“Voice” is not “Quantity”
The number of words is not what conveys meaning; the choice of words does. My cutting your words does not harm your meaning; leaving just the right one makes it…
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March 7, 2012
Why You Need An Editor
Why do we need to follow editors' rules? Writing is sustained speech. Nonverbal cues are not there when people are not talking in one another's company, so grammar rules replace…
March 5, 2012
New possibility for medical publishing
I just got my first freelance assignment to help with publishing a study protocol. Journals are encouraging publishing of protocols from studies that are funded but not yet begun…
February 15, 2012
What is a lingua franca?
A lingua franca is any set of language words and constructs that are agreed upon by a set of people. For example, for academics it is lingua franca to say…
January 31, 2012
Antennae vs. Antennas
A while ago my brother, an environmental planner, had to give a presentation about proposed radio antenna towers. He told me that the plural is antennas for radio towers, though…
January 30, 2012
“If I was drunk” vs. “If I were drunk”
When is a plural verb not a plural verb? When it's the subjunctive form. Compare these sentences. "If I was drunk at the time I made the offer, then it…
January 25, 2012
When is a consonant not a consonant?
When is a consonant not a consonant? Answer: When it's a word. The word for the letter "N" for example is "en." Thus, you get a National Institutes of Health…
January 12, 2012
I can do more than spell check better than a computer.
The other day I helped an author be clear about what findings she could and could not report in the first of two articles she hopes to publish about one…
January 9, 2012
More about italics
Underlining used to be the way to indicate to a printer that a word should be set in italicized type. With the advent of word processing, it became easier to…
December 1, 2011
Could you see the italics in the previous entry?
Could you see the italics in the previous entry? Oh, good. Not because I worry about my computer, but because I want to explain why I used them. When you…
November 29, 2011