{"id":106,"date":"2014-07-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_15\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:15","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:15","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_15\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nLast week, I mentioned style sheets for authors and editors.
\nThis week, I thought it would be fun to give you an exercise to determine some
\nof the smaller details that can be included in your style sheet by offering a
\ngrammar pop quiz:<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIn the following paragraph, I\u2019m going to provide options for
\noften misspelled or misused words, capitalization, and other fun things writers
\nand authors need to remember or to write down. See how many you can get
\ncorrect:<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe morning sun rose over the dome of the Capital\/Capitol<\/b> where the doctor came
\nto seek counsel\/council<\/b> with the senator\/Senator<\/b> from his state. The
\nmedical fraud in his hometown was a byproduct\/by-product<\/b>
\nof greed. Sonograms, x-rays\/X-rays\/xrays<\/b>,
\nand other tests were too\/to\/two<\/b>
\nexpensive for most patients. People lay\/lied\/laid<\/b>
\nthere now dying because of improper treatment. How could this not affect\/effect<\/b> even the least caring of
\npeople? After spending awhile\/a while<\/b>
\nin his own nightmarish visit in the hospital\u2019s ER, the doctor sought out an
\ninvestigative reporter at The Orlando
\nSentinel\/the Orlando Sentinel\/the Orlando
\nSentinel<\/i> <\/b>newspaper to expose the fraud. The doctor took a backseat\/back seat<\/b> in the investigation
\nuntil the evidence indicated a hoard\/horde<\/b>
\nof people was\/were<\/b> forced to seek
\ntreatment elsewhere. The doctor couldn\u2019t
\ncare less\/could care less<\/b> if he lost his right to practice in that hospital\u2014or
\nany hospital in his state. He couldn\u2019t allow this to go on any more\/anymore<\/b>.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe correct answers and rules are given below, but don\u2019t
\ncheat. Use this as a measure of which items belong on your personal style
\nsheet\/checklist. Finish the quiz and check your answers. If you missed any, those belong on your style sheet.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nCapital\/Capitol<\/b>:
\nRemember that a capitol is where a legislative assembly meets. A clue to this
\nis that most capitols have a dome, which is spelled with an \u201co.\u201d As a reminder:
\ncapital is the correct usage for a city that is the capital of the state.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nCounsel\/council: <\/b>The
\ncorrect form here is \u201ccounsel.\u201d \u201cCouncil\u201d refers to a group brought together to
\ndeliberate or to rule, as in \u201ctown council.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSenator\/senator<\/b>: Here,
\nthe correct form is lower case. Why? The word \u201cthe\u201d gives us that clue. If our
\ndoctor had a specific senator to see, such as Senator Weldon or if he were
\ncalling out to the senator, \u201cDo you have a moment, Senator?\u201d the word would be
\ncapitalized.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nByproduct\/by-product<\/b>:
\nJust like the words \u201cold-fashion\u201d and \u201cgood-bye,\u201d this word is always
\nhyphenated.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nx-rays\/X-rays\/xrays<\/b>:
\nThis is one I see noted incorrectly very often. The correct for is X-ray.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nTo\/too\/two<\/b>: As
\nthe intent here is that the amount is excessive, our proper form is \u201ctoo.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nLay\/lied\/laid<\/b>: I
\ngave a hint for you in this one. Did you catch it? The word now indicates it is
\nin the present. Our correct form is \u201clay.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAffect\/effect<\/b>:
\nThis one gives me so much trouble. \u201cAffect\u201d is correct here, as it is a verb.
\nWhile there is an exception to the rule, \u201ceffect\u201d is usually a noun. Affect\u201d is
\nusually a verb.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAwhile\/A while<\/b>: Here,
\nthe proper use is the noun form \u201ca while\u201d because I\u2019m actually saying that the
\ndoctor spent a period of time at the ER. \u201cAwhile\u201d is a verb meaning \u201cfor a
\nperiod of time.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe Orlando
\nSentinel\/the Orlando Sentinel\/the Orlando
\nSentinel: <\/i><\/b>The proper form here is the last one. Note that \u201cthe\u201d is not
\nincluded in the italics.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nbackseat\/back seat: \u201c<\/b>Backseat\u201d
\nis always one word.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nhoard\/horde: <\/b>The
\ncorrect term here is \u201chorde,\u201d which means a crowd of people. \u201cHoard\u201d means to
\nstash or to hide.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWas\/were: <\/b>Because
\na \u201chorde\u201d is a collective noun, indicating one horde, the proper use here is \u201cwas.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\ncouldn\u2019t care
\nless\/could care less:<\/b> If you could care less, you really aren\u2019t making a
\npoint, are you? To say you couldn\u2019t care less means there isn\u2019t another ounce
\nof caring in you regarding whatever it is you\u2019re discussing.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nany more\/anymore<\/b>:
\nThe correct term here is \u201canymore\u201d which means \u201cany longer.\u201d \u201cAny more\u201d
\nactually refers to \u201cany additional.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHow did you do? If you missed a couple, don\u2019t worry. Writers
\nall have certain words, phrases, rules, etc., that stop us. That\u2019s the beauty
\nof the style sheet. Even when we can\u2019t remember, we have the rule written down
\nsomewhere for quick and easy access.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nHappy editing.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I mentioned style sheets for authors and editors. This week, I thought it would be fun to give you an exercise to determine some of the smaller details that can be included in your style sheet by offering a grammar pop quiz: In the following paragraph, I\u2019m going to provide options for often […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[67,21,68,69,70,71],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-editing","tag-editing-advice","tag-misspelling","tag-misused-words","tag-self-editing","tag-style-sheets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}