Erin Brenner's Blog, page 5

EDITINGThe Copyeditor’s Marketing Vocab PrimerTo edit a s...

EDITING

The Copyeditor’s Marketing Vocab Primer

To edit a subject well, you have to be familiar with its jargon. Download our marketing vocabulary primer to get started.

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The post first appeared on Right Touch Editing.

Clarifying the Comma: Independent Clauses & Compound Predicates

Early in my career, a potential employer asked me what the most common error I saw in editing was. I replied, “Commas. No one knows how to use them.” 

Over the years my answer has remained the same. Comma rules are numerous and complicated. There are plenty of exceptions, and not all the rules are governed by grammar or usage. Some rules are simply a matter of style. Love it or hate it, Eats, Shoots & Leaves is popular for a reason.

Here’s an example of the confounding comma: A fellow edit...

Grammar Bite: Prepositions for “Foreclose”

A reader once asked which of the following sentences is correct:

Her home was foreclosed on.

Her home was foreclosed.

Foreclose is a verb that can be either transitive (taking an object) or intransitive (not taking an object). Either way, it means “to take away the borrower’s right to complete the loan (the mortgage) and to take back the property the loan was paying for”:

Transitive: “A bill was filed in the United States Circuit Court yesterday by the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Com...

Grammar Bite: Prepositions for Foreclose

A reader once asked which of the following sentences is correct:

Her home was foreclosed on.

Her home was foreclosed.

Foreclose is a verb that can be either transitive (taking an object) or intransitive (not taking an object). Either way, it means “to take away the borrower’s right to complete the loan (the mortgage) and to take back the property the loan was paying for”:

Transitive: “A bill was filed in the United States Circuit Court yesterday by the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Com...

Genitives & Attributive Modifiers

The average audience member may believe punctuation to be a minor part of a written work, but the copyeditor knows that a simple punctuation error can affect the author’s entire meaning. One of these finicky punctuation marks is the apostrophe. 

I was once asked whether it was correct to include the apostrophe in the following phrases: 

Writers CouncilVisitors CenterPastors Vision TripSponsors Handbook

And if the apostrophe should be included, should it be placed at the en...

The Grammar of “Also”

A reader once sent me the following sentences and asked which was correct and why:

The research also must be validated.

The research must also be validated.

Also is like only in that both are what The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language calls “focusing modifiers”: their position in the sentence determines which element in the sentence they focus on. 

Focusing modifiers can occupy several positions in the sentence, causing either ambiguity or clarity. Like real estate, also’...

The Grammar of Also

A reader once sent me the following sentences and asked which was correct and why:

The research also must be validated.

The research must also be validated.

Also is like only in that both are what The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language calls “focusing modifiers”: their position in the sentence determines which element in the sentence they focus on. 

Focusing modifiers can occupy several positions in the sentence, causing either ambiguity or clarity. Like real estate, also’...

Winners of “The Chicago Guide for Freelance Editors” Contest

Last week, we closed the book-cover contest to celebrate Erin’s new book, The Chicago Guide for Freelance Editors. We hope you enjoyed seeing everyone’s pictures; we know we did!

All the prize winners have been given the good news, and now we’re ready to share them with the world. Winners were chosen at random, except for Most Creative. We had a tough time deciding (editors are creative people!), but we narrowed it down to one that seemed most fitting and fun.

Most Creative Post Photo b...

When to Stop Defining Abbreviations

Back when I taught copyediting, my students once asked me when it would be OK to not spell out an abbreviation that doesn’t appear in the dictionary. I appreciated their confusion, because it is sometimes difficult to define an exception to the rule.

We used The Chicago Manual of Style in the course I was teaching, and even CMoS isn’t entirely clear on what the exceptions would be (17th ed., 10.3)

A number of expressions are almost always abbreviated, even in regular prose, and may be use...

Using Chatbots in Your Writing? Don’t Skip Human Editing!

Many small and midsize businesses face a familiar dilemma: they have limited staff members who juggle multiple tasks, including writing. With so many responsibilities, staff members find it nearly impossible to carve out the time needed to write professional-level copy. And there’s no budget to hire a dedicated writer. 

Chatbots are giving them a new way to solve the problem.

Chatbots are a type of generative AI trained on enormous amounts of data to give them advanced natural language cap...