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Today’s Writing Tip Is Those Damn Homonyms

smacdonald — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:27:16 +0000

I live in a small residential community that is part of a large metropolis. My neighborhood will be undergoing extensive construction to build a light rail system. I had questions about this so I wrote to my local town councilman. Because I use a voice dictation program, when I dictated my letter, instead of saying Councillor Chiarelli, it said Counselor Chiarelli. I noticed this while I was dictating, but I forgot about it by the end of the letter, and sent it with the wrong title.

What are some of the most embarrassing typos that you’ve made? My voice program will make some real doozies that don’t even resemble typos because they are related to voice, rather than keyboard errors, so I really have to watch homonyms (e.g., when I said, “dictation” above, my Dragon NaturallySpeaking program typed the words “patient program.”) I could use a laugh today. Tell me and my readers about your funniest typos. Post them on my blog at http://beyourowneditor.blogspot.com.

Sigrid Macdonald is a book coach, a manuscript evaluator, and the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor, now available on Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/2a3zx6t (Paperback) and http://tinyurl.com/2blyqng (Kindle).

Today’s Writing Tip Is on Obscure References

smacdonald — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 07:00:24 +0000

Last week, I finished reading Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich. It was a wonderful critique of the down side of too much positive thinking, and how this can be used to blame people for making themselves ill, and even contribute to economic decline, if leaders in power don’t want to hear any “bad news.” I wrote Ehrenreich a letter and entitled it “The Bright Side of the Road.” I wanted to grab her attention by using a song title by Van Morrison. Right after I pressed send — naturally! — it occurred to me that maybe she wasn’t a fan of Van’s. If so, she could’ve missed my reference and thought I was misquoting the title of her book. Now I will be more careful with obscure references. What may seem obvious to me may be a mystery to someone else. The goal of writing is not to be clever, but to be clear in communicating.

This week I’m giving away three free e-copies of Be Your Own Editor to the first people who can each list five well-known dystopian books (not movies). If the first poster mentions The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the second poster cannot repeat that title. Post your answers on my blog at http://beyourowneditor.blogspot.com and gear up for the next quiz where the winner will win a free paperback copy of the book!

Sigrid Macdonald is an editor, a manuscript evaluator, and the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor. Find it on Amazon in paperback for $12.92 (http://tinyurl.com/2a3zx6t) or on Kindle for $3.79 (http://tinyurl.com/2blyqng).

I wrote Ehrenreich a letter and entitled it “The Bright Side of the Road.” I wanted to grab her attention by using a song title by Van Morrison. Right after I pressed send — naturally! — it occurred to me that maybe she wasn’t a fan of Van’s. If so, she could’ve missed my reference and thought I was misquoting the title of her book.

Now I will be more careful with obscure references. What may seem obvious to me may be a mystery to someone else. The goal of writing is not to be clever, but to be clear in communicating.

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Today’s Writing Tip Is on Misplaced Modifiers

smacdonald — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:23:44 +0000

Recently, I was watching the new TV show by Tony Robbins. In his premiere episode, he said, “We’re here to celebrate two people’s lives who are extremely important to me.” What Tony really meant to say was that the two people were very important to him. If he had wanted to say that their lives were important, he would’ve said, “We’re here to celebrate two people whose lives are extremely important to me.”

How can we fix it to say what TR meant to say? “We’re here to celebrate the lives of two people who are extremely important to me.” That way the phrase “who are extremely important to me” modifies the noun “two people,” as opposed to it modifying the word “lives” in the original sentence.

It’s great to know that even Tony Robbins makes mistakes!

Sigrid Macdonald is a book coach, an editor, and the author of three books, including the newly released Be Your Own Editor, available on Lulu or on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle.

RSVP, Please — Today’s Writing Tip Is on Redundancy

smacdonald — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 07:00:42 +0000

How many times do you run across phrases like this?

David just sent me a text from his cell phone.
I have to be there at 10 AM in the morning.
He was all alone by himself.
The rugged kayak lover grew up in a tiny little town.

Stop! There’s no need to repeat yourself. We know that a text message is not being sent from a toaster, and that 10 AM will always be morning. When you’re writing, it’s good to be creative and allow your juices to flow. Get everything down. But when you’re editing, streamline. Cut everything that’s unnecessary. It will make for a much cleaner sentence… And there is no need to add “please” to RSVP because SVP stands for s’il vous plaît, the French term for please.

Sigrid Macdonald is a book coach, an editor, and the author of three books, including the newly released Be Your Own Editor, available on Lulu or on Amazon in paperback, and on Kindle.

When to Use Then and Than

smacdonald — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 06:00:10 +0000

People often confuse then and than, although they mean completely different things. Then is most often used as an adverb, and it indicates something that takes place after an initial action, whereas than is a conjunction usually used to make comparisons. Here are some examples:

“I ordered Chinese food. Then I went looking for a great DVD.”
“I ordered Chinese food, which is much better than Thai in my opinion.”

The hazard of using “then” is that it’s easy to write a run-on sentence, because it often seems as though “then” is still part of your initial sentence, but it’s not. Example — “I got in the car, then turned on the radio.” That’s not officially correct. If you’re a stickler for grammar, you can rephrase it by saying, “I got in the car, and then turned on the radio.” Or make it into two sentences: “I got in the car. Then I turned on the radio.”

Hope everyone enjoyed their Chinese take-in, DVDs, and great music over the weekend.

Sigrid Macdonald is a book coach, a manuscript evaluator, and the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor, now available on Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/2a3zx6t (Paperback) and http://tinyurl.com/2blyqng (Kindle).

Today’s Writing Tip: Don’t Mix Past and Present Tense

smacdonald — Mon, 24 May 2010 08:00:41 +0000

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

Editor Jobs for May 11 2010

Joe Wallace — Tue, 11 May 2010 14:24:44 +0000

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!

Today’s Writing Tip: Alright Versus Altogether

smacdonald — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:11:29 +0000

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/.

Today’s Grammar Tip — Me, Myself and I

smacdonald — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:43:09 +0000

Me, myself and I look like simple words that we use on a regular basis, but they’re easy to misuse. Here’s an example: “Matt and myself are going to the movies.” Writers may think they’re being more formal by talking that way, but it’s not proper usage. The correct way to phrase that sentence would be, “Matt and I are going to the movies.”

When do we use myself? When the word actually reflects back on us: “I feel the same way myself.” Use of this reflexive pronoun is becoming less popular, unless you want to emphasize a point. For example, “President Obama himself greeted us at the door.”

What about me and I? You can say, “Marianne and I are best friends; she tells me everything.” You don’t want to say, “Marianne and me are best friends; she tells I everything.” Most of the time you can figure that one out by reading it out loud.

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor, available at Lulu.com. Check her out at http://sigridmacdonald.blogspot.com/.

From the Field

Joe Wallace — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:24:44 +0000

by Joe Wallace

I’ve been in the field since the last update, but rest assured, updates are indeed coming-including a brand new round of editor jobs. Thanks much for your patience!