Blue Falcon Editing

“Grisly” vs. “Grizzly”

Andrea Howe — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:00:45 +0000

This one is a simple definition tip. If you want to say that something is particularly horrible, usually in a rather bloody way, you say it is grisly (with an s). If you’re talking about the bear, you use grizzly. The latter can also be used as an adjective to indicate something is streaked with gray, but it’s more often used with the bear.

Me, Myself, and I

Andrea Howe — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:00:50 +0000

Let’s talk about me, myself, and I. No, I’m not being narcissistic. This is a huge problem that comes across my desk all the time.

I is a subject, which means it acts. (“I talk to him.”) Me is an object, which means things act on it. (“He talks to me.”) Myself is a reflexive object. The reflexive part indicates that an action is reflecting back onto it from itself. The only thing that can act on myself is I. (“I talk to myself.”)

These rules apply no matter how many nouns are in the group with me, myself, or I. The easiest way to determine what word should be used in those cases is to remove everything else from the sentence. For example, in “John and I talk to you,” you would think, “I talk to you.” You would never say, “Me talk to you,” so you shouldn’t say, “John and me talk to you.” Look at “He talks to John and me.” You wouldn’t say, “He talks to I,” so you shouldn’t say, “He talks to John and I.” “Questions should be directed to John and me.” Questions can’t be directed to myself because there’s no reflecting going on, so don’t say, “Questions should be directed to John and myself.”

Drugs Are Bad, M’kay?

Andrea Howe — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:00:07 +0000

Drug is not—I repeat, not—the past tense of drag. The proper past tense of drag is dragged. For example, “I dragged his sorry butt to the window and threw him out because he wouldn’t stop saying he ‘drug’ the chair across the room.” Drug is a noun (as in medication) and is a verb only when talking about administering a drug to someone (as in a jerk drugging his date).

Decimal Points with “Cents”

Andrea Howe — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:00:36 +0000

Don’t use decimal points when you use cents. This is one of my pet peeves, something that makes me want to step into a store advertising something for “.99 cents,” hand them one penny, and tell them to keep the change.

Commas with Names and Appellations

Andrea Howe — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 13:00:54 +0000

When speaking of someone, you can say the person’s name, you can say the person’s appellation (e.g., my sister, the girl, Jeff’s dad, etc.), or you can say both. If you’re going to use both, you need to be aware of the proper use of the comma. If the person is the only one who can have that appellation at that time, then you should use a comma between the title and the proper name (e.g., “my husband, Jeff”), but if you have more than one person who can fit that description, you should not use a comma (e.g., “my friend Keri”). The idea is that the proper name is unnecessary information in the former case, so it’s separated with a comma.

“Who” or “That”?

Andrea Howe — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 13:00:07 +0000

Use who instead of that when talking about a person. For example, “Bill was the one who said I should stop.”

Don’t Rely on Your Spell-checker

Andrea Howe — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:00:23 +0000

Because I talked about using the spell-checker yesterday, I feel it’s my duty to say there are lots of things spell-checkers don’t catch. Here’s one that made me laugh: “You won some tennis lesions in the raffle!” Ouch! Tennis lesions? Is that something you get when you grip your racket too hard? Here’s another: “He was quilt ridden.” Let’s take that nice Amish quilt off the bed and throw it over your head so you can be quilt ridden. Computers aren’t perfect.

Spell-checker

Andrea Howe — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:00:49 +0000

I hate to be harsh, but really, folks, use your spell-checker! Most software has a spell-checker built in. It’s not the best guide, but it’s better than nothing. Although it won’t tell you when you’ve written form instead of from, it will tell you when you’ve written litttle instead of little. Microsoft Word 2007 (and probably 2010) has a context-sensitive spell-checker too. It marks with a blue squiggly line any words it thinks are the wrong word (e.g., ride in “Get ride of that thing” is marked because it figures you mean “Get rid of that thing”). The proper way to write is to use the tools available to you. If you have a dictionary, you should use it. If you have a grammar book, you should use it. If you have a spell-checker, you should use it. It’s just another tool. As I said, it won’t find everything and it certainly won’t help you write a compelling sentence, but it’s a nice tool to have.

Bazaar vs. Bizarre

Andrea Howe — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:00:35 +0000

Let’s talk about bazaar and bizarre. I recently edited a manuscript where the writer consistently mixed up those two words. Please note that the former is a market, as one would find in the Middle East. The latter is a synonym for odd, as one would find walking through the halls at a science-fiction convention.

It Just Is!

Andrea Howe — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:30:15 +0000

Sometimes a thing just is. If something is unique, it is the only one. It can’t be very unique or kind of unique or any other unique. The same goes for historic. There cannot be an extremely historic event. It’s either historic or it’s not.