Editor's Corner

Good morning! As the Hanukah and Kwanza candles are lit and the Christmas lights and Festivus poles go up, it is that time of year when many people take vacation. One of our astute readers brought up the “Out of Office” messages we set and the importance of the words we choose.

As most of us know, it is good to include the following information:

· Date (or dates) you will be out

· Whether you will have access to email

· Approximately when you will respond

· Alternative steps for sender to take if they need immediate assistance

The following message is close, but requires a bit of fine-tuning:

I am out of the office today and will have no access to email. I will respond to your email at my earliest convenience; however, should you need immediate assistance, please contact Joe Baldocky at jbaldocky.

First, “I am out of the office today” would be clearer with an actual date. Second, the phrase “will have no access” is awkward. Some alternative phrasing is “…and will not have access…” or “…and do not have access to email.” Third, “I will respond at my earliest convenience” may be true, but it sends the message that the sender is of secondary concern—a message you definitely do not want to impart to clients. You want to let clients know that you will get back to them as soon as possible. Honestly, chances are that a customer with an urgent matter is not going to care what is convenient for you. Instead, how about “I will respond to your email as soon as possible after I return”?

Here’s a revised version of the message:

I am out of the office today (Wednesday, December 04, 2013) and do not have access to email. I will respond to your email as soon as possible after I return; however, should you need immediate assistance, please contact Joe Baldocky at jbaldocky.

Now go forth and enjoy your holidays!

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

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.

Each month, the Chicago Manual of Style publishes a Q&A column. Here are a couple of items I found educational and interesting. I love the response to the second question and agree wholeheartedly.

Q. Could you please clarify the proper usage of the word cannot, as opposed to can not?

A. In general, use cannot whenever you could mentally substitute can’t. Use can not when not goes with another word, such as only:

He cannot hum. [He can’t hum.]

She can not only hum; she can play the bagpipes. [She can hum.]

But beware of times when not doesn’t go with only:

He cannot only inhale; he must also exhale. [Only here means “solely” rather than “merely.” Our litmus test still works, however: He can’t only inhale.]

Q. My staff and I encountered a phrase and there’s a bit of debate as to how to hyphenate it: Wall Street darling-ready. Some believe an en dash should be inserted between Street and darling, followed by the hyphen between darling and ready. Others, however, feel the addition of the en dash would make the phrase even more difficult to interpret for readers. Thoughts?

A. I’m sorry, but the phrase looks like nonsense; I don’t think you can save it by tacking on hyphens or dashes. Please rewrite the sentence and—as they say—murder your darling.

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

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.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve! (Or, “Happy Thanksgiving, Eve!”)

For a three-day work week, I must say the last few days have been quite challenging. This is all I can muster today and it was placed on my desk by a co-worker:

Question: When it comes to fables, what is an epimyth?

Answer: An epimyth is the moral of a story.

I hope you have a good, safe, and tasty holiday!

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

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 tidbit is based on a question from one of our audience members. Enjoy.

Question: What is the appropriate way to refer to more than one frequently asked question (FAQ)?

Answer:

1. For the first instance of the words, spell them out and follow them with the acronym in parentheses.
Use this document to find answers to the company’s most frequently asked questions (FAQs).

2. The term “frequently asked questions” is not a proper noun, so it should not be capitalized unless part of a title.
Can you make me a list of frequently asked questions? (correct)
Can you make me a list of Frequently Asked Questions? (incorrect)

3. If the first instance of the term is in a title, do not use the acronym. Spell out the words and use rule 1 for the first instance of the term in the text.
Title: Frequently Asked Questions from New Employees
Text: This section contains frequently asked questions (FAQs) from new employees, including standard break time information, health care concerns, and time off.

4. You can use the acronym by itself after you have defined it.
This section contains frequently asked questions (FAQs) from new employees, including standard break time information, health care concerns, and time off. If you have a question you would like to add to our list of FAQs, please send it to Human Resources.

5. More than one is written FAQs, without an apostrophe.
I love FAQs! (correct)
I love FAQ’s! (incorrect)

Note: These rules apply to the use of acronyms in general. There may be a few exceptions, but nothing I can think of offhand.

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

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 morning or afternoon. It’s Monday and oh what a Monday it is!

Today’s topic is rated as the number one grammar error by The Blue Book of Grammar and many of you put it in your top ten peeves. The words it’s and its are frequently confused, but they don’t have to be. Here are the simple rules from The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation:

Rule 1: When you mean it is or it has, use an apostrophe.
(KC – Sound it out using the two words instead of the contraction. Does it make sense? If it is or it has makes sense in the context, you should use the apostrophe.)

Rule 2: When you are using its as a possessive, don’t use the apostrophe.
(KC – Not sure if it is possessive? Try reading the word as two words [it is or
it has, depending on the verb]. If it doesn’t make sense sounded out as two words, it is possessive. Don’t use the apostrophe.)

Examples:

You should return that book to its/it’s owner.

· You should return that book to its owner. (Sweet bells ring and an angel gets its wings. Yes, its wings—possessive.)

· You should return that book to it’s (it is) owner. (A gong should be ringing in your head saying NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)

Its/it’s been ten days since I last had hot cider.

· Its been ten days since I last had hot cider. (Hmmm. The spell checker doesn’t like it. Does it sound possessive? Not sure? Try reading it as two words to figure out if it is a contraction.)

· It’s (it has) been ten days since I last had hot cider. (Ah. “It has been” sounds nice; use an apostrophe because it is a contraction!)

She said that its/it’s her Hello Kitty decoder ring.

· She said that its her Hello Kitty decoder ring. (Uh oh. She says it is hers, so could this be possessive? Try reading it as two words. Which way does it sound right?)

· She said that it’s (it is) her Hello Kitty decoder ring. (This makes sense and it needs an apostrophe because it’s a contraction!)

Still confused? Go to your favorite browser and type “it’s vs. its” and you will find a host of grammarians willing to explain it in other ways that might work better for youT.

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.

My apologies to those of you I offended yesterday when I mixed up “addition” and “multiplication” and made an incorrect statement about math.

Since it is Friday, I’m taking a suggestion from one of our readers (thank you, Mr. Fauset) and writing an email on puns. What exactly is a pun? According to Merriam-Webster, a pun is “the usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound.” As we are a department full of punsters, I would like to note the phrase “usually humorous.” As many of you know, punning around can often lead to some real groaners.

For your viewing pleasure (or pain), here are some different sources for puns:

· From a t-shirt catalog and various sites on the Internet

o 7 days without a pun makes one weak.

o Dishonest golfers don’t play the fairway.

o A hungry clock goes back four seconds.

o A tardy cannibal gets the cold shoulder.

o A backward poet writes inverse.

o Never play cards in the Serengeti. There are too many cheetahs.

o A nosy pepper gets jalapeno business.

o Mathematicians wear glasses because they improve division.

o Tis better to have loved a short person than never to have loved a tall.

o When I talk about computers, I make my motherboard.

o Ancient orators tended to Babylon.

o Fairy tales tend to dragon.

· Visual puns from Buzzfeed

· Your Dictionary puns

Happy Friday!

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

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.

When does a negative plus a negative equal a positive? Both in math and in English! Using double negatives in English, however, is considered poor form and it leads to people saying one thing when they mean another. For example, “I don’t know nothing” not only sounds bad, but “I don’t” (negative) plus “know nothing” (negative) actually means that you do know something.

A double negative occurs when you use two negative words to express a single negative idea. In English, there are four ways to express negation:

1) Adding the negative adverb “not” to a sentence or clause:
He is not experienced.
She isn’t afraid.

2) Using a “negative” word:
I saw nothing through the fog.
Nobody does it better.
There was nowhere to sit after it rained.
Neither of the cats liked the taste of quail.

3) Converting an affirmative word by adding a negative prefix (such as dis-, un-, non-, in-, etc.):

4) Using one of the following adverbs which can also behave as a negative word:

· hardly

· barely

· scarcely

· seldom

· rarely

Danger, danger, Will Robinson! Combining two items from the different categories above is the equation for a double negative, so don’t do it.

Examples of common double negatives and alternative sentences to use instead:

Incorrect: I didn’t see nothing. (double negative = I did see something.)

Correct: I didn’t see anything. (single negative = I did not see anything.)

Correct: I saw nothing. (single negative = I did not see anything.)

Incorrect: She couldn’t hardly wait for her birthday.

Correct: She could hardly wait for her birthday.

Incorrect: He never talked down to nobody.

Correct: He never talked down to anybody.

Incorrect: We don’t need no stinking badges.

Correct: We don’t need any stinking badges.

Incorrect: I did not bring neither a brush nor a comb.

Correct: I did not bring either a brush or a comb.

Thanks to Oxford Dictionaries for assistances with the concepts and examples today.

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

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 morning! Today I’m going to let you in on a little pondering I’ve been doing.

During vacation, one of our stops was the Monarch Grove Sanctuary near Monterrey, California. The Monarch butterflies “winter” in Pacific Grove where the milkweed and climate is to their liking. A young woman was there with her son, singing him a lullaby about butterflies in French. A few days later, we went to dinner and I noticed the menu included farfalla pasta, which we translate as “bowtie” pasta, but it actually means “butterfly” pasta in Italian.

Monarch Butterflies

So this got me thinking about the words for “butterfly” in other languages. Butterfly, farfalla, papillon—why are they so different? Anyway, I found a web page where someone else was curious about the different words for butterflies. Here is my best translation and editing of the additional information from that page and from Merriam-Webster:

· English: butterfly from Middle English butterflie, from Old English buterflēoge, from butere butter + flēoge fly. Perhaps from the belief that butterflies (or witches in the shape of butterflies) stole milk and butter.

· Italian: farfalla

· French: papillon from Latin papilio

· Catalan: papallona (also from Latin papilio)

· Spanish (Castillian): mariposa from Mari (short for Maria, or “mari” [wife]) + the verb posar (pose)

· German: Schmetterling from a high-Saxon dialect and the Czech word for “cream.” This relates to the propensity of butterflies to flutter around milk pails or butter churns. German and English folklore are similar, that witches transformed into butterflies to steal milk products.

· Modern Greek: πεταλούδα (petalouda) meaning petal or leaf, reflecting the shape of butterfly wings.

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

My thanks and appreciation to Donna for taking over so I could enjoy a week of fun and relaxation. The California Coast was warm and inviting.

One of the stops we made was inland a bit, to a Danish-American village called Solvang. In Solvang, I noticed something I hadn’t seen since our last voyage much farther away (Belgium and the Netherlands). It seems there’s a new bank in town! Indeed, it is based in the Netherlands, and I would like to go on record as saying this place needs a new marketing department. Here is its logo, which is bad enough (silhouette of a single, faceless man in a dark leotard) but come on! Is this the name of a bank, or is it a command?

Yep. I thought it was a joke when I saw it in Holland. “Honey, I’m going out to Rob-o-bank. Do you need anything?” Yikes.

So, before I left, I asked you all to send me your questions, concerns, and peeves relating to the English language. Here is the number one peeve from your fellow Jack Henryans:

Please cover the difference between there, their, and they’re!

Your wish is my command.

There, their, and they’re are homonyms, which are words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different definitions. My guess is that most people know the difference, but when you take dictation from the voice in your head you hear one sound (rhymes with “air”) and type whichever spelling comes most naturally (probably there). This just means you should double-check your meaning when you re-read what you wrote.

In case you don’t know the difference between these three words, here you go:

· there – in that place (not here); at that point in a process
Please put your purse on the shelf up there so my dog can’t reach it.

· their – belonging to certain people, animals, or things
Parents all think their kids are “the best.”

· they’re – contraction of “they are”
I talked to the painters; they’re coming by after the job on Fir Street.

Befuddled by these and other homonyms? See the previous Editor’s Corner editions from January and February.

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor

Good morning and happy Friday, everyone.

My apologies for an inconsistent week of Editor’s Corner! I’ve been preparing for next month’s JHAdvisor, a break next week, and an actual break in my finger. It is difficult coming up with wonderful witty musings when you can hit the “w” without pressing a “2” instead. 🙂

The other day I was listening to a story on the radio about a walnut heist ($400,000 worth) in the San Joaquin Valley. What struck me wasn’t so much the story, but it was the way one of the farmers was talking about nuts. Yes, I’ve heard the different pronunciations of “pecan” before, but this guy was talking about almonds. I pronounce it “ALL-munds,” but he was saying “AL-munds” (like “Al Bundy”). Well, in my search for regional pronunciations I found a great series of maps that review pop, pecans, crawdads, and all sorts of interesting things by region.

I’m including a few in this email, but if you are fascinated by this information you’ll want to check out all 22 of the maps here. Meanwhile, have a good week, be nice to my dear Donna Bradley Burcher who is stepping in, and “see” you soon!

Kara Church

Senior Technical Editor