Wednesday, January 28, 2004
You Can't Censure a Censor for Doing His Job ...
But a censor might censure you for smarting off about it. (Yeah, this is a repost from November. I'm capitalizing on the dknowles brouhaha. I admit it. Get over it and read on so you can at least comment correctly about the whole foofaraw.) Three words that are often confused, and that have little... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 1:18 PM Comments (1) (link)
Sunday, January 18, 2004
How Does One Get Started in Freelance Editing?
This is a bit of a bio / instruction list. So it runs a bit long. I'm a freelance copyeditor, typesetter, and writer. I started editing when I was in high school, and was the editor of my college's literary magazine for three years. When I was in college, I started a typing service (that was in the... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 8:07 PM Comments (7) (link)
Friday, January 16, 2004
If You Keep Peeking Over that Peak, I'm Going to Get Seriously Piqued!
Okay, some more sound-alikes to cause you trouble. A peak is the top of something, like a mountain. It's a noun. Examples: Everest is the highest mountain peak on Earth. Bob reached the peak of his career in 1998. To peak means to reach the topmost limit of ability or performance. It's a verb.... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 8:11 AM Comments (7) (link)
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
What? Your Sense of Touch Is Impaired? or Are You Just Guilty?
A very common mistake that a lot of people make (besides writing redundant stuff like the ten words I just wrote) is to say "I feel badly about that." It seems that this would be correct, but it isn't. The reason is that little verb "feel." "Feel" is a funny word. It can mean something... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 9:18 PM Comments (3) (link)
Monday, January 5, 2004
How Does an Annulment Differ From a Divorce?
This question is, of course, raised by the recent appalling marriage and dissolution of marriage between Britney Spears and Jason Alexander. An annulment is the legal dissolution of a marriage which, essentially, erases the marriage from existence. Legally, the marriage never happened, as there was... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 10:00 PM Comments (7) (link)
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Hey! Get It Right, Can't Ya?!
I think I know what my first published work is going to be. When I was 10, I started writing a Homonym Dictionary (they call them homophones now). You know what homonyms and homophones are (no, not the nicknames of openly gay individuals nor the earphones they wear with their portable CD... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 2:31 PM Comments (2) (link)
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
That Pallet of Palettes Is Not Heavy
Okay, here are three words that sound almost exactly alike, but mean totally different things. Pallet: /PA' lit/ The slatted wooden box that underlies large shipments; also the shipment itself. A pallet jack is a small hydraulic jack/forklift used to hoick a pallet of goods off the warehouse floor... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 2:54 PM Comments (0) (link)
Monday, December 8, 2003
Don't Confuse These Two!
Just a quickie for today...but a mistake I am seeing more and more often. It bugs the heck outta me. Where is an adverb meaning "in what location." Were is a verb, the past tense of "to be," meaning "formerly" or "existed in the past." Perhaps the mistakes I am seeing are the result of sloppy... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 11:30 AM Comments (1) (link)
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
You Can't Censure a Censor for Doing His Job
Three words that are often confused, and that have little to do with each other: Censor, Censure, and Censer. Let's get the censer out of the way first, as it bears no conceivable relation to the other two, except in approximate pronunciation. A censer (/SEHN sur/) is an incense burner that can be... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 10:29 AM Comments (3) (link)
Monday, November 17, 2003
People, Please! Use Your Dictionary!
Or, if not your actual, hardback, unabridged, at least type things into dictionary.com before you post a spelling that makes you look like a sloppy, uneducated wanna-be writer. In flipping through blog titles this morning---just titles, mind you---I came across at least a dozen misspellings. Most of... Sign in to see full entry.
posted by editormum at 9:47 AM Comments (3) (link)
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About this Blog
A professional editor, writer, and English tutor answers your questions about the finer points of grammar, word usage, and other technical aspects of the writer's craft. E-mail questions to editormum@usa.com, or use the Comments section of a previous post. Happy Writing!
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