Editor's Corner

Today I want to talk about when to use the word where and when to use the word which. Let’s just jump right into a couple of examples, so you know what I’m talking about.

· Episys® presents a dialog box where you can choose to use the standard or deluxe PowerOn® editor.

· Join us for this session where we use business cases to show you better ways to access and use data with different tools, including Excel®.

The two sentences above may seem fine to you, and that’s because you may hear people speak this way. However, in professional circles, this kind of writing is considered too conversational. Typically, the word where denotes a physical location, so the preferred, professional choice is which. A suggested revision for the first example would be:

· Episys presents a dialog box at which you can choose to use the standard or deluxe PowerOn editor.

If that seems too stuffy (and I would say that it does), you can always revise the sentence further:

· When the dialog box appears, choose the standard or deluxe PowerOn editor.

Now, here’s a suggestion for how to revise the second example from above:

· Join us for this session in which we use business cases to show you better ways to access and use data with different tools, including Excel.

That sentence is OK, but it could be even better. Here’s a smoother option:

· During this session, we will use business cases to show you better ways to access and use data with different tools, including Excel®.

Yeah, that’s more like it! As you can see, it often takes more than one attempt to come up with a sentence that is both professional and succinct. Take the time. Your audience will appreciate it!

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

Good morning, all! I received another request from the audience to explain the difference between the word “apart” and the two words “a part.” Today we’ll have a look at the definitions so you know which one to use when the time comes.

apart: Apart is an adverb, which implies separation.

Examples:

· My cousin and Joe were split apart after trying to punch each other.

· The twins were raised apart from each other to prove whether certain traits were more representative of nature or nurture.

· I tore apart the packaging trying to get to my new accordion.

a part: A is an article, which in this case means one. Part is a noun that means a piece of something.

Examples:

· As a part of this team, we expect you to attend meetings on the weekend.

· He is playing a part in the play—I believe it’s Nick Carraway.

· I live in a part of the house that is cold and damp.

ape art: Art created by a member of the primate family.

Kanzi the bonobo and his ape art

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday commemorating the fifth-century Christian missionary and patron saint of Ireland.

Gaelic (also called Irish Gaelic or simply Irish) is the national language of the Republic of Ireland and an officially recognized language in Northern Ireland. Irish Gaelic has about 40,00080,000 native speakers. Scottish Gaelic, which shares a linguistic ancestor, has about 57,000 speakers.

Although Gaelic is not widely spoken today, English has borrowed several words from Gaelic. Here are six you may already know:

• banshee: a female spirit in Gaelic folklore (from bean-sth, woman of fairyland)
• galore: abundant, plentiful (from go leor, enough)
• slew: a large number (from sluagh)
• slob: a slovenly or boorish person (from slab, mud, ooze)
• slogan: a brief attention-getting phrase (from sluagh-ghairm, army cry)
• whiskey: a liquor distilled from fermented wort (from uisce beatha, water of life)

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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Kara is enjoying a well-deserved day off today, but she left you the gift of this Editor’s Corner.

Hello all,

Today is part two of your apostrophe lesson from Daily Writing Tips. Enjoy!

Apostrophe Errors to Avoid (continued)

7. With a Span of Years
Some publications persist in using an apostrophe in a reference to a span of years, but that form is outdated: Write, for example, “The style, which flourished briefly in the 1960s, made a comeback several decades later” (not 1960’s) and “He continued to work well into his 70s” (not 70’s).

Generally, an apostrophe should follow a number only if it is possessive (“It was 1985’s longest-reigning Top 40 hit”), though this style is awkward. (An exception is use of a number to stand in for a person, such as when an athlete is identified by a uniform number, as in “It was number 13’s lucky day.”)

8. With the Plural Form of a Word Used as a Word
Don’t apostrophize the conjunctions in “There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it” or the counterpoints in “A helpful list of dos and don’ts follows.” (Do, however, retain the intrinsic apostrophe in the plural form of don’t.)

9. With the Plural Form of a Letter Used as a Letter
Even when a letter is italicized, it still looks awkward to simply place an s next to it to indicate plurality, so do insert an apostrophe: “How many m’s do you spell hmm with?” (Follow this rule even when, in the case of an expression such as “Mind your p’s and q’s,” italicization isn’t necessary.) However, omit an apostrophe when pluralizing capital letters: “She received only As and Bs on her last report card.” [KC – Here we would still use an apostrophe after the vowels so that they aren’t confused with actual
words, such as As or Is.]

10. With Brand Names
Many brand names, such as Starbucks Coffee, that technically should include apostrophes don’t, for one of two reasons (or both): A company decides that the brand name and/or logo look better without an apostrophe, or it reasons that it’s better to omit the punctuation mark so that people typing the URL for the company’s website into a web browser or searching for it (or for other references to the company) online won’t have difficulty doing so. Yes, “Starbucks Coffee” is a “mistake,” but one the company has the right to make (and writers and editors have an obligation to honor). [KC – Even though most editors I know would rather have it written correctly than get a free cup of coffee for editing it incorrectly.]

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Good morning, folks!

I still see a lot of apostrophe problems in documents I receive and it pains me…mostly because I can tell that you are trying really hard to do things correctly. It’s almost as if some rules flip-flopped as they crossed through your brain; I know it’s happened to me.

Here is the first part of an article from Daily Writing Tips to help everyone with apostrophes.

Apostrophe Errors to Avoid

1. With Plurals
Writing the plural form of a noun in which an apostrophe precedes the plural s, such as when taxi’s is written instead if taxis, is a common error. (This mistake is known as a greengrocer’s apostrophe due to its ubiquity in hand-written—and even printed—store signs.)

2. With Pronouns
Pronouns are followed by an apostrophe and s only as contractions (for example, he’s). Possessive pronouns (such as theirs and yours) never include an apostrophe.

3. With Shared Possession
When two or more people or other entities are described as separately owning something, each name should be in possessive form: “John’s and Jane’s houses are the same color.” But when they share possession, include an apostrophe and an s after the last name only: “John and Jane’s house is just down the block.”

4. With the Possessive Form of a Surname
That shingle on your neighbor’s porch should not read, “The Brown’s house,” unless your neighbor’s legal name is “the Brown.” A sign identifying the residence of the Browns should read “The Browns’ house” (or simply “The Browns”).

5. With the Plural Form of an Abbreviation
No apostrophe is required with plurals of abbreviations. Write, for example, “They disarmed or detonated several IEDs” (not IED’s).

6. With the Plural Form of a Numeral
In the rare case of indicating more than one instance of a numeral, do not use an apostrophe: “Write three 7s on a piece of paper” (not 7’s).

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Good morning! I’m back from my vacation, and I’m all rested up.

Today I want to talk to you about gerunds. What’s a gerund, you ask? Well, it’s not a relative of the furry little gerbil or a member of the geranium family. A gerund is a word, specifically a noun, that ends in –ing.

Gerunds can be confusing because they look and sound like verbs, and they are action-oriented, but they serve as nouns. And they can serve as either the subject or the object of the sentence.

Here are a couple of examples:

· Dancing is fun.

o Gerund = dancing (subject)

o Verb = is

· I enjoy reading.

o Gerund = reading (object)

o Verb = enjoy

To refresh your memory, a subject is who or what the sentence is about. You could say that the subject does the action. An object, on the other hand, receive the action.

Here are some examples of gerunds as subjects:

· Swimming is good exercise.

· Drinking and driving is against the law.

Here are some examples as gerunds as objects. These gerunds tell you something about the subject of the sentence:

· He prefers walking his dog before daylight.

· The quilters do not like listening to heavy metal while they sew.

If you’re not done with gerunds yet, watch this video (it’s about four minutes long). I feel like I should warn you that the narrator’s voice is kind of annoying—but I’d also say that about my voice if I narrated it: http://www.elementalenglish.com/ing-action-words-gerunds/.

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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One of you asked me about words ending in “ure” (such as mature, picture, manure, etc.) and why the ending isn’t necessarily pronounced the same way, even when we are talking about two people saying the same word. In particular, we are looking at the pronunciation of “mature” (məˈCHo͝or vs məˈto͝or). I thought I’d share this answer with you from a website called Quora. It contains several linguistic terms, but I think most of us will get the gist of it.

Why are there two ways to pronounce mature?

They probably don’t say "matoor." They probably say "matyuer," which is the older and more formal pronunciation of "mature." It’s an affectation to the extent that the younger generation doesn’t talk this way normally, but it’s not very surprising that narrators and newscasters speak more formally and make more phonemic distinctions than people do in everyday life.

"Machoor" arises through a phonological process called yod-coalescence, which is common in informal varieties of English. It involves the palatalization and affrication of a preceding coronal consonant. It’s the same process that turns "Did you eat yet?" into "Did jou ea’ chet?" and the London "Tube" into the London "Chube." In American English, it’s considered perfectly standard in unstressed syllables, but gets more iffy in stressed syllables. The word "mature" is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, so it’s an example of a word where the older generations disallowed yod-coalescence, while the younger generations expect it.

In American English, yod-coalescence only occurs in the middle of a phonological word, because elsewhere, the glide is deleted instead.

I think I’m going to create a new word based on yod-coalescence and call it yodel-coalescence, which is the glide of Maria’s voice while singing “The Lonely Goatherd.” Happy weekend!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Hello!

Jackie’s out today, but she’s sent me this message and quiz to pass along to you. It contains a lot of topics we’ve written about in the past…good luck!

*******************************

Good morning! Let’s have some fun today. Here’s another quiz for you. Let’s see who’s been paying attention to Editor’s Corner.

Jackie

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The other day, one of you mentioned the frequency with which you were seeing people use the phrase “soft-peddle” intending to mean “de-emphasize.” If you look at that closely and really think about what peddle means, that is actually referring to “soft selling” something. Here are the three pedal/peddle/petal homophones (from the Grammarist), some common idiomatic phrases (from the Free Dictionary), and a link to an article on this topic from Oxford English Dictionaries.

Definitions:

§ Pedal always relates to bicycles, pianos, organs, boats, looms, sewing machines, and other machines. The pedals are the foot-operated components. The word also functions as a verb meaning to operate pedals. Its participles are pedaled and pedaling in American English. Outside the U.S., they are pedalled and pedalling.

§ Peddle is a verb meaning to sell or to travel about selling goods. It often refers to the sale of illicit goods.

§ And petal is easy. It is always a noun referring to one of the colored parts of a flower surrounding the reproductive organs.

Idiomatic Phrases:

§ (put) the pedal to the metal

To make something go forward or increase as fast as possible.

Ingrid put the pedal to the metal and finished writing her essay a day early.

§ back-pedal

To quickly and often abruptly reverse or retreat from one’s position or opinion on a given subject. Refers to pedaling backwards on a bicycle (done to apply the brakes on fixed-gear bikes), or to taking quick, backward steps, as in football or boxing.

The actor had to back-pedal when he let slip a racist remark during the press conference.

§ soft-pedal something

To play something down; to de-emphasize something. (Alludes to the soft pedal on the piano, which reduces the volume.)

Try to soft-pedal the problems we have with the cooling system. I won’t soft-pedal anything. Everyone must know the truth.

Link:

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/07/pedal-or-peddle/

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Thanks to Ron Fauset for passing this article along to me, especially since I didn’t get my Sunday newspaper last week. Today’s grammar topic, the word only, is a subject that distresses many people—including me. I’ve read articles and essays on it and I have yet to find the perfect one to share with you. Until then, I will give you this piece from Richard Lederer, which offers an entertaining and informative view on the modifier only.

From Answers to Your One and Only Grammar Questions, in the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Dear Mr. Lederer: My complaint is about the oft misused word only. My late high school English teacher must ache in her grave about its misuse today versus what she taught us back in the 1940s. Would you please offer a definitive statement on the correct use of only? — Richard Jones

The placement of the modifier only is one of the trickiest procedures in English usage. The most famous example of its vagaries is the song title “I Only Have Eyes for You.” Formalists argue that the only is mislocated in this title and that the statement misleadingly implies “I have eyes— but no ears, noses or mouths— for you,” rather than “I have eyes for you— and nobody else but you.” They insist that only— like hardly, nearly, almost, scarcely, even and just— must appear right before the word modified, as in “I Have Eyes for Only You.”

In reality no intelligent listener or reader would misinterpret the song line “I only have eyes for you.” When only comes early in such a statement, the listener or reader is forewarned that the qualifier may be attached to almost any word that follows, and it is usually clear what that word is, as in this three-liner joke: Have you read the news that the government has decided to stop deporting unauthorized immigrants? Instead, they’re going to start deporting senior citizens. Turns out we’re easier to catch. They’ll only have to build a wall three-feet high. And we’re senior citizens, so we won’t remember how to find our way back home anyway.

I submit that, in the paragraph above, “They’ll only have to build a wall three-feet high,” with its “misplaced” only, is more effective than “They’ll have to build a wall only three-feet high.” In general, though, when equally natural placements of the modifier only are available, a writer should put the adjective or adverb immediately before the noun or verb it modifies. For example, after hearing or reading the sentence “He only died yesterday,” a listener or reader might well ask, “’Only died’? What could be worse?” Relocating the only to read “He died only yesterday” makes life easier for your listeners and readers.

So what’s the solution? God only knows. Or should that be “Only God knows”?

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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