Editor's Corner

I hope you all enjoyed Labor Day weekend and return well rested.

The other day, I found myself talking to my dogs (which I often do) and I said, “Look at you two waiting there with bated breath.” Being dogs, they were definitely eager for their walk, but they also had garbage breath, which made me wonder why it was “bated” breath, and where the confusion with “baited” came from.

For the answer, I read this article from Mignon Fogarty (Grammar Girl) at: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/baited-versus-bated.aspx.

"Bated" is one of the many words Shakespeare invented (or at least he was the first person to put the word on a piece of paper that survived to this day).

"Bated" is a form of "abate," which means “to diminish, beat down, or reduce.” So when you’re waiting with bated (read: abated) breath, you’re so eager, anxious, excited, or frightened that you’re almost holding your breath.

Shakespeare used the phrase "with bated breath" in The Merchant of Venice. It’s a scene where Shylock, the moneylender, points out the irony of Antonio, the merchant, coming to him for a loan after treating him so poorly in the past:

Shall I bend low and in a bondman’s key,
With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this;
“Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;
You spurn’d me such a day; another time
You call’d me dog; and for these courtesies
I’ll lend you thus much moneys”?

That set phrase, "with bated breath," is the only place you’ll hear "bated" used these days. Since "bated" is such an archaic word, it’s common to see the phrase incorrectly written as "with baited breath."

There’s an odd logic to the "baited" misunderstanding—you bait a hook to catch a fish, and people eagerly waiting for something could be tempted to put out metaphorical bait, but why would it be their breath? It wouldn’t. Nobody would rush toward fishy breath. [KC – She hasn’t met my dogs.]

Just remember the moneylender Shylock and his abated breath.

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Wow! What a turnout! I’m shocked at how many of you like quizzes. I think that’s considered an illness in some states.

Today’s total number of responses: 132. The number of responses per option:

1. ABA – 10

2. AAA – 95

3. BAA – 13

4. AAB – 11

5. BAB – 3

The correct answers (bold) and the explanations (from GrammarBook.com):

A) Meryl asked, "What time will you be coming home from work this evening?"

B) Meryl asked, "What time will you be coming home from work this evening"?

Explanation: The question mark belongs inside the quotation marks with the question itself.

A) Each time the company publishes its new catalog, online orders increase by 50 percent.

B) Each time the company publishes it’s new catalog, online orders increase by 50 percent.

Explanation: "Its" is a possessive pronoun. "It’s" is a contraction for "it is."

A) She is very self-conscious about her appearance.

B) She is very self conscious about her appearance.

Explanation: Hyphenate all compound words having "self" as the prefix.

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It’s been too long since we’ve had a quiz, so let’s have one with breakfast!

The way this works:

· You choose the correct sentence from each pair below

· Jot down your answers

· Look for the voting buttons at the top of this e-mail

· Select the set of answers that you think is correct

· Wait until noon (or later, depending where you are) and all will be revealed!

Choose the correct sentence:

A) Meryl asked, "What time will you be coming home from work this evening?"

B) Meryl asked, "What time will you be coming home from work this evening"?

A) Each time the company publishes its new catalog, online orders increase by 50 percent.

B) Each time the company publishes it’s new catalog, online orders increase by 50 percent.

A) She is very self-conscious about her appearance.

B) She is very self conscious about her appearance.

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Good afternoon, dear readers. Many of you send me your pet peeves, which I’m happy to cover because they’re usually bits of grammar and punctuation we all need a refresher on.

Today, Editrix is going to share a personal peeve of mine. I reviewed this a month or so ago, but perhaps it was nested in too much other information. Writers take note: a peeved editor is an ugly thing to behold.

Revised for your reading pleasure and retention:

/ (Called by many names: slash, forward slash, solidus, stroke, or Virgule)

“During the Middle Ages, this sign of many names, including those listed above, served as a comma; a pair denoted a dash.” (“12 Signs and Symbols You Should Know,” DailyWritingTips.com) People, we are not in the Middle Ages! Please read on for the modern uses and rules of the slash.

But before we begin: There are no spaces before or after the slash. The one exception is the quotation of poetry. The last time I checked, technical documentation, while lovely, does not include poetry, and should not include spaces before and after the slash.

Slashes have many names and duties:

· You can use slashes to signify alternatives, such as he/she

· Sometimes used as shorthand for “or,” but in technical documentation we require precision and “or” should be spelled out

· In some cases represents “per,” for example: $3000/month

· Used in certain abbreviations, such as “c/o” (in care of)

· Sometimes used to mean “divided by” when other symbols are unavailable or impractical

· Used in URLs and file paths to separate directories and file names

· Used to indicate a line break in a poem or play, or the start of a new paragraph in quotations of ordinary prose, for example: “I met a man that was very wise. / He had no hands, but he had three eyes, / ” (John Ciardi)

Go forth, prosper, and leave out the extra spaces around the slash (/). You’ll be glad you did.

Sorry folks,

Now I’m really crying! The web site for the 20 terms for crying is DailyWritingTips.com, not DirtyWritingTips.com. Ms. Grant, thank you for catching this error!

Link to sorrow:

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Perhaps this is a better topic for a Monday, but I don’t want to be predictable. Here is a sampling of 20 Ways to Cry, an article by Mark Nichol.If you feel so inclined, the other ten ways to cry are at DirtyWritingTips. ()

1. Bawl: to cry out loudly and without restraint; also, to call out in such a manner

2. Blubber: to cry while making sounds of distress or pain, especially through pouted lips (hence the onomatopoeic word)

3. Caterwaul: to cry harshly; also, to noisily complain or protest

4. Howl: to cry out in grief; also, to cry out in laughter or anger

5. Lament: to cry out with grief; also, to feel regret or sorrow

6. Mewl: to cry softly or weakly, like a kitten

7. Pule: see whine

8. Squall: to cry out loudly in emotional distress — usually associated with infants or very young children [Or editors who have seen enough misplaced apostrophes and are pushed over the edge.]

9. Whimper: to cry softly and irregularly; also, to complain or protest as if whining

10. Whine: to cry in distress, or in a high-pitched, complaining manner; also, to complain

Idioms and slang synonymous with cry include “break down,” “burst into tears,” “choke up,” “crack up,” “dissolve into tears,” “let it all out,” “put on the weeps,” “ring the blues,” “shed (bitter) tears,” and “turn on the waterworks.”

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A big “thank you” to the welcoming folks in the Springfield, MO office—you put on an excellent conference (summit). In honor of our time together, I’ve put together this Editor’s Corner about standards. This is for every kind of writer, designer, coder, instructor, painter, crafter, dancer, sculptor, or any other type of artist out there. Read and rejoice!

Web standards, code standards, writing standards: whatever department you’re in, you are bound to hear that standards are killers of creativity. Or perhaps you are one of the people that feels stifled by standards? How can you create amazing and wonderful things when someone limits you? Here are some wise words from different fields and different resources that may make you think twice before you call your standards team a group of tyrants.

· Web designer Andy Rutledge says that web standards are “about quality, not compliance.” (http://www.andyrutledge.com/web-standards.php)

· A software designer from a “creativity and limits” blog (http://weblog.200ok.com.au/2007/05/limits-vs-creativity.html) shared these nuggets of wisdom:

o The creativity in software development comes from how you apply your knowledge of the language and patterns to solve a problem that brings value to your organization.

o The limits of a medium simply define the creative space. They don’t prevent people from being creative within that space.

o Every medium has limitations. Part of creativity is getting around them and coping with the problems.

· Scott Dadich, Creative Director for Wired magazine, wrote a great article on the topic. (“Design Under Constraint: How Limits Boost Creativity” worth reading in full at: http://www.wired.com/culture/design/magazine/17-03/dp_intro).

Here is an excerpt from the magazine:

You are looking at a box…A 16-by 10.875-inch rectangle containing precisely 174 square inches of possibility, made from two sheets of paper glued and bound together . . . D. J. Stout calls the science of filling this box with artful compositions of type and images "variations on a rectangle." That is, in any given issue of a magazine—this one, for example—subjects and stories will change, but as a designer, you’re still dealing with the same ol’ blank white box.

At Wired, our design team sees this constraint as our daily bread. On every editorial page, we use words and pictures to overcome the particular restrictions of paper and ink: We can’t animate the infographics (yet). We can’t embed video or voice-over (yet). We can’t add sound effects or music (yet). But for all that we can’t do in this static medium, we find enlightenment and wonder in its possibilities.

And a few quotes:

o “. . . designers understand the power of limits. Constraint offers an unparalleled opportunity for growth and innovation.”

o “Given fewer resources, you have to make better decisions.”

o “. . . the imposition of limits doesn’t stifle creativity—it enables it.”

So, as new PowerPoint and Word templates are rolled out over the next few months, embrace them! The styles, dimensions, and colors are taken care of, which leaves you time to produce thoughtful, creative, outstanding content.

Good morning from Springfield, Missouri! Today I’m going to revisit a topic I covered many moons ago, before we were such good friends: three common Latin terms. Those terms are i.e., e.g., and sic.

i.e. – id est (“that is”). In normal prose and much of our documentation we use the terms “that is,” or “in other words” instead.

e.g. – exempli gratia (“for example”). Instead of using e.g., we use “for example.”

Notes:

The English equivalents of i.e. and e.g. are preferable in formal prose, though sometimes the quickness of these two-letter abbreviations makes them desirable. Always put a comma after either of them.

sic – sic (“thus,” in full: sic erat scriptum, "thus was it written") is added immediately after a quotation and indicates that the quote has been transcribed exactly as found in the original source, complete with any erroneous spelling or other nonstandard presentation.

Note: Sic should be italicized.

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It’s been a busy week so I don’t have a quiz for you. Instead, I have a vocabulary lesson with some etymological information for your reading pleasure. I’ll be visiting the Springfield office next week and will do my best to torture you from afar with grammar (or up close and personal if you’re in Springfield). Have a great weekend!

Paramount vs. Tantamount (from DailyWritingTips.com)

What’s the difference between paramount and tantamount? The distinction is of paramount importance; it’s tantamount to being right or wrong.

Paramount, from the Anglo-French word paramont, derived from the Latin phrase per ad montem, literally translated as “up the mountain,” means “supreme.” It’s also used (rarely) as a noun to refer to a supreme ruler. Tantamount was originally a noun, translated into English from the Anglo-French phrase tant amunter, meaning “to amount to as much,” and means “equivalent.” It is seldom used—more’s the pity, because it is such a grand word—in such phrases as “tantamount to treason.”

This grandiloquence, and the word’s resemblance to paramount, may mislead writers into assuming it has a lofty sense like its counterpart.

As you might have guessed, the noun amount, meaning “sum,” also derives from the Latin word for mountain. Another word with the element -amount is catamount, a nearly obsolete synonym for cougar or lynx that is a compression of the term cat-a-mountain.

Closed-compound verbs with the root word mount include dismount (“remove oneself from a high position, as a horse or a piece of gymnastic equipment,” or “take apart”)—demount is a rarely used variant—remount (“get up on again,” or “revert”), and surmount (“climb,” “excel,” or “overcome,” or “be at the top of”).

Seamount is a noun referring to an underwater mountain whose summit does not reach sea level. (If it did, it would be called an island.) Dismount and remount also have noun forms; the former refers to the concluding movement in a gymnastics routine, and the latter denotes a horse that replaces a rider’s previous one.

An interesting side note: In archery, “lord paramount” and “lady paramount” are terms for an official in charge of an archery tournament, or for a ceremonial leader of such an event, equivalent to a parade grand marshal. The terms originated in the feudal era, when a lord paramount, one not subordinate to a member of the nobility of greater rank, was required to provide trained longbowmen in the event of war, and officiated at archery tournaments. (The title “lord paramount” is known to fans of the television series A Game of Thrones and the series of novels on which it is based.)

And to us folks from the Pacific Northwest, one of the most common “mount” words: The Canadian Mounties.

(This photo of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police brought to you by http://en.best2list.com/content/canada/canadian-history.)

Along with the “who/whom” issue, it seems we have a sister issue (or peeve for many of you). I will call this the “me/myself/I” issue and do my best to explain when to use the word “myself.”

Similar to the technique we use for figuring out if it is who/whom (by replacing the sentence with he or him and seeing which sound right), there’s a little trick for me/myself. For example, “If you want more information, contact Education, Mr. Singleton, or (me/myself).” Read the sentence and leave out Education and Mr. Singleton. In this case you’re left with “If you want more information, contact (me/myself).” Hopefully “me” jumps out as the correct answer.

When is it okay to use the word “myself”?

“Myself” is a reflexive pronoun, meaning it refers back to the subject of the sentence. For “myself” to work, it must be used to refer back to “I.” For example:

· I imagine myself flying on the trapeze without a net.

· When I have enough money, I’m going to buy myself a pony.

Other reflexive pronouns include: “himself,” “herself,” “yourself,” “itself,” “themselves,” etc. They refer back to the subject of the sentence, too. He/himself, she/herself/, you/yourself, and so on.

· He considers himself an expert cat wrangler.

· They regard themselves as the cream of the crop.

One other way to use “myself” is as an intensive pronoun. In this case, the pronoun “myself” is used to add emphasis to a statement. For example:

· I myself saw the intense hatred in her eyes. (dramatic emphasis)

· I made it myself. (So says the kindergartener when he shows his painted macaroni picture to his dad.)

I hope this helps. I did it myself!

*******

“I can’t stand people with a disregard for proper grammar. I mean, whom do they think they am?” – calehartmann (@calehartmann)

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