Editor's Corner

Hello, good morning, greetings!

Last week I covered misplaced modifiers (descriptive words or phrases that are misplaced in a sentence so that they cause ambiguity), and as promised, this time we’re looking at dangling modifiers. A dangling modifier is a word or phrase that has nothing to modify. It’s just dangling, unattached to anything else in the sentence. Typically, these sentences are missing a subject (the person or thing doing the action). I know, I know. We need examples!

• Walking through the park, the squirrels were chattering.

The phrase “walking through the park” is a dangling modifier. It’s not modifying anything. Who is walking through the park? Here is one way you could rewrite the sentence:

Walking through the park, Darius heard the squirrels chattering.

• Waiting in line, the time went by slowly.

Who is waiting in line? For whom is time going by slowly? Here’s a possible revision:

While Merced was waiting in line, the time went by slowly.

• While driving to the park, my dog stuck his head out of the window.

I think you’ve got this figured out. We’re missing the subject—the person driving the car.

While I was driving to the park, my dog stuck his head out of the window.

The takeaway is to make sure that your sentences have a clear subject. Don’t leave us dangling.

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry™

Pronouns she/her/hers

9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego CA 92123

Symitar Documentation Services

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

Did someone forward this email to you? Click here to subscribe.

Don’t want to get Editor’s Corner anymore? Click here to unsubscribe.

Do you have a question or an idea for Editor’s Corner? Send your suggestions or feedback to Kara and <a href="mailto:DBurcher.

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Welcome to a new day and another literary term: maxim. No, I’m not talking about the magazine Maxim, which purports to be a magazine that caters “to the modern man with content that promises to seduce, entertain, and continuously surprise readers.” Our friends at Merriam-Webster offer this definition:

: a general truth, fundamental principle, or rule of conduct

: a proverbial saying

With the term maxim, you will see some crossover with other terms we’ve discussed (or will discuss soon). As mentioned with fables, they are followed by a moral, or perhaps you might call it a maxim. When we get to proverbs, you will also see some crossover. Here are some examples of maxims from ThoughtCo:

• Actions speak louder than words.
• The pen is mightier than the sword.
• You’re never too old to learn.
• You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
• All good things come to those who wait.
• Many hands make light work.
• Too many cooks spoil the broth.

In researching maxims, I tried to find out what set them apart from similar literary terms like axiom or proverb. A scholar by the last name of Grice said there are four types of maxim, as follows:

• Quality. Must be truthful and supported with evidence.
• Quantity. Must provide as much information as required.
• Relation. Must be relevant.
• Manner. Must avoid ambiguity.

Hmm. These explanations of the different types didn’t really shed any light on what makes a maxim a maxim. I decided to dig further and found an interesting article on the Literary Terms website.

A maxim is a brief statement that contains a little piece of wisdom or a general rule of behavior. Maxims are sometimes written by a single author, for example in the form of philosophical quotations. When a maxim has no specific author, it becomes a kind of proverb–something that just emerges from the culture and survives because people use it, not because any specific person wrote it in a book.

The defining characteristic of a maxim is that it’s pithy–that is, it packs a lot of meaning into just a few words. [KC – There we go. More “pithy” words as I mentioned in my Aphorism article. Wait! These folks give us a difference between pithy aphorisms and pithy maxims!]

Maxims are very nearly the same as aphorisms. The only difference is that maxims are often more straightforward. Whereas aphorisms tend to use metaphor, maxims may or may not do this.

Hmm. Here are two examples and explanations of maxims, that I hope will help:

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

This famous saying is a good example of a maxim with a metaphor in it. Rome is a metaphor for whatever you might be working on – a career, a relationship, a long-term project, etc. Whatever it is, the idea of building Rome reminds you that these things take time.

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

A maxim without a metaphor. This one is the essence of pithiness – pithy writing is writing that uses the bare minimum number of words while packing in a lot of wisdom and information, without sacrificing clarity!

Here’s hoping that you maximize the fun parts of your day!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Good morning, my people.

Today I want to share information about how to avoid using misplaced modifiers. Kara and I have covered this subject before, but it’s been a while. And since this is a persistent issue that we deal with when editing, it is a good topic to revisit.

First, what is a misplaced modifier? It is a descriptive word or phrase that is misplaced in a sentence so that it causes ambiguity or outright confusion (sometimes they can be pretty funny!).

To make sure we’re on the same page, let me give you some examples:

• When Jenny got home, she fell onto the sofa covered in sweat.

The misplaced modifier in this sentence is covered in sweat. The misplacement of the phrase makes it sound like the sofa, rather than Jenny, is covered in sweat. We can rewrite the sentence this way to correct it:

When Jenny got home, covered in sweat, she fell onto the sofa.

• Shahin bought a puppy for his son called Sniffy.

You see how this works now. The pup’s name is Sniffy, but the misplaced modifier makes it sound like Shahin’s son is called Sniffy.

Those are examples of misplaced modifier phrases, but single words can also be modifiers. The following words are known as limiting modifiers: almost, hardly, just, nearly, and only. To avoid ambiguity, we also need to be careful about where we place these words in our sentences. Notice how moving these words in the following sentences changes the meaning. I gathered these examples from the Grammar Diva:

• Only Judy kicked her friend in the leg. (Modifies Judy. No one else kicked the friend, just good old Judy.)
• Judy only kicked her friend in the leg. (Modifies kicked; she kicked her friend, but she didn’t do anything else to her.)
• Judy kicked only her friend in the leg. (Slightly different meaning: Judy didn’t kick anyone else, just her friend, thank goodness!)
• Judy kicked her only friend in the leg. (Modifies friend; no surprise this was her only friend.)
• Judy kicked her friend only in the leg. (She didn’t kick her anywhere else.)
• Judy kicked her friend in her only leg. (Modifies leg; poor friend.)

The trick is to make sure the limiting modifier is next to the word it modifies as in the examples above.

Here’s a lovely old, misplaced modifier you may have heard before:

That’s it! Now you’re an expert on misplaced modifiers. Next time, we’ll tackle dangling modifiers.

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry™

Pronouns she/her/hers

9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego CA 92123

Symitar Documentation Services

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

Did someone forward this email to you? Click here to subscribe.

Don’t want to get Editor’s Corner anymore? Click here to unsubscribe.

Do you have a question or an idea for Editor’s Corner? Send your suggestions or feedback to Kara and <a href="mailto:DBurcher.

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Today’s literary term is proverb. As you will see, it is defined using some of the terms we’ve already discussed in past weeks. Merriam-Webster says a proverb is a brief popular epigram or maxim, also called an adage. Again, we have some crossover. Literary Terms provides this additional information.

A proverb is a short saying or piece of folk wisdom that emerges from the general culture rather than being written by a single, individual author. Proverbs often use metaphors or creative imagery to express a broader truth.

And a little more, from Grammarly.com:

Proverbs and idioms are similar and easily confused with one another. Both are forms of expression that are natural to groups of people and are short and pithy, and both are very challenging for English language learners to understand because they include innate meaning that isn’t always discernible just by reading the words.

But they do have a few key differences. Idioms express an idea or thought and are phrases that contain a group of words that typically wouldn’t make sense together (e.g., it’s raining cats and dogs, pulling someone’s leg, by the skin of your teeth). They are also frequently used in poetry. Proverbs have a literal meaning and tend to express a truth or dispense advice such as actions speak louder than words; all’s well that ends well; a leopard never changes its spots.

For fun, I’m giving you a few proverbs from languages besides English, from ESLGrammar:

§ “To make the tea cloudy” – Japanese proverb

It means to be evasive or non-committal about something, it comes from a Japanese wedding and tea rituals.

§ “A drink precedes a story” – Irish proverb

When a man is inebriated, they are more likely to tell the stories or occurrences that they normally wouldn’t if they were sober.

§ “He who buys what he does not need, steals from himself.” – Swedish proverb

A person should spend only on essential or necessary items and avoid frivolous expenses.

§ “An axe forgets what the tree remembers.” – African proverb

It is easy for someone who is hurting another person to forget the wrong and move on but the person who was hurt never forgets.

§ “The eyes believe themselves, the ears believe other people.” – German proverb

Do not believe everything that everyone says to you, trust your own judgement or wait to see something with your own eyes before believing someone.

§ “A clear conscience is a soft pillow.” – French proverb

If a person is guilty of some wrongdoing, their guilty conscience will let them have no rest, while an innocent person will be peaceful and calm.

§ “To call a man a thief gives him the right to be one.” – Old Arabic proverb

Treating someone in an unfair or cruel way will ensure a similar behavior from them in the future.

§ “Opportunity knocks only once.” – Spanish proverb

Always seize an opportunity when it comes your way as you may not get another chance at it.

§ “Your elbow is close but you can’t bite it.” – Russian proverb

A way to express when someone is physically present but emotionally distant or when something can be seen but is just beyond your reach.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Good morning, curious readers. Recently, I read one of my daily emails from Dictionary.com—it covered a pair of often confused words that are very relevant today: misinformation and disinformation.

Let’s start with a definition of and some background about the word misinformation. The first recorded use of this word was in the 1500s. The prefix mis-, means wrong or mistaken. With that in mind, we can deduce that misinformation simply means information that is mistaken or incorrect (I think we knew that). For example, maybe you saw on social media that one of your favorite actors died and you spread the word to your friends and family, and then you found out it isn’t true; the actor is alive and well. You’ve just misinformed all those people. Oops. You didn’t mean any harm; it was all a big mistake. Misinformation is false information, but it is shared with no intention to mislead or misrepresent.

And that leads us right into disinformation. The first recorded use of this word was sometime between 1965 and 1970. According to Dictionary.com “It’s a translation of the Russian word dezinformátsiya, in turn based on the French désinfomer (to misinform).” The prefix dis- is used to indicate a reversal or negative instance of the word that follows the prefix. The examples provided by Dictionary.com are disrespect and disobedience.

Disinformation is misinformation that is knowingly spread. It is intended to mislead or misrepresent. For example, maybe you are interested in buying a house, so you attend the open house and it seems to be everything you are looking for in a home. You begin talking to someone at the open house who informs you that the house has had a history of plumbing and electrical issues, so you decide to take some time to do more research. After a few days, you find out there is nothing to worry about, but in the meantime, the person who disinformed you has put in a bid and the bid has been accepted. In this case, you were disinformed.

According to the article, “…disinformation is very powerful, destructive, and divisive, and is a common tool of espionage. Countries often have an interest in intentionally spreading fake information to their rival nations, as the Soviet Union and United States did during the Cold War, for instance. When a country or group coordinates a complicated plan of spreading disinformation, it is often referred to as a disinformation campaign.”

What can you do to avoid being misinformed or disinformed? Be sure that the information you are ingesting or sharing is vetted—not just someone’s opinion. Improve your media literacy (the ability to critically analyze for accuracy, credibility, or evidence of bias the content created and consumed in various media, including radio and television, the internet, and social media).

There is a glut of information available to us. It’s more important than ever to make sure the information we receive is unbiased and accurate. Go forth and find the facts.

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry™

Pronouns she/her/hers

9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego CA 92123

Symitar Documentation Services

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

Did someone forward this email to you? Click here to subscribe.

Don’t want to get Editor’s Corner anymore? Click here to unsubscribe.

Do you have a question or an idea for Editor’s Corner? Send your suggestions or feedback to Kara and <a href="mailto:DBurcher.

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Hail to the haiku writers! Today’s submissions are from those who sent in one, two, and three haiku. I hope you enjoy them! The first one is a personal favorite!

Michelle Cornell

Editor’s Corner

What would we do without it?

English still be bad

Debbie Seufert

The grass is now green

Cows are grazing happily

Baby calves bouncing

Cousin visiting

Brought a bottle of whiskey

What is my own name?

Donna Bradley Burcher

Yes, of course I did

I won’t say no to chocolate

Even your last piece

I was first to wake

You were left to dream some more

Just make the bed, dude

Mayme O’Neill

Summer, please come soon.

Bring bright mornings and warm nights.

Bring crickets and calm.

Woke up too early

compensated with caffeine.

Now I cannot sleep.

I’m in Pacific.

You’re in Central or Eastern.

Siri, what time is…?

Stephanie Hrnack

Southwest Airlines Federal Credit Union

Texas in Spring

Sunshine and blue skies,

Twisters, thunder, rain, and hail

The weather’s fickle!

Teams Meeting Séance

Someone tries to speak.

Olivia, are you there?

We cannot hear you.

Jane Sampsel

Frustration

Baby is asleep.

Mom is able to sleep, too.

Oh no! Doorbell rings!

Laundry

Dirty laundry cleaned.

A sense of accomplishment!

Ugh! Pile is growing.

Aging

Crinkles near my eyes

Laugh lines surrounding my mouth

Signs of life well-lived

Vicki Decker

new at Jack Henry

the phenomenal culture

makes all days good ones

it is Easter time

chocolate eggs and jelly beans

add to my waistline

Jeff Brady

Wordle

Once more I prevail

The evil word is vanquished

Victory is sweet

Sheila Walter

Oh Spring, please come soon.

Sun, fun, splashing and smiles.

Snow, stay away now!

Billie Jean Montle

A light in my dream

She came to me to assure

Joy and Happiness

Patty Moore

One Company

My dear jack henry

No longer separate groups

We have become one

Paul Davis

Teams meet sneeze starting

Reaching up to mute my mic

Enable camera oops

Jack Ford

Haiku time again

I know I can kill this stuff

well darn, thought I could

David Pullara

Nantucket Haiku

Is very naughty, it’s true

Five bucks gets you two

Angel Wilborn

Am I sick she asks

cough wheeze sneeze Ahchoo Oh No

To bed I must go

Tyler Bible

A PowerShell Haiku

DollarVar Equal

Help my PowerShell Haiku

Write-Host DollarVar

Richard Sunbury

Here is one from ChatGPT:

Artificial brain

Endless calculations made

Forgot where it parked

Kearn Lacey and AI

AI writes haiku,

Poetry from a machine,

Beauty in code form.

Candice Washington

Amazon, my pal.

From A to Z, you and me.

Our friendship is Prime!

3’oclock pick-up.

I’m in a meeting right now.

She’ll have to walk home.

70 degrees!

A warm, Michigan Spring day.

Soon, there will be snow.

Joan Parish

Reading the paper

Gives me a panic attack

Skip to the comics!

Babe smiling so sweet

I smile in loving exchange

As she passes gas

Jennifer Prier

Rain is falling down.

Flowers are trying to bloom.

Begging for sunshine.

Bikinis are small.

Getting into shape is hard.

Screw it! Eat the cake!

The lake is calling.

Friends, drinks, and fun on the waves.

Jump in and get wet!

Peggy Esch

Slow moon in the East

Spent the night hopping over

My short house – now West!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Good morning, all! When I added the names of these submitters to my random prize wheel, I added each name once for every haiku. I was shocked when one winner had only one submission!

Today I have all the folks who submitted more than three haiku.

Jolie Lucas

Vacation is over.

I am tired, broke and sore. Still . . .

Re-entry is hard.

San Francisco fog.

Cable cars, Irish coffees.

My heart is still there.

Conference is done.

Brain is swimming with ideas.

Implement? We’ll see!

Politicians beg.

“Deadline looming, please send check!”

I am over taxed.

Seasons 1,2,4.

What happened in season 3?

DVR frustrates.

Petals on the ground.

Garden in abundant blooms.

While I was away.

Did you miss me, Pup?

So glad you want to go home.

We are still a pack.

Puppy, puppy, ow!

Please do not bite my fingers!

Where are the Band-Aids?

Michael Timmerman

The haiku police

Counting all the syllables

And stealing my soul

Oooh!! Punctuation!!

This is going to be fun!

Editor’s Corner.

Marked my new white socks

That will stop my lovely wife

From wearing them. Not.

[KC -Sandy Bottom Lake is a reference to many a haiku I received from Michael during the last contest.]

Four in already

Nary a reference to

Sandy Bottom Lake.

Sandy Bottom Lake

Late fishing is not allowed

Heron, please return!

Ah, simplicity

Life, and death, and life again

Sandy Bottom Lake

[KC – And Michael had Ron Fauset have a multi-year tradition of insulting each other.]

Five seven five

It’s not rocket science

Count again, Ron.

Please don’t let Fauset

Change just a couple of words

And claim mine as his.

Horrible noises

Steal my beautiful dreams

Dog is throwing up.

Mary Fleenor

Oysters create pearls

In an irritating way

Beauty from the pain

Sour as they can be

Pickles make me pucker hard

Then go back for more

Workday has ended

I happy-dance like Snoopy!

Wait, tomorrow, too?

Monday chit-chatting

Glad we are back to working

Said an alien

Waiting for a refund

So tired of the runaround

Maybe I’ll keep it

Spring air brings delights

Of daffodils and tulips

My heart rejoices

Of pollen I’m weary.

I breathes, therefore I sneezes.

Nasonex, save me!

Still water runs deep.

A moth on the surface rests.

Snap goes the trout. Lunch!

Scarlet, white, and black,

Pileated woodpecker

Wears a tuxedo.

Breathe in the morning

Birds wake and sing in the dawn

One more fine spring day

Sun warms my bare head

Working long in the garden

Where is my damn hat?

Jim Garman

Go learn PowerOn.

Reports to FM Perform,

It can do it all!

Need to get Data?

SymXchange can handle that.

Marc Poskey’s your guy!

Need to make a form?

Give PowerFrame Docs a try.

Start learning today!

I cannot recall.

I know your face, not your name

I’ll just call you "dude."

I see you there cat.

I just got up for a drink.

Get out of my seat!

Haiku just isn’t my schtick.

To 5-7-5 I can’t stick.

I like rhyming and guile

and my more verbose style

is much better suited to Limerick.

Rich Dunklee

Raindrops on green blades,

Lawnmowers now put to rest,

Sound of rain abounds.

Taco Tuesday’s here,

Crunchy shells and spicy fill,

Fiery fiesta.

Sleeping senior dog,

Office companion so wise,

Contented snoring.

Soft blooms fill the air,

Nature’s confetti dances,

Allergies awake.

Buzzing lawnmowers,

Summer’s symphony in green,

Nature’s haircut time.

Taco Tuesday’s here,

Crunchy shells and spicy meat,

Fiery fiesta.

Tearing across wakes,

Sun-kissed spray against my face,

Water skiing fun.

(AI assisted)

Machine mind so vast,

Crafting verse in seconds flat,

Haiku born of code.

Jane Gredvig

Academic’s Dating Profile

Turn-ons: people who

Understand the difference

‘Twixt their, there, and they’re.

Hobbies: I enjoy

Correcting signs with misplaced

Apostrophes—sheesh!

Turn-offs: unexplained

Acronyms, work jargon, and

Abbreviations.

Hill that I’ll die on:

Oxford (or series) comma

Should always be used

Work Life

Username. Password.

Authenticator. And the

Blood of your firstborn.

Checked: Keep me signed in.

So why do I need to log

In again this time?

Thank you again, everyone, for participating. It’s always a pleasure seeing what is going on with each of you through this art form.

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

We’ve been going through literary terms, and one of you asked me about Shakespearean phrases that have become adages (or sayings that often embody a common observation). These aren’t all necessarily adages, but they are phrases and words that Shakespeare has been given credit for. In honor of Shakespeare’s (likely) birthday on April 23, I have some of his more famous phrases for you. If you’d like more information, check out this webpage with the gross name: No Sweat Shakespeare.

§ all that glitters isn’t gold

§ all the world’s a stage

§ barefaced

§ be all and end all

§ break the ice

§ breathe one’s last

§ brevity is the soul of wit

§ catch a cold

§ clothes make the man

§ disgraceful conduct

§ dog will have his day

§ eat out of house and home

§ elbow room

§ fair play

§ fancy-free

§ flaming youth

§ foregone conclusion

§ frailty, thy name is woman

§ give the devil his due

§ green eyed monster

§ heart of gold

§ hot-blooded

§ it smells to heaven

§ it’s Greek to me

§ lackluster

§ leapfrog

§ live long day

§ long-haired

§ method in his madness

§ mind’s eye

§ ministering angel

§ more sinned against than sinning

§ naked truth

§ neither a borrower nor a lender be

§ one fell swoop

§ outrageous fortune

§ pitched battle

§ primrose path

§ strange bedfellows

§ the course of true love never did run smooth

§ the lady doth protest too much

§ the milk of human kindness

§ to thine own self be true

§ too much of a good thing

§ towering passion

§ wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve

§ witching time of the night

The world is certainly more interesting with these words and phrases in it! (Next time, I’ll share more of your haiku submissions.)

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JH style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

Did someone forward this email to you? Click here to subscribe.

Don’t want to get Editor’s Corner anymore? Click here to unsubscribe.

Do you have a question or an idea for Editor’s Corner? Send your suggestions or feedback to Kara and <a href="mailto:DBurcher.

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Good day to you!

I was watching a quiz show on TV the other evening, and I heard one of the celebrity guests tease another for incorrectly using the word choice rather than option. He had said something like “We don’t have any good choices,” when he should have said “We don’t have any good options.”

For many people, the two words are used interchangeably, but they’re not actually synonymous. Here’s the gist: out of the options we are given, we make a choice. Options are just possibilities, but choices are commitments.

Another way to look at it according to boringbug.com is this: “An option is a noun for a thing and a choice is a noun for your decision.”

This confusion is so widespread, however, that you may still be working this out, so I’ll provide some examples of correct usage:

• I don’t know what I want for dinner. What are my options?
• There are so many good options on the menu, it’s hard for me to make a choice.

• Marc was confused by all the options available to him at the used car lot.
• He eventually made the choice to buy an electric car.

• When deciding how to invest your money, you have many options.
• Your financial advisor can help you make choices about the best investments for you.

I hope that helps! You have the option to make today a wonderful day. I hope you make the right choice. Enjoy!

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry™

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

Pronouns she/her/hers

Symitar Documentation Services

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

Did someone forward this email to you? Click here to subscribe.

Don’t want to get Editor’s Corner anymore? Click here to unsubscribe.

Do you have a question or an idea for Editor’s Corner? Send your suggestions or feedback to Kara and <a href="mailto:DBurcher.

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Good morning!

Today is the day I announce the random winners of the haiku contest: Ben Ritter and Diana Fisher! Congratulations to the two of you. A book of your choice will be on its way to you soon. [Haiku Baby is on its way to Ben.
😊]

Ben, along with his submission, sent me an article about haiku called, “NaHaiWriMo – Why ‘No 5-7-5’?” It may seem contradictory to the haiku that most of you have written, but here is a brief excerpt explaining the haiku that we do versus the original haikuers—the Japanese.

You may have thought that haiku was supposed to be 5-7-5, so what’s up with the logo for National Haiku Writing Month—NaHaiWriMo?

Is haiku 5-7-5 or not? Well, yes and no. In Japanese, yes, haiku is indeed traditionally 5-7-5. But 5-7-5 what? In English and other languages, haiku has mistakenly been taught as having 5-7-5 syllables, but that’s not really accurate. You probably aren’t in the mood for a linguistics lecture that explains all the reasons why, but Japanese haiku counts sounds, not strictly syllables (the linguistic term is mora—Japanese is a moraic language, not a syllabic one).

For example, the word “haiku” itself counts as two syllables in English (hi-ku), but three sounds in Japanese (ha-i-ku). This isn’t how “haiku” is said in Japanese, but it is how its sounds are counted. Similarly, consider “Tokyo.” How many syllables? Most Westerners, thinking that Japan’s capital city is pronounced as “toe-key-oh,” will say three syllables, but that’s incorrect. It’s actually pronounced as “toe-kyo.” So two syllables, right? Actually, no. Rather, it counts as “toe-oh-kyo-oh”—four syllables. Or rather, sounds.

Feel free to read more at the link above, but for now, that is brief explanation of Japanese haiku, and an introduction to Ben’s winning haiku, written the night before his wedding:

bridesmaid

on the third day

of a juice fast

Ben Ritter

And now for Diana Fisher’s haiku, more traditional English-speaking haiku.

Beach

Fun in the sun

Cool waves running through my toes

Shark is at my feet

Cat

Cat on my desktop

What I do will aggravate

Step on the keyboard

Springtime

Birds in the treetops

Buds on trees flowers grow up

Bunny rabbits jump

Fate

Fate is to create

But my mind is full of paste

Life is just too hard

School

Get ready for school

Books are heavy, my brain’s full

Let’s go to the pool

Fruit

Pears can be so sweet

watermelon is a treat

Sour is the lemon

Thank you all for submitting your haiku! I will share the other submissions with you in the following Editor’s Corners.

Note: There were some submissions that were PG-13 that I am not publishing because of their political or religious content. It’s usually safer to avoid those subjects at work since they can be divisive.

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.