Some pairs of words are like Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen. Let me explain. The Olsens were the youngest cast members of Full House, a popular TV series that had its original run from 1987 to 1995. They played just one character, the daughter of a widowed sportscaster. The girls were cast jointly for the same […]
Non-Identical Twins in the Dictionary Read More »
With its 18th edition, The Chicago Manual of Style has fully embraced the singular they. This comes many years after the manual and the Associated Press mostly accepted the singular they in a development that one veteran editor called “the middle of the end for the insistence that ‘they’ can be only a plural pronoun.”
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I recently discovered Author Magazine, a website chock full of advice on writing and publishing, and read an article there on how to critique other writers’ work. The article is specifically about critiquing within a writers’ group session after an author reads his or her work out loud, but much of the advice applies well
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Penguin Random House’s proposed (and, as of October 31, court-blocked) merger with Simon & Schuster raised concern about the future of competition in book publishing. Stephen King spoke to those concerns in August when he testified for the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit to stop the merger. In the 50 years since start of his
Coming to Terms with Publishers Read More »
Be careful how you use the word only. Poor placement of this little modifier can confuse the reader and twist the meaning of a sentence. “He only wrote three songs” could be taken to mean he alone wrote three songs or, alternatively, that he wrote three songs and did nothing more with them (i.e., he
Only in the Wrong Place Read More »
Acronyms and initialisms can be powerful tools for concise communication, but be careful how you use them. Before I go further, let’s be clear on our terms. My New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines acronym as “a word formed from the initial letters or parts of other words.” Some commonly used acronyms are NATO (for
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Spelling matters. Your Grade 5 teacher was right about that, and it’s still true in this digital age. There are times when spelling is, in fact, crucial. I’m thinking of resumes and cover letters in particular right now, but it’s also true of reports, proposals and memos to superiors. A couple of misspellings can torpedo
5 Proofreading Tricks Read More »
My services include copy editing and proofreading. What’s the difference? Copy editors correct for grammar, spelling, punctuation, style and more. They look for mistakes, repetition, and inconsistencies before a book or article goes to publication. As one writer at thebalancecareers.com puts it: “Copy editors are the grammatical gatekeepers of the media world. They read over
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