Editor's Corner

Hello, my fellow English lovers and homebodies!

As we all try to decide whether we should make a face mask out of an old T-shirt, a shopping bag, or a coffee filter to best combat danger at the grocery store, I thought I’d finally do more than share jokes about viruses with you.

First, a little about the name coronavirus. The name comes from the Latin, corona, which means “crown.” And, as many things from Rome, this was borrowed from the Greek word for garland or wreath: κορώνη (korónee). So why name it after a crown? Apparently if you had an electron microscope in your pocket, you’d be able to see little crown-like protuberances on the virus—or, if you prefer the Wikipedia definition “the club-shaped viral spike peplomers, create the look of a corona surrounding the virion.” (Yeah, good luck with that.)

Next, I’d like to mention that I noticed some of you breaking the six-foot social distancing rule by getting too close to this virus and nicknaming it “Rona.” Don’t do it! Being that familiar with her is a chance you don’t want to take. How about getting familiar with Grammar Girl, instead? She’s much kinder.

In one of her recent articles, Grammar Girl explains why some disease names are capitalized and others aren’t. Here is the information in a nutshell:

• Most disease names are not capitalized, such as influenza, diabetes, and cancer. Coronavirus should be lowercase, except that I started the sentence with it. COVID-19, on the other hand, is all caps, because it an abbreviation for COronaVIrus Disease-2019.
• Diseases named after regions are capitalized. Remember Ebola and West Nile? Well, those were named after the regions where the viruses were first found: the Ebola river in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and the West Nile district in Uganda.
• Diseases named after people are capitalized. So, sometimes diseases are named after the discoverer and other times they are named after a person who got the disease. Alois Alzheimer was the doctor who identified Alzheimer’s disease, but Grammar Girl explains that people don’t like the apostrophe “s” because the disease doesn’t belong to Alois. Lou Gehrig’s disease, on the other hand, was a disease he had, and it has an official name of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS.

On that note, if you’re still with me, I will now reward you with some more humor. These are difficult times, and difficult times call for a nice margarita, or if you aren’t in Mexico—humor.

Enjoy your day!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Dear Editrix,

Today, I was sending an email and I used the idiom, “covered all of the bases.”

As I was typing, I had a brief moment that I wondered if it was basis, not bases. I thought about it and quickly decided that bases was correct and moved on.

Mr. K

Dear Mr. K.,

Indeed, you are correct: it is bases, not basis. I thought I’d look it up just for kicks, thinking that it was a reference to baseball, but there may be more to it than that. The following information is from the Grammarist:

The idiom cover all the bases means (1) to prepare for every possibility, (2) to give attention to every aspect of a situation or problem, or (3) to inform (someone) of all matters at hand.

The origins of cover all the bases are not definitively established. What we do know is that it came about in the early to middle 20th century, and that it is likely American in origin. Beyond that, there are two possibilities. First, the prevailing theory is thatthe idiom comes from baseball, where defensive positioning involves having players near all the bases. For the idiom to spring from this would be somewhat illogical as covering the bases in baseball is routine, while covering all bases in the metaphorical sense usually involves going beyond routine to be extra careful.

The second possibility is that the idiom has military origins. The phrase appears to have arisen during or soon after the second world war—that incubator of new words and expressions—and the word bases likely had strong military associations in people’s minds. Plus, in historical searches of cover all the bases and variants of that phrase from before 1960, we find only a few instances related to baseball. Most refer to military matters during the two world wars and the Cold War. And if the phrase were from baseball, it would be strange that the metaphorical sense was never used before the second world war, especially since baseball had been a popular American sport since the late 19th century.

In any case, the earliest examples of the phrase used metaphorically…are from the 1950s, and it was not widespread until the 1960s. In historical Google Books and Google News searches, the earliest available example of cover all the bases or any close variation is from a 1952 article in Billboard magazine, and the second is from 1957. These writers use cover all the bases casually and without elaboration, though, so these are certainly not the earliest instances of the idiom.

Examples:

Desi Arnaz and I work very closely on all the production phases of “I Love Lucy” and we still don’t have enough time in a week to cover all the bases. [Billboard
(1952)]

His job is to cover all bases with liberal senators. [Ocala
Star-Banner (1957)]

[T]hey admit now it won’t be a shoo-in, that they will have to cover all the bases. [quoted
from speech in The Telegraph-Herald (Dubuque, Iowa) (1959)]

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Good afternoon, my dear Editor’s Corner followers.

I know, another non-official day for me to send something, but come on. A couple of weeks ago you really enjoyed a little humor. Just to make this one more official, I’ve included some English lessons. J

In this case, the word “doctor” is a common noun, not a title. It does not need to be capitalized:

No need to capitalize all of the words in your sentence, but yes Lionel, it’s you I’m looking for.

Again, overly capitalized.

No need for multiple question marks or exclamation points. We get it, and you’re funny.

Amazon™ is trademarked and capitalized, but now I need to go find myself one of these dresses and a matching mask.

Have a good, safe weekend!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Good morning and happy Thursday, from my home office to yours!

I’ve seen an uptick in the misuse of a particular phrase, so I thought I’d bring it to your attention. The phrase I’m seeing in some of the writing I edit is based off (or based off of) instead of the accepted phrase based on.

I did a little research and Grammar Girl tells us that this is a relatively recent phenomenon. She says it is not a regionalism. It is an incorrect phrase that really took off starting in the mid-90s, and it’s been increasing, but it’s still not as popular as the correct phrase, based on.

Apparently, linguists have been talking about this phrase for about fifteen years, although it was used, infrequently before that. According to an article on the Grammarphobia website, the term based off may result in confusion with the term “eased off” and other phrases that use “off.” And to help you remember the correct phrase, one well-respected linguist, Anne Curzan, gives us this helpful tip: things are physically built on bases (or foundations), so it makes sense to use based on.

When reading about this topic, I learned this brilliant term from GrammarBook.com—Frankenstein formation—which occurs when people take part of one word or idiom and part of another and put them together. They gave the example of (please forgive me, I know this really irks a lot of you) irregardless, which is likely a Frankenstein formation of regardless and irrespective. Another example is a phrase I mentioned in a different Editor’s Corner recently: centers around. The correct phrase is centers on and the mash-up comes from revolve around and the correct term centers on.

Based on all that information, you should be more than ready to go forward using the correct terminology. Stay safe and healthy.

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

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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Good morning, everyone! Or is it every one?

Well, to find out the correct answer, I have a great article for you from GrammarBook.com. It’s quite helpful if you get confused about when to use everyone or every one, anyone or any one, and other sets of words like this. (And, if you’re a quiz-lover, just click the link to go to the web page and take the quiz underneath the lesson.) Enjoy!

Some words written as one word will differ in meaning when split into two words. So you need to know which word you really want.

Anymore: any longer, nowadays
Example: Harry doesn’t travel anymore.

Any more: something additional or further
Example: I don’t want any more cake.

Anyone: anybody
Example: Anyone can learn to cook but few can learn to cook well.

Any one: any single member of a group of people or things
Example: Can any one of you tell me the answer to my question?

Everyone: everybody
Example: Everyone on the list has contributed to the ASPCA.

Every one: each one
Example: I wish I could buy every one of those puppies.

Everybody: everyone
Example: Everybody is working harder today than ten years ago.

Every body: each body
Example: Every body requires protein, vitamins, and minerals.

I hope this doesn’t offend…but I thought we needed a little levity.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Have you ever wondered how the days of the week got their names? Well it’s a long, old story that started with the ancient Babylonians in the Persian Gulf around 4000 BC.

The Babylonians are responsible for the seven-day week. They named the days after the sun, the moon, and the five planets they could see in the sky.

Around the 12th century BC, the Greeks adopted the seven-day week from the Babylonians. They also named a day after the sun and moon, but they changed the names of the other five days to honor their gods.

Then, around the first century BC, came the Romans. They stuck with the same seven-day week, and they changed the names of the days that honored Greek gods to honor their Roman gods. At first, they also named a day for both the sun and the moon—until Emperor Constantine, a convert to Christianity, decided to change the name of the day of the sun to Dominicus, which means “Lord’s day.”

At the end of the 4th century AD, with the fall of the Roman Empire, Anglo-Saxons had their turn to name the days of the week. They liked the seven-day plan and the idea of naming days named after the sun and moon, but (surprise!) they changed the names of the other five days to honor their gods. And as their language evolved into Old English, the names of the days of the week started to sound a lot like our present-day English words:

Sunday = Sonnandæg

Monday = Monandæg

Tuesday = Tiwesdæg

Wednesday = Wodensdæg

Thursday = Thouresdæg

Friday = Frigadæg

Saturday = Saeternsdæg

So, what we have now, in English, is one day named for the sun, one day named for the moon, and five days named for Norse gods. English is such a glorious hodgepodge!

If you’re interested in seeing how the names changed with each language shift, read Grammar Girl’s article called How Did the Days of the Week Get Their Names? The super cool image below comes from her article and breaks the information down by civilization and language. You’ll notice that French and Spanish days of the week align more closely with the Roman civilization.

Happy Thor’s day!

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

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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I remember when the word meme started being used more frequently, and my exasperated husband tried to provide me with examples of what people were talking about. I know what a meme is now, but I thought this comparison of notion, meme, and trope was interesting, and I thought I’d share a condensed version with you. The full article is here on Grammarphobia.

Q: Is there a distinction between a meme, a trope, and a notion? This came up during a discussion I had with a couple of English professors. [KC – Mistake number one!] We would appreciate your advice and have agreed to follow it.

A: This is the kind of question that can lead into the great Grimpen Mire. Vogue words—and “meme” is especially hot right now—tend to blur as they’re tossed around indiscriminately.

But these three words do have distinct meanings. Simply put, a “notion” exists in a mental form, like an idea or a desire. A “meme” exists in a more tangible form and is contagious, like a quirky fashion or a video clip that goes viral. Finally, a “trope” exists in a literary form, like a figure of speech or a thematic device.

The definitions in standard dictionaries are fairly straightforward. We’ll use those from Lexico (formerly Oxford Dictionaries Online), along with examples of our own in italics.

• notion: “A conception of or belief about something.” (That’s not my notion of an inexpensive lunch.) … “An impulse or desire, especially one of a whimsical kind.” (She had a notion to send him flowers.)
• meme: “An element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means.” (Robotic dogs were a cultural meme a few years ago.) … “An image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations.” (Who ever thought that a funny cat photo would become a meme?)
• trope: “A figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression.” (The author’s favorite trope is hyperbole.) … “A significant or recurrent theme; a motif.” (The play’s references to wills and inheritance serve as a trope.)

As for their etymologies, all these words are derived from Latin or Greek.

“Notion” was a direct borrowing from Latin, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. In classical Latin, nōtiōn- or nōtiō meant “concept, idea, legal or intellectual examination,” the OED says, and in post-classical Latin it also meant “knowledge, understanding.”

Unlike “notion,” the noun “meme” is a modern invention. It was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and first appeared in his book The Selfish Gene (1976). He adapted it, the OED says, from the ancient Greek noun μίμημα (mīmēma, something imitated), which comes from the verb μιμεῖσθαι (mīmeisthai, to imitate)….

“Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches.”

A generation later, “meme” acquired its internet meaning, which was first recorded in the late 1990s. The OED’s earliest example refers to an animation of a dancing baby: “The next thing you know, his friends have forwarded it on and it’s become a net meme.”

Finally we come to “trope,” the oldest of the three words. It was borrowed into Old English from Latin or Greek, apparently forgotten, and then reborrowed in the 16th century. As the OED explains, “trope” was “probably a borrowing from Latin” but “perhaps” came from the earlier Greek.

The Latin tropus (figure of speech) can be traced to the Greek noun τρόπος (tropos, turn, direction, or way), from the verb τρέπειν (trepein, to turn, direct, or change). The etymology makes sense if you think of a “trope” as a turn of phrase.

Today “trope” also has technical meanings in music, astronomy, philosophy, and mathematics. But it’s still used in many disciplines…to mean figurative or metaphorical language.

Other famous memes:

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Hello, folks! Stir crazy yet? Well, today I thought maybe everyone could use a little bit of humor to lighten the day. Friday is not a typical day for Editor’s Corner, and this isn’t really a typical Editor’s Corner. What I have for you are just some funny church signs, temple signs, street signs, and the text from signs that might give you a bit of a giggle.

Happy Friday!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Good morning, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well and adjusting to the new normal. It’s normal for you to get an Editor’s Corner email on Thursday, so let’s get going! I hope you find this useful. 😊

One of the hardest things for writers to do is write succinctly. Especially in professional writing, the fewer words you use, the better. Before sending an email or posting or publishing a document, you always want to look for and remove unnecessary words and phrases (they’re unnecessary when they don’t add any value or meaning to the sentence).

I’ll give you some examples, but be aware that there is always more than one way to revise a wordy sentence. The revisions I provide are only one suggestion; there are other possibilities. Your goal should be to use as few words as possible while retaining clarity.

Sometimes, as you revise to reduce wordiness, you’ll just remove a word or two, but sometimes your first draft is more “stream of consciousness” and needs a little more fine-tuning. The mistake most people make is to assume their first draft is “good enough.” All the best writers revise. And then they usually revise again. It often takes a few revisions to make a piece of writing clear and concise. If it is effortless to read, it was probably written by someone who took the time to revise.

And just a warning you probably don’t need about reviewing your text messages before you send them. The autocorrect feature can cause a world of embarrassment. While looking for an example I came across a slew of hilarious texts gone wrong. Here’s one that won’t get me fired:

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

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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Dear Editrix,

I am experiencing a heightened awareness of the word whenever. I was editing a video for another department and the speaker used whenever throughout the video. I thought when would have been sufficient. Then I saw whenever used in Episys eDocs, so I thought there must be some subtle difference that I am not aware of. Can you explain?

Sincerely, K

Dear K,

Considering that people like to use longer, more complicated words when speaking and writing (to sound smarter, to fill space, etc.), my inclination is to agree with you: the speaker is probably using whenever, though when would suffice. But I didn’t see the video, so I’m not sure, and that doesn’t get to your underlying question about the difference between the two. Here is a brief lesson from GrammarBook.com, along with a little quiz for those of you that like testing your skills! (And as usual, I may have changed some of the examples a bit, because that’s how I am.)

Have you ever wondered how to use these words correctly? Have you ever thought, “Oh, either of these words will do”? Let’s have a closer look.

Rule 1 – If an event is unique or its date or time is known, use when.

Examples:

• The costume ball will begin Saturday evening when the clock strikes eleven.
• When I told you I wanted a vacation, I meant to a coronavirus-free beach resort, not a ticket to a political rally in a building shaped like a Petri dish!
• He loved to play Marco Polo with his friends at the local pool when he was a youngster.

Rule 2 – Whenever is best used for repeated events or events whose date or time is uncertain. If you can substitute every time that or at whatever time that in your sentence, then whenever is preferred.

Examples:

• Whenever I get the dogs leashed, it starts raining.
• Whenever you decide to stop eating cupcakes and candy bars for lunch, I’ll help you come up with some healthier options.

Note: When can often substitute for whenever but generally not the other way around. The exception is using whenever as an intensive form of when in questions: Whenever will that dog stop barking?

Examples:

Correct:

• When I get the dogs leashed, it starts raining. (When is acceptable but whenever is preferred for conveying the meaning every time that.)
• When you decide to stop eating cupcakes and candy bars for lunch, I’ll help you come up with some healthier options. (When is acceptable but whenever is preferred for conveying the meaning at whatever time that.)
• Whenever will that dog stop barking? (intensive form in a question)

Incorrect:
The costume ball will begin Saturday evening whenever the clock strikes eleven.

Pop Quiz (answers below the puppy)

1. Do you know when/whenever we’re supposed to arrive at your mother’s house?
2. Let me know when/whenever you’ll be arriving at the airport next week so I can pick you up.
3. When/Whenever the baby cries, she clenches her little fists.
4. I lived in a small town when/whenever I was seven years old.
5. Do you recheck your math when/whenever you have difficulty balancing your checkbook?

Answers

1. Do you know when we’re supposed to arrive at your mother’s house?
2. Let me know when you’ll be arriving at the airport next week so I can pick you up.
3. Whenever the baby cries, she clenches her little fists. (When could also be used but whenever better conveys the meaning every time that the baby cries.)
4. I lived in a small town when I was seven years old.
5. Do you recheck your math whenever you have difficulty balancing your checkbook? (When could also be used but whenever better conveys the meaning at the time that or every time that you have difficulty balancing your checkbook.)

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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.
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