Editorial Tips
- Word people, like those in other professions, need their tools: a dictionary (not more than 10 years old), a grammar book, and a style manual.
- Every time you put pencil to paper or move your cursor, you are making a judgment. Every time you don’t put pencil to paper or move your cursor, you are also making a judgment.
- It’s okay to split an infinitive. If an infinitive has to be split for “smoothness” of the language, do so. “… to boldly go where no man has gone before.” To write "to go boldly" would be awkward.
- A sentence can begin with because. The word because functions like any other subordinate conjunction, such as where, until, when. Because she is the contractor, she will have the final word.
- Compounding, abbreviations, capitalization, some punctuation, and numbers are matters of style.
- Principal and principle do not mean the same thing. (As a noun principal means chief or head: He is the principal of the school. It can also mean capital: I paid 10 percent interest on the principal. As an adjective principal means main or chief: My principal hobby is stamp collecting. The word principle is always a noun that means a rule or tenet. I believe in the principles of this organization.)
- You don’t have to be a walking grammar book to be a good writer, editor, or proofreader.
- You can’t proofread at the same rate you read a novel.
- Verbs are the power of the language.
- The passive voice does exist. Use the passive when the receiver of the action is more important than the doer of the action.
- The subjunctive mood is alive and well. This mood is used in sentences that are contrary to fact. It is formed by using be in front of the past tense verb or by using the plural verb with all subjects. If I were you, I would accept that job. The subjunctive is also used in sentences that demand, urge, request, etc. I demand that we be heard before the meeting ends. The chairperson asked that she begin the meeting on time.
- That very proper butler in those old British movies sounds very good when he says, “Whom may I say is calling?” He is very wrong. There is a difference between who and whom. Who is used as a subject or predicate nominative. Whom is used in any object position, such as direct object, indirect object, or object of a preposition.
- Running the spell checker does not equal proofreading
- In these days of desk-publishing, we need good proofreaders more than ever.
- You cannot edit on automatic pilot.
- An edit can be quick and dirty or slow and clean, but never quick and clean.
- Give every manuscript the gift of time.
- The American convention is for commas and periods to be placed inside quotation marks.
- There are no such words in the English language as our's, her's, or mens'.
- Verify every mark you make on the paper.
- If you edit or proofread on line, be sure to review the hard copy.
- For true quality control, if you write a piece, don't edit it, and if you write or edit a piece, don't proofread it.
- If you have to edit what you write, be sure to separate your creative self from your objective self.
- You will live a long happy life if you do not memorize words such as gerund, correlative conjunction, or pilcrow, but you need to know what you don't know.
- Know the difference between affect and effect. Affect is used as verb meaning to influence. Affect is used as a noun only in psychological terms, when one discusses someone's affect. Effect as a noun means result; as a verb effect means to cause.
- Do not use insure when you mean ensure. Insure means to protect your property or life or car. Ensure means to guarantee.
- Yes, you can write a one-sentence paragraph.
- Avoid double negatives because they are improper English. Do not write "He did not have nothing to offer the company." (Two negatives make a positive.)
- Delete embarrassing or common errors (public without the i, shift without the f, manager without the a) out of your word processing dictionary.
- Watch for common typos: form for from, there for their, an for and.
- Once a sentence is grammatically correct, look at it again. Is there a better way? A stronger way?
- Pick your battles. Give in on some issues to get what you want on other issues.
- Memorize nothing; verify everything.
- Use your references to verify your changes. People believe what they see, rather than what they hear.
- A clause has a complete subject and a complete verb; a phrase does not.
- An independent clause can stand alone; it is a complete sentence. A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence, although it does have a complete subject and verb.
- A sentence should average about 20 words. After that, the brain says, "I'm out of here."
- Hyphens give different meaning to different words: three-year-old children (a group of children who are all three years old) and three year-old children (three children, each is one year old) do not mean the same thing.
- Help your writers by both reviewing and editing their work rather than just editing it all the time.
- Ask other people for help.
- Know when to use an adjective and when to use an adverb. Don't write I feel badly unless you have nerve damage on the end of your finger tips. Write I feel bad.