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This is not copy-editing
Some years ago, I was hired as the British-English copy-editor for a vastly wealthy multinational after a lengthy and complex test.You know the company. The commission was to be completed…
The latest news.
Living through lockdown
Distant trains metallically clickety-clack Sheffield-bound on the Peak District line, or smoothly thrum to Manchester Piccadilly on the TransPennine line. It's named Branch Street Allotments for a reason. Ah! Hear…
Nit-picking
❓Who would have thought there was a common arthropodic thread running through the world of hair-splitters❓ Pedantry is tiresome to others, but it is a necessary trait when you're a…
Hiring a professional copy-editor versus editing your own work
A first-time author asked what changes I would make to improve her novel. Here was my response: Hmmm, how can I help? Well, with the book I've just finished copy-editing…
Hiring a freelance copy-editor
The advantages of commissioning a sole trader I’ve been mulling the merits of engaging a freelance copy-editor over employing the services of an editorial consultancy. Here are my conclusions: •…
The classic subject/verb disagreement
Grammar nerd/nazi: a classic misnomer
Friends say I’m a grammar nerd, yet grammar plays such a minor role in editorial decisions. By far the greatest number of changes a copy-editor makes to a manuscript concern…
Pain and pleasure
It was with equal parts excitement and terror that I moved north, after spending almost exactly half my life in the south. The first example of normality (‘normalcy’) was in…
Rude
We each have talents. Stuff we’re really good at, subjects at which we excelled at school. Subjects we didn’t have to study because their content was hugely interesting to us.…
Pronunciation prejudice
Today’s news declared that northerners should modify their accents (http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/may/12/trainee-teachers-from-northern-england-told-to-modify-their-accents). We’ve been here before. Being a northerner, I have come up against this prejudice since I travelled south in 1987.…
Contractions and possessives
This short article concerns neither the labour ward nor jealous spouses. It’s about apostrophes. Apostrophes are tedious, insignificant, fiddly punctuation marks, right? Well, no, they’re indicators that tell us if a word…