<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Feathertouch Editing]]></title><description><![CDATA[Feathertouch Editing]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 02:20:56 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.feathertouchediting.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[About the Blog]]></title><description><![CDATA[On my home page, I wrote that academic copyediting "is hardly the most exciting profession in the world, but neither is it the most...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/introduction</link><guid isPermaLink="false">64c3f35316e349a5a88caeca</guid><pubDate>Tue, 02 Mar 2021 10:29:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_5675660087bb46df809b2f1c1ce4a43b~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_852,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Copyediting Academic Writing in Indian English for a Global Audience]]></title><description><![CDATA[Image credit: Gemini Over 20 years ago, I was a trainee editor in a small Kochi-based company that edited books sourced from a major US publisher. During the training period, we trainees were given books to edit, and our work was reviewed by the editorial chief, a writer–journalist–editor from Florida. I was a voracious reader and thought I could coast along using what I already knew, but I was in for a rude surprise. The books were written in American English (AmE). In India, we learn...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/copyediting-indian-academic-writing-for-a-global-audience</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0f44f393cb63b5317ca9a0</guid><category><![CDATA[Language]]></category><category><![CDATA[Grammar]]></category><category><![CDATA[Editing]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 31 May 2026 18:01:26 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_8b9bf2a8a35444e595e5f045d779221d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_986,h_538,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Beyond the Basics: Author-Winning Copyediting]]></title><description><![CDATA[Image credit: Gemini Once we have mastered the technical aspects of copyediting through reading, training, and experience, we will begin to notice that certain non-technical elements are equally important. Sometimes, it is our missteps that make us aware of these important elements, which can make or break our relationship with the author. In this piece, I'll explore some of these elements. Using Comments Tactically and Tactfully Often, the only communication we have with our authors is...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/beyond-the-basics-author-winning-copyediting</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6908e6331d235de504364e02</guid><category><![CDATA[Editing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Language]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 03 Nov 2025 19:12:22 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_6ef578cbd41e4a4980d0a0c076c0cef3~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Difference between "Breadth" and "Width": Solving a Word Choice Problem with COCA]]></title><description><![CDATA[Excerpt from "A School Arithmetic" by Hall and Stevens What's the Difference? I 'd always thought width and breadth  were synonyms, but...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/the-difference-between-breadth-and-width-solving-a-word-choice-problem-with-coca</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68ac03fa855527eea2cf9f78</guid><category><![CDATA[Language]]></category><category><![CDATA[Grammar]]></category><category><![CDATA[Editing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tools]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 28 Aug 2025 20:39:46 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_fff26bb82aea4f8ebad6df926a0e6105~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_563,h_363,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to Mark Up PDFs in Acrobat Reader Like a Trapeze Artist: A Quick Start Guide]]></title><description><![CDATA[Photo taken at a performance by the Great Royal Circus in Kochi, India, on September 4, 2010. The acrobat is holding on to the bar with his teeth! Recently, I was asked by a client to edit (mark up or annotate; although these terms are often used interchangeably, there is a distinction which will be made clear a little later) a PDF document, and it looked as though many more such jobs would be assigned to me in the future. In the distant past, I had edited PDFs regularly, becoming quite...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/how-to-mark-up-pdfs-in-acrobat-reader-like-a-trapeze-artist-a-quick-start-guide</link><guid isPermaLink="false">67cdd66372b158f473bc2507</guid><category><![CDATA[Photography]]></category><category><![CDATA[Editing]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 09 Mar 2025 18:42:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_b903af18206c486f9ff9121de557ffa7~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Perfect Symmetry: Using "Not Only ... But Also" Correctly with the Help of Pinker's Bracketing Technique]]></title><description><![CDATA[Generated by Canva AI I n this post, we'll see examples of how to handle "not only ... but also" constructions correctly by using a...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/perfect-symmetry-using-not-only-but-also-correctly-using-pinker-s-bracketing-technique</link><guid isPermaLink="false">66fe8e61b9951ac098f33d1c</guid><category><![CDATA[Books]]></category><category><![CDATA[Language]]></category><category><![CDATA[Grammar]]></category><category><![CDATA[Editing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Punctuation]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 03 Oct 2024 18:49:13 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_d7ca3cfc8ab742298cf2cb6500b5e79a~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Trimming URLs Without Using an External Service]]></title><description><![CDATA[The problem of excessively long URLs is as old as the Internet, and I remember one popular solution that I used in the early 2000s: ...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/trimming-urls-without-using-an-external-service</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6660bbc09c0a6e4d772d398f</guid><category><![CDATA[Editing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tools]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 06 Jun 2024 17:21:36 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_5cb86c3f233a4d4282600d894befdaf0~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_351,h_351,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Who Was the Biologist Somerset Maugham Met in Calcutta?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Left: Book cover. Source: Amazon. Right: Somerset Maugham in 1934. Source: Library of Congress, Prints &#38; Photographs Division, Carl Van...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/who-was-the-biologist-somerset-maugham-met-in-calcutta</link><guid isPermaLink="false">660bacbcd046d46cd7c1851f</guid><category><![CDATA[Books]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 02 Apr 2024 10:50:50 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_332b496e29034a4fab03d1bc9e785d5a~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_932,h_651,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Language Lesson from a Whisky Bottle]]></title><description><![CDATA[My brother and I had finished two-thirds of this excellent whisky when he came down from the United States. After he left, it fell upon...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/a-language-lesson-from-a-whisky-bottle</link><guid isPermaLink="false">65ccd0182931964920630ddb</guid><category><![CDATA[Language]]></category><category><![CDATA[Grammar]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 14 Feb 2024 17:25:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_12de3c158feb4684b308fa9df609ff46~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_743,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Vajesinh Pargi: The Proofreader-Poet]]></title><description><![CDATA[I had not heard of Vajesinh Pargi; not many have. Someone had put up a meme, a few lines from one of Vajesinh's poems, on her Facebook...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/vajesinh-pargi-the-proofreader-poet</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6553bd8e4027127ba5669151</guid><category><![CDATA[People]]></category><category><![CDATA[Language]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 14 Nov 2023 18:57:44 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_63725a2bef3b40358b037095c1a15ab6~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_922,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[How Steven Pinker Sensitized Me To Figurative Language]]></title><description><![CDATA[O n page 48 of The Sense of Style , Steven Pinker talks about how stale idioms and metaphors deaden thought: "When a reader is forced to...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/how-steven-pinker-sensitized-me-to-figurative-language</link><guid isPermaLink="false">64f76e406d90fc8b5e0db297</guid><category><![CDATA[Books]]></category><category><![CDATA[Language]]></category><category><![CDATA[Photography]]></category><category><![CDATA[Signage]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 06 Sep 2023 17:50:29 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_0e8d185111384ff3aed8e16ad71294ed~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_864,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Meeting Yateendra Joshi]]></title><description><![CDATA[Yateendra Joshi is the doyen of Indian academic copyeditors. He and I are long-standing members of Copyediting-L, the email discussion...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/meeting-yateendra-joshi</link><guid isPermaLink="false">64ec9420642f5c0b6f29130c</guid><category><![CDATA[Books]]></category><category><![CDATA[People]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 28 Aug 2023 12:56:08 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_c1046792ccc64adca3d03334a967b15d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_513,h_785,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Language Lessons from "The Kerala Story" and the Coronation of Charles]]></title><description><![CDATA[If you have not heard of the movie The Kerala Story, you are not an Indian. It was released recently and has sharply polarized public...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/language-lessons-from-the-kerala-story-and-the-coronation-of-charles</link><guid isPermaLink="false">64c3f35316e349a5a88caef0</guid><category><![CDATA[Language]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 14 May 2023 16:30:31 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_09fb215ea53f46fdb8aeb264671c089e~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Copyeditor as Word Detective: Using Lookalikes and Soundalikes to Crack Word Puzzles]]></title><description><![CDATA[During the course of their work, academic copyeditors often meet strange words. An online search with keywords drawn from the context of...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/the-copyeditor-as-word-detective-using-lookalikes-and-soundalikes-to-crack-word-puzzles</link><guid isPermaLink="false">64c3f35316e349a5a88caeef</guid><category><![CDATA[Language]]></category><category><![CDATA[Editing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Troubleshooting]]></category><pubDate>Sat, 29 Apr 2023 06:34:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_ebb9720692084920ba2e13799567573f~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_512,h_512,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Colored Fountain: Racism in the United States, Casteism in India]]></title><description><![CDATA[(October 11, 2023 update: A new Indian edition of the book has just been published by Aleph under the title Three Countries, Three Lives:...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/the-colored-fountain-racism-in-the-united-states-casteism-in-india</link><guid isPermaLink="false">64c3f35316e349a5a88caeee</guid><category><![CDATA[Books]]></category><category><![CDATA[Language]]></category><category><![CDATA[Book Review]]></category><pubDate>Sat, 15 Apr 2023 16:07:07 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_ebbecfd2ce9b4fcaac1eb4e75512e23c~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Case of the Sticky Background]]></title><description><![CDATA[I'm not sure when I began to chafe at the white background in MS Word documents. I think it was when dark mode began spreading like...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/the-case-of-the-sticky-background</link><guid isPermaLink="false">64c3f35316e349a5a88caeed</guid><category><![CDATA[Microsoft Word]]></category><category><![CDATA[Troubleshooting]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 27 Feb 2023 08:09:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_4a122e64914f499d8afcb31261a8f90b~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_512,h_512,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Journal Title Abbreviations in Zotero and a ChatGPT Story]]></title><description><![CDATA[Everyone, it seems, has a ChatGPT story. Here's mine. In my last post, I detailed how Zotero revolutionized my approach to reference...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/journal-title-abbreviations-in-zotero-and-a-chatgpt-story</link><guid isPermaLink="false">64c3f35316e349a5a88caeec</guid><category><![CDATA[Tools]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tutorial]]></category><category><![CDATA[Editing]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 19 Feb 2023 18:38:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f63825_f690b9afb1ed47bbbabd79bf4a2f52e0~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_512,h_512,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[How I Automated Reference Editing with Google Scholar, Zotero, and Citation Style Language]]></title><description><![CDATA[Reference Lists and Me: From Zero to Hero Until very recently, I used to hate editing references. I know some copyeditors enjoy it (did...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/how-i-automated-reference-editing-with-google-scholar-zotero-and-citation-style-language</link><guid isPermaLink="false">64c3f35316e349a5a88caeeb</guid><category><![CDATA[Editing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tools]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tutorial]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 26 Dec 2022 14:28:50 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Copying Text with Tracked Changes in MS Word]]></title><description><![CDATA[I had to deal with this problem when I copied and pasted a chapter from a book into a new document, only to discover that the tracked...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/copying-text-with-tracked-changes-in-ms-word</link><guid isPermaLink="false">64c3f35316e349a5a88caeea</guid><category><![CDATA[Editing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Microsoft Word]]></category><category><![CDATA[Troubleshooting]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 16 Oct 2022 04:38:54 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Case of the Line That Would Not Go]]></title><description><![CDATA[A misplaced horizontal line in an MS Word document I was editing had to go. The problem was that it stubbornly dug its heels in and...]]></description><link>https://www.feathertouchediting.com/post/the-case-of-the-line-that-would-not-go</link><guid isPermaLink="false">64c3f35316e349a5a88caee9</guid><category><![CDATA[Microsoft Word]]></category><category><![CDATA[Editing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Troubleshooting]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 13 Oct 2022 10:50:25 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>feathertouchediting</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>