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Pam Nelson: The Grammar Guide

 

Archive for May 2012

Number of comments in parentheses

28: Hyphens: Compound (word) interest

Perhaps I shouldn’t admit this, but I have a weakness as a copy editor. It’s punctuation. I am often at a loss when a colleague asks me about commas, semicolons and hyphens. Usually, I can put the question off while I check the style guides and usage books. You would think that after all these years some of that research would have embedded the rules in my brain permanently, but apparently I have a deep-seated mental resistance.

18: Two Latin abbreviations that confuse us: namely, i.e. and e.g. (1)

A mildly profane tweet I saw recently took people to task for confusing i.e. and e.g. — something I never had to worry about when I worked for daily newspapers. We never let these abbreviations into print. Now, I work for publications that do use i.e. and e.g., and I sometimes run across uses I must puzzle over.

16: Word choice quiz: More tricky sentences (1)

I’ve run across some interesting examples of confused words lately. Sometimes, even in context, these sentences can be quite challenging. I chose what I think is the better word, but some writers and editors might disagree. Give the quiz a try.  

8: Tricky word usage quiz: Distinctions you might know

My new job requires me to use The Economist Style Guide for some of the copy I edit. Today as I was thumbing through the book, I hit upon an entry that reminded me of the Guide’s rather persnickety usage advice. I decided to gather some examples and create a Grammar Guide quiz (No. 65) based on advice from the Style Guide. I learned many of these word choice distinctions as a newspaper copy editor and still adhere to some of them. They are good to know, if only as self-defense. As you would any usage guide, you can[.....]