Introduction

What I Do 

1. Mechanical editing, which covers grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization and so forth 

2. Substantive editing, which addresses content, organization, effectiveness, style, unity, appropriateness to audience, and the like 

3. Developmental editing, which guides the author through the planning and writing of a manuscript 

4. Seminars on grammar, composition, technical writing, business writing, and fiction 

I accept fiction, nonfiction, articles, and technical, academic, and commercial documents. 

What I Don't Do 

1. Documents on a level of technicality that requires an editor from the field 

2. Manuscripts I consider hateful, libelous, or pornographic   

Introduction 

To those of you who asked, and who may have missed the Word for Word issue devoted to the updates in the most recent (17^th) edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, the word internet is no longer capitalized. If you would like to receive the issue listing Chicago’s grammar and style changes, please request one by email (mjces@gci.net).

 Questions

Dots and dashes! In narrative copy, a lot of writers are puzzled by the difference in usage between the Em dash and ellipsis dots. The two may occasionally overlap, but let’s not randomly substitute one for the other. ­­­ 

The dash—found in Microsoft Word under Insert, Symbols, More Symbols, Special Characters—denotes a somewhat more abrupt, emphatic, or dramatic pause than a comma, is used more informally than semicolons, colons, or parentheses, and is often substituted for these. It may set off additional or explanatory information. The em dash suggests contrast, abruptness, (self-)interruption, or amplification. 

Provided it is not overused, the em dash is a gem of a gimmick for writers! 

We expect our elected representatives to behave like adults—not like spoiled brats.

They will never—well, nearly never—reach the highest levels of the sport.

Inhabitants of the Pacific-bordering states—that is, Washington, Oregon, California (and maybe Hawaii and Alaska)—are more concerned with laws governing international waters than, say, Iowa.

“I don’t believe—and you may hate me for this—that your candidate cares about the average voter.”

“I will never —,” Jack slammed his fist on the table, but Richard cut him off. “You will never what? Grow up?” 

The dash is neither preceded nor followed by a blank space. Do not use the dash inside or adjacent to other dashes. 

Ellipses are three spaced dots, with each dot preceded and followed by a space: . . . Microsoft Word, after so many years, still throws in its unspaced version (…), which is incorrect. 

Besides their use in indicating omissions—usually in academic and scientific writing—in fiction and other informal writing they indicate hesitant, incomplete, faltering, or stuttering speech, unfinished sentences and such.              

“I don’t know why I did not hear the phone . . . maybe I dozed off.”

“It looks like, uh, you know, . . . it almost looks like they did it on purpose.”

Melanie vehemently shook her head. “No . . . nobody . . . can . . . nobody . . . can know . . .” 

There are areas of overlap. A case can be made, for example, for the use of the dash in stuttering speech because of the abrupt stops and starts. Whichever you pick, do so deliberately—not accidentally —to further the effect you are trying to achieve (that is, if you were consciously trying . . .). 

As with the dash, overuse of ellipses ruins their effect, and can become annoying. Used judiciously, both these punctuation marks can contribute to the intended overall effect of your writing.

 Grammar Gripes and Style Stumblers

A popular technique in referring to past custom is the use of would:

When we were kids, we would play hide and seek in the basement. Mom would call us for dinner, and we would try to beat each other up the rickety stairs. My brother Joe would nearly always come in first. 

Sentences exist that have need of this use of would. They are relatively rare. If your sentence falls in this category, use would once, and only once, at the beginning of the paragraph. Then please switch to a simple past tense. We’ve got the point, especially when the sentence already contains a reference to time, repetition, or custom (when we were kids, nearly always).

 Terrible Twos

The word amount is often incorrectly substituted for number, but the reverse is rare. The distinction is really simple. Number refers to countable items, and amount to volume. Thus, you have an amount of sugar, and a number of apples; an amount of goodwill, and a number of students; an amount of food, fruit, or friendship, and a number of fools, freezers, or Frenchmen. 

As a side note, a number of is the equivalent of some, several or many, and takes a plural verb: A number of dogs were brought into the shelter undernourished. In contrast, the number of retains the singular form of number: The number of undernourished dogs was 12. If you can replace the expression with many, numerous, several, some, various, a lot of, and so forth, use the plural verb.

 Everybody Does It

The fact that everybody does anything is no excuse for you to do it also, although a sad truth of writing is that if you say something grammatically wrong often enough, and get other people to do it too, it becomes correct. That is because usage determines acceptability in language. Dictionaries, and to some extent stylebooks, are descriptive rather than proscriptive, and therefore are concerned with majority habits, and not so much with how you or I feel about them. 

On the one hand, change helps keep language alive and effective, and on the other, some of us cringe when we hear, “I told my dog to lay down on his rug.” (No grammatically inclined dog needs to obey such a command in my house.) Let me emphasize here that using lay for lie has not (yet) cleared the acceptability hurdle—thank heaven—but it has certainly made itself at home in the speech of a huge number of English-using speakers and writers. Telling good changes from bad is not an exact science, nor is there always a consensus. 

One thing everybody seems to do is using “I go like, I was like” instead of I said, I stated, I answered, I shouted, I told him and so forth. Not only that, but in reporting on a conversation these same people usually repeat their go-likes/was-likes till we just don’t —well, like it. 

But sadly, this is a rocket that has been launched.