Can an Author Ask Too Many Questions?
Sometimes authors apologize to me for asking a lot of questions about their books or articles. Some authors apologize after asking two questions, some after twenty questions, and then there are those...
View ArticleThe Improper Editor on Comma-up-Backside Syndrome
Some editors have commas permanently stuck up their backsides. Ouch. Worse, some have semicolons and commas and the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style stuck up there. Triple ouch. This...
View ArticleAffect vs. Effect
These two words are very commonly confused, and while there are many accurate online explanations of the distinctions between them, most of those explanations tell only part of the story. The part that...
View ArticleThe Improper Editor on Fixing Stuff You Never Meant to Write
All editors have certain little tricks they’ve learned from experience (often bad experience). For example, we all know that running a final spell-check is a good idea, but it’s never enough. Word’s...
View ArticleTips for Matching APA-Style Citations to Your Reference List
Say you’ve got a 50-page APA-style paper with tons of in-text citations and a reference list that’s five pages long and you need to make sure that (a) every source in the references is cited in the...
View ArticleThe Improper Editor Stands Up for the Passive Voice and Non-Sucky Writing
You’ve heard it before: “Prefer the active voice.” “The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive.” “As a matter of style, passive voice is typically, though not always,...
View ArticleTeam vs. Teem
Writers often use the word team when the word they really want is teem. What’s the difference? Team can be a noun, adjective, or verb. As a noun, team refers generally to a number of individuals acting...
View ArticleWhy Does Anyone Become a Freelance Editor?
One gray, rainy, and generally icky Monday morning, I sat at my computer feeling gray, rainy, and generally icky and wondered why I ever thought this freelance editing thing was a good idea. My...
View ArticleScholarly Writing Should Not Be Fluffy
Sometimes writers try to make their scholarly work look more impressive and important by making the writing “fancier” than it needs to be. One very extremely common way they do this is more often than...
View ArticlePassed vs. Past
Passed and Past are homophones; they sound alike but have different spellings and meanings. It’s easy to mix them up, and writers often do. What’s the difference? Past can be an adjective, noun, or...
View ArticleDo You Need an Editor for Your Book?
Several months ago, I wrote that every writer will need an editor at some point. The question today is, do you need an editor right now? The short answer is, it depends. The long answer is a little too...
View ArticleFluorescent or Florescent?
Bill just hated florescent lights; they gave him such awful headaches. Oh, I’m with Bill. Florescent lights drive me nuts, but not for the same reason fluorescent lights do. Florescent lights drive me...
View ArticleDo You Need an Editor for Your Self-published Book?
Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: If you’re writing a book you intend to self-publish, you must have someone cast an editorial eye over it. This does not necessarily mean you should pay mucho dinero...
View Article“Since” Is Not “Because”
In speech or informal writing, we often use the word since to mean “because.” She used a lot of sunblock since she wanted to prevent skin cancer. That’s okay—in speech or informal writing. Listeners or...
View ArticleDefuse vs. Diffuse
Situation: Your two best friends have gotten into an argument over whose turn it is to buy beer (or Ensure, for those of you who are perhaps a little older and more health conscious). They go back and...
View ArticleWhat Does “Modified APA Style” Mean?
Journals have their own ways of doing things. I frequently edit for clients who are submitting articles to journals that ask authors to use a “modified APA style” for citations and reference lists....
View ArticleFormatting Lists in APA Style
Making lists in APA style is easy, as long as you pay attention to two things: formatting and parallelism. Today let’s look at formatting. Say each element in your list consists of a whole sentence or...
View ArticleMaking Your List Elements Parallel in APA Style
Earlier this week we looked at formatting lists in APA style. That’s the easy part of making a list. The part that seems to trip writers up is making all the list elements parallel “syntactically and...
View ArticleDiscreet vs. Discrete
From the Commonly Confused Words file: Discreet means “showing good judgment; capable of observing prudent silence.” Suddenly realizing she was at the wrong funeral, Laura made a discreet but hasty...
View ArticleI Was an Editorial Virgin
My first “real” editing experience was as an assistant news editor for our college paper. This meant that, for a whopping $30 a week, I spent my Friday afternoons editing other reporters’ stories while...
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