Category: editing
“Hilburn . . . had the access and longevity to get to know musicians better than few in the media do today.” — Associated Press Is “better than…
“Good sense is a thing all need, few have, and none think they want.” — Benjamin Franklin “I strove with none; for none was worth my strife.” —…
Some authors rail against copy editors, and, sadly, the editors sometimes bring the enmity upon themselves. The latest author with a copy editor horror story is George Lakoff,…
Via Craigslist: .
According to BusinessWriting.com, these are the 25 most commonly misspelled words in English. I don’t consider myself a very good speller, for an editor (I just look everything…
Believe it or not, this comes up all the time, and after all these years I have yet to decide what’s right. For example, I e-mailed a print…
I wrote yesterday about a word that was misspelled by thirteen out of fourteen experienced editors. Here are two words from the test that were each missed by…
It means “to dry; to preserve by drying.” I’m hiring a temporary replacement editor for a colleague who will be out several months on a medical leave. I…
Some pretty porous copy on this text panel about porous paving at the National Botanical Gardens near the capitol building in Washington, DC. (Official, nonpartisan, federal government-approved typos.)…
Fake memoirs are in the news again, with the usual hand wringing. No need to go into the details, which have been thoroughly reported. Instead, let’s think about…
WORDSMITHING: The process of going through a document and making sure the best possible word is used in all circumstances. — ww.lewiswritingservices.com/glossary.htm If there is one word I…
Recently there has been an uptick in talk about semicolons. Witness: Hooray for the ; I say! A subterranean semicolon! FANBOYS and the Semicolon Colbert on punctuation How…
When it comes to copy editing, I’m not particularly strict — let the author have some personal style. We all use words a little differently. But one thing…
Web 2.0 experiments with open content are showing the value of moderated forums. Democracy is great, but chaos isn’t necessarily so hot. Once upon a time tech types…
Since a big deal is being made about supposedly disappearing hyphens, let’s apply a little perspective to the discussion. The first thing to realize is that the furor…
By MARK SHERMAN | Associated Press Writer: “[Supreme Court chief justice] Roberts walked out the hospital’s ambulance door wearing a blue sport coast, a blue shirt with no…
via India Ink
It must be the desk that ups the price. This “writhing desk” recalls Harry Potter, or maybe Lewis Carroll:”The regular course was Reeling and Writhing, of course, to…
No, despite the title this is not another post about the Bush administration. It’s a link to an interesting video demonstrating how editing can manipulate viewers’ impressions of…
“What is there left when voices rise in debate without chairman or standing orders? You have babble….”