Mar 8, 2022LANGUAGE Copyediting Is Problem SolvingThe sentence (suitably disguised for confidentiality) stopped me in my tracks: "The absence of pregnancy and lactation may explain the...
Mar 6, 2022LANGUAGEThe Mainstreaming of the Word "Shit" in Personal Transformation ParlanceThe book I was editing was about personal transformation for corporate managers. The author was a well-known coach. The language was so...
Mar 5, 2022EDITINGCreative Titles in Scientific PapersIn my post Researcher Name Coincidence, I quoted from the book Academia Obscura by Glen Wright: As part of a long-running bet, five...
Mar 4, 2022LANGUAGEThe Difference between "Sum" and "Summation" in Mathematical WritingThe difference between summation and sum should be clear enough: summation is the process of adding, whereas a sum is the result of the...
Feb 28, 2022LANGUAGEIncident in an Editing OfficeOn a hot afternoon many years ago, a trainee editor walked in with furrowed brow and deposited the following offending sentence in my...
Dec 25, 2021BOOKSThe Bookseller Who Cannot ReadThis is a wonderful story from the People's Archive of Rural India about a bookseller who cannot read. Selling books is not just a trade...
Dec 18, 2021EDITINGSpelling Errors in Titles and HeadingsLast year I was editing a report for a major international consulting organization. There were several co-authors, and the review...
Dec 11, 2021EDITINGWhen Automatic Footnote Renumbering Fails in WordThis should not happen, because Word automatically renumbers the remaining footnotes if a footnote is deleted. I have experienced this...