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View of a man at his typewriter from over his left shoulder. The man is 30ish, has buzz-cut hair and black-rimmed glasses.

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Going Out of Style

Tuesday June 18, 2013

It’s house style. I don’t think I fully appreciated the power of that sentence until I could no longer use it. As editors we’re constantly striving to balance the needs of the publisher, author and reader, but with the growth of self- and custom publishing, the needs of the publisher are becoming irrelevant in more […]

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Golf balls and stones on sand under water.

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Karen Virag

GETTABLE GRAMMAR: Taking issue with “issues”

Thursday July 11, 2013

I think I remember the first time I heard the word issues used as a synonym for problems. I was watching a long-forgotten television sitcom, and one character commented on another’s weird behaviour by saying, “She has issues.” She overenunciated the word issues and at the same time made little scratching gestures with her index […]

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editing publishing style useage word choice

The love of money is not only the root of all evil; it is also the root of ghastly copy.

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Wilf Popoff

WASTED WORDS: Squandering Words on Money

Wednesday October 9, 2013

The love of money is not only the root of all evil; it is also the root of ghastly copy. I find it particularly ironic that word economy has only a fleeting acquaintance with commerce. Consider the grating and ubiquitous tautology, expensive price, as in, “The house with a river view comes at a more […]

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editing redundancies redundancy tautologies tautology Wasted Words wordiness

Plate of peanut butter cookies, with accompanied by caption with awkward wording quoted from an Air Canada lounge.

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Karen Virag

GETTABLE GRAMMAR: Verbal Boobery (VB)

Tuesday November 19, 2013

Verbal whatery? Not long ago in the Air Canada Lounge at Toronto Pearson Airport I noticed a small sign beside a tray of freshly baked cookies. It said: Now, I have to say, I don’t know why so many people complain about Air Canada. Knowing how many passengers are […]

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Gettable Grammar grammar usage

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Virginia Durksen

Myth: It Takes a Certain Personality to Become an Editor

Tuesday March 25, 2014

Any profession draws certain personality types to it more readily than others. But just as there’s no single lawyer or doctor or teacher type, there’s more than one editor type. Editors come in all sorts. Editors can be achievers, caretakers, managers, control freaks, idea generators, intellectuals, entrepreneurs — and are often a bit of everything […]

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editing editor editor's personality editor's role editors at work freelance editors in-house editor publishing

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Kelley Wilson

A Game-Changing Writing Exercise

Tuesday April 1, 2014

As a writer, I always struggle with verbs. How many times have I used said, replied or answered? Can I think of a better verb to avoid being repetitive? Do I even need the verb? Verbs, seriously, keep me awake at night. So when I skimmed a recent online newsletter, Chuck Palahniuk’s “Thought Verbs” practically […]

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usage word choice writers writing writing exercise

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Anita Jenkins

Why Reading Is a Great Hobby for an Editor/Writer

Tuesday June 10, 2014

The biographies of skilled communicators often reveal a lifelong, serious reading habit. I don’t think this is a coincidence. I have read constantly and voraciously since the age of five, and I give that habit (addiction?) a lot of the credit for the writing and editing skills I have developed. Reading makes you smart Those […]

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book choice book reviews books editors Facts and Fiction hobbies journalism magazines newspapers reading writers

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James Harbeck

There’s No Way to Truly Split an Infinitive | Linguistics, Frankly

Tuesday June 17, 2014

You can’t split an infinitive. I don’t mean I don’t want you to. I don’t mean it’s not proper to. I mean it’s not possible to. This is for the same reason that I haven’t just broken one off three times, at the ends of the three preceding sentences. The English infinitive is one word. […]

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grammar language linguistics Linguistics Frankly usage word choice writing

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Abby Egerter

Keenness of Eye and Humble Pie, Along That Path Awards Will Lie

Tuesday September 2, 2014

In this instalment of our “Editors in the Spotlight” series, Abby Egerter interviews editor Jennifer Foster, who worked on the award-winning Dirty Science: 25 Experiments with Soil, by Shar Levine and Leslie Johnstone. Jennifer Foster has been editing for 17 years and freelancing for 10. However, book publishing is something of a new venture for […]

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authors book editors editing editor's role Editors in the Spotlight Jennifer Foster proofreading writing

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James Harbeck

Whom Do You Believe? | Linguistics, Frankly

Tuesday January 20, 2015

First of all: If you can avoid using whom, you should. Any but the most formal texts are better off without it; it’s a foreign word for most users, as evidenced by the general inability of even many language professionals to use it quite correctly all the time. Sometimes, however, you have to use it. […]

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grammar language linguistics Linguistics Frankly usage word choice writing