Grammatical and puntuation differences in UK English Vs. US English

I'm working on a business document with several UK colleagues. I'm pretty detailed on grammar and punctuation, and my wife is also a professional editor. I'm finding that the grammar and punctuation is not what I would consider standard. I have refrained from "wordsmithing" as no one else seems to be concerned, and I don't want to be perceived as too pushy or arrogant.

My question: Is there is a substantial difference in grammar and punctuation rules between the US and the UK?

This is a business document, the language and word choice is spot on… What I am asking about is primarily comma placement and sentence structure...

 Thanks!

Does your office have a 'house style'? For example at my University, abbreviations such as Rd for road or Mr for Mister would not have a period (full stop). However, an abbreviation like temp. for temperature (bad example but best I can come up with now) would[i/] have a period. This is because the first 2 examples utilize the first and last letter for the word whereas the third example does not.

Anyway, if you office does not have a house style, adopt one. I suggest:



along with a good book of grammar and punctuation.

Good luck!

I've found this helpful:

http://www.economist.com/research/StyleGuide/

In reading the newspaper here, I've found that the British don't use commas as readily as we do in the US...  Confuses the hell out of me sometimes.

In reading the newspaper here, I've found that the British don't use commas as readily as we do in the US... Confuses the hell out of me sometimes.

I so agree, I have to remember not to us them when emailing and writing letters at work.  I would have never thought there was such a big difference.

The poor use of the apostrophe in British English drives me insane.  A number of examples I have seen just this week:

"Loyalty card's available here"
"The doctor see's patients between 2-4 only on Thursdays"
"Watch's repaired while you wait"

Long and winding run-on sentences, without a single form of punctuation except the period half way down the page.  Drives me crackers!   

The poor use of the apostrophe in British English drives me insane.  A number of examples I have seen just this week:

"Loyalty card's available here"
"The doctor see's patients between 2-4 only on Thursdays"
"Watch's repaired while you wait"

This strange bit of English usage has been bandied about for years.  Google on "greengrocer's apostrophe"

This strange bit of English usage has been bandied about for years.  Google on "greengrocer's apostrophe"

OMG, just checked out the link!  MY WORST NIGHTMARE!!!   

my boss does that-it drives me crazy!  Pannini's-£1.80

A lot of documents I see at work have " English(U.S.) " as the  default WORD language, presumably because all Bill Gates's products come set up that way and the user can't be bothered to change the PC settings and just adds the more obvious spellings to the dictionary. 'Labeling' and 'Labelling' are not so often picked on.

I have to agree with all who commented on the lack of punctuation within sentences in the British press, especially from an editor's viewpoint. Readers shouldn't have to backtrack when they're reading to make sense of a sentence that would have made perfect sense with a comma or two. There also seems to be no distinction between using "can" and using "may" in the UK, as well as any distinction between using "that" and using "which." Sigh.

The poor use of the apostrophe in British English drives me insane.  A number of examples I have seen just this week:

"Loyalty card's available here"
"The doctor see's patients between 2-4 only on Thursdays"
"Watch's repaired while you wait"

Oh thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for posting that!! It drives me insane too!!!! I have a manager at work who insists on writing words like "employee's" when she means "employees" or "Saturday's" when she means "Saturdays." Also, I was always taught that when a person's last name ends in an "s" you just an apostrophe: "Bridget Jones' Diary." But I always see "Bridget Jones's Diary" and I just want to scream!! Whew..I'm glad someone is as bothered by the punctuation as I am!

And yes, the lack of commas is annoying too. Oh, and I have some work colleagues who couldn't spell if their lives depended on it. I'm not saying I'm perfect but I'm pretty darn particular with my spelling and punctuation!

Sorry for the rant, you hit a sore spot! 

OK, I just went back and checked out that link. It says:

Use the normal possessive ending 's after singular words or names that end in s: boss's, caucus's, Delors's, St James's, Jones's, Shanks's.

Arrgh! That's just WRONG. Oh..did I mention I was an English major when I went to University?    Now you know why it's driving me crazy!

Regina,

Depending on the stylebook, you may or may not add an additional "s" after the apostrophe in forming the possessive of a name ending in "s". But I'm with you on not adding an additional "s" (I'd go with "Jones' dog" over "Jones's dog," for example). I've adhered to many stylebooks over the years--AP, University of Chicago, GPO (Government Printing Office), you name it--if the client has a preference. (I'm an editor/writer and journalism major). So I can safely say that there are no hard-and-fast rules on that particular usage. However, there ARE set rules on the use of "that" vs. "which" and "may" vs. "can", words that I've noticed are used interchangeably in British papers, etc. That makes me crazy. (On another note, since I've been here for Christmas, I've been reading the Washington Post, the Washington Times and, if desperate, USA Today. I haven't seen ONE typo/grammatical error in any of them yet--we get the London Times in England, and there are easily 20 errors/typos a day just in the sections I read. Editorial sloppiness on a scale I've never seen before (well, maybe in an elementary school newsletter).

Suzanne

I'm sure this link is FASCINATING to most of the people on the site. 

Here's a doozie for you - this ad for a golf writer was found on Freelancers.net. Just what kind of writer they think they're going to attract I'm not sure (espeically looking at the rate of pay).

"
Writer new golf website (UK)
location UK
job area Content
posted on 20/12/2004

We are looking for an immedaitely available content writer who is a UK based and has English as their mother tougne and is a passionate golfer. The applicant should be above all fast and responsive as the project is deadline based for a quality focused client.

This project involves writing original content for a Golf website. The content should be written for a web based audience and should be interesting, light and informative.

The site is a golfing version of an already existing scuba diving site and eventually will form part of a network of sites covering Skiing, golf, diving and adventure sports.

The rate for the work is £6.5 per hour and it is estimated to be 200-230 work.

All work must be original and will be checked.

There is a good chance for on-going work if the inital build goes well.

Thank you for taking the tiem to apply "