Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers E-Book

Carolyn Howard-Johnson

• Herausgeber: Modern History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 63

Beschreibung

Carolyn Howard-Johnson picks the trip-you-up words that her clients struggle with and puts them in a quick reference guide light enough and small enough to be used as an quickie gift that the recipient can tuck into a glove compartment or purse to keep their homonym skills fresh and explains why following grammar rules assiduously isn't always the best choice for writers.
"Carolyn Howard-Johnson has created something of unmatched value: usage advice that cuts through the contentious world of grammar to offer real help. Writers polishing their manuscripts and query letters will find Howard-Johnson's guide more useful than Strunk and White."
-- JUNE CASAGRANDE, author of Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies (Penguin) and syndicated grammar columnist guru
"That so much helpful advice is couched in such light-hearted, easy to read and entertaining prose is due to Howard-Johnson's abilities... "
-- MAGDALENA BALL, founder and editor of The Compulsive Reader review
"...it's editing books like this that help us get one step closer to writing, and speaking, clearly and succinctly. Five stars."
-- DAWN COLCLASURE, author, 365 Tips for Writers
"This book is a good investment for all writers, no matter how skilled and experienced they believe they are. And, if you believe you 'could care less,' you really need this book."
-- BOYD SUTTON, editor, Wisconsin Writer's Journal
"From adapting/adopting to wreak/reek, this book is highly recommended reading for anyone preparing to write pretty much anything -- and a fascinating read in its own right for those who appreciate word-play and the occasionally encountered dilemmas of the English language!"
-- JIM COX, Editor-in-Chief, Midwest Book Review
"This is a wonderful book that could be used as a reference book in secondary classrooms and writing groups. The book would also be handy during teacher-student writing conferences as a neutral way to discuss word use errors especially."
-- CAROLYN WILHELM, curriculum writer, The Wise Owl Factory
LAN022000 LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Editing & Proofreading
BUS011000 BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Business Writing

Leseprobe

Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers

(Second Edition)

The Ultimate Frugal Reference Guide for Avoiding Word Trippers and Crafting Gatekeeper-Perfect Copy

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Ann Arbor, MI

Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers: The Ultimate Frugal Reference Guide for Avoiding Word Trippers and Crafting Gatekeeper-Perfect Copy, 2nd Edition

Copyright © 2010, 2020 by Carolyn Howard-Johnson. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN 978-1-61599-524-0 paperback

ISBN 978-1-61599-525-7 hardcover

ISBN 978-1-61599-526-4 eBook

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system (except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review or other endorsement or recommendation to be printed in or used on the Internet) without permission in writing from the publisher. However, when contacted the author is generous with reprint rights and articles.

Trademarks and the names of other printed matter used in this work are not authorized by, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. No association with corporations or names is implied or intended.

Modern History Press

Tollfree 888-761-6268

5145 Pontiac Trail

FAX [phone]

Ann Arbor, MI 48105

[email protected]

Cover design by Victor Volkman

 

Dedicated to Trudy McMurrin, editor extraordinaire, whose editing skills live on through the books she edited and the many authors she mentored.

Discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book to be used for educational purposes, social organizations, or for distribution by businesses. Exclusive personalization is available for large-quantity orders. For information, contact [email protected]

Contents

Acknowledgments

Before You Get Started

Pleasing the Gatekeepers

Where You Get to Choose

Trip-You-Up Words

Reading: One Editing Book at a Time

Just So You Know: Before You Publish

Other Writers’ Tools from Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Blogs

About the Author

Index

Acknowledgments

Other than the usual stylebooks, dictionaries, thesauri and other reference materials one uses to write a reference guide like this, my special thanks go to June Casagrande. We were both freelance writers for the Glendale News-Press where she writes a weekly column on grammar called “A Word, Please,” but we had never met. Then she enrolled in the Writers’ Program class I taught at UCLA and we became good friends. I read her columns avidly and they never fail to give me new ideas.

Thanks and much love also go to Trudy McMurrin who died too early of breast cancer after she edited The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation, second in my HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers.With more than three decades of university press editing experience and nearly as many as a freelance editor, she was not only responsible for keeping me viewing my own copy with clarity but was a constant source of new grammar tidbits.

In Trudy’s absence, Nadine Laman of Cactus Rain Publishing and Yvonne Perry of Writers in the Sky fame stepped in as last-minute saviors. How does that song go? “With a little help from our friends?”

And now Victor Volkman, publisher at Modern History Press, a division of Loving Healing Press, has offered to publisher this reference guide in its second edition. With additions and updates, of course. It seems gratitude is indeed part of the joy of writing and helper-books like this are one way for me to spread that joy through the writing community.

Before You Get Started

This reference guide is an addendum to a list of word trippers and other gremlins that plague writers in the appendix of my book, The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. A short work like this cannot accommodate the huge list of word trippers. The English language is so complex we could fill volumes with similar nemeses to writers and editors alike. I hoped to have many more quick studies for you. So far, an update—second edition—seems to be the next best step.

My earlier book, The Frugal Editor, includes a list of the most frequent word trippers and other booboos I encounter as an editor of others’ manuscripts. My intent was to give writers as many tips as I could in easily absorbed increments, tips that will advance their editing craft. And that craft is as essential to writers as their writing skills—even when they are fortunate enough to be assigned a talented editor or flush enough to hire the best for themselves. Trouble is, the list needed to be longer and the book needed to be smaller for those who haven’t yet taken to Kindle or other readers.

Thus Great Little Last-Minute Tips for Writers was born. Now in its second edition from Modern History Press, it is full of words that are trouble causers—all of them different from the ones in The Frugal Editor. Specifically, they either sound alike or are spelled similarly. They are not arcane words that you will seldom have an occasion to use. They are not words the writer knows but still mistypes. Words like to/too/two and their/there/they’re. We’ve known about those guys and their kin since third grade. Misusing them is a case of your brain and fingers going a bit haywire as you write. Certainly their misuse has nothing to do with your knowing their sneaky ways, and there’s no help for their confusion other than, as The Frugal Editor suggests, hiring a second pair of eyes or reading final manuscripts backwards. Even effective computer tools like Microsoft Word’s Spell Checker won’t help. These are little things you just gotta know.

What I have added for this second edition is more about the ever-tense relationship between grammar rules and style choices. The famous Elements of Style was never intended as a grammar book; it was a very useful guide of Strunk et al’s preferences for his students. It is unfortunate that many students (and writers!) treated it as if everything he preferred were rules chiseled in stone. Honestly, my mini-treatise on style choice is the part of this reference guide I think most important. So, please keep reading even if you are already a whiz at homonyms. (Please note that in the Appendix of this book I have recommended an updated edition of Strunk and a few other references that treat grammar rules, structure, and other “elements of style” as the choices that they are!).

It is my hope that—because the paper version of this reference guide is slim—writers might take it with them to read and refresh when they are on the go. Better yet, get the Kindle version and have it always available on your tablet, eReader, and laptop. I also wanted to keep it short so they won’t be daunted by too much to learn. I mean, who wants to tackle the Associated Press or Chicago Manual stylebooks in one sitting!