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I don't know what would be grammatically correct, commission or commissions, in the following sentences:

  1. We will pay you commission(s) for each client you refer to us.
  2. You can track your commission(s) earned via...
  3. Payment of commission(s) will be made at the request...
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1 Answer 1

Generally, you pay someone a fixed-fee commission for each client referred, so the first sentence should be:

(1) We will pay you [a $100 (you set the commission fee, of course)] commission for each client you refer to us.

And the second, because you assume that the person referring clients will be paid more than one commission, should be:

(2) You can track your earned commissions via...

The third should probably be:

(3a) Payment of commissions will be made at the request....

if you pay only after a certain number have accrued, or only every 30, 60, or 90 days. But if you pay after each referral, then:

(3b) Each commission will be paid at the request....

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Thank you very much. I had serious doubts about this matter because one proofreading service told me that I should write singular throughout the text while another native speaker gave me the answer similar to yours –  Cindy Oct 24 '12 at 13:32
You can't trust proofreading services, especially when they make statements using specious rules instead of reasons based on the context of the discourse you've written. I've provided reasons for switching between singular & plural. If they were no good, a lot of the users here would have jumped all over them. The posters here generally know their English very well, and mistakes aren't tolerated well, which is as it should be. –  user21497 Oct 24 '12 at 14:19
Yeah, I totally trust the opinions which are given here and your opinion as well. Thank you a lot. If we have mentioned unrealiable proofreading services, could you advice me some trustworthy books or sources where I could read about tricky moments of English when it comes to proofreading or copywriting including punctuation, use of capital letters, modern web words usage and so on? Thanks again –  Cindy Oct 24 '12 at 15:10
There isn't much out there there works for all types of proofreading and copyediting. It depends on who's going to publish the writing. They decide which style manuals to use. –  user21497 Oct 24 '12 at 16:00
I am writing about web technologies –  Cindy Oct 24 '12 at 16:08

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