abbreviation. Spell out the full name at first reference with the abbreviation in brackets.

abscond. Only criminals abscond. Others absent themselves.

absolutes. These are terms which cannot be qualified. Convince, decline, deny, demolish, destroy, maximise, minimise, unanimous, unique… Do not write A building was partially demolished. Write A part of the building was demolished.

absolve. Prefer acquit to absolve.

accede to. Not the same as agreed to. You accede to a demand/request/wish. You agree to a proposal/plan.

accomplice. Only criminals have accomplices. Others have partners or friends.

accuse. Write accused of or charged with.

active voice. Use the active voice if the agent is important. Otherwise the passive will do.

adapt. Means modify. Adopt means accept.

adequate. Prefer enough to adequate.

adjectives. Use them if they denote kind rather than degree. Write a water crisis. Avoid a grave crisis.

admit. A loaded word. Prefer said to admit.

adopt. See adapt.

adverbs. Put them after the verb. Write ran swiftly, not swiftly ran.

advice. You give advice or you advise. Spell with c for noun and s for verb. Advice, device, licence and prophecy are nouns; advise, devise, license and prophesy are verbs. Usually c is the noun and s the verb.

advise. See advice.

affinity. It takes the prepositions between or with; not for or to.

affirmative. Avoid answered in the affirmative. Write yes instead.

afflict. A person is afflicted, not inflicted, with a disease.

affluent. Rich is a better word.

after. Not a synonym for follows. If A follows B, then B occurs after A.

aggravate. Means make worse. Not a synonym for irritate or annoy.

alight. You alight from a bus but dismount from a horse.

allege. Always name the source who makes allegations.

alternate. A chess board has alternate, not alternative, dark and white squares.

alternative. There can be only one alternative. Options may be many. See also alternate.

ameliorate. Improve is a better word. Conditions can be ameliorated, not hardships.

among. Write between you and me but among us when there are more than two persons.

amount. Prefer number to amount for countables. Do not write the amount of apples but the number of apples.

announce. Always name the source who makes announcements.

another. Means one more. Do not write another 1000.

anticipate. Not a synonym for expect. A thug anticipates arrest and seeks bail. And he expects to get it. Usually, problems are anticipated; solutions are expected.

apparent. Prefer plain to apparent.

appraise. Means to evaluate. Apprise means to inform.

apprise. See appraise.

arbitrate. Not a synonym for mediate. An arbitrator decides. A mediator reconciles.

around. About is a better word.

articles. A, an and the are demonstrative adjectives. Use a before common nouns that do not begin with a vowel sound. Otherwise use an. Write such a one, a university, an horse, an hour... Use the before unique common nouns or things already referred to. Write the sky is blue.

as. Not a synonymn for like. Use as to compare verbs and like to compare nouns. He works like a dog but He works as a dog does.