Ah, the good old days! When we could say “the 40s” or “the 90s” and the words flowed easily and everyone understood each other.

But now… what? This century is not only uncomfortable to live in, it isn’t easy to refer to.
How to Write It
If you want to abbreviate a year—let’ use 2006—you can write ‘06.  Yes, there is only one apostrophe.

If you refer to the decade—for example, the first decade of the current century, or the decade just before—do not place an apostrophe before the s. Write the ’00s and the ’90s or whatever. These sentences are spelled correctly:
“I taught …

Hey! Stop It with the Exclamation Points!

Wow! I get lots of emails that shout at me! Maybe the sender is on her third espresso! Or maybe she hopes her excitement is infectious!

She’s wrong. Exclamation points are more annoying than exciting.

In your business communications—email, newsletter, web content, brochures and flyers—don’t rely on punctuation (or fancy fonts and words in color) to make your point.

Use too many exclamation points and your readers will stop paying attention to any of them. Be deliberate: Exclaim when you know precisely why you’re doing so it and how the punctuation aids your message.

Exclamation points can aid …