Toward the conclusion of my Australian trip, I had a spirited conversation with an Australian physician in a Sydney hospital. The tenor of our chat changed quickly when the doctor learned that I was a writing consultant. After bemoaning the quality of English writing everywhere wherever he travels in the world, Dr. Burke turned his attention to the American accent. “Americans just can’t get the proper pronunciation of commonplace words,” he said irritably. “They say Bris-bane instead of Bris-bin and Austral-i-a instead of Austral-ya. I mean, they should listen to how it’s said!” From that point onward, I put on my best Aussie affectation. I even said isle for ale and ca for car. I think I impressed him with my "perfect" pronunciation!
To purchase your copy of The Art of On-the-Job Writing by Philip Vassallo, click here: https://www.firstbooks.com/product_info.php?cPath=14&products_id=144
To purchase your copy of The Art of E-Mail Writing by Philip Vassallo, click here: https://www.firstbooks.com/product_info.php/cPath/53/products_id/196
-
A participant in one of my workshops, D. Hom, asked a question about hyphenating expressions such as “end of year.” Determining what to h...
-
READER QUESTION Which of the following sentences is correct? The contract was signed by Lee, Sam, and me . The contract was ... -
It's a good thing that the hyphen is not a frequently used punctuation mark because most people don't know how to use it. The hyp...