Editor's Corner

I have more number rules for you, but it is Friday. Friday is a day to relax a little and start easing into the weekend. Plus, I have a new book of mondegreens (misheard song lyrics, for those of you new to the Editor’s Corner). I still have some from the last contest, too.

Today’s mondegreens are from our favorite collector, Charles Grosvenor Jr., and his book Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Good morning! Thanks to those of you who sat in on my 60-Minute University presentation yesterday. My apologies for the horrible sound during the video.

Today we continue with how to handle numbers in writing. In case you missed yesterday’s items, they are here: https://episystechpubs.com/2015/04/15/editors-corner-i-am-a-number/.

Rule 4: Use commas in figures with four or more digits.

Starting from the far right of the number and excluding decimal points, place commas as follows:

· At the Home Depot grand opening, over 3,500 people passed through the doors and collected a free screwdriver.

· The United States debt currently stands at $16,787,451,118,147.46.

Rule 5: When writing time, use noon and midnight instead of 12:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. to avoid confusion.

Note: According to JHA standards, when we write time, use the numerals and follow them with a.m. or p.m. This format is preferred over AM/PM and A.M./P.M.

· Class starts at 8:00 a.m.

· The WebEx meeting begins at 11:30 a.m. and ends at 12:30 p.m.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Over the next few days I’m going to cover some general rules for using numbers in your writing. As I mentioned before, this can be a tricky subject. I will do my best to give you the general rules and the rules we use here at JHA. Follow them and you should be in good shape!

Rule 1: Spell out numbers zero to nine; use numerals for numbers 10 and above.

Examples:

· Dino has three breadsticks and four pieces of focaccia bread.

· Tamara swam 60 laps yesterday and plans on swimming 70 laps today.

Exception: If you’re mixing numbers under and over 10, but you are counting the same unit, you should either spell them out or write digits, not both:

· I have two birds, Lucy has three birds, and Rosco has twelve birds!

· I was expecting 8 people for lunch, but 13 people came.

Rule 2: Spell out numbers at the beginning of a sentence.

Example:

· Fifteen hundred people attended the Potatopalooza, where famous faces were supposedly seen in potato chips.

Rule 3: Hyphens

· Hyphenate compound numbers from twenty-one through ninety-nine.

Examples:

· Forty-five people dressed as Superman at San Diego Comic-Con.

· Thirty-seven of the people dressed as Superman should have worn bigger capes.

· Hyphenate fractions that are written out in prose.

Examples:

· They asked that we donate one-tenth of our paycheck to the hurricane victims.

· Joey ate three-fourths of the chocolate cake.

P.S. For those of you who were curious about yesterday’s photo, it was taken in South Pittsburgh, Tennessee.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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I’ve had a bunch of questions lately about numbers. You thought yesterday’s rule about pluralizing letters was a little loony, wait until you see some of the rules for numbers!

Dear Editrix,

If I mind my p’s and q’s and use an ’s for the plural, do I do the same with numbers?

Sincerely,

At Sixes and Sevens

Dear Reader,

When you are writing about groups of numbers, you do NOT use an ’s. Simply add an “s” to the number. For example:

While playing his favorite dice game, Paulie rolled two 2s, one 3, one 4, four 5s, and three 6s.

In this example, there are several other rules about numbers being demonstrated. More on these rules in the days to come!

Sincerely,

Editrix

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Sitar Documentation Services

It is with my humblest apologies that I introduce today’s slightly confusing topic, Making Single Letters Plural. Here is the full story and rule on this practice, from The Grammar Devotional: Daily Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl™, by Mignon Fogarty (p.179).

Note: This rule is different from the rules for acronyms, initialisms, and decades. You make these items plural with a simple “s,” no apostrophe. For example: ATMs, PINs, 1900s.

The Apostrophe Exception: Making Single Letters Plural

It’s shocking, but you make single letters plural by putting an apostrophe before the s!

Mind your p’s and q’s.

The apostrophe makes it clear that you’re writing about multiple p’s and q’s. The apostrophe is especially important when you are writing about a’s, I’s, and u’s because without the apostrophe, readers could easily thing you are writing the words as, is, and us.

The Chicago Manual of Style goes a little further. It says that if you are talking about letters you should italicize the letter itself. Here are some examples:

· Bob prefers the letter R to the letter B, so he always signs his name as Robert.

· My name begins with a capital K.

· That word starts with a lowercase g.

· I have horrible Scrabble tiles! I’m stuck with three i’s, one a, and three o’s.

But here’s an interesting tidbit. There are two common phrases in which you add the ‘s, but you do not italicize the letters. Those phrases are:

· Mind your p’s and q’s!

· Dot the i’s and cross the t’s.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Happy Friday!

It’s time for more wordplay and interesting tidbits from Tyrannosaurus Lex: The Marvelous Book of Palindromes, Anagrams, & Other Delightful & Outrageous Wordplay, by Rod L. Evans, Ph.D. Today’s topic is homophones (words that are pronounced the same but that differ in meaning). These aren’t your garden variety homophones like their, there, and they’re. These are more obscure and will hopefully provide you with some new Scrabble possibilities!

Here is a selection from Chapter 37:

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
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The Chicago Manual of Style just sent out their monthly Q&A. Here are my two favorite entries from April:

Q. Good day! I am currently revising our stylebook based on The Chicago Manual of Style. I would like to ask if you have a strict standard on slashes, whether I should put a space after the slash before typing/writing the next element, or is it all right if there is none?

A. If the slash divides two words, there is no space.

[KC – This is one of my pet peeves. Don’t put a space before and after a slash. These aren’t lines of poetry we’re writing—we’re writing technical documentation and business
communication.

Correct: widgets/gobstoppers
Incorrect: widgets / gobstoppers]

Q. How to get better at shooting in lacrosse?

A. Spend more time practicing and less time annoying grown-ups online.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
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¡Buenos Dias!

Today’s topic is quotation marks and other assorted punctuation. There are some crazy rules out there, but I’ll do my best to keep things simple. Oh, the first rule is that this is American punctuation; British punctuation is different.

Double quotation marks (“”)

· Use for quoted words, phrases, and sentences.

· Use for direct discourse or dialog.

· Use with other punctuation as follows:

o Periods go inside double quotation marks.

o Commas go inside double quotation marks.

o Colons and semicolons go outside quotation marks.

o Question marks and exclamation points? It depends whether they are part of the quoted material.

Examples:

o Marcy screamed, “Get that tarantula away from me!”

o “I think I’d like to try the vegetarian haggis,” she replied.

o His favorite parting line was to tell us to “Keep on truckin’.”

Single quotation marks (‘’)

· Use for quotations within quotations.

· Do not use to replace double quotation marks.

Example:

“Clarke,” said Maude, “I’ll help you with the first words to the Preamble. It starts ‘We the people, of the United States of America.’ ″

For more information, I’ve included a chart from the Chicago Manual of Style and you can click here to see what the Purdue OWL has to say.

From the Chicago Manual of Style online.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Good morning!

It seems many of you have been finding Grammar Girl’s tips very helpful, so I’ll provide you with more of them this week (from The Grammar Devotional: Daily Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl™, by Mignon Fogarty). For those of you attempting your own research on her site (Quick and Dirty Tips), I regret to inform you that it is blocked because of some malicious shenanigans discovered by our trusty Help Desk.

Today’s tip is about parentheses and abbreviations (p. 23 of the Devotional).

Parentheses and Abbreviations

Let’s combine parentheses with abbreviations! (Oh, come on. Live a little!)

If the bit inside parentheses isn’t a complete sentence and ends with an abbreviation, you put a period after the abbreviation, and another period after the parenthesis to end the sentence. You can’t ignore the parenthesis and let the period end both the abbreviation and the sentence:

Squiggly likes chocolate (including chocolate mixed with yummies such as nuts, candy, etc.).

If the bit inside parentheses is a complete sentence and ends with an abbreviation, you only use one period because the final parenthesis isn’t in your way.

(Squiggly likes sweets—candy, cookies, cake, etc.)

And from a former JHA employee who is now living in Japan—a fantastic pizza box translation:

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Here’s a fun new term: phantonym. Today’s Friday fare is from Tyrannosaurus Lex: The Marvelous Book of Palindromes, Anagrams, & Other Delightful & Outrageous Wordplay, by Rod L. Evans, Ph.D. (pp. 140-142). I’ve selected several phantonyms to share with you.

Phony Opposites: Phantonyms

A phantonym is a word or phrase that appears to be opposite in meaning to another word or phrase but isn’t.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
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