Arlene Miller's Blog, page 19

QUIZ: Italics and Quotation Marks

During the past several weeks, I have written several posts about when to use italics, when to use quotation marks, and how to use  other punctuation with quotation  marks. Here is a little quiz on the information in those posts:

Fix the following sentences by putting in quotation marks, italics, or adding punctuation in the correct places around quotation marks. Some of the sentences may be correct as it:

1. Please look up the definition of the word defenestrate.

2. I would like my steak served medium rare and a la carte.

3. I flew on to Miami on a Boeing 757.

4. I was excited to see the movie Star Wars for the tenth time!

5. I am hooked on the television show The Wagner Family, and my favorite episode is What Will Happen Next?

6. Please turn to Chapter 2, The Beginning of World War I.

7. I just received my tickets for the play Hamilton.

8. I hired her because of her can do attitude.

9. She said that she thought it might rain this afternoon.

10. Did you read the article in The New York Times called Children and Technology?

11. Please just answer yes or no.

12. I am running late she said, and I will probably miss he beginning of the movie.

13. The box was marked fragile, so I carefully brought it to the closet and put it in the back. 

14. My kids constantly ask, Are we there yet? when we take a long trip in the car.

15. She kept saying, You are thinner than I am; it drove me crazy!

Scroll for the answers…..

 

Down

 

 

Down

 

 

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Here!

1. Please look up the definition of the word defenestrate. (Italics for a word used as itself in a sentence.)

2. I would like my steak served medium rare and a la carte. (Correct as is. A la carte is common enough not to need italics – except when it is used as itself in a sentence, like this answer!)

3. I flew on to Miami on a Boeing 757. (Correct as is. Boeing is not italicized. It is the brand name, not a specific name given to a plane, like Spirit of St. Louis.)

4. I was excited to see the movie Star Wars for the tenth time! (Titles of movies are italicized.)

5. I am hooked on the television show The Wagner Family, and my favorite episode is “What Will Happen Next?” (Television shows are in italics. Episodes are quoted, and here the question mark is inside the quotes because the quotation mark goes only with the title.)

6. Please turn to Chapter 2, “The Beginning of World War I.” (Names of chapters are in quotation marks. The period always goes inside the quotation marks in American English, no matter what.)

7. I just received my tickets for the play Hamilton. (Title of plays are in italics.)

8. I hired her because of her “can do” attitude. (Can do has an unusual use in the sentence.)

9. She said that she thought it might rain this afternoon. (Correct as it is. Even though the word said is there, it is an indirect quote, not a direct quote of what she actually said.)

10. Did you read the article in The New York Times called “Children and Technology”? (Newspaper names are in italics, and articles are in quotation marks. The question mark is outside the quotes because the question is the entire sentence.)

11. Please just answer yes or no. (In this usage, yes and no do not need to be quoted. Here is a different example: She replied, “yes.” Here you need quotes.)

12. “I am running late,” she said, “and I will probably miss the beginning of the movie.” (Quotes around the exact words she said. Commas after late, and said. Commas and periods always go inside the quotation marks.)

13. The box was marked “fragile,” so I carefully brought it to the closet and put it in the back. (Quotation marks are used for words that follow labeled or marked. Comma inside the quotes.)

14. My kids constantly ask, “Are we there yet?” when we take a long trip in the car. (Quotation marks around the direct quote. Question mark inside quotes because the question is the quoted portion of the sentence only.)

15. She kept saying, “You are thinner than I am”; it drove me crazy! (Quotation marks around the exact words she said. Semicolon always goes outside the quotes.) 

 

Looking for grammar goofs!I am collecting grammar goofs for a future post. If you see something in a newspaper, etc., or you hear something (most likely on the news) that is not correct, please send it to me. You can send me the source, but I will not be posting those. You can e-mail it to me at the website e-mail (info@bigwords101.com) or you can send it as a comment if that is easier. They will not be posted as comments though. Thanks!

 

 

 

It’s National Poetry Month!

Guest blogger Pat Stanford is the author of two double-gold-medal -winning poetry books: Proverbs of My Seasons: Poetry of Transition (DocUmeant Publishing 2019) and A Motley Miscellany: Misfit Poems That Fit Together (DocUmeant Publishing 2020). She is a board member and former president of Florida Authors and Publishers Association.

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It’s National Poetry Month!

Do you read poetry? If not, why not? Reasons to read it can include learning something new about a place or a person, especially the poet; learning how to express something that may never have been expressed that way before; or learning that a poet can find ways to see the beauty in things when we can’t.

One of my poetry groups meets twice a month via Zoom (although they have been threatening to go back to in-person meetings). Well-known poets are chosen by the group members, and one of us does research on the poet. On the first Monday of each month, the member who did the research tells the group about that poet. And then everyone shares their favorite poem by that poet.  

On the third Monday of the month, we write poems after being given themes, but being rebel poets, we sometimes do not do the theme. As long as we are actively trying to write poetry, it’s all good.   

I wonder if going to a reading would inspire more interest in reading poetry. But now we are still dealing with covid-related illness and the threat of more isolation. For me this means I will turn to more to poetry to read.  Or to write. But I look forward to doing readings again.

If you write poetry, do you read other poets’ work? Many do not. Why not? Are they jealous that someone else’s work might eclipse their own? Or do they think it is not interesting or relevant to what they are writing?

At signing events, I get people at my table who say, “Oh…poetry. I don’t understand poetry.” I tell them, “I mainly write for fun, and you will understand mine. I don’t write confusing, pretentious, and boring poems.” I’ll open the book, turn to any one of my poems, and hand the book to the person who needs fun poetry.

Here’s an example: I call this one “Geezer.”

I had a thought, it went away.

I had a wake for it today.

It came, it went; I could not recall

what I had thought before at all.

I mourn this thought as though a friend –

so many thoughts have found such an end.

If you are over 50, you are probably either laughing or at least nodding your head knowingly. And laughter is always good. I wrote that two years ago during National Poetry Month. I was challenged by the above poetry group to write a poem every day. And I did. I think I was the only one who did!

So, do yourself a favor this month, which happens to be National Poetry Month. Read some poetry. Better yet, try to write some!

Where Does the Comma Go? Using Quotation Marks with Other Punctuation

Hmmm….Does the period go inside the quotation marks? Or does it go outside? Where does the question mark go?

Standards for using quotation marks with other punctuation differ in American English versus British. But the standards are pretty easy. Here are the guidelines for using quotation marks with other punctuation — American style.

1 Commas and periods ALWAYS go inside the quotation marks. It doesn’t matter if the quote is the whole sentence or just a few words at the end. 

“I hear you got promoted,” said Joe.I wrote a short story called “The Odd Duck.”

2. Semicolons and colons ALWAYS go outside the quotation marks. These punctuation marks aren’t usually used with quotation marks, but that is the standard if you should have such a construction.

Read the story “The New Doll”; write a summary of the story for homework.

3. Question marks and exclamation points are a little different but treated alike. If the question mark (or exclamation point) belongs to the entire sentence, it goes outside the quotation marks. If the question mark (or exclamation point) belongs just to the quoted material, it goes inside the quotation marks. AND, if both the entire sentence and the quoted part are both questions (or exclamations), the default place to put it is inside the quotation marks. Do not use two question marks! (You can also, of curse, rewrite the sentence to avoid the issue.)

I just heard Miguel ask, “Are we there yet?”Did I just hear Miguel say, “I hope we get there soon”? (Whole sentence is a question but quoted part is not.)Did I just hear Miguel ask, “Are we there yet?” (Both quoted section and whole sentence are questions. Default place for question mark is inside.)

And it is that simple. 

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Kind of late notice, but if you happen to be near Venice, Florida, I will be exhibiting my books at the Book Fair on Saturday, March 26 from 9-3.  Tent 6.

Coming Soon to this blog:

Quiz on Italics and Quotation Marks

Guest post for Poetry Month: April

Reviewing Another Author’s Work

I am delighted to once again present a guest post by Jags Arthurson!

Jags Arthurson is the pen name of a Brighton, UK writer. Jags has been a research chemist and company director.  He has lived and worked in over 40 countries. His novel, the crime thriller  Pagan Justice , is available on Amazon with all proceeds going to charity.

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From time to time, especially if you are in a writers’ group, you may be asked to review another’s work in progress.  There are three main reasons to do this.

To help improve their workTo help you improve your own workSolidarity with fellow writers

You may be tempted to refuse because, for instance, “This is not my genre.  I write gung-ho action adventures and she writes silly chick lit.”  Or “I’m just a newbie writer.  I’m not qualified to comment on anybody else’s work.”

I would urge you to reconsider.  You never know what you might learn.  You might pick up tips on how to give your own action hero more emotional depth or improve a sex scene.  The chick lit author, repulsed by the violence in the thriller, may still learn how better to describe physical interactions or add some realism to the heroine’s near-death car crash.

Another reason for refusing may be time pressure.  “I am too busy with my own writing.”  True.  We all are.  But it is nice to get useful feedback on our work.  Isn’t it only fair to reciprocate?  And a well-structured review can save you hours of rewriting time … more than returning your own time investment.

So what does a good review look like?

A Good Review Should:Encourage progress. Writing can be a lonely job, and a writer rarely knows if their work is any good.  It is easy, especially for a new writer, to become discouraged and give up.  The reviewer’s comments should always bear this in mind and should be made as positive as possible.  The review should not be just about finding faults, but good work should be praised.  All reviews MUST be constructive (see below).Spot Typos, etc. but … Typos are the “low hanging fruit” for any reviewer, but remember that this may be an early draft.  There is little point in identifying all the spelling and punctuation errors if the whole work is going to be rewritten anyway.  It can be useful if you notice a writer repeats a mistake over and over (there instead of their) as that is something unlikely to be corrected in a rewrite.  Anyway, a half decent editor will pick up the typos in a final draft.Concentrate on the “basics.” There are a number of key elements to good writing (see below) without which it doesn’t matter how good the English or how great the spelling or sentence structure; if these are not right, the story will not be read.Be a learning process. Sometimes when we review our own work, something may just feel wrong with it, but it is easy to ignore it on the grounds that “I’m just being fussy.”  However, as a reviewer, you are morally bound to dig deeper and, once the fault is identified, you may even recognise the same failing in your own work and thus improve it in the future.Rules of Constructive Reviews

Faults.  It is fine to find (genuine) fault in another’s writer’s work, but what is NOT all right is to stop there.  There are more steps to complete:

State the fault.Say why it is a fault.Possibly suggest or give examples of how the fault may be rectified.

Example: The author wrote

Mike was angry at Mary.

Fault: This is telling (show, don’t tell).Why: Telling does not engage the reader, whereas showing (emotion) does.Suggestion: What does Mike feel/do? Mike leapt to his feet and thrust a finger at her …

Obviously, an experienced writer will be familiar with much of this so, for instance, a simple “sdt” (show don’t tell) will often be sufficient in many places.

Destructive Criticism.  It is NEVER acceptable to make comments such as, “This is rubbish,” even if you then explain why.  You can say something like “I, personally, hated this character,” because if you do it’s a reasonable assumption you will not be alone.  You must then say why you hated them … with helpful suggestions that may attract a few more readers to the final version.

What to Review

If somebody gives you, say, a 160,000-word novel to review, you are entitled to refuse if it is too much for you to handle.  But remember, in the near future, you may want them to review your 190,000-word novel!

You must decide with the writer how much you are prepared to do.  Five thousand words is a reasonable minimum to give a good feel of the work, allowing you to understand story and character arcs.

If the 5,000 words are not from the beginning (and you are not familiar with what went before), the author should also provide a “context synopsis,” describing the characters, the environment (era, location, etc.), and the story so far.

The author may ask specific questions about some aspect of the work. (Does it work?  Is it credible?  How could I …?)  This does not restrict you to just those topics, but you should at least cover them.

The Basics

Good writing follows a number of guidelines (not rules).

Story Arc. Does the story move along realistically?  Does it have a “proper” structure?Hook.First 5%. Introduce characters, motives, needs, wants.5-25%. Set up the “adventure.”25%. 1st major turning point: “Accepts the challenge.”50%. 2nd major turning point: “Starts the fight back.”75%. 3rd major turning point: “Beginning of the end.”75-95%. Finale.Last 5%. Denouement: Continuing life of main characters.Place and time. Is this clear?  Even if it’s not relevant, readers like to know.Personal descriptions. Relevant details must be revealed as early as possible.  Readers become upset if the six-foot, blue-eyed blond character they imagined in chapter one turns out to be five feet tall and bald in chapter seven (unless there is a good plot reason for the deception).Point of View. Very important.  The narrator must be consistent.  Any head-hopping, etc?  Ensure, for example, that the narrator is not revealing things they can’t know, etc.Character arc. Do the characters evolve and learn?  Are they obviously better (or worse) at the end of the tale?  Do they always act within character?Are they interesting?  (Grit, Wit, and “It”)  If not, what are they lacking?Check for silly mistakes. (Character killed in chapter 3 appears in chapter 9.  Inconsistency of names, places, descriptions, spellings, etc.) Common mistakes include, for instance, smoking three cigarettes during a conversation that lasts a page.Personal expertise. If, for instance, you have technical knowledge applicable to the story, correct inaccuracies (calling New York’s airport JFK in a novel set in 1960).Writing Style. Watch out for the old traps: telling instead of showing, hanging modifiers, unclear descriptions, jargon unlikely to be familiar to readers, etc.Dialogue. Is it realistic?  Is it always clear who is speaking?  Correct use of speech tags and avoidance of editorialising speech tags (“He exclaimed emotionally.”)Timing and sequence. Are sequences correct?  Unless there is a reason, e.g., flashbacks, etc., everything should happen in order, even down to micro-details: He read the document that he had previously taken from the desk should be He picked up the document and read it.Lack of conflict makes a boring story.  Every chapter, paragraph — almost every line —  should have conflict.InternalPerson versus personPerson versus environment (weather, animal, society, etc.)

Any author will tell you how lonely the job can be, and just the fact that a fellow writer has picked up and put some effort into our “baby” can be a tremendous psychological boost.  Try it.  You never know; you might like it.

 

Uh-Oh: Trademark Trouble!

In 2016 I wrote and published a book called Fifty Shades of Grammar: Scintillating and Saucy Sentences, Syntax, and Semantics from The Grammar Diva. The book is a collection of fifty of these blog posts — from 2016 back to 2013. 

Yes, I did wonder if I was violating any laws by “stealing” the Fifty Shades phrase. So I asked around to see what my writing and publishing friends thought. I remember also running it by a lawyer acquaintance. And, of course, I looked on Amazon to see if anyone else had taken the phrase for a book title. I saw that there were many. So I felt pretty safe calling my book Fifty Shades of Grammar. It went on to win a book award from The Bay Area Independent Publishers Association. And that was that. 

Until about a month or two ago. I received an e-mail from Amazon that a third-party had complained that I had committed a trademark violation, and my book would be removed from Amazon until and unless I could provide proof of permission. I did not have any. 

But, you ask, are you sure that the e-mail was legitimate? Would Amazon just send an e-mail? I checked the address it was coming from and somehow determined the e-mail was  likely legitimate. They even had the name of the complaining party, which was a media law firm in London. (I looked them up.) The e-mail also stated that the trademark violation was for the phrase “fifty shades,” not for the book or film title Fifty Shades of Gray.

I did an amateur trademark search online and found that “Fifty Shades” had been trademarked by a London business selling soaps and other such items, possibly some adult items as well. In the trademark information was a list of those businesses who were not allowed to use the phrase. The list included novels, but there was nothing about nonfiction books. 

The next thing I did was search Amazon for those book titles beginning with Fifty Shades. Although my book had been taken down, these books (and this is a very partial list) were still up on Amazon: Fifty Shades of Green: Cooking with Cannabis; Fifty Shades of Bacon; Fifty Shades of Chicken; Fifty Shades of Crimson (which appeared to be a novel); Fifty Shades of the USA, about a women who had cycled through every state; Fifty Shades of Truth; Fifty Shades of Talmud; Fifty Shades of Pink and Blue; Fifty Shades of Greys, about aliens; Fifty Shades of Narcissism; Fifty Shades of Neigh;  and many other books and notebooks called Fifty Shades of Green. 

So I e-mailed Amazon back. I told them I had no permission, but I had checked around (including with lawyers) when I wrote the book and it seemed to be okay. I also pointed out that there were many other books beginning with that phrase, and they hadn’t been taken down. The next time I checked Amazon all the books had been removed except one: Fifty Shames of Earl Grey. That author had been wise enough to change one letter to avoid a problem, I guess. 

I then consulted with a lawyer friend of mine (but not a copyright attorney) who found a case about parody, and thought my book title would fall into that category. I then sent a copyright attorney colleague a copy of that case. She agreed mine would relate to the parody case, and it didn’t look as if Amazon was going to take this too far, but if I needed a litigator to let her know. 

Frankly, I wasn’t concerned that my book was off Amazon, since it is not one of my bestsellers. However, that book is listed in all books that came after it in the list of books I have written. I didn’t want that mention of the book to cause them all to be taken down. But no one thought that would happen. 

In addition to Amazon, the book is listed with mega-book wholesaler Ingram, so I wondered if I should remove the book from there as well.

I looked on their website and couldn’t figure out how to take the book down. It turned out to be a good thing: That same day I received another e-mail from Amazon (this was probably about a week after the first e-mail) saying that the complaint had been withdrawn. No explanation. Amazon apologized for my inconvenience and said they would immediately put the book back up for sale. I thanked them and asked them to make sure they put all the other Fifty Shades books back too. When I looked, everything was back to normal. Crisis averted. 

And why did it take six years for anyone to notice?

 

10 Reasons to Use Quotation Marks

Welcome to the third post in the series about italics and quotation marks. T0day we will talk about ten ways to use quotation marks, and a few quotation mark DON’Ts.

I am writing this post on March 4, which is

NATIONAL GRAMMAR DAY!!!!

1. Use quotation marks to enclose direct quotes, or the exact words someone says: Mayor Jones said,”The ribbon-cutting for the new park will take place net Saturday at 9 a.m.” Direct quotes can of course be longer than once sentence, so the quotation marks go at only the beginning and end of the quote. For multi-paragraph quotes, use quotation marks at the beginning of each quoted paragraph, but only at the end of the final paragraph. 

2. Use quotation marks in dialog. 

“I am not eating the vegetables,” said Nan.

“Well,” said Mom, you won’t be getting dessert.”

A few authors have stopped using quotation marks for dialog. Most of them use hyphens to indicate dialog instead. A few of them use nothing at all.

3. Use quotation marks around words or phrases that come directly from another person or source: The advertisement said that if I use this cream, I will have “ageless skin forever.”

4, Use quotation marks to indicate sarcasm or irony: My brother claims that he is tall for his age. Ha! He is so “tall” that he can fit into kids’ pants!

5. Use quotation marks around slang  or intentional grammar or spelling mistakes:  She said she had gotten my book from the “liberry.”  She told me she just didn’t have enough “bandwidth”  to discuss the project at this time. 

6. As we said in a previous post in this series,  quotation marks are used for titles when they are parts of longer things, for example, titles of short stories, poems, songs, newspaper and magazine articles, episodes of television series, etc. Complete works, such as books, magazines, newspapers, and TV series names, are in italics: I just read “The Road Not Taken” in The Complete Poems of Robert Frost.

7. Use quotation marks around a word or phrase that has an unusual or “abnormal” use or placement in a sentence: We didn’t like her “I-am-better-than-you” attitude.

8. Use quotation marks if you define a word in a sentence: Did any of the students know that caffoy means “a type of silk from the 16th century”?

9. Use quotation marks around jargon if the audience you are writing to might be unfamiliar with it:  The instructor told the students in the beginning computer class about the “cloud.”

10. Use quotation marks around words that follow labeled or marked:  I almost dropped the box marked “fragile.”

DO NOT use quotation marks in these situations:

1.Indirect quotations:  She said that it might rain tomorrow for our picnic.

2. Around yes or no unless they are part of a direct quote: Please answer yes if you  know the answer to my question. She said, “Yes, I was out last night.”

3. You do not need quotation marks around well-known sayings:  It was raining cats and dogs this morning, so we couldn’t go for our walk.

4. Be careful with single quotation marks. There is only one use for them — for something that needs to be quoted that is already in quotes: She said, “I love that old song ‘Yesterday’ by the Beatles.” Do not use single quotes for any of the above reasons to use quotation marks. Use double quotes. 

 

 

 

A Place of Love: Guest Post by Author A.L. Whyte

A.L. Whyte lives in Northern California. He is a performer who set aside his acting career around 2010 to make more time for his family. Prior to that he had performed for Nickelodeon, Universal Studios, Image Films, Toyota, Apple, and ILM, as well as semi-professional companies around Orlando, Florida, and the Bay Area. He has written and published poetry as well as  rewrites for Universal Studios stage productions. His derivative of Harry Nilsson’s “Land of Point” is registered in the Library of Congress. After six and a half years, in his spare time, he finished his science fiction novel, The Children of the Stars, Book One, SAIQA. He is currently finishing the second book in the series.    

Here is more information about The Children of the Stars.  

 

A Place of Love

 I had this dream about a chick. You know –  the tiny, yellow furry, kind. We were on the outside of a building on the patio. She was running about my feet and then scene change – as it happens in dreams – she was on the other side of the patio pecking around the bottom of the building. Suddenly, another bird with a long, sharp beak appeared. The bird started chasing the chick. She ran in fear; running in circles at the far end of the patio. I kept calling her to me. Finally she bolted my way. At that moment the bird struck the side of the chick with such a force she slammed into the building wall. She screamed in pain as she crawled to me. Somehow I managed to get between the deadly bird and the tiny chick. The baby chick stopped at my feet and cried and cried and cried. The deadly bird was behind me trying to get at her from between my legs. I picked up the mortally wounded youngling and held her in both of my hands. As I held her, she stopped crying and looked into my eyes, my very soul. I looked into hers and she settled into my hands and seemed to be filled with a sense of trust and love. I could feel it. Then she closed her eyes and died. At that moment I woke up.

            Had I been alive during the ancient Roman Empire, I would have been running scared at all the potential portents of such a visual dream. Instead I look to the past. I know as a parent I’ve made mistakes, as all parents do. But I remember that with every parental decision –  discipline, patience, education, everything –  I tried to always let my two girls know that they were loved. Both my girls are now strong, confident, and loving. I feel blessed for that alone. My younger girl is now over six months a new mom. This, of course, makes me a grandfather, a title I never thought would apply to me. When Tera had her baby shower, she set a jar aside for her guests to offer any parental suggestions. I wrote, “Always come from a place of love.” I know she initially scoffed at my suggestion, but now when I see her, I can see she has taken it to heart.

            There’s a lot of good and sometimes not good information and opinions offered to new parents through the internet as well as through hearsay. Yet there is one thing that to me seems universal: If you want good, strong, and confident children – children who will someday be the adults –  always try to come from a place of love.

 

Four Reasons to Use Italics in Your Writing

A couple of posts ago, we talked about the distinction between quotation marks and italics. Italics are used when referring to  complete works  in text: movie titles, book titles, TV series titles, names of magazines and newspapers, works of art, and operas, Quotation marks are used for parts of those works, such as chapter titles, TV series episodes, magazine and newspaper articles, and short stories.

But there are other uses of italics as well.

1. Use italics when referring in text to words, letters, numbers, and symbols used as themselves.

I spelled accommodate incorrectly on my essay.I always forget that there are two ms in accommodate.I put a 6 instead of an 8 in your address. Please use the word and, not &, in your formal letters.

2. Use italics for uncommon foreign words and phrases in your writing. Many of these words and phrases have become common and do not require italics. Consult a style guide or dictionary.  These words and phrases are considered common: a la carte, alma mater, bona fide, chutzpah, en route, et al., etc., non sequitur, per annum, per diem, magnum opus, rendezvous, savoir faire, status quo, summa cum laude, vice versa. (This is not a complete list of common foreign words.) 

3. Italics are generally used by authors (usually in fiction or memoir) for a character’s thoughts — or internal dialogue —  versus quotation marks for actual dialogue.

After I hung up the phone, I thought to myself, Does he really think I am that stupid? 

4. Use italics (sparingly) for emphasis. Do not use bold, all caps, or quotations marks around words or phrases you want to emphasize.

I asked you to use the good forks, not these bent, tarnished ones!

 

 

“Virtual Reality” and “Three Little Words”: A Guest Post by Linda Jay

I am pleased to present two humorous anecdotes from Linda Jay, a copyeditor and copywriter in Sonoma County, California. Linda has decades of experience editing book manuscripts as well as blogs, website text, magazine articles, and PR material of all types. She has edited books from business to zombies. She also writes PR and marketing copy for book jackets, websites, blogs, bios, magazine profiles and feature stories, email blasts, and brochures. Linda’s parents wrote radio scripts for programs including The Shadow. For more information about Linda Jay, see her website.

 

Three Little Words

It’s the early 1980s, and my (late) husband and I are attending a computer conference at the now-Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Apple Computer has one of the marketing tables outside the auditorium, so I’m browsing through their material. Yowza!  All interesting stuff … except the content of the Apple internal newsletter, Five Star News, leaves a lot to be desired.  I pick up my sample copy, take my ever-present red pen (editors ALWAYS carry one), and start circling corrections that should be made on the pages.

Do they have a copyeditor? Not listed on the masthead.  Hmmmmmmmmmmm. And I want a freelance copyediting job. I wonder………….. I think about what one word would sum up the Apple culture. Of course. “BRASH” comes to mind.  I myself am not, by nature, brash. But I want to see if the Five Star News editor would hire me to proofread/edit the paper every month, AND put my name on the masthead each month.  

So I make an appointment with the editor, I take my marked-up newsletter, and I march confidently into his office, throw the paper onto his desk, and declare, “You need me!”  He is stunned at my bold approach. Within a few minutes, he hires me as a freelancer who will have her name on the masthead. Mission accomplished!  The gig lasted a year, although I was never asked to meet the others on staff, who were all bona fide Apple employees.  

 

 Virtual Reality — Sound Effects for The Shadow  in My Parents’ New York Kitchen

When I was a kindergartner in Manhattan, sometimes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons my parents, Verne and Helen Jay, would rehearse sound effects in our kitchen. They were writing freelance radio scripts broadcast nationwide on NBC, and several shows  — such as “Flames of Death” and “Death in the Tomb” for The Shadow — involved sound effects.

Whether it was sirens, screams, bodies falling onto cement, or vault doors slamming, my parents were pretty proficient at producing the authentic sounds. I thought this was just a normal part of what parents did.

But when several neighbors with worried faces knocked at the front door on a Tuesday afternoon, asking what was going on inside, I thought differently. My mother, an aspiring actress as well as a writer, would draw herself up to her full 4 feet 5 3/4 inches and walk slowly to the door, with a haughty attitude.  As she slowly opened the door, she would gaze at each neighbor. “Yes? Is something wrong?”  They responded, “What on earth is going on in there?”

“Oh, that,” she would say nonchalantly. “Think nothing of it. We’re just rehearsing.” And then, her voice rising and her manner changing to almost-glee, she would add, “FOR THE SHADOW!!,” while she v-e-r-y slowly closed the door. 

With the perspective I have now on the entire scene, I can see that truly my parents did not realize that their virtual reality was everyday work to  them, although somewhat bizarre to the neighbors. And yes…this was my reality as a somewhat puzzled kindergartner in Manhattan.

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Quotation Marks? Italics? Bold? All Caps?

What to do? What to do? Should I put this in quotation marks or italics?

Today begins a five-part series on quotation marks and italics (interspersed with some guest posts for your edutainment). 

Quotes Versus ItalicsOther Uses for ItalicsOther Uses for Quotation MarksQuotation Marks with Other PunctuationQuiz on Quotation Marks and Italics

First of all, to simplify, you can pretty much forget about all caps and bold. They aren’t punctuation marks (well, okay, neither are italics), and they are more decorative. You might use bold or all caps for titles or headings of chapters, or sections of something you are writing, or possibly promotional writing or other graphics-related items (like book covers, social media banners, etc.). But if you are writing text, there is really no place for all caps or bold in more formal writing. Of course, in texts or social media posts, be my guest!

However, there is often confusion about when to put something in italics versus when to put it in quotation marks, and there is a distinction. Before we go any further, I know that sometimes italics aren’t available, for example, on Facebook or Twitter. In these cases, just use quotation marks instead. 

Here is the general rule:

Complete things are put in italicsParts of things are in quotation marks,

Here are some examples:

1.If you are writing something and need to refer to a book title, the title goes in italics; a chapter title in the book would be in quotation marks. A short story would also be in quotation marks.

Have you read To Kill a Mockingbird?We need to read chapter two, “Birds of Africa,” for homework.The story “Frankie Tells a Lie,” is my favorite in that anthology.

2. Albums or CDs (what are those these days??) are in italics. Song titles are quoted.

I still have my copy of Abbey Road by the Beatles!“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is my favorite song on that album.

3. Names of magazines and newspapers are in italics; title of articles within them are in quotation marks.

 I still subscribe to Vogue.I read a great article called “Things Not to Do in a Pandemic.”

3. TV series are in italics; episode names are in quotes.

Star Trek is one of my favorite shows of all times (it isn’t).I remember watching “The Enemy Within” episode when I was a kid. 

Here are some other “complete” things that are in italics:

Movie titlesPieces of art (The Mona Lisa)Titles of playsTitles of operasPoems long enough to fill a book (Howl by Allen Ginsburg)Planes, boats, and spacecraft if they are given names other than their brand or model (Titanic)

Here are some parts of things that would be in quotation marks:

Short poemsNames of acts or scenes in a movie or playNewspaper articles

It goes without saying that we are talking here only about when you are referring to these things in text. Obviously, the titles of books that are on the covers are not in italics necessarily. (That is when we use all caps and bold!)