Today's Writing Tip Is about Commas

Ah, commas. How can something so small and seemingly benign make a grown man cry? Seriously, commas can be confusing, but there are some rules of thumb that can be useful.

The Chicago Manual of Style recommends using a comma after every coordinating conjunction (words like and, but, or), but not everyone agrees. Standard Deviants’ Grammar Pitfalls suggests using a comma in a sentence that has more than two conjunctions. Here's an example --

Chicago version: I wonder if anyone is reading my writing tips, and I sometimes feel like swearing like a truck driver to test my theory, but I have faith in my readership.

Deviants' version: I wonder if anyone is reading my writing tips and I sometimes feel like swearing like a truck driver to test my theory, but I have faith in my readership.

Unless you're writing for a newspaper, you can choose the comma style that you like best. The only important thing to remember is consistency. Don't insert commas randomly; make sure that you have a system and stick with it.

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of Be Your Own Editor, available on Amazon.com in print and on Kindle (http://tinyurl.com/4v249th).

Today's Writing Tip Is about Using the Indefinite Article "A" Before Words Starting with "H"

Have a happy holiday. That's an easy sentence to conjugate. We all know that the article to use before the word happy is “a.” It would be unusual to see someone write, "have an happy holiday" and your spell-check is likely to pick that up.


What becomes complicated is when we talk about words like historical or Hispanic. Some people use “an” before historical – “It was an historical occasion” -- and other people don't. What's the deal? According to The Chicago Manual of Style, if your word begins with a silent “h,” you should use the article “an.” If the word begins with a hard ‘h,” use “a.”

Consequently, an historical occasion is only correct if you don't pronounce the “h” in historical. This seems easier to work out verbally because some of us say “herb” and others say “erb.” But to be on the safe side, have a system or use a style guide. I use the Chicago rule even though I know that some people will prefer “an historical holiday” to “a historical holiday.”

To learn how this differs for Americans and Brits, or for people of different age groups, read Tina Blue’s “article on articles” at http://grammartips.homestead.com/historical.html.

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books including Be Your Own Editor, available in print on Amazon or as an e-book on Smashwords.com.

Today's Writing Tip Is about When to Capitalize New Year

Should you capitalize the term new year? Only if it's a proper noun. If you want to wish someone a happy new year, and you make that a declarative sentence, then don't capitalize it.


Proper noun -- Happy New Year to all my writer friends and subscribers!

Simple greeting -- I want to wish all my writer friends and subscribers a very happy new year. (No capitals.)

The same is true of merry Christmas. If I’m referring to someone having a merry Christmas, I'm not going to capitalize it because I could just as easily use any other adjective -- happy Christmas, festive Christmas, sober Christmas. However, if I am using the saying “Merry Christmas,” which is much like a command, then I will use the caps:

Merry Christmas! (Command.)

Have a very merry Christmas. (No caps, except Christmas is always capitalized because it’s a proper noun and an occasion.)

Let's hope that most people are drinking too much eggnog to notice if you make the occasional slip with these terms.


Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books including Be Your Own Editor, available for free download on Smashwords.com from now until December 31.
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/10130

Today's Writing Tip Is on Our Favorite Words

Many writers have certain words that they use repeatedly without any awareness of doing so. Writer A may love the word invariably and use it throughout a business proposal. Writer B may add the phrase "as well" or "too" to the end of dozens of sentences in her novel.


Often it's hard to recognize words that we overuse, which is why it's good to have someone else read your copy before you submit a manuscript or short story to a publisher. Meanwhile, if you blog or write for an audience, ask your readers what words tend to reappear in your work.

I often use whereas and however; I do this in order to avoid using the word but. But there are times when it's better to choose a different word, even if it sounds pedestrian. Bookmark a good thesaurus and search for synonyms for the words that you tend to use often.


Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor, available on Amazon in paperback for $15.34 (http://tinyurl.com/39kx9zq) or Kindle (http://tiny.cc/mzk4c) for $3.99. Buy it directly from me for $9.99 from now until Christmas. Visit http://sigridmacdonald.blogspot.com.

RE: Today's Writing Tip Is When to Use i.e. and e.g.

Many people are unsure about when to use the abbreviation i.e. and when to use e.g. First, let's look at what these abbreviations stand for.


Contrary to popular belief, the initials i.e. do not stand for Internet Explorer! They stand for “id est," which is Latin for "that is to say" or "in other words." E.g. means "for example" or" such as." Its Latin derivative is "exemplī grātiā .” (If you want to abbreviate Internet Explorer, use the capital letters IE.)

Using these in a sentence, we would say, Darren has a strong background in science (i.e., he has studied physics and chemistry.) Or Darren has an extensive vocabulary (e.g., he can think of 25 different synonyms for awesome or amazing.)

Sometimes these terms can be used interchangeably but other times they can't. A good rule of thumb is to remember that i.e. is a clarification. Christopher is my nephew (i.e., he is my brother's son). We have to use "that is" to explain Christopher's relationship to me. It wouldn't make sense to use e.g.

Note that you always want to insert periods with i.e. and e.g. and then to use a comma afterwards.

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor, available on Amazon in paperback for $15.79 (http://tinyurl.com/39kx9zq) or Kindle (http://tiny.cc/mzk4c) for $3.99. Buy it directly from me for $9.99 from now until Christmas. Visit http://sigridmacdonald.blogspot.com.

Sale!

From now until Christmas, Be Your Own Editor, which makes a perfect gift for friends, colleagues and family, is available directly through me for $9.99, not including shipping and handling. Please send an e-mail to sigridmac at rogers.com and put BYOE in the subject title.  Happy writing! Sigrid

Using the Find and Replace Feature in Microsoft Word

Many of you are probably familiar with the function within Microsoft Word that allows us to find a particular word or phrase, and replace it with something else. Like the ubiquitous spell-check, sometimes this works wonders and other times it can cause more trouble than it's worth.

Let's say I have a 150 page document and I want to change the name Mark to Marvin. I click on the “Home” tab in Office 2010 at the very far left corner of my manuscript. Then on the far right I see the words “Find,” “Replace” and “Select.” I hit “Find” and type in Mark. Then I click “Replace” and type in Marvin and hit OK. Bravo. Everything converts.

But recently I went into a 3,300 word document and tried to replace the word “she” with “I.” Word made 1,119 replacements! Not exactly the correction that I had in mind. Even though I had capitalized the term “I,” it replaced the character “i” in every word including "with," “interesting” or “line.”

That's because I didn't realize that there is a pull-down menu in the “Find” and “Replace” feature. All I had to do was click on "find whole words only" and I was able to substitute the word "I" for "she." Good thing. I'm co-writing a book that started out as fiction but we've turned it into nonfiction; if I had continued to change all of my words manually, I may have still been writing long after Mars had been colonized.

Now you know how to optimize your use of the Find and Replace feature in Microsoft Word, too!

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor, available on Amazon in paperback for $15.34 (http://tinyurl.com/39kx9zq) or Kindle (http://tiny.cc/mzk4c) for $3.79.
From now until Christmas, Be Your Own Editor is available directly through me as an e-book for $1.99. Send an e-mail to sigridmac at rogers.com.