Grammar

Style guides

JReich — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 16:21:35 GMT

Which style guide, if any, do you follow: Chicago? AP? Words Into Type?

White Smoke

mimswriting — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:23:14 GMT

Hi all,

Has anyone used the White Smoke software program? And used it with the OpenOffice office suite?

TIA

Mims

Editing for an academic

Clio — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:58:33 GMT

This is a bit off grammar and more towards style. Though I have been successful with other academics as editor and writing coach, am becoming very frustrated with one professor who insists on using quotation marks around words he would emphasize when lecturing, using italics and bold until they have no meaning.

Have tried to encourage him to use words closer to his actual meaning. Any help you can offer would be most appreciated.

Clio

Self-Editing

Brena — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 14:43:56 GMT

I wrote an essay the other day about the city I live in. It's filled with metaphors, sarcasm and over the top analogies; you might even have a chuckle halfway through reading it (sometimes I like to let loose with my writing). It's designed to give people the impression of what life is like around these parts.

Anyway, I wrote it in one night. I set it aside till the next morning to give it a once over. I added some things to it, took some things out. I set it aside for another few hours to go over it once more––found a few more things to change. Just when I though it was ready, I emailed it to my husband to look it over. He looked it over and found a few errors; sentences that didn't make sense, word choice that might have been confusing and subject/verb agreement.

When he pointed those things out to me, I saw the errors right away. I couldn’t believe that I had made some of those mistakes. However, he wrote a formal letter to someone last week and I quickly found his errors.

When I submit articles to a magazine, I hire an editor to go over my piece. She doesn't usually do a lot of changes, but she makes it flow. She says, "Never quiet the writer's voice."

What's the rule for self-editing, or is it even possible?

Fine-tuning RESERVEspeak

Larry W. Bryant — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 03:35:30 GMT

Here's a recent e-exchange between me and a former coworker:

WILLARDO: Maybe the poor media chaps have confused
Marine with . . . mariner?

Anyhow, here's how I learned the proper prose for those
soldiers not in the active component (as opposed to the
reserve components): Since the National Guard was birthed
before the Army Reserve, we always should defer to that
order of existence when we speak (or write) of them in the
same breath; thus, we should state (e.g.,): "We've examined all the latest data from the Guard and Reserve forces, concluding that the Marines have the best back-up
resources." Also disfavored by the cunningly linguistic
purists is the use of the term Reservist (or reservist);
"Reserve (or reserve) soldier" seems to dignify their
status. Also, another tip: most soldiers disdain the term
National Guard "member" (since the Guard ain't no club!).
And, finally: it's passe to use "Guardsman" (unless you
somehow can use "Guardswoman"); so the correct term should be: "Guard soldier."

No charge for this (nostalgic) refresher course, mi amigo!
-- OO

Unka Larry, for my own amusement and bemusement, I have
been codifying various editorial points regarding things
military. You and I used to chew the fat about
Reservespeak and Guardspeak, but I have forgotten some of
the intricacies. Can you amplify my entry here? I do not
recall how we referred to Reserve and Guard soldiers of
various categories, nor what the rules for capitalization
were regarding them. UB

***************************

Often in news articles I see the word "marine" (meaning a
member of the U.S. Marine Corps) written in lower case.
It should always be capitalized. It is the only such term
that is capitalized within the U.S. Armed Forces. One
should not capitalize "soldier," "sailor," airman," nor
"coastguardsman," but one should always capitalize
"Marine." ("National Guardsman" would be capitalized, but
the term has gone out of service, so to speak, and has
been replaced by "Guard soldier" or "National Guard
soldier.")

As an Army writer-editor for 18 years, I followed this
convention set forth in the GPO Style Manual and also in
the AP Style Guide. It is backed up by the American
Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition.

This point comes to mind because I have read at least one
article in the past few days incorrectly lower-casing
Marine in describing U.S. Rep. John Murtha, a former
Marine officer.

Punctilious Punctuation

Larry W. Bryant — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 03:01:53 GMT

THIS JUST IN . . . Insight from the Internet:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-apostrophe-crisis-wh_b_12628.html

Good article; great commentary from readers!

Rhetorical Devices

Linda Adams — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 12:56:27 GMT

This site lists rhetorical devices we use in writing and gives examples. http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm I hunted this down after agent Donald Maas referred to a couple of the devices in an article and said that writers should expand on their skills. Most of what's in here we use already in writing, but there's a few in here worth looking at to use for impact at a particular point in the story.