Beyond the Blue Pen
Musings from a copyeditor’s desk
The Vienna Museum
The museum sent texts and photos of what they were describing, and I got to make the English idiomatic. …
As It Happens
This week, I noticed for the first time that "simultaneously" evokes a temporal relationship, whereas “at the same time” …
Titles versus Names
I learn so much copyediting dissertations, but not always what the author thinks I'll learn …
Step by Step
A copyediting colleague recently wondered if the following needed commas: "Starting as a laborer to painter to blaster to foreman to finally becoming a boss.” The problem is not just commas …
Complex or Complicated?
Copyeditors, including me, can really get into the weeds. Today, I am thinking about "complex" versus "complicated." We generally use complex to mean …
Concatenate Connection
One of the first Excel functions I learned was concatenate. Here's that word again, this time in copyediting …
The Dynamic World of English Verbs
I have been working on a series of essays that have been translated from other languages into English and am once again appreciating how English gives us such varied and powerful verbs. One author has ...
Misreadings and “Cursive Tables”
Here's a sentence in a published book: "[Children], for the first time in county history, began sitting in the same building to learn their cursive and multiplication tables." I love the author's attention to detail, but ...
Copyediting Humor
The other day, my husband said, "Did you remember to close the garage door or should I remind you?" I said, …
Navigating Regional Expressions
Local expressions are so hard to get right. A journalist from the New York Times talks about a couple walking in the Boston Common …