I've been thinking about this topic for the past few days, trying to think of solid, witty, interesting ways to make my point. But which point to make? First, there's the "Everyone needs a proofreader" point - which I know we've talked about in the past. No piece of writing is ever so short that it doesn't deserve having someone proofread it. This is doubly true if the piece of writing is going out into the world to represent your company. Perhaps, for instance, if you're running an ad in a relatively high-end Minneapolis/St. Paul magazine. **We'll discuss levels of culpability in a moment, don't worry. Then, there's the "You don't use an apostrophe to make a word plural" point, which
For the past month or so (there was a short break in the middle), I've been editing a memoir. (It's part of what inspired me to discuss genres a couple of weeks ago in my post "Writing 101: Details - and Facts - Matter.") It's an interesting blend of fact and sort-of fact, as most memoirs are, detailing some family history, some personal history, and a bit of American cultural history, as well. A (relatively) quick side discussion to point out the first adjective in that last sentence: "interesting." If you're writing a memoir, you have to pay attention to what your intended readers will find interesting. For instance, if you only plan to give the book to your kids, family stories will proba
I know we've talked about the "frenemy" status of Spellcheck before, but I came across something this week that made me realize how important having a proofreader (who actually knows grammar, spelling, and punctuation) can be. I'm going to start by giving the benefit of the doubt to the people who created the ad we'll look at in a bit. They may have never heard of the rule that two related words, when modifying the same word (and where the first does not end in -ly) should probably be hyphenated. (Wow, that seems convoluted, doesn't it?) Here are some examples: * Cart Stopping Deals vs. Cart-stopping Deals (I've been seeing this at Target, though I don't have a photo for you). The first one
