Resources

Latest blog articles

Card saying 'Have no fear' laid across a numerical keypad
29 Feb 2024
Not everyone gets on with numbers, but they're part of most documents. Here are eight(ish) points on number editing.

Numbers have the reputation of being solid. Words, people sometimes say, can be slippery and subjective in their meaning, but at least you know where you are with numbers. For me, at least, this idea originated at school, from the idea of maths being either right or wrong, and there being no comparable certainty in the arts or humanities.

But as you grow up you realise that…

Read More
Shelves with a US flag box and a UK flag box
29 Feb 2024
Editing between British and US styles can be less straightforward than you'd think. Let's look at a few of the trickier aspects of switching between the two.

‘Never assume: it makes an ass out of u and me’ is a phrase from salaried working life that rattles around my head as a freelance editor. In the early noughties it was my boss’s waggish response when one of the team said ‘I assume that …’. But it’s gained new significance with editing experience. Nothing is set in stone. It might even be different to how I’d always imagined…

Read More

Doctor's Notes

Apostrophes are often put in the wrong place in people’s (of people), others’ (of others), women’s, men’s and children’s (of women, men and children). People are also reluctant to use apostrophe ‘s’ with names ending in ‘s’, like James or Chris, but modern style is James’s and Chris’s. Classical or historical names can leave out the final ‘s’ depending on style; remember to record all instances on your style sheet.

Don't include the final ‘s’ when you have made a name plural, so you would say the Kennedys’ dog rather than the Kennedys’s dog.

‘Both’ is a popular word – in fact, it's a bit too popular. In text like ‘they were both born in the same town’ the ‘both’ is unnecessary, and you don't need it every time two things are mentioned, either. ‘Both’ is at its most effective when it emphasises contrasting elements: ‘She was both strident and sensitive to others.’ Note the ‘and’ in this sentence. Often you'll hear ‘both ... but’, but ‘and’ is correct with ‘both’.

When you see ‘both’, do what I call the copyeditor’s count. In this case, look for two elements. I’ve seen ‘both’ applied to three or more items, and I’ve heard it, in the media, applied to just one.

A comma splice occurs when what follows a comma could stand as a sentence on its own. ‘Tim was an excellent surfer, he often visited the beaches in Cornwall’ is a comma splice. Instead of the comma, you have three options:

  • add a joining word or term, such as ‘and’
  • add a full stop and a capital letter
  • add a semicolon.

Your decision will partly depend on whether the connection between the first clause and the second is lost if you use a full stop to separate them. If you want to make it clear that the second clause follows in meaning from the first, expanding or explaining it, use ‘and’ or a semicolon.

Reviews

If you’ve taken one of my courses, you’ll know that I use exercises and handouts written by Margaret Aherne, who took the Publishing Scotland courses until 2019. This is the latest PDF book from Margaret, released in January 2021. I include it in my resource list for Further Copyediting with Publishing Scotland because it’s based on Margaret’s Advanced Copyediting course for the Publishing Training Centre which is a little more involved than the Further course. It joins her Proofreading Practice: Exercises with Model Answers and Commentary and Copy-editing: A Guide for Proofreaders, both of which I’d also recommend.

This newest book covers the copyeditor’s brief, multi-author works, creating a table, complexities in…

Read More