Editor's Corner

Good morning to you all!

A year ago, one of my coworkers decided to challenge me by asking me to find sets of three-word or four-word homophones. (Homonyms are two or more words that sound alike, but have different origins, spellings, or meanings, such as carat, carrot, caret, and karat.) He acknowledged that I’d covered some of these, like there, they’re, their and to, two, too, but he wanted more. He wanted four-word homonyms and more.

Well, I waited an entire year, and here I am, ready to serve up some examples on a big ‘ol platter. You should remember that in the old days, before my word nerdom, I played basketball, ran track (oh so poorly), and worked it on swim team for four years. I love a challenge, a race, or a game.

Today I have the first batch for you, the triplets. This is just a partial list, but I’ll provide you with the rest next time. Definitions and examples are from me or with the help of Merriam-Webster (M-W).

Triplets

· aisle = A row between groups of seats

· I’ll = Contraction for “I will”

· isle = An island, often a small island

· bald = Without hair or covering (for example, the black oak tree is bald in the winter)

· balled = Formed into a ball (she balled up the snow and threw it at her brother)

· bawled = Cried (out loud and vigorously)

· censer = A vessel for burning incense

· censor = Someone who reads materials, watches movies, or reviews other materials for objectionable matter.

· sensor = (From M-W) A device that responds to a physical stimulus (such as heat, light, sound, pressure, magnetism, or a particular motion) and transmits a resulting impulse (as for measurement or operating a control)

· cent = (America) A penny. 1/100 of a U.S. dollar

· scent = A smell; an odor. (From M-W) An odor left by an animal on a surface passed over, or a characteristic or particular odor especially one that is agreeable.

· Sent = Past tense of “to send.” (From M-W) To cause to go; propel; throw in a particular direction; drive; to dispatch by means of communication.

· ewes = Female sheep

· use = To put into service; expend; consume

· yews = Type of evergreen trees

· gild = To cover with gold

· gilled = To entangle in a gill net (From M-W) Gill net: a flat net suspended vertically in the water with meshes that allow the head of a fish to pass but entangle the gills upon withdrawal.

· guild =Association of people with similar interests (From M-W) Especially: a medieval association of merchants or craft makers.

• knot = (From M-W)a: an interlacement of the parts of one or more flexible bodies forming a lump or knob (as for fastening or tying together)

b: the lump or knob so formed

c: a tight constriction or the sense of constriction

• naught = nothing

· not = used as a function word to make negative a group of words or a word

• taught = Past tense of to teach. To convey information to others; to help others learn.
• taut = Tight; without slack; (skin) not loose or flabby

· tot = A small child

Next time I’ll give you the quadruplets and more!

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It’s another beautiful day—a perfect day to talk about plain language.

What is plain language? It is a style of writing, most often used in professional settings to communicate something as briefly and clearly as possible. It is written with a simple structure. Typically, the sentences and paragraphs are short: they are written in active voice, they use clear, universal vocabulary, and they avoid filler (unnecessary) words. This kind of writing gets right to the point and provides only the details that are needed to help a reader understand; it is intended to make the job of reading as easy as possible. It is the kind of writing we strive for in all our documentation and client correspondence.

Plain writing is not a dumbing down of material. In fact, it is often used in legal documentation, technical documentation, and governmental documentation to ensure that difficult concepts are clearly communicated and easily digested. To make it accessible to the widest range of people, the Grammarly blog says, “It avoids jargon, complex sentence structure, and any potentially confusing vocabulary. This includes figurative language like metaphor and allusion, which may include references that readers with different backgrounds find difficult to understand.” Grammarly provides these clean, crisp examples:

Example 1

The enrollment period for international students begins on November 14 and ends on December 5. Please submit all of your documents to the International Education office on or before December 5. You will receive your course schedule by January 11.

Example 2

All driving tests are administered by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Please arrive for your test with two forms of identification (a passport, student ID, or government-issued ID is acceptable). Wait in the designated waiting area until you are called to the desk. The receptionist will then bring you to the testing area.

I know that a lot of you write creatively as a hobby or a side job. And for that kind of writing, an expanded vocabulary, imagery, symbolism, repetition, and other figurative language makes the writing and the reading more fun. When writing professionally, however, your readers expect the efficiency of plain language. Give them what they want. Always review and revise your writing to make sure it is clear and concise. And all of you Jack Henry associates can use this link to send your editing to a JH editor who will check it for plain language and other One Company JH standards.

Here’s hoping your day is anything but plain.

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry™

Pronouns she/her/hers

9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego CA 92123

Symitar Documentation Services

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

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About a year ago, I provided you with phrases about body parts in Editor’s Corner. One of you, my former manager Shawn, said he didn’t think “foot the bill” made sense. Well, sometimes it takes me a while to get back to things. Today, I’ll finally provide you with a short, but sweet answer about feet (or foots).

Here is an explanation of where the idiom “foot the bill” comes from, from our heroes at The Grammarist:

Foot the bill is an idiom that has been in use since the 1800s.

Foot the bill means to pay for something, to be financially responsible for goods or services, especially when the amount owed is a large one. Often, the term foot the bill is used when someone is being generous or taking responsibility for an enormous debt. The idiom foot the bill is derived from an earlier idiom first used in the 1500s: foot up. This phrase meant to add up the figures on a document and come to a total at the foot of the bill. By the early 1800s, the phrase had morphed into today’s form, foot the bill, meaning to pay the total at the foot of the bill. Related phrases are foots the bill and footing the bill.

I hope that makes more sense now. We don’t say “foot up” these days, but you might hear “tally up” the bill. I love it when someone else foots the bill, unless that means they are just using their toes to pass the bill to me under the table.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Hello campers! It’s summertime, and the livin’ is easy…at least that’s what Ella’s told me. But many of you have asked me for something different than sunshine and lollipops, something actually related to work. Recently, I’ve had several requests for tips on writing professional email. I am here for you, so, let’s have a look at what Grammarly.com says. It’s a lengthy article, so I’m going to pick and choose pieces of their message, but you can go to their web site if you want to read the entire thing without my smart aleck remarks.

Let’s get right into it.

What should a professional email include?

• A professional tone [KC – Really? I mean, you really had to say that?]
• An appropriate greeting [KC – For more information see the article I wrote called “Hello,”
  and no, Lionel Ritchie, it’s not me you’re looking for.]
• A clear subject line
• A concise message
• An appropriate closing, explaining any action items
• An appropriate sign-off [KC – For more information see the article I wrote called “Yours
  Truly.” You’ll need to scroll down on the page.

Include the topic in the Subject line.

The first thing your recipient sees in their inbox is your email’s subject line. (T)he subject line can make the difference between the recipient opening it and deleting it. Your subject line needs
to be concise, attention-grabbing, and relevant.

State exactly what your email is about in the subject line. This way, the recipient knows what to expect from your email. The recipient will appreciate a clear subject line that helps them read
and respond to your email efficiently.

Keep it focused.

A professional email should cover one topic. It could be a question, a request, an answer, or an explanation. Whatever it is, the email’s body should be focused on this topic. Keep your email concise
but don’t leave out key information. Concise means “only as long as it needs to be.”

Proofread.

Before you click
Send, proofread your email. Do a quick read-through to make sure it doesn’t contain any typos, spelling mistakes, or grammatical mistakes. Email
mistakes can undermine your entire message and make you look unprofessional.
[KC – Use the error-checker that comes with Outlook. See these instructions to set it up:
Enabling Microsoft® Proofreading Tools in Outlook®.]

Avoid a casual tone.

In most cases, this means not using emojis. [KC – Don’t hate on me. I’m only delivering a message and advising you to think twice about the recipients. In Knowledge Enablement, we’re pretty free with our emojis among each other for
the sake of fun, but sometimes you have to put fun in your pocket and take it out later. Consider your audience.]

A professional email should be written in a professional tone. Avoid slang, colloquialisms, and anything else that feels casual enough to be a text message. Similarly, steer clear of cliché phrases like “just circling back” when following up.

Watch your words.

Remember, anybody can forward your email to anybody else. Similarly, anybody can download, print, or screenshot your email. An email is a written record of a conversation, so if you don’t want a written record of something, don’t say it in an email.

Make your directions clear.

Don’t assume the recipient knows where a specific file is located or which sources you used to support your position in a recent essay. Spell out everything you mention and include links when applicable so your recipient knows exactly what you’re talking about—and can access it easily.

Those are the basic messages from the article. I provided some links to introductions and closing words (above), but if you want to know why you should include your signature or see some sample emails, again, feel free to read the whole article at Grammarly.com.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Good morning. It’s Fun with Words Day today. Dictionary.com recently sent a wonderful article about the longest English words in various categories. I found it fascinating, so I decided to share some of them with you. Most of the content below is directly from their website.

· methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl…

This is the longest word of all. It’s a chemical name with over 180,000 letters. If you tried to say it out loud, it would take you over three hours to get it out! “Its absurd length is due to the fact that proteins get their scientific names by combining the names of all of their joined amino acids together.” It does not appear in the dictionary.

· pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

At 45 letters long, this is the longest word you’ll find in an English dictionary. “According to many sources, it was coined around 1935 by Everett Smith, who at the time was the president of the National Puzzlers’ League. The word, which was basically engineered for its length, refers to a lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust.”

· antidisestablishmentarianism

I remember my little sister learning how to spell this word in elementary school. Although it’s a real word, it is rarely used except to show off that you know how to say and spell a very long word. It refers to “to opposition to withdrawing support from the Anglican Church as the state church of 19th-century England.”

· honorificabilitudinitatibus

I decided to share this word because of my love of Shakespeare. He used it in his play Love’s Labour’s Lost. It means “capable of receiving honor,” and one really interesting thing about this word is that it’s the longest English word in which the consonants and vowels alternate back and forth. How cool is that?

· uncharacteristically

Why is this word included, you ask? It’s because this is often said to be the longest word the average English speaker commonly see or uses in everyday life. This adverb describes something “as not being typical or acting in a characteristic way.”

· uncopyrightables

While most of us don’t actually use this word, it is pretty easy to figure out what it means—unlike the long scientific words. Dictionary.com included it in their list because it’s an isogram, which means that no letter is repeated. Now, I’ve got you, right? This is pretty cool stuff!

· rhythms

I bet you’re already trying to figure out why this word is included. And I bet you got it. This is thought to be the longest English word that does not include one of the five main vowels.

· squirreled

And this is my favorite. Can you figure out why it’s included? I’ll give you a hint. It has to do with pronunciation. In some regions of the U.S., this word rhymes with curled, which makes it the longest one-syllable word in the English language. I love the way my spouse says the word squirrel. With his British accent, it definitely has two syllables, and sounds like this.

Enjoy the day. Squirrel away some time to have fun.

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry™

Pronouns she/her/hers

9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego CA 92123

Symitar Documentation Services

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

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Since the Writers Guild of America is on strike and I had a few days to sit around and recover from some surgeries last month, I needed something to watch as I recovered. Something soothing, sweet, and relaxing—and I found it in Australia’s show, City Homicide.

As my body healed, I watched some of this series and kept a list by my side. Here are some of the phrases that I have learned so far. Here’s what I’ve found in seasons one and two.

That’s what I’ve gathered so far! I find it interesting that contact sports, headbutts, face-slicing, and motorcycle gang members all sound so cute: footy, kisses, smiles, and bikies. Australia might be a difficult place to figure out if you don’t do some research first. 😊

Enjoy your day!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Kara Church would like to recall the message, “Editor’s Corner: Scottish Slang”.
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.

Since the Writers Guild of America is on strike and I had a few days to sit around and recover from some surgeries last month, I needed something to watch as I recovered. Something soothing, sweet, and relaxing—and I found it in Australia’s show, City Homicide.

As my body healed, I watched some of this series and kept a list by my side. Here are some of the phrases that I have learned so far. Here’s what I’ve found in seasons one and two.

That’s what I’ve gathered so far! I find it interesting that contact sports, headbutts, face-slicing, and motorcycle gang members all sound so cute: footy, kisses, smiles, and bikies. Australia might be a difficult place to figure out if you don’t do some research first. 😊

Enjoy your day!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Good morning! Back in March, I wrote to wish you a happy vernal equinox. Back then, I mentioned that the equinox occurs twice each year (in March and September in the Northern Hemisphere) when the amount of daylight and nighttime are about equal in length.

Today, Im wishing you a happy (slightly belated) summer solstice! According to Dictionary.com, The word solstice ultimately derives from the Latin slstitium, which comes from the parts sl, sun, and sistere, to stand still. This means that slstitium literally translates to something like the standing still of the sun.

The summer solstice (around June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere) represents the longest day of the year. Around the world, people and cultures have beautiful ways to celebrate. England boasts one of the oldest and most well-known celebrations at Stonehenge. Thousands of druids, pagans, and other celebrants gather to admire the spectacular sunrise over the sacred site, where the stones align perfectly with the movement of the sun.

Summer solstice sunrise at Stonehenge

In Sweden, the celebration is known as Midsummer. The celebration involves dancing around a maypole, decorating houses with greenery, and enjoying delicious food and drink.

Dancing around the maypole in Sweden

(You may be familiar with a 2019 horror/thriller movie called Midsommar. I cant recommend it because Im a scaredy cat when it comes to horror films, but it is critically acclaimed.)

In Bolivia, along the shores of Lake Titicaca, on the Isla del Sol, the Indigenous people gather for summer solstice ceremonies that include musical performances, native dances, and rituals to honor Pachamama (Mother Earth).

Indigenous women perform a ceremonial dance at Lake Titicaca in Bolivia

If youre interested in learning about the many other countries and cultures that celebrate the summer solstice, you can read more here.

As we move into summer, I wish you a perfect blend of sunny days and warm nights. Happy summer solstice.

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry

Pronouns she/her/hers

9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego CA 92123

Symitar Documentation Services

About Editors Corner

Editors Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other peoples writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while were doing it.

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Hello folks!

Last week I promised to send you part two of this article on words ending with -nym, translated from Greek as “name.” Let’s get right back to it!

eponym

A name from which another word is derived. Romulus (twin brother of Remus) gave us the name for Rome.

Examples from The Wordpoint

• Caesar Salad: Restaurateur Caesar Cardini created the salad that now bears his name.
• Boycott: This word is named for an Irish land agent, Captain Charles C. Boycott.
• Fahrenheit: Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit is the physicist for whom this temperature measurement is named.
• Cardigan: This is named after the 7th Earl of Cardigan. He led troops who wore this garment into battle.
• Sandwich: While some of the backstories may be lore, it is true that the word sandwich is named for the Earl of Sandwich.
• Nicotine: Jean Nicot sent powdered tobacco leaves and seeds back to France when he visited Portugal as an ambassador.

endonyms and exonyms

endonym (Greek: endo [inside] + nym [name])

The name a group of people use to refer to themselves.

exonym (Greek: exo [outside] + nym [name])

A name for a place or group of people that is only used outside that place or group.

A Few Examples from Omniglot:

In the following list, the exonyms are what we call countries in English; the endonyms are how each country refers to themselves.

日本 (Nihon)

I hope you’ve enjoyed our tour of -nym words!

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