Having so much access to American television here in Australia means that we grow up seeing words spelled the way they are spelled in the United States. Different for us and mostly not acceptable for Australians to wear at school, university or on business. Even our spell checkers use the US spelling often. It drives me crazy when my seven-year-old daughter says, candy instead of lollipops, flashlight instead of torch, drugstore instead of drugstore, sidewalk instead of path and says she’s taking a shower instead of having one. One thing that is easy to remember is that Americans use ‘z’ in many words, where we use ‘s’ and even pronounce ‘Z’ the other way around. Usage examples of ‘Z’; antagonize versus antagonize, analyze and analyze, appetizer and appetizer and so on. Americans often also shorten words by removing a letter such as anesthetic and anesthetic, archeological and archeological, mold against mold, favor versus favor, and behavior and behavior. There are word alterations like center vs. center, color vs. color, tire and tire, plow and plow and so on. So who are we to blame or thank for all this American drama? 19th century American lexicographer, Mr. Noah Webster, of dictionary fame. He surmised that making the changes outside of the British language would make the United States more superior and put them aside. He has certainly set them aside.

The Oxford comma, Harvard comma, or serial comma. There are supporters for and against its use. It’s also known as the pretentious comma, and at the end of the day, it’s optional and up to the author unless you follow a particular style. In Australia we don’t use it as often as we do in the US, although there are arguments that it clarifies meanings within sentences that might otherwise be confusing. What is it? It is the comma placed directly before the coordinating conjunction as: and, or, or nor in a sequence of three terms or more. An example using the Oxford as is: I have a recipe, a pot and an oven. Not using the comma would look like this: I have a recipe, a pot and an oven.

The exclamation point has been called the cheap whore of punctuation. My thoughts are, there is a place for it, but professionally it doesn’t belong. The more the merrier shouldn’t apply either and as F. Scott Fitzgerald said, ‘Get rid of all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke. It is a useful way of conveying emotion, irony, annoyance, or sympathy when used in sixes, for example, as a text message, Facebook, email, or any other electronic medium. Also, this sets the stage for others to respond in a similar way with 17! or ???????, like “I just jumped out of a plane and my parachute opened!!!!!!” Actually?????? Cool!!!!!!’ Ridiculous.

I love the ampersand (&) logogram that personifies ‘and’ but when used correctly. Not for use in any way or in any way random. He doesn’t save on his word count students. An ampersand originated from Latin, of course, as AND what does it mean and. An example of good use could be a business title like Anders and Wallace edition or in academic references such as (Anders and Judd, 2007). It would not be appropriate to use to write something like “They put the bricks and mortar against the wall”.

The use of fonts seems fun. But there is a place for countless typographical practices, like on a circus banner or in a comic. That’s right, comic sans people as whimsical as they are, should be used in a comic, and nowhere else. Certain fonts work better on paper (times new roman, courier, or pietial/serif fonts) and others better on screen (Sans-serif, Helvetica, Century gothic, Verdana, Arial, or sans-serif fonts). Although the pixel resolution has changed, you still have to consider small devices. I think using a particular font or fonts can really affect readability, so my advice is not to “mix” them. That’s fine when making a mixtape, but not for a letter or other document. Keep your readers. Don’t use impact for a full page, or blow it up with pages from Bradley’s hand and papyrus… well, pffftt. I have no idea what wingdings are for.