The Confidence Code is a new book by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, who argue that women are left behind in the corporate world in part because they lack the confidence that men have. The authors define confidence as the nitty-gritty stuff that turns our thoughts into actions. For example, a man applies for a… Continue Reading
Commas group words together, so that sentences are logically constructed. In some instances, however, sentences read perfectly well without commas setting off groups of words. The practice of omitting commas when appropriate is known as an open punctuation style (as opposed to a closed style, where groups of words are closed off by commas). One… Continue Reading
Today, I saw this editor’s oath on the website of Copyediting. The oath is a list—similar to my ten commandments of copy editing—of 10 things every copy editor should do—or not do. Number 9 caught my eye: “Don’t ignore errors; triage them.” When time is tight, editorial triage is important because a text should present… Continue Reading
Single subjects take singular verbs, and plural subjects take plural verbs. But sometimes, the distinction isn’t so obvious, as I’ve discussed before. Here’s a passage from Einsohn’s Copyeditor’s Handbook that had me wondering about subject-verb agreement: In my professional experience I have found that two readings of galleys and two of page proofs will catch… Continue Reading
Ah, the ubiquitous comma. Commas are here, there, and everywhere, but are they being used correctly? As an editor, I’m keenly aware of the rules governing comma usage. Today, let’s look at a comma rule that is probably not familiar to the average writer. A comma is used before a direct question posed within a… Continue Reading
Amy Einsohn, who passed away recently, is the author of The Copyeditor’s Handbook, a tome beloved by copy editors everywhere (note that we Canadians spell the profession using two words, not one). She had me hooked from the very beginning of the book: in the preface, she discusses coming across the word folderize and attempting… Continue Reading
I’m currently editing a manual titled “Toolkit.” The title hasn’t appeared anywhere in the manual itself, so I hadn’t thought about it much. But a little voice in the back of my head said, “Ya better look that word up.” Sure, toolkit looks correct, but maybe it’s really two words. Any bets? According to the… Continue Reading
A local ad company recently posted a job opening for a proofreader. The ad ended like this: Spot any errors in this posting? No? Good. Let’s keep it that way. Needless to say, I found a few errors: inconsistent use of the serial comma incorrect use—twice!—of apostrophes with plural nouns incorrect use of a hyphen… Continue Reading
If you’re a writer who’d like to learn a thing or two about grammar and usage, you can’t go wrong with Strunk and White’s concise classic, The Elements of Style. Another favourite of mine is Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing by Claire Kehrwald Cook. Today I came across a more recent… Continue Reading
A survey (I’ll provide a link as soon as I can find one) sponsored by Careerbuilder.ca reveals that about 60% of Canadian private-sector workers see their job as just that: a job, not a career. That means that 40% of workers surveyed do see their jobs as careers, which I think is a pretty darn… Continue Reading