What's in a Name?
By Mamie Webb Hixon

What's in a name? Everything including a comma—if Jr. or Sr. follows the name. If a Roman numeral designation follows a name, the comma is omitted:

Henry VIII	Adlai Stevenson III
Pope John Paul II	The Reverend Leon Rankins III

The second option without the comma preceding the title Jr. is preferred since Jr. is considered a part of the person's name. If, however, the title is an additive or a parenthetical element like a professional, descriptive, or working title, then the comma is required:

While commas separate a name from a title, commas are not used to set off nicknames or surnames (nicknames are, however, placed in quotation marks unless the nickname is the name the person is known or called by):

Catherine the Great	The Iron Lady
Michael "Air" Jordan	Honest Abe
General Daniel "Chappie" James	Ike

Commas are not necessary when a professional title precedes a name:

Secretary of State Colin Powell	Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor
President George W. Bush	Al Henderson, Editor
The Honorable Nancy Gilliam	Nettie Eaton, Principal

When in doubt, consult a grammar handbook or stylebook.

THE LIE - LAY DILEMMA

Use lie, lies, lying, lay, and (have) lain with people and inanimate objects:

Tourists are lying on the beach enjoying the sun.

The forms are lying on your desk.

Trees were lying on the streets after the hurricane.

ON-THE-JOB GRAMMAR TIP

Use standard rules for forming the plural of last names.

Stewart - the Stewarts	Kennedy - the Kennedys
Keeping up with the Joneses	Lynch - the Lynches
Rodriguez - the Rodriguezes	Bui - the Buis
Illianes - the Illianeses	Marx - the Marxes
Williams - the Williamses

Diction in the Real World

By Leslie Young

In the business world, proper use of written words can be the deciding factor between making a deal or not making the deal. Some business people may except the fact that they cannot write properly. However, they should be adviced that proper grammar is a principle key to producing documents that will be read by others. If business people are not sure of their grammar, they should be sure and ask someone for help or simply look the information up themselves. Beside having proper grammar in writing, a person who knows how to use proper grammar when speaking has an advantage over those individuals who do not know their grammar rules. Should a businessman or businesswoman become a supervisor, he or she also needs to know proper grammar in order to help his or her personal. What good would a boss who didn't know grammar be if the workers banked on him as a resource? Being that the workers depend on their bosses, the boss needs to know correct grammar for writing and speaking purposes. If business people are not particularly great with grammar, they shouldn't become alarmed; they should be enthused because a place like the University of West Florida's Writing Lab exists. Due to the highly trained staff in The Lab, business people will encounter imminent lab assistants ("labbies") who will help them reach their grammar goals. Getting help from the Grammar Hotline will have a profound affect on your writing. Professionals everywhere, have no fear; for the Writing Lab and its "grammar labbies" are here to council.

Did you notice that all of the bold-faced words above are incorrect? For future reference, know the differences between the two forms of each of the words above: