Castle Walls Editing

Tag: punctuation

  • Beyond Spell-Check: Ten Catches Copy Editors Make

    Beyond Spell-Check: Ten Catches Copy Editors Make

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Spell-check will fail to catch an almost unlimited number of writing miscues. In addition to spelling, copy editors address grammar, punctuation, style (hello, Chicago Manual), clarity, and consistency.

    The following ten items will give you some idea of what spell-check won’t catch.

    (Also note that I’m not addressing punctuation here and that while Word’s Editor function features a grammar check that will occasionally offer good suggestions, the many false positives and sometimes downright bizarre suggestions mean that you cannot accept any of the suggestions without a high level of discernment.)

    1. Wrong homophone. I can’t bare to see another picture of a bare. (Read: I can’t bear to see another picture of a bear.)
    2. Missing words. I can’t bear see another picture of a bear. (Read: I can’t bear to see another picture of a bear.)
    3. Transposed words. I can’t bear see to another picture of a bear. (Read: I can’t bear to see another picture of a bear.)
    4. Repeated words. This one’s obvious, and while spell-check will flag repeated words, it can’t determine whether the repetition was intentional.
    5. Repeated endings. Our brains sometimes do a funny thing where they inappropriately repeat an ending while typing: They keeping walking toward … (Read: They keep walking toward …)
    6. Echoes. Words repeated in proximity can clang against the ear of the listener. Often words like up and back (two prime offenders) can be deleted or switched out when they repeat too closely.
    7. Danglers. Dangling participles and other modifiers can cause problems, especially at the beginning of a sentence: Running into the classroom, the trash can caused me to trip. (The trash can wasn’t running into the classroom, so the person needs to be the subject instead.)
    8. Noninclusive language. Copy editors can call authors’ attention to potentially problematic language. The Conscious Style Guide and Crystal Shelley’s Conscious Language Toolkit are two great resources.
    9. Continuity issues. If a character’s eyes change color halfway through a manuscript, there should probably be a reason. Copy editors will comment on a wide range of continuity issues that can occur in a manuscript.
    10. Inconsistently applied style. Writers face a host of decisions for how they will style such things as thoughts and the words on signs, buttons, and other objects. The copy editor will help maintain consistency, keeping in mind author preference and style guidance from the big style guides (hello again, Chicago Manual) and publisher house styles, if working with a publisher.

     

    These often seemingly easy catches pose problems because writers (and editors too!) have a difficult time editing their own work. They simply know their work too well and see what should be there rather than what is actually there.

    Another set of eyes does wonders![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • Have You Seen My Towel?

    The hyphen is an unassuming little bugger, isn’t he?

    He’s happy to break a word between lines, but he doesn’t expect you to take much notice of him. He seems content to say, “The rest of the word is down there, on the next line.” The hyphen practically waves his hands in the air, bashful as always: “Really, just pretend I’m not here.”

    Hyphens are also known to disappear over time. Words such as “teen-ager,” which once used hyphens, eventually abandon them: “teenager.” It’s as if the hyphen eventually begins to feel extremely uncomfortably and simply says, “Well, I’m not needed here any longer. Don’t worry, I’ll show myself out.”

    Hyphens will even stand in for their bigger brother the en dash (–) when a typeface won’t accommodate the lesser-known mark. An en dash is the length of a capital N and is used for number ranges (1940–1960) and to hold together certain compound expressions that require a mark stronger than the hyphen to hold the expressions together (a Nobel Prize–winning scientist, for instance). Because the vast majority of the population can’t pick the en dash out of a lineup, the hyphen all too often gets away with this impersonation.

    A mark more people are familiar with is the em dash (—), which is the length of a capital M and is often just called the dash. The em dash can be used in a sentence in place of parentheses, to indicate an interruption in dialogue, or, as more and more seems to be the case today, to set off dramatic statements—or supposedly dramatic statements.

    Unlike the unassuming hyphen, the em dash is all bravado. Increasingly, writers are using em dashes with a frequency they can’t seem to control. These em dashes are like spontaneous erections. The writer might be a bit embarrassed by them, but that doesn’t stop them from popping up all over the place—quite frankly, it’s enough to give anyone a headache!

    It’s not that the em dash doesn’t have its uses, but with its almost ubiquitous presence in today’s writing—especially on the Web—a little propriety might be in order.

    One might also think just how all this celebration of the em dash makes the humble hyphen feel. You can hardly blame him for wanting to avoid public showers.

    Note: Although en dashes and em dashes are commonly understood to correspond to the lengths of upper-case N’s and M’s, respectively, their actual lengths vary by font.

    Reading Update: Last night I began reading The Double by the extraordinary writer José Saramago. I have always been fascinated by doppelgangers, so you can imagine my excitement.