Category Archives: Writing and Editing

Grammar, Real Language, Books, and the Movies: An Editor’s Dilemma

A copy editor’s job is to correct the grammar in a novel. But what if the grammar is wrong, yet authentic? An author whose first language isn’t English caught a mistake in his novel and asked me what the correct grammar was. I told him the translator he hired had used authentic dialogue in theContinue reading “Grammar, Real Language, Books, and the Movies: An Editor’s Dilemma”

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Insights from Bestsellers: Pandas and Punctuation

Does punctuation matter? The answer can be found in this story about a panda that walked into a cafe, ordered a sandwich, ate it, and fired a gun into the air. Why did the panda do such a thing? The answer lies in a badly punctuated manual with a definition of “panda”: “Large black-and-white bear-likeContinue reading “Insights from Bestsellers: Pandas and Punctuation”

3 Quick Tips for Checking Your Own Writing

If you do any amount of writing at your job, then this article is for you. Whether you write emails to clients or reports to document projects, it’s important to do a final check before hitting Send or Print. There is nothing more horrifying than spotting a glaring error right after you have sent offContinue reading “3 Quick Tips for Checking Your Own Writing”

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