This question comes up often in my editing: should or shouldn’t there be commas between adjectives in a string? I hate to tell you this but … it depends. Yeah, I know, English is complicated. That’s why I’m here. I swear, we don’t make up these rules just to keep …
Tag: Mechanics
Dictionaries Don’t Know Everything
One duty of a copyeditor is to check spelling, including whether a term should be solid, hyphenated, or open. Some terms are open, that is, they are written as two words, e.g., living room. If you search for livingroom (closed) at Merriam-Webster, you’ll be redirected to the page for living room (open).
Q&A: What’s the deal with spaces after a period?
Q: I saw a post online that said only people over the age of forty put two spaces after a period. But I’m under thirty, and my college professors said to use two. I’m confused. Which is correct? A: Both are correct in different circumstances. As with so much else …
Using Ellipses Properly in Nonfiction
The rules for ellipses in nonfiction differ slightly from those in fiction. In fiction, ellipses signal a hesitation or trailing off of speech. But in nonfiction, they indicate omissions from quoted material. If you’re writing a memoir or other narrative nonfiction, you may use ellipses the way they’re used in …
How to Fine-Tune Your Nonfiction Book
As was the case when we looked at fiction, Mechanics is the last section of the Elements of Nonfiction Editing Checklist. Everything we’ve covered up to this point needs to be taken care of first. Then we can worry about the kind of copyediting fixes that come under this heading. …