Editor's Corner

Good morning! It’s time to dive into the final part of speech: pronouns!

First, let’s start with a quick definition. A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. For example, without pronouns we have this mess: “Donnie wondered where Marie was, even though Marie told Donnie that Marie was going shopping.” With the use of pronouns, we have something much smoother: “Donnie wondered where Marie was, even though she told him that she was going shopping.”

There are four subclasses of pronouns that we will discuss this week:

· Personal

· Reflexive

· Indefinite

· Demonstrative

The list of personal pronouns is divided into three types: first-, second-, and third-person. Tomorrow I will provide you with the lists and brief descriptions of personal pronouns. Until then, here is Schoolhouse Rock’s interpretation of the helpful pronoun: Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla.

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
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
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Today’s misheard song lyrics (mondegreens) are continued from your contest entries. Between hellfire and cigarettes, it seems like folks were in a grim mood while they listened to this music! I hope your weekend promises to be happier than some of these lyrics!

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
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
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Good afternoon folks!

I’m recovering from bronchitis and a head cold—you know how nasty San Diego winters are. I don’t have my books here with me today, so I’m sending you a lovely photo my husband brought back from his lunchtime trip to his favorite taco truck. Apparently, they are proudly displaying new signs, but they didn’t ask the Editrix for any help. I think my favorite part is the $12.00 Coconut Delight, which promises to be X-Tra ordinary. Outside of this error, I spy capital letters a-go-go, spelling problems, punctuation errors, and more. If you can find at least 10 errors, I suggest you stop at the 9 Seas taco truck on 30th and Grape St. and offer your editing services.

Enjoy your day.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Good morning (or good afternoon depending on the region where you live and work).

And speaking of different regions, some parts of our big, beautiful nation are experiencing some dang cold weather recently! So today, I thought I’d share eight words that all relate to winter and cold climates. I found this group of words at dictionary.com slideshows. Click the link to read more about the words and hear the pronunciations.

· Hibernaculum (noun): winter quarters [dbb – Note the similarity of this word to
hibernation. They share the same root and both relate to the winter]
The bear retreats to her hibernaculum during the cold winter months.

· Gelid (adjective): Very cold, icy, or frosty

It’s not just cold in Minneapolis today, it’s absolutely gelid!

· Halcyon (adjective): calm or peaceful
Albert missed the halcyon days of youth.

· Brumal: (adjective) Of or characteristic of winter (from the Latin bruma meaning winter)

The hibernating bear was deep in a brumal sleep.

· Frore: (adjective) Frozen or frosty
The painting depicted a frore landscape.

· Névé: (noun) Granular snow accumulated on high mountains and subsequently compacted into glacial ice
The mountain was covered in névé.

· Hiemal (adjective): Of or pertaining to winter; wintry (from the Latin hiems meaning winter)
The family had long lived in the hiemal town of Lillehammer.

· Algid (adjective): Cold; chilly (from the Latin algidus – sometimes used in medicine to describe states of abnormally low body temperature or shock resulting in clamminess)
It was an algid night on Lake Michigan.

It looks like many places are starting to warm up a little. I hope you are all safe and comfortable.

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

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

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
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Good day, good people.

A while back I was asked to cover the difference between the words everyday and every day and also between the words anymore and any more. I can’t ignore the request any more, so here goes.

Let’s start with everyday and every day. According to the Grammarist website:

· Everyday is an adjective used to describe things that (1) occur every day, or (2) are ordinary or commonplace.

Example: Listening to the radio is an everyday occurrence for me.

· In the two-word phrase every day, the adjective every modifies the noun day, and the phrase usually functions adverbially. For example, every day you eat breakfast. You brush your teeth every day. Maybe you go for a walk every day. These are everyday activities.

When you’re not sure which one to use, try replacing everyday/every day with each day. If each day would make sense in its place, then you want the two-word form. Everyday, meanwhile, is synonymous with daily or ordinary, depending on its sense.

In the U.S., we also distinguish between anymore and any more. I found the following information on the Grammarphobia website.

· Anymoreis an adverb that means nowadays, any longer,or still.

Example: I don’t get the newspaper delivered to my house anymore.

· Any more is an adjectival noun phrase meaning any additional, or anything additional.

Example: I do not want any more of Grandma’s famous sweet potato casserole.

If you research, you’ll find that in Britain, the word anymore is considered an informal word for any more, and most British grammarians advise against using anymore in formal writing. Click here for more information on the British definitions, but we’ll adhere to the U.S. standards.

Enjoy the rest of your day. In fact, enjoy every day.

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

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

Dear Editrix,

I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain…I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end.

I’ve also seen a lot of login, logon, log in, log into, log-in, log-on, log on, log onto. Where does it stop? Is there a correct way to write how to get into an application or onto your PC?

Sincerely,

Logophile

Dear Logophile,

I’m so glad you asked! The JHA Style Committee works hard to make decisions about these things and we keep track of the decisions in the JHA Style Guide for Technical Communication and Training (click here for the internal document). For your immediate viewing pleasure, here is a screen shot of that section, and as you can see log on and log off are the preferred terms for verbs; logon is the preferred noun and adjective form.

Everyone should be following these guidelines so we present ourselves as One Company.

Sincerely,

Editrix

Log on, dudes!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Good morning! Thank you to everyone who sent in their mondegreens (misheard song lyrics) to the Editor’s Corner for the latest contest. I received over 100, though several of them were repeats and a few of them were not for polite company. (They made me laugh, but I like my job so I won’t be passing them on!) Over the next few weeks I will share your co-workers’, friends’, clients’, and families’ submissions with you.

The winner of the book, Hit Me with Your Pet Shark: Misheard Lyrics of the 1980s, by Charles Grosvenor Jr. is Morris Hardin. Congratulations to a great guy! I’ll bring your book down some time this morning.

Happy Friday!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Only a couple more parts of speech to discuss: pronouns and prepositions. Today we’ll delve into prepositions. Prepositions are usually little words that show the relationship between other words, such as over, under, up, to, down, by, around, above, etc. Prepositions join together with objects to create prepositional phrases. The following prepositional phrases show the preposition (italicized) and the object (bold):

· over the mountain

· by Tom Clancy

· through the woods

· near the toolshed

· above the city

· in the hot tub

Easy, right? Here is my least favorite Schoolhouse Rock video. It’s about Prepositions.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

I was at the veterinarian last night with my dog, Bella, and I heard the nurse refer to someone’s prescription as their “Rx.” That got me wondering about how the word prescription was related to that abbreviation. Why does the abbreviation begin with an “R”? Where does the “x” come from?

After reading several articles, here’s what I’ve found:

(or Rx or Rx) is a symbol from medieval manuscripts to abbreviate the Latin verb recipe, which is the imperative form of recipere. Recipere commands the subject “to take” or “take thus,” which makes sense as the beginning of a prescription. Prescription is formed from pre- (before) and script (writing, written). A prescription is an order that must be written before the apothecary/druggist/pharmacist/herb doctor can prepare a compound drug for you.

Now back to the Rx. Some sources say that the “x” in the symbol is from the Eye of Horus (or wedjat), the Egyptian symbol of good health and protector from evil.

Others say that the symbol is derived from that of Zeus (or Jupiter), also called upon in search of good health and protection.

I’m not sure which of the two it might be, but here is another interesting tidbit. Doctors don’t just abbreviate prescription with an Rx, they use the “x” as shorthand for other abbreviations, too. Here are a few of them:

· Dx = diagnosis

· Fx = fracture

· Hx = history

· Sx = signs and symptoms

· Tx = therapy

My dog, however, doesn’t care about any of this. After a German Shepard broke Bella’s foot by using her paw as a chew toy, she is stuck in a splint and must wear the cone of shame for two months.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

I learned that interjections were one of the eight parts of speech. The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English Grammar and Usage ignores them outside of mentioning that they are “like asides or commentaries that are not really part of the actual grammar of a sentence.” For example (interjections in bold):

· Jumpin’ Jehosaphat! Who put that tack on my chair?

· Hey, that wasn’t very nice.

· No! I will not accompany you to Burning Man.

Considering how much I like to spice up our language with a salty interjection now and then, I am still including it in our parts of speech.

Here is your daily dose of the ‘70s, with Schoolhouse Rock’s version of interjections: Halleluiah!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory