Editor's Corner

Today’s tip is to beware of wordiness in your writing. Here are a few ways to do it, from Grammarly.com:

Wordiness is a problem for many writers, whether it’s redundancy, stating the obvious, or packing a sentence with excess detail and unnecessary modifiers.

· Wordy: Imagine in your mind what a caveman from an earlier prehistoric time must have thought about when he originally saw fire for the first time.

· Better: Imagine what prehistoric man thought when he saw fire for the first time.

For precision and clarity, excise these words from your writing: [KC – That’s excise, as in cut out—not
exercise, as in exercise your right to blather on.]

· kind of

· sort of

· really

· basically

· actually

· generally

· typically

· for all intents and purposes

Edit your writing for redundant pairs such as:

· true facts

· past history

· free gift

· unexpected surprise

· each individual

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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Today’s misheard song lyrics (mondegreens) are continued from your contest entries and one of my own mondegreens. No, I didn’t enter myself into my own contest!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Today’s handy tidbit is about prepositional phrases. I’ve stumbled on some real whoppers here in our documentation. By the time you have logged on the system, located the record on an account, found the field in the record, and entered a value in the field, it seems like you’ve been over the hill and through the woods to Grandmother’s house and back.

From Grammarly.com:

Tip: Limit Prepositional Phrases

Use an apostrophe, not a prepositional phrase, to show possession.

· Bad: It was the opinion of the teacher that Susan was ready for third grade.

· Better: In the teacher’s opinion, Susan was ready for third grade.

Don’t use too many prepositional phrases in a sentence.

· Bad: The ultimate point of the discussion with all of the people was to reach a consensus of the group about what to do with the leftover funds from the fundraiser.

· Better: The group discussed options for the leftover fundraiser money and ultimately reached a decision.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
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If you’ve ever sent a document into Symitar Editing, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the comment “Avoid passive voice.” Well, here it is again from Grammarly.com:

Avoid the Passive Voice

The passive voice is flaccid. The subject becomes a helpless thing, acted on by outside forces. In a well-written sentence, the verb is powerful and precise, an active tool at the subject’s command. For example:

· Passive: It is believed by the boxer that the power is there to cause his opponent to fall down.

· Active: The boxer thinks he has a knock-out punch.

If you feel like you could use some practice turning the passive voice to active voice (or knowing when passive is appropriate) have a look at this site for a quiz. It includes a sentence for you to rewrite, space to write it, and then their suggested rewrite: Capital Community College.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

We’re going to take a break from our grammar lessons so I can share a series of writing tips with you. Each tip is important enough that I think it deserves its own day (but I am starting with the second tip). From Grammarly.com:

The author James Michener said, “I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.” If you’re an aspiring author or someone striving for clarity in your professional or academic writing, you appreciate the methodical march of the rewriting process. Each word in a sentence has a job; cut those that do nothing. These six tips will help you achieve clear and concise writing.

Trim the Fat from Flabby Phrases

Some writers use wordy phrases when a single word will do.

Use because instead of:

· Due to the fact that

· In light of the fact that

· Owing to the fact that

Use about instead of:

· Concerning the matter of

· In reference to

· With regard to

Use can instead of:

· Is able to

· Is in a position to

· Has the capacity to

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
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The last group of pronouns we’re going to cover is a tiny group called demonstrative pronouns. There are only four of them: this, that, these, and those. These pronouns, like their indefinite pronoun cousins, can also do double-duty as modifying adjectives. To determine which part of speech the word is, apply the same rule you do to indefinite pronouns: if the word stands alone, it is a demonstrative pronoun; if the word is coupled with a noun, it is a modifying adjective.

Examples:

· Demonstrative pronoun: Sandra would love that! (The pronoun that stands alone.)

· Modifying adjective: Sandra would love that bracelet! (That modifies bracelet.)

· Demonstrative pronoun: This looks delicious. (The pronoun this stands alone.)

· Modifying adjective: This sandwich looks delicious. (This modifies sandwich.)

Note: In technical documentation, there is not a lot of room for demonstrative pronouns without a clear antecedent. When you send documents to the Editing department, you will often see questions such as: What is that? What does this refer to? In the business world, it is best to use your nouns and prevent the audience from having to guess what “these” or “those” are.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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For today’s Friday fare, I’m taking a break from mondegreens and returning to Tyrannosaurus Lex: The Marvelous Book of Palindromes, Anagrams, & Other Delightful & Outrageous Wordplay, by Rod L. Evans, Ph.D.

In chapters 26 and 27, Dr. Evans introduces us to tautonyms. Tautonyms are “words with two or more identical parts.” For example, the word murmur contains the repeated letters mur. The list below contains internal tautonyms, so the repeated part is somewhere inside the word. For example, in the word nonsense, the repeated part of the word is nse.

Here is the list:

· alfalfa

· assassin

· assessed

· barbarous

· Chihuahua

· Cincinnati

· contented

· fibrobronchitis

· fiddledeedee

· furfuraceous

· instantaneous

· kinkiness

· Mississippi

· metastasis

· nannander

· nonsense

· obsesses

· possessed

· quaquaversal

· redeeded

· redredge

· satiation

· seismism

· sentential

· Shoshone

· singing

· stomachache

· superperfect

· tinting

· versers

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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The pronoun subtype of the day is indefinite pronouns. These refer to unspecified people, things, or groups.

Here is a partial list, from The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English Grammar and Usage:

Examples:

· Both were elected, but only one was chosen.

· Some were happy; all were entertained.

As you can see, when these words function as indefinite pronouns, you are left with a pretty vague sentence. Outside of imprecision, these words cause confusion because they’re often used as adjectives. Remember this so you can tell how the word is being used: indefinite pronouns can stand alone. If the word is being used as an adjective, it will be coupled with the noun it modifies.

Examples:

· Indefinite pronoun: Oliver would like some.

· Modifying adjective: Oliver would like some porridge. (In this case, some is modifying porridge.)

· Indefinite pronoun: She has a few left.

· Modifying adjective: She has a few jellybeans left. (In this case, few is modifying jellybeans.)

And here are a few more indefinite pronouns that are compound words:

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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Today we have reflexive pronouns on the menu.

Reflexive pronouns are easy to spot, but they are still often misused.

According to our book, The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English Grammar and Usage:

Reflexive pronouns must refer back to a specific noun (usually, but not always, the subject) in the same sentence. This noun is called the antecedent of the reflexive pronoun. The term reflexive comes from a Latin word meaning “bend back.”

Here are some examples of the correct and incorrect uses of reflexive pronouns.

Correct:

· He looked at himself in the mirror and straightened his tie. (He is the antecedent for the reflexive pronoun himself.)

· She was angry at herself for forgetting to bring the birthday card. (She is the antecedent; herself is the reflexive pronoun.)

· When I’m alone, I often talk to myself. (I is the antecedent; myself is the reflexive pronoun.)

· Grandma gave to cookies to Fritz and me. (Myself is not used since there is no reflexive pronoun antecedent and Fritz and me are the objects of the sentence. Often people use “myself” in this structure because they don’t know whether to use I or me at the end. Remember from yesterday: I is the subject and me is the object.)

Incorrect:

· My mom and myself are going to the store. (There is no antecedent in this sentence for myself to refer back to.)

· Joel laughed at Victor and myself. (There is no antecedent in this sentence for myself to refer back to.)

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
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As promised, here are the tables of personal pronouns from The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English Grammar and Usage.

First-Person Pronouns (represent the speaker or writer of the sentence)

Note: People often mix up whether they should use I or me. As you can see, they are both first person singular pronouns. The thing to remember is whether you are talking about yourself as the subject of the sentence, or the object. For example:

I made a party hat. (I am the subject—the doer—of the action in this sentence.)

That letter is from Ray and me. (The letter is the subject of this sentence; Ray and me are the objects.)

Ray and I attended the BBQ in our Sunday best. (In this case Ray and I are the subjects; the BBQ is the object.)

Second-Person Pronouns (represent the hearer or reader of the sentence)

Note: Some areas of the country claim a second-person plural like y’all, you’ns, etc. These are handy but they are not grammatically correct.

Third-Person Pronouns (replace names of specific people, places, or things)

Notes:

· Its is the singular possessive indicating that something belongs to “it.” For example, the bird built its nest out of lint and twigs. It’s is a contraction of the words “it is.”

· English doesn’t have a gender-neutral third-person pronoun. To get around it, try using a noun, such as “the user,” “the teller,” or “the member,” since using “they” or “them” is incorrect when they stand for a singular noun.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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