Editor's Corner

Someone asked me yesterday about how those “in the know” decide what to call us city-dwellers (such as Seattleites or San Diegans). I can’t find any specific rule about how these names developed, but I did write an article about them a couple of years ago and referred to them as demonyms. (Click the link to read why.)

Rod L. Evans, Ph.D. refers to them as domunyms in his book Tyrannosaurus Lex: The Marvelous Book of Palindromes, Anagrams, & Other Delightful & Outrageous Wordplay (pp.195-197). Here is a selection from his book:

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Dearest readers,

Yesterday I told you a little bit about my Washington vacation, and one of you Washingtonians asked me about the meaning and origin of the word bumbershoot.

As the Eskimos have many words for snow, Seattleites have several words for umbrella. According to Merriam-Webster, bumbershoot originated around 1896 from “bumber- (alteration of umbr- in umbrella) + -shoot (alteration of -chute in parachute).” It is also the name of the festival at the Seattle Center, usually around Labor Day (Bumbershoot 2015).

While looking up bumbershoot, I also noticed that Merriam-Webster provided words that rhyme with it, including bandicoot. A bandicoot is a large rat-like animal from Australia or Asia.

Eastern Barred Bandicoot

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Hello folks!

I just returned from a brief visit to the Pacific Northwest to spend some time with my family. As I pondered topics for today, I thought I’d find an answer to a question I had while up there. My mom, brother, and I spent one of our days doing a 10-mile hike on the beach to the Dungeness Spit.

Here is my question: Why is such a pretty place named after saliva or something you put a goat on during Orthodox Easter?

According to Merriam-Webster, a spit is “a small point of land commonly consisting of sand or gravel deposited by waves and currents and running into a body of water.” Okay, but that isn’t enough for me. What is the background of the word?

Hopping to the Online Etymology Dictionary, I found that the land mass and the roasting stake share the same etymology:

spit (noun): "sharp-pointed rod for roasting meat," late Old English spitu "a spit," from Proto-Germanic *spituz (cognates: Middle Dutch and Dutch spit, Swedish spett (which perhaps is from Low German), Old High German spiz, German Spieß "roasting spit," German spitz "pointed"), from PIE *spei- "sharp point" (see spike). This is also the source of the word meaning "sandy point" (1670s).

Here is the Dungeness Spit. With the Olympic mountain range behind us and the little town of Sequim nearby, it isn’t terribly pointy, but it sure is pretty.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Recently, Kara gave a great presentation called What You Need to Know about Common Grammatical Errors. During the Q&A, someone asked, “How do I know when to use a colon and when to use a semicolon?” Today, I’m going to answer that question. I won’t give you all the rules for colons and semicolons, just the main rule that differentiates the two.

· Use a semicolon to separate two complete sentences.

Example: On Friday, she went out with a man she met on Match.com; on Saturday, she closed her Match.com account.

Note: Use a semicolon rather than a period to separate two complete sentences when the sentences are closely related. (We use semicolons in our documentation, but not frequently.)

· Use a colon to separate a complete sentence from an item or a list that illustrates or amplifies the sentence. (A colon generally means “as follows.”)

Example: The man had only three topics of conversation: his cat, his collection of horror movie paraphernalia, and his mother.

Note: The text that comes before the colon must always be a complete sentence. The text that comes after the colon provides further explanation and does not have to be a complete sentence.

Make the best of the rest of your day.

Donna Bradley Burcher | Technical Editor, Adv. | 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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Welcome back from the weekend. I hope yours was as good as mine.

Today’s language tip is about tense. A few people have asked the editors to explain the correct way to talk about a job or process that has already taken place. The question is “Has the job ran or has the job run?”

Let’s start with this simple fact: the three standard forms of the verb to run are:

· run (present tense)

· ran (past tense)

· have run (present perfect tense)

Now, let’s concentrate on the one that causes trouble: have run.

So, which of these two sentences do you think is correct?

· Make sure that you have already run Daily Posting.

· Make sure that you have already ran Daily Posting.

If you’re still not sure, maybe it will be more clear if we move the word already, like this:

· Make sure that you have run Daily Posting already.

· Make sure that you have ran Daily Posting already.

Recall the simple fact we started with—the standard forms of the verb to run are run, ran, and have run—and you might be able to deduce that the correct answers are:

· Make sure that you have already run Daily Posting.

· Make sure that you have run Daily Posting already.

Tip: We use the perfect tense—and specifically the present perfect tense (have run)—to talk about things that occur at vague times in the past.

Joke: The past, the present, and the future walk into a bar. It was tense.

Donna Bradley Burcher | Technical Editor, Adv. | 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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It’s Friday fun-day at the Editor’s Corner. And I have a new word (at least it’s new to me) to introduce to you. The word is semordnilap.

As you already know, when a word is spelled the same way forward and backward, it is called a palindrome (for example, mom, rotator, and racecar). However, when a word that is spelled backward reveals another word (for example, maps spelled backward becomes spam), that word is called a semordnilap (which is palindromes spelled backward).

For your Friday viewing pleasure, here is a partial list of semordnilaps:

Information about semordnilaps and the list above come from Rod L. Evans’ book Tyrannosaurus Lex: The Marvelous Book of Palindromes, Anagrams, & Other Delightful & Outrageous Wordplay.

Enjoy the rest of your day and the upcoming weekend, my friends!

Donna Bradley Burcher | Technical Editor, Adv. | Symitar®

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

Symitar Technical Publications Writing and Editing Requests

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
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Yesterday, we learned to capitalize the word Earth when it is used like a name. We also learned to lowercase earth if it is preceded by the (such as, “The earth is the densest planet in our solar system”). Today, we’ll get some quality time with the moon.

According to the Chicago Manual of Style, the word moon should be lowercase unless you write for a publication in the field of astronomy or a related science. Unless you’re paid to think about space, give that moon the lowercase.

Examples:

· When the moon is full, the whole village goes for a walk.

· Earth has one moon, Saturn has many moons, and the Death Star is no moon.

Thanks,

Laura Bowers | Technical Writer | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. l San Diego, CA 92123-1507

619.542.6935 l or Ext. 766935

Symitar Documentation Services

It’s Earth Day, but should we talk about the Earth… or the earth? Today’s Editor’s Corner will help you write confidently about your favorite home planet.

Capitalization rules can vary between style guides, but at Symitar, we follow the Chicago Manual of Style. Here’s what it has to say:

In nontechnical contexts the word earth, in the sense of our planet, is usually lowercased when preceded by the or in such idioms as “down to earth” or “move heaven and earth.”

In other words, the word earth should usually be lowercased if the is in front of it. For example, you could say, “The earth is full of renewable resources.” You should also lowercase earth when you use earth in a figure of speech such as, “What on earth has gotten into that kazoo player?”

When used as the proper name of our planet, especially in context with other planets, it is capitalized, and the is usually omitted.

In other words, capitalize Earth when you use it like any other proper name. For example, you might say, “Space debris orbits Earth” or “Earth is similar in size to Venus.” You would never put the in front of a proper name unless your name is Dwayne Johnson.

Another approach is to see if you can replace the word Earth with world. If world makes sense, lowercase earth.

Happy Earth Day!

Thanks,

Laura Bowers | Technical Writer | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. l San Diego, CA 92123-1507

619.542.6935 l or Ext. 766935

Symitar Documentation Services

Hello folks! Over the next week, my dear fellow-editors will be taking over Editor’s Corner. Donna, Jackie, and Laura have some verbal delights and nifty nuggets that are sure to please you!

A few questions came in about numbers this week. Here are the questions and answers for you.

· Question: What is the proper way to write third party? 3rd party? Third-party? One party to the right of the second party?

· Answer: It depends how you are using the word.

o First, don’t use the ordinal—spell out third.

o Second, if you are using the entire term third-party as an adjective, it is hyphenated:

§ Third-party software

§ Third-party interface

o Third, when you are using the adjective third to modify the noun party, then it is not hyphenated:

§ A third party was involved to mediate between the two sides.

§ That was the third party I went to Saturday night.

· Question: Which way should the single quote mark be facing when using it before the abbreviation of a decade?

· Answer: It should actually be an apostrophe, but if you aren’t careful, Word will “fix” it for you and turn it into a single, opening quote mark. So, it should look like it does below, not like yesterday’s email.

o In the ’70s and early ’80s, I rocked several pairs of gauchos and corduroy OshKoshes®.

There’s one more question, but it is a bit more involved, so I’ll save it for another day.

Gauchos a-go-go!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

I hope you all enjoyed the weekend! Today I continue with tips on using numbers in your writing.

Rule #6

When writing out a number of three or more digits, the word and is not necessary. However, use the word and to express any decimal points that may accompany these numbers.

Examples:
two thousand four hundred twenty-five dollars
two thousand four hundred twenty-five dollarsandsixty-two cents

Rule #7:

When writing out a date, do not use ordinals. They aren’t necessary and they tend to cause formatting trouble if you have Microsoft® Word set up to insert them automatically.

Examples:
June 30, 1934 (no -th necessary)
Fourth of July (or Independence Day)

Rule #8:

When spelling out decades, do not capitalize them.

Example: During the eighties and nineties, the U.S. economy grew.

Bonus Round: If you are using numerals instead of words to talk about decades, the apostrophe goes before the numerals and you do not use an apostrophe before the “s.”

Examples:
I have always had straight hair, except in the ‘80s when I lost my sense and got a perm.
The outfits from the ‘50s and ‘60s still make popular Halloween costumes.

Spinal Tap: This one goes to eleven.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services