Editor's Corner

Per the JHA Style Guide for Technical Communication and Training, avoid abbreviating words and phrases. Spell out the word instead. Here are some examples:

When you use an abbreviation, spell out the first instance in each topic.

Incorrect:

Your CU can customize the ELA.

Correct:

Your credit union can customize the Enhanced Loan Application (ELA).

Jackie Solano | Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.542.6711 | Extension: 766711

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I’m starting the weekend a day early with Thursday mondegreens. Before I do, however, I want to tell you a secret. I am sharing the next couple of weeks in Editor’s Corner with three of my favorite women: Donna Bradley Burcher, Jackie Solano, and Laura Bowers. It’s a little crowded in the corner, so it’s a good thing we get along.

Please welcome my co-editors as they continue to pass along grammar tidbits, vocabulary vittles, and language lumps to you for your reading and learning pleasure.

Today’s mondegreens are from The Ants Are My Friends, by Martin Toseland.

Next time we meet, I hope to have a lot of interesting information to share and tales to tell!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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I don’t know if any of you learned the song “I Can Sing a Rainbow” as kids, but my brother and I learned a jacked-up version of it in Catholic school and it did NOT help us remember the order of colors in a prism later on. The song talks about pink, for goodness sake—and leaves indigo out altogether! But I digress.

Today’s little nugget of wisdom, from Daily Writing Tips, is about some colorful words we have borrowed from Greek.

Black
We get the combining form melano from the Greek word meaning dark or black.

· melancholy: a gloomy mental state; according to ancient physiology, a humor called “black bile” was secreted by the kidneys and the spleen, and was thought to cause melancholia.

· melanoma: a skin tumor containing a dark pigment.

· melanin: any dark brown or black pigments of animal or plant structures, for example, hair, or the surface of a raw potato when exposed to air.

White
The element leuk in certain medical terms is from the Greek word for white.

· leukemia: a chronic disease characterized by an abnormal increase in the number of white blood cells.

· leukocyte: a white blood cell.

Red
The Greek word for red gives us the combining form erythro, which is used in the specialized terminology of medicine, chemistry, and mineralogy.

· erythrophyll: the red coloring matter of leaves in autumn.

· erythroretin: a resinous constituent of rhubarb root.

· erythroscope: an optical contrivance, by which the green of foliage is caused to appear red, while all other green objects retain their natural color.

· erythrocyte: a red blood corpuscle.

Blue
Cyan is the Greek word for dark blue, but what artists call “cyan blue” is a color midway between green and blue.

· cyanide: an extremely poisonous crystalline solid. It got its name because it was first obtained by heating the dye pigment known as Prussian blue.

· cyanin: the blue coloring matter of certain flowers (e.g., violets and cornflowers).

· cyanosis: blueness of the skin owing to the circulation of imperfectly oxygenated blood.

Green
The Greek word from which we get the combining form chlor described a pale green.

· chlorophyll: the coloring matter of the leaves and other green parts of plants.

· chlorine: a yellowish-green heavy gas.

Finally, the Greek word for color gives us the combining form chromo, which creates nouns and adjectives that denote colored objects, coloring processes, and coloring agents:

· chromatic: full of color.

· polychrome: art executed in many colors.

· chromium: a metallic element remarkable for the brilliant colors—red, yellow, or green—of its compounds.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Regarding my post earlier today, my sincerest apologies for confusing United States Representative, Paul Ryan, with an imaginary senator, John Ryan. Perhaps his boyish good looks and widow’s peak got me all a-twitter and I not only botched his title, but his name.

US Representative (Wisconsin) Paul Ryan

My apologies also to Tom Clancy fans, who envision John Patrick “Jack” Ryan as one of these leading men (none of whom have a widow’s peak):

Your humble servant,

Editrix the Errorist

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As I visited with my parents the other day and caught them up on things, I mentioned that my friend, co-worker, and Nifty Nuggets writer, Jackie, calls me “Eddie.”

“Oh how cute,” my dad said, “Eddie the editor.”

“That is cute,” I said, “But actually she calls me Eddie, as in ‘Eddie Munster,’ because when my hair was short you could see my widow’s peak.”

Eddie Munster

In case you aren’t familiar with the term widow’s peak, it is when the hairline on your forehead comes to a “V” in the middle—like Eddie Munster, Count Dracula, and other famously “peaked” individuals.

Marilyn Monroe, with the most glamorous of widow’s peaks

US Senator John Ryan, sporting a prominent widow’s peak

So after comparing hairlines and discussing other terms, like the widow’s walk on a house, we came back to pondering where the term widow’s peak comes from. This one’s for you, Dad!

According to Wikipedia:

The term stems from the belief that hair growing to a point on the forehead—suggestive of the peak of a widow’s hood—is an omen of early widowhood. The use of peak in relation to hair dates from 1833. The expression widow’s peak dates from 1849. The use of peak may refer to the beak or bill of a headdress, particularly the distinctive hood with a pointed piece in front.

Another explanation for the origin of the phrase suggests that it may be related to the mourning caps worn as early as the 16th century. A mourning cap or “Mary Stuart Cap” is a cap which features a very distinctive triangular fold of cloth in the middle of the forehead, creating an artificial widow’s peak.

Mary Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots) in a “widow’s cap”

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Avoid redundancies and wordy phrases when writing because they distract, confuse, and bore readers. Make your writing less time-consuming and more concise for the reader by getting to the point in as few words as possible.

Jackie Solano | Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.542.6711 | Extension: 766711

Yesterday at the coffee cart, I was asked a question about questions. With a little research, I found this article which talks about some anomalies when it comes to questions. The article was written by Mignon Fogarty’s guest, Bonnie Trenga Mills. For Ms. Mills’ complete article and citations, please see the original article here: Grammar Girl.

Rhetorical Questions

You’ve probably heard rhetorical questions more often than you realize. You start a sentence with a negative word when you mean something positive. So “Wasn’t that movie great?” means that you think the movie was great. It seems counterintuitive, but that’s the way English works. It’s called a rhetorical question, and it can end in either a question mark or an exclamation point, and in dialogue you can sometimes even have a speaker’s rhetorical question end in a period.

Another example of a rhetorical question is “Isn’t she leaving?” That question means you think the woman is leaving, but you want to confirm. Rhetorical questions like this take a negative form. If you make the “Isn’t she leaving?” question positive, it becomes just a regular question: “Is she leaving?” If you ask "Is she leaving?" you don’t know the answer; whereas with the rhetorical question “Isn’t she leaving?” you are assuming she is leaving.

Rhetorical questions have popped up in pop music. Stevie Wonder, for example, wrote a famous song called “Isn’t She Lovely,” whose lyrics begin:

“Isn’t she lovely,

Isn’t she wonderful,

Isn’t she precious,”

Mr. Wonder definitely thinks the girl is lovely, wonderful, and precious. No question about that.

These kinds of rhetorical questions seem to be quite conversational. You wouldn’t want to write, “Aren’t I the perfect person for this job?” in a job cover letter, nor would you want to say, “Isn’t it obvious that you should hire me?” in an interview. There are better ways to sound more qualified and more professional.

Tag Questions

The second kind of question we’re talking about today is called a tag question. “Tag questions, a peculiarity of English, are usually spoken rather than written,” states the website English Online. The rhetorical question “Isn’t she leaving?” means about the same thing as “She is leaving, isn’t she?” Students who are learning English often find this kind of construction puzzling because the speaker uses a negative form to mean something positive. As the Interesting Thing of the Daywebsite wisely explains, “The simplest way to make a tag question in English is to repeat the verb, negate it, and then repeat the subject. For example, ‘He is smart’ becomes ‘He is smart, isn’t he?" Note how the word "isn’t" is negating the verb "is" from the first part of the sentence: "He IS smart, ISN’T he?"

"If the verb is already negative, you just make it positive. ‘It won’t rain’ becomes ‘It won’t rain, will it?’" So, if we wanted to change Aaron’s rhetorical question “Isn’t it funny?” into a tag question, we would say, “It’s funny, isn’t it?” Both sentences mean “I think it’s funny.”

One clue that tag questions are best left to informal situations is that you often hear them used with contractions, which themselves are a bit informal. It would sound weird to ask "It will not rain, will it?" It sounds much more normal with a contraction: "It won’t rain, will it?"

Summary

In summary, rhetorical questions and tag questions are normal parts of everyday speech, but they are informal. It’s therefore best to avoid them in formal situations.

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 I mentioned yesterday, today is National Punctuation Day. I have a special treat for you from the quintessential grammarian and verbivore, Richard Lederer. This article is from his blog and was also published in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Now is the time to stamp out apostrophe catastrophes

Believe it or not, each year Sept. 24 is National Punctuation Day. Now you might think that celebrating those little and lowly dots, lines and curves is about as significant as celebrating a leaky faucet or scoring a perfect 100 on an IQ test. But correct punctuation is perhaps the most useful aid to making your writing reader-friendly. [KC – Since this is from the newspaper where they use the
AP Style Guide, there is no serial comma in the first sentence. I think it is much clearer with it, however: “…celebrating those little and lowly dots, lines, and curves is…”]

Of all the marks of punctuation, the most off-putting is the apostrophe. In fact, this little squiggle is so off-putting that people put apostrophes off when they should be putting them on paper and often put them on when they should put them off.

A famous “New Yorker” cartoon depicts a policeman pulling over to the side of the road a truck labeled, “Me and Wallys Produce.” The cop says to the driver, “Sorry, but I’m going to have to issue you a summons for reckless grammar and driving without an apostrophe.”

Turns out that many of us are guilty of driving without an apostrophe or carrying too many of them in our sentences:

· The Midas Muffler Company once advertised, “It Pay’s to Midasize.”

· The erudite Harvard Club of Boston was crimson-faced to discover that one of its restrooms was labeled “Mens’ Room.”

· Many a marketplace displays labels that read, “Potato’s,” “Pear’s” and (gasp!) “Peach’es.” I call these gratuitous squiggles Prepostrophes.

· In a weekly swap-shop guide appeared this grisly (not grizzly or gristly) ad: “Wanted: Piano to replace daughters lost in fire.”

· An investment firm boasts, “We get our customer’s top dollar.”

One of the most daunting challenges of punctuation is to employ the apostrophe to make a noun possessive. To convert a singular noun to a possessive, simply add an apostrophe and an s: Wally’s Produce, the policeman’s badge.

Grammarians and publications differ on forming the possessive of singular words ending in sibilants — s, z, c, x. I recommend that you add the s after an apostrophe if you would pronounce that s: the boss’s daughter, Dickens’s novels, (Dickens’ novels is also acceptable) Aristophanes’ plays. [KC: The
Chicago Manual of Style differs in its rules for the apostrophe “s” after names ending in “s.” It recommends using the apostrophe “s,” even if it is not pronounced.]

Possessive forms of personal pronouns, such as yours, hers, his and ours, do not take apostrophes. It’s used as a possessive pronoun is so ubiquitous that it has become the most common spelling/punctuation atrocity in our language. Please, please, please remember that it’s is a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” It’s is not a possessive.

Which dog has the upper paw?:

a) A clever dog knows its master.

b) A clever dog knows it’s master.

It’s the second dog, of course. It knows that it is master.

For a plural word that ends with a letter other than s, form the possessive as if the word were singular: the people’s choice, the men’s room.

Now, what about words and names that are pluralized by adding s or es? Simply add an apostrophe only: the readers’ opinions, the Smiths’ dog, the foxes’ teeth.

This brings us to those names we see in front of houses and on mailboxes everywhere — “The Smith’s,” “The Gump’s,” and even (sigh) “The Jone’s.” These are distressing signs of our times. Which Smith, we ask, and who, pray tell, is Jone? Here we have an atrocity of both case and number in one felonious swoop.

Who lives in the house? The Smiths. The Gumps. The Joneses. That’s what the signs should say. It’s really nobody else’s business whether the Smiths, the Gumps and the Joneses own their domiciles. All we need know is that the Smiths, the Gumps and the Joneses live there.

If you must announce possession of your domicile, place the apostrophe after, not before, the plural names: “The Smiths’,” “The Gumps’,” “The Joneses’.” Your attention to this matter will help stanch the creep of apostrophe catastrophes across our land.

Maybe great taste deserves a reward, but bad punctuation doesn’t!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Tomorrow, September 24, is National Punctuation Day in the United States. It is a day to love, honor, and cherish your favorite punctuation mark. My favorite way to celebrate is by sharing a few unfortunate photos with you. While many of these are spelling-related, I still think today is as good a day as any to share them with you.

· Nothing says forever like a tattoo. I hope it gets better than this unnecessary apostrophe and bad grammar.

· While you are waiting for it to get better, how about another tattoo letting people know there is “nohing” to regret? And if you’re going to say it wrong, say it bold and say it strong!

· Eww. A good, old-fashioned comma and putting the modifier in the right place would improve this gossip tidbit.

· A surefire way to upset your parents is by ordering a cake with quotation marks used inappropriately. If there is some question about your paternity, you might not want to broach the discussion at a party.

· Is it the spelling error that makes this bad? Or is it the school bus that looks like a converted bread delivery van? Perhaps it the artistry of a second-grader using a dull needle and bottle of India ink to do their own tattoo that makes me cringe a little? All I know is that this tattoo is listed as a failure, but it succeeded at bringing tears of amusement to my eyes.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Where were we? Ah yes, the final bits and piece of modal verbs. This list and advice is continued from Thursday.

· You can use modals to indicate suggestions and advice.

o You should stop eating haggis; it could save your life.

o You should consider purging the following records each quarter.

Consider your audience and the message you want to deliver. In technical documentation we want to sound certain; however, in a consulting or advisory document, the modal term might be better.

o Purge the following documents each quarter. (Technical documentation)

o Consider purging the following documents each quarter (The implied subject is “you,” but this is an incomplete sentence or bulleted item for consulting or advisory documentation.)

o You should consider purging the following documents each quarter. (This is a complete sentence with the modal verb, which may be acceptable in a less technical document.)

· You can use modals to indicate permission.

o May I leave? I am not feeling well.

o You may want to use this function to process checks.

o Employees with the View All permissions may see confidential personnel information.

Again, in technical documentation we want to sound certain. Matters of permission and policy are generally left to our customers and clients, so it is better to tell them what a product does or what they can do with a certain function and let them decide if they want to use it or who among them has the permissions.

o Use this function to process checks. (This tells you what the function does, not who should have it.)

o Confidential personnel information is visible to all employees with the View All permissions. (This tells you what is visible when you have the permissions, not who should have the permissions.)

As I mentioned before, it depends what you are writing, but in technical writing we generally prefer text without modal verbs. Here are a few more examples demonstrating how much more direct the text is without them.

With modal verbs:

· You could use this option to calculate teller totals.

· You must delete the X file before you install the Y file.

· Employees should wash their hands before returning to work.

· This product will increase your productivity.

Without modal verbs:

· Use this option to calculate teller totals.

· Delete the X file before you install the Y file.

· Washyour hands before returning to work.

· This product increases productivity.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory