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What do these guys expect for $10,000 per month?

"What do these guys expect? They're paying us only $10,000 per month." Those are the words I heard from an executive at a large PR firm complaining about his difficult client. In essence, the client felt like he wasn't getting any solid results. And the executive...

Copy Editor’s Corner | Which vs. That

Which word should you use in that sentence? According to Chicago Manual of Style and The AP Stylebook, that should be used in restrictive clauses and which in nonrestrictive clauses. A restrictive clause is essential to the meaning of the sentence, and a nonrestrictive clause --...

Copy Editor’s Corner | Assure – Insure – Ensure

>Rest assured you’re not the first person to be tripped up by insure, ensure, and assure. And for good reason -- there is a fair amount of leeway in the usage of these words.

But while a dictionary may state that it’s okay to use insure in a context other than insurance, and assure to mean “guarantee,” many style guides have stricter guidelines.

AP style, for instance, assigns one meaning to each word:

“Use ensure to mean guarantee . . . insure for references to insurance . . . assure to mean to make sure or give confidence.”

This approach simplifies the matter and makes the definitions easier to memorize. While you could defend your usage by pointing to Merriam-Webster, style guides often trump dictionaries.