Editor's Corner

Way back in April, I received an email from one of our JHA technical writers. She was quite distraught because she couldn’t get away from people speaking in sentence fragments. Rather than getting right into sentence fragments, I thought maybe we should break up this discussion into a few pieces. Just like Maria and the Von Trapp Family, let’s start at the very beginning (since it’s a very good place to start).

Main Clause

A main clause (also called an independent clause) must contain the following:

· A subject

· A verb

· A complete thought

Examples:

· The Labrador caught the ball.
Labrador=subject; caught=verb

· Billy saw a truck crash into a utility box.
Billy=subject; saw=verb

· Bobo and Trixie have eaten all of their treats for today.
Bobo, Trixie=subjects; have eaten=verb

You may have noticed that these examples look like sentences; indeed, they are sentences. The rule behind a sentence is that it must contain at least one main clause.

Tomorrow, we will talk about what you have if your clause is missing one of those important items above (subject, verb, or complete thought).

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

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Reader Robert Trescott asked about words that require prefixes, like the word uncouth. Based on the un- prefix, it seems like couth should also be a word. But, Robert writes, "I’ve never seen an example like, ‘Miss Manners praised the reader for being so couth.’"

Uncouth is an "unpaired word": a word that, "according to the usual rules of the language, would appear to have a related word but does not" (thanks, Wikipedia).

If Miss Manners were to break decorum and call a reader uncouth, she would mean something like the following (from Merriam-Webster):

uncouth: awkward and uncultivated in appearance, manner, or behavior; rude

But uncouth also has an earlier (now archaic) definition:

uncouth: not known or not familiar to one; seldom experienced; uncommon, rare

Uncouth is a Middle English word. It comes from the prefix un- and the Old English word cth, meaning "familiar, known." Cth survives as the Scottish word couthie, meaning "pleasant, kindly, friendly."

Over the past 900 years, uncouth changed meaning from "not known or not familiar" to "strange or clumsy in shape or appearance," and then to "awkward and uncultivated." (The idea that unfamiliar things are peculiar or unrefined also underlies the various meanings of the word strange.)

Couth did not undergo such an evolution, but in 1896, it re-entered modern English (as a back-formation from uncouth):

couth: sophisticated, polished

Although couth is not very common these days, Miss Manners could use it to praise a reader (if only her readers were as sophisticated and polished as ours).

Thank you, Robert, for your question.

Ben Ritter | Technical Editor | Symitar
8985 Balboa Avenue | San Diego, CA 92123
619-682-3391 | or ext. 763391 | www.Symitar.com

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Dear Editrix,

When you visit California, the locals say “take the 405"; in Texas, it’s just "take 635." What’s the deal?

Dear Reader,

Good observation! I thought it was because we have so many freeways here and it is easier to say the numbers than the names. It seems that has a little bit to do with it, but in the following article, by Nathan Masters, he provides more information on this phenomenon. I hope this helps!

Editrix

The 5, the 101, the 405: Why Southern Californians Love Saying “the” Before Freeway Numbers

Southern Californians have a distinctive – "Saturday Night Live’s" Fred Armisen and Kristen Wiig might say funny – way of giving directions. To get from Santa Monica to Hollywood, take the 10 to the 110 to the 101. Burbank to San Diego? The 134 to the 5. And, if you can, always avoid the 405.

Why the definite articles? After all, a resident of the Bay Area enjoys coastal drives along "101" or takes "80 east" to Sacramento. Most of North America, in fact, omits the "the" before route numbers.

The answer begins with the region’s early embrace of the freeway. Long before the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956 gave most U.S. cities their first freeways, Los Angeles had built several. These weren’t simply extensions of federal interstate highways through the city; they were local routes, engineered to carry local traffic and (partly) paid for by local funds. It only made sense that, as they opened one by one, they’d get local names, ones that succinctly denoted their route or destination. The freeway through the Cahuenga Pass thus became the Cahuenga Pass Freeway, and Angelenos knew the freeway to San Bernardino as the San Bernardino Freeway.

State highway officials did affix route numbers to these freeways. But clarity dictated that Southern Californians continue to use their descriptive names. In their early years, most Los Angeles-area freeways bore signs for multiple numbered highway routes. The Pasadena Freeway, for example, was Route 6, 66, and 99, all at once. The Harbor Freeway carried both Route 6 and Route 11. The Hollywood, Route 66 and 101. Who wouldn’t prefer the simplicity of a name over a confusing array of numbers?

Soon a shorthand emerged for describing a route through the city. Joan Didion captured this Southern California vernacular in "Play It As It Lays" (1970), in which Maria "drove the San Diego to the Harbor, the Harbor up to the Hollywood, the Hollywood to the Golden State, the Santa Monica, the Santa Ana, the Pasadena, the Ventura."

How, then, did that morph into "the 405 to the 110, the 110 up to the 101, the 101 to the 5, the 10, the 5, the 110, the 134"?

Two developments convinced Southern Californians to refer to freeways by number rather than name. In 1964, the state simplified its highway numbering system, ensuring that, with few exceptions, each freeway would bear only one route number. Around the same time, a flurry of new construction added unfamiliar freeway names to the region’s road maps. Drivers found it easier to learn new numbers like the 605 or the 91 rather than new names like the San Gabriel River Freeway or the Redondo Beach Freeway.

Although the transition was gradual – numbers only eclipsed names in common usage in the late 1970s, and Caltrans still included the old names in signage through the 1990s – Southern Californians eventually joined the rest of North America in referring to freeways by number. But when they did, they retained their old habit of prefixing a definite article, the, giving rise to a regional idiom that still confounds and amuses outsiders today.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Most people don’t have a lot of time to read their emails. If they open an email to find several long paragraphs, they probably won’t do more than skim the email, which means they could miss important information.

You may not realize it, but writing is visual. According to William Zinsser, in his book On Writing Well, writing “…catches the eye before it catches the brain. Short paragraphs put air around what you write and make it look inviting, whereas a long chunk of type can discourage a reader from even starting to read” (Zinsser 1998, 80).

Consider how different Aesop’s Fable, “The Lion and the Mouse,” looks when I “put air around” the text. The columns contain exactly the same information, but the information on the right is much more inviting.

This tip is important for emails but also for technical and professional writing. Keep your audience’s attention by keeping your paragraphs short and to the point.

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.278.0432 | Extension: 765432

Symitar Technical Publications Writing and Editing Requests

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A big “thank you” to Ron Fauset for supplying me with articles from the San Diego Union-Tribune so that I can enjoy them and be a little lazy now and then. Today’s article is by Richard Lederer and it’s about slang and idiomatic phrases from the word buffalo.

Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo is a possible sen­tence, and it raises the question why buffalo has become a verb denoting “to confuse, frustrate, intimidate.” The answer is that, despite the slaughter of tens of millions in the United States, the animal is hard to kill individually. Buffalo are swift, tough and belligerent. The vogue meaning of buff as “well built, muscular, hunky” reflects buffalo, an image of rugged strength.

Products made from buffalo were plentiful in the 19th century, including strips of buffalo hide that were used to bring metals such as silver to a high polish. That’s where we get the verb to buff. Firemen wore buffalo robes as their winter gear. Because these buffcoats were the color of human Caucasian skin, in the buff arose as a synonym for “naked.”

Dandies who had nothing better to do than to rush to fires and watch the burning emulated the firefighters by donning the same buffcoats, as they were called. These men became known as buffs, and, by extension, a buff is anyone avidly devoted to a pursuit or hobby.

To read the remainder of this article and to take Mr. Lederer’s quiz on animal verbs, click here.

Confused by Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo as a sentence? Maybe it should also include Mark Ruffalo? No, I’m kidding. Here’s an approximate “translation” for you: Buffalos (or buffaloes, or buffalo—all three are appropriate versions of the plural form for buffalo) from Buffalo, New York frustrate and intimidate other buffalos from Buffalo, New York.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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As I’m sure you can tell, I am very much enjoying my new book But Can I Start a Sentence with “But”? Advice from the Chicago Manual of Style Q&A. Here’s an item that usually comes up closer to the winter holidays, since that’s when people usually send out tons of greeting cards. This one is from close to home.

Q. I have a disagreement with a coworker about how to alphabetize street names with foreign words in them. I live in San Diego, so there are a lot of Spanish street names. I, for example, would file Via Hacienda under V. She argues that because Via means “Street,” it should be under H instead. She reasons that if it were House Street, we would file it under H. My argument is that since we are not speaking Spanish, we should follow standard English alphabetizing rules.

A.You are right; there could be any number of foreign-language terms among the street names in San Diego, and unless all readers knew all the languages, the list would be useless. You can see the city government of San Francisco puts Via Bufano under V in its street guide (https://data.sfgov.org/, under Geographic Locations and Boundaries: Street Names). Another solution is to list such names in both locations, or to put in blind entries:

Via Hacienda. See Hacienda, Via
or
Hacienda, Via. See Via Hacienda

Note: This advice is similar to the advice that CMOS gives on the plural version of lots of words we learned different endings for when we were younger. For example, more than one appendix used to be the “appendices” and more than one index was referred to as the “indices.” CMOS, instead, recommends appendixes and indexes, so that we are following English rules for plurals rather than Latin rules.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Good morning! Recently, a friend asked me to explain the difference between each and every. I have to admit, this one wasn’t easy for me to put into simple, everyday language, but I think I’ve got it. So, sit down, pull your socks up, and let’s go.

Use each when you’re talking about a group of things or people, but you want to consider the things or people individually. Each expresses the idea of one by one.

Example: The president spoke to each of the soldiers.

In the sentence above, we are talking about a group (of soldiers) but we want to emphasize that the president spoke to each of them individually, one by one.

Use every when you are referring to a group that is lumped together as one. You regard the group as a whole (not as individuals).

Example: Every enlisted person deserves our respect.

In the sentence above, we are still referring a group, but we are referring to them in general, not individually.

Is this a minor distinction? Yes.

Do most people use these words interchangeably? Yes.

Wouldn’t you like to rise above the masses?

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.278.0432 | Ext: 765432

A couple of days ago, I sent an article about garbage and differences in regional word choices. Here is an article on other regional word choices you may find, followed by a link to one of my favorite sets of “language maps.” First, from Richard Lederer:

…One aspect of American rugged individualism is that not all of us say the same word in the same way. Sometimes we don’t even use the same name for the same object.

I was born and grew up in Philadelphia a coon’s age, a blue moon and a month of Sundays ago—when Hector was a pup. Phillufia, or Philly, which is what we kids called the city, was where the epicurean delight made with cold cuts, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and onions stuffed into a long, hard crusted Italian bread loaf sliced lengthwise was invented.

The creation of that sandwich took place in the Italian pushcart section of the city, known as Hog Island. Some linguists contend that it was but a short leap from Hog Island to hoagie, while others claim that the label hoagie arose because only a hog had the appetite or the technique to eat one properly.

As a young adult I moved to northern New England (N’Hampsha, to be specific), where the same sandwich designed to be a meal in itself is called a grinder—because you need a good set of grinders to chew them. But my travels around the United States have revealed that the hoagie or grinder is called at least a dozen other names—a bomber, Garibaldi (after the Italian liberator), hero, Italian sandwich, rocket, sub, submarine (which is what we call it here in California), torpedo, wedge, wedgie, zep and, in the deep South, a poor-boy (usually pronounced poh-boy). [KC – I don’t know what a wedgie is in your neck of the woods, but here on the West Coast, a wedgie is something very different from a sandwich!]

In Phillufia, we washed our hoagies down with soda. In New England, we did it with tonic, and by that word I don’t mean medicine. Soda and tonic in other parts are known as pop, soda pop, a soft drink, Coke and quinine.

In northern New England, they take the term milk shake quite literally. To many residing in that little corner of the country, a milk shake consists of milk mixed with flavored syrup—and nothing more—shaken up until foamy. If you live in Rhode Island or in southern Massachusetts and you want ice cream in your milk drink, you ask for a cabinet (named after the square wooden cabinet in which the mixer was encased). If you live farther north, you order a velvet or a frappe (from the French frapper, “to ice”).

For the remainder of Mr. Lederer’s article, click here.

For the language maps, click here.

On a side note, if you are interested in learning a little bit about working with Word, I’m presenting a 60-Minute University class on Thursday, July 28 called: What You Need to Know About MS Word Templates, Track Changes, TOCs, and More. I’ll be focusing on the items in the title and more. Generally, these are Symitar lunchtime classes, but if you want to attend via WebEx, you can.

Here’s some additional information if you are interested:

Time: 11:30-12:30 PT
Location: San Diego, C-124

If you would like to attend a session onsite or via WebEx, register on the LMS (search for 60 minute) or visit the 60-Minute University SharePoint site where you’ll find links to register for sessions, recordings from past sessions, and a link to suggest a 60-Minute University session that you would love to attend (or present).

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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The words faze and phase are often confused because they are homophones (words that sound alike but have different meanings and different spellings). Here is the difference between these two words.

Merriam-Webster defines faze this way: to disturb the composure of

Examples:

· Your criticism does not faze me.

· Although the equipment in the classroom was not functioning properly, the instructor was unfazed and continued with the lesson.

The word phase means:

· a part or step in a process : one part in a series of related action

· a short period of time which a person behaves in a particular way or likes a particular thing

· the shape of the part of the moon that is visible at different times during a month

Examples:

· This phase of the project will focus on coding modifications.

· I’m so glad you grew out of your Michael Jackson phase and stopped wearing that glove with sequins to work.

· A new moon phase occurs when the moon is positioned between the earth and sun.

Here’s a way to remember the difference, courtesy of Vocabulary.com:

“To keep them straight: something that fazes or bothers you might make you want to fight, but please pass through your princess phase as soon as possible.”

Jackie Solano | Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.542.6711 | Extension: 766711

Symitar Documentation Services

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Yesterday, I included a sign from our photo contest, and a couple of people responded that the sign made complete sense to them because garbage and trash are different things.

I’d never heard this—I call all of my refuse “garbage”—and thought that maybe it is a difference depending on the area of the U.S. that we’re from. It turns out that there’s all sorts of information on rubbish out there!

Here’s part of a table I found on a website called Speakspeak:

I was still a bit uncertain about the difference between trash and garbage, so I thought I’d see if there are regional differences in the words we use. I didn’t find anything on that exact topic, but I did find this map that shows the regional differences between the use of trash can and garbage can.

I guess it makes sense that I say garbage, since I grew up in Washington state. Does this make sense according to the terms you use and where you’re from? I hope so!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services