Slovene Association for the Study of English

Here’s an example in context:
“The world is swimming in horrible movies, whether they be violent action movies or saccharine, simplistic romances. Which is not surprising, given the necessity for studios to produce in a hurry.”

If you’re really really tempted and you feel a comma just wouldn’t do your thought process justice, use a dash:
“The world is swimming in horrible movies, whether they be violent action movies or saccharine, simplistic romances – which is not surprising, given the necessity for studios to produce in a hurry.”

Jason Blake and Monika Kavalir

All tips to date…
http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/tips%20-%202014%202015.pdf

Make sure, however, not to mix and match them!
NOT: “They threw insults back and fro.”
But: “They threw insults back and forth.”

With “to and fro” spelling is tricky when it switches word classes. If you want to use it as a noun or verb, look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary to make sure you’re sticking the hyphens and -s endings in the right places.
Example: the to-and-fro of the haggling process

Jason Blake and Monika Kavalir

All tips to date…
http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/tips%20-%202014%202015.pdf

1) According to Sarah, the party was fabulous.

In Sarah’s opinion, the party was fabulous.
Sarah reports that the party was fabulous.
I have it from the horse’s mouth that the party was fabulous.

Usually, there’s a flesh-and-blood, literal speaker with “according to.”

2) Searching online for “in accordance with” + “party” yields results like (i.e. similar to):

“In accordance with subsection 7, each party will pay his/her share of the rental.”

Usually, “in accordance with” pertains to a document or theory.

“According to Smith (2012) and Novak (2007), it is impossible to make hot dogs out of wool. In accordance with their theory, our wool – in spite of the loose affiliation with mutton – could not be turned into a hot dog or sausage of any variety.”

Jason Blake and Monika Kavalir

All tips to date…
http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/tips%20-%202014%202015.pdf

The winner is option 3, the one with all the hyphens.

This, however, is snappier (since “year” already indicates duration or long-ness).

“I was involved in a six-year fan relationship with a bad football team.”

Jason Blake and Monika Kavalir

All tips to date…
http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/tips%20-%202014%202015.pdf

E.g.
“No amount of money could make me take a cold shower at any time of day.”
“No number of horses could make me take a cold shower at any time of day.”

Two little stylistic notes:
1) “A lot” sounds less formal than “many” or “several.”
2) Slovenians overuse “a number of…”

All tips to date…
http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/tips%20-%202014%202015.pdf

1) World War I or the First World War
2) World War II or the Second World War
3) the Cold War (“cold war” is fine if you use it generically – e.g. “A domestic cold war developed over who would do the dishes.”)

INCORRECT: World War 2
INCORRECT: the first World War

Although some style guides, such as Chicago, call for WW I, especially in less formal writing WW1 is fine (and generally more common than WW I).

Also, avoid writing “2nd World War” or the utterly Slovenglish “1. World War.”

Incorrect: “The sun imagery in the poem presents warmth.”
Correct: “The sun imagery in the poem represents warmth.”

Incorrect: “Allow me to represent John, who’s a good friend of mine.”
Correct: “Allow me to present John, who’s a good friend of mine.”

Also check out slang uses of represent: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=represent and http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-definiti…/represent.

All tips to date…
http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/tips%20-%202014%202015.pdf

Incorrect: “The mood of the poem reflects in the sombre diction.”
Correct: “The mood of the poem reflects itself in the sombre diction.”
Correct (and somewhat more elegant): “The mood of the poem is reflected in the sombre diction.”

Your safest bet is the passive as this is the more common option – Google, for instance, returns some 25 million hits for “is reflected” compared to 92,000 for “reflects itself”.

Jason Blake and Monika Kavalir