them. But mature writers can use them appropriately at the beginning of a sentence. If the sentence makes sense with a conjunction at the beginning, go ahead and use one!  Zombie rule: Never split an infinitive ⛏ An infinitive is the “to” form of a verb, such as to say, to go, to walk, and so on. This so-called rule was created to precisely mimic Latin grammar in English. It’s difficult to honestly believe that people think it’s incorrect to put an adverb after “to.” So allow me to simply state that splitting an infinitive is perfectly acceptable in English. But if you’re writing in Latin, feel free to strictly enforce this rule.  Zombie rule: WRITE IMPORTANT INFORMATION IN ALL CAPS 📢 If you’ve ever agreed to terms and conditions online YOU PROBABLY SAW ENTIRE PARAGRAPHS OF TEXT WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS. Some paper contracts use them too. I say “saw” not “read” because I can almost guarantee you didn’t read them. TEXT WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS IS HARDER FOR OUR BRAINS TO PROCESS. Why? Because we don’t read letter by letter. We recognize the shapes of familiar words at a glance, which allows us to read faster. For example: dog vs. doe We recognize the shapes easily because “d” has an ascender (it goes above the height of the “o”) and “g” has a descender (it goes below the bottom of the “o”) but “e” does not have either. However: DOG vs. DOE These are much harder to tell apart at a glance because all the letters are the same height and width. Multiply this by hundreds of letters, and your brain just refuses to even try. Important text that you actually want people to read should not be in all caps. It’s one of the least helpful zombie rules out there!  Zombie rule: Never use passive voice 😐 It's common writing advice to avoid passive voice (and use active voice), but banning it altogether is definitely a zombie rule! Otherwise: A jogger was attacked in Central Park this morning. becomes Somebody attacked a jogger in Central Park this morning. Is it clearer? No. Another example: Pike’s performance was inspired by the iconic femmes fatales of film noir. becomes The iconic femmes fatales of film noir inspired Pike’s performance. Is the focus on the right person? No. Passive voice is helpful when the subject performing the action is unknown or not the focus of the sentence.  Zombie rule: Always spell out numbers that begin a sentence.
I’ll probably get some pushback on this one, because I’m challenging the Chicago Manual of Style. 😱 But style is not grammar, and there’s no grammatical difference between numbers spelled out as words and numbers written in digits. Digits are easier to read, especially for large numbers. Consider this example: 1929 was a bad year to be born in Nebraska. If we want to follow the rule, we have to write the year out in words: Nineteen twenty-nine was a bad year to be born in Nebraska. Pretty awkward. Readers aren’t used to seeing years written out like that, so it takes longer to process. Instead, many writers try to rewrite the sentence so the year isn’t at the beginning: The year 1929 was a bad one to be born in Nebraska. or Being born in Nebraska in 1929 was bad. Neither of these versions has the same impact as the original. Any rule that makes your writing *less* clear to readers is a zombie rule as far as I’m concerned. Feel free to prove me wrong, but I haven’t heard a convincing argument for this rule yet. |
AuthorMichelle Waitzman, plain language specialist, shares her tips and perspectives on clear, powerful communication. Archives
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