As an editor, I am firmly opposed to using a five-syllable word when there’s a perfectly good one- or two-syllable one that says exactly what you mean, especially when it can make your meaning less clear.
So I offer my enthusiastic congratulations to the Local Government Association, a group that represents city councils in the UK, […]
The other day, a client asked me whether the expression “cast doubt” should be “casted doubt” if used in the past tense.
The answer is no, since cast is an irregular verb — the past tense is also “cast.”
But I did a quick Google search to see what’s happening to this expression online, and “casted doubt” comes up about […]
I don’t like Microsoft.
But I am rather fond of their “Disagreeably Facetious Type Glossary.”
I particularly like this bit:
BOWLS are strokes that enclose a white space, like those that make the o and O. The two parts in the g are also bowls. Where a curve partially encloses a space it is also sometimes called a […]
The semicolon is correct, though I’d have used a colon, which I think would be a bit more sophisticated in that sentence.
This is what Allan M. Siegal, former standards editor at The New York Times had to say about a New York subway sign that drew attention for its use of the ever-confusing semicolon.
The sign […]
Here’s the traditional “my first post” post. As I get used to this blogging thing, the content will get more exciting, I promise.
For now, I’ll just recommend my favorite site for copy editors: The Slot, created by Bill Walsh (author of such excellent reads as Lapsing Into a Comma and The Elephants of Style ). […]