Lately, I’ve been listening to a CD called “Warning” by Green Day. In fact, it’s been on instant replay in my car. I often sing along — only in private, mind you — and I always sing the wrong word on a certain line. I finally figured out why that is. It’s because the boys are mixing past and present tense, and I’m automatically filling in the correct grammatical version.

Here’s the line from “Macy’s Day Parade”: “When I was a kid, I thought I wanted all the things that I haven’t got.” Okay. What’s wrong with that sentence? The words “thought” and “wanted” are both in past tense, but the word “haven’t,” a contraction for “have not,” is in present tense. There are a couple of ways to fix this. First, we could say, “When I was a kid I thought, I wanted all the things that I had not (or hadn’t) got.” That keeps everything in past tense. Second, we could have someone from the present reflect back on the past, and rephrase the sentence like this: “When I was a kid, I thought, I want all the things that I haven’t got.” (Many people use italics for thoughts, instead of quotation marks.)

Who knew how educational Green Day could be?

Sigrid Macdonald, Author of Be Your Own Editor, now available on Amazon : http://beyourowneditor.com

Here’s a small sampling of the jobs available for editors this week. Got a hot tip? Drop us a comment and share the love!

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt seeks a K-12 editor for their Evanston, Illinois office. Note that this is an on-site position, not a telecommute.

The Motley Fool is searching for an editor with an obsessive streak to work in their Alexandria VA office. If you’re a grammar freak with no problems working with a Content Management System, give this one a try. Again, this is an onsite gig.

This NY Craigslist ad looks promising–the ad requests a content editor, which is a bit different than a typical editing gig as it requires specialized knowledge of content management systems and other specialized info. Got a knack for both copy editing AND gap analysis? This could be the gig for you.

The University of Maryland has a full-time editor gig open which includes work on web-based teaching materials. Chances are you’ll edit a combination of distance learning and traditional ed coursework.

Good luck!

Alright Versus Altogether
Sometimes, the words all right and altogether look as though they are related and that they should both be spelled the same way. But this is not the case. All right is always spelled as two words; the one word version is incorrect. Altogether, on the other hand, may be spelled as one word or two, depending on the meaning. Here are some examples:
1. “Altogether, Greg was satisfied with his thesis.” In this instance, altogether is an adverb meaning wholly, completely or entirely.
2. “We were all together for Thanksgiving.” In this sentence, the phrase means everybody or everyone.
How can we tell when to use what? If you can omit the word all, and just say together, it should be spelled as two words. If you can’t omit all, you probably need to use altogether.
Sigrid Macdonald is a book coach, an editor, a writer for Freelance-Zone.com, and the author of three books, including Getting Hip, D’Amour Road, and Be Your Own Editor. Visit her at http://sigridmacdonald.blogspot.com/.