[There are more than a few editors on this board, and I happen to be one. I’m hoping that any questions that people have can be answered by people other than myself - perhaps Scarlett67, if she’s interested.]
This thread is for all of you non-English-major types to ask any questions about English grammar, spelling, punctuation, and the like.
Sorry, I don’t know too much about the British English, although I can offer my best guess.
As for my background, I have been an editor in some capacity for close to a decade. I currently copy edit a scientific journal here in Washington.
So for those of you who don’t get all excited when you see a misspelled advertisement, for those of you who think people are misspeaking but aren’t sure why . . . please ask here!
I (and perhaps others) will answer to the best of my (our) ability.
(I put this thread here because there are certain aspects of grammar that are opinion, not fact. Some questions may be answered quickly - only one right answer - but others may depend on any number of factors. Therefore this seemed the most appropriate place to post it.)
When, exactly, was the apostrophe s rule cancelled?
Everywhere I look, I’m seeing 's where there should be no apostrophe… like when the word is plural and not possessive. I think it’s … um… it’s and its that is confusing people. ('Cause the rule is backward for those words.)
No memo I know of - that’s just people being stupid and lazy.
cat’s is not a plural of “cat,” for example.
cats, on the other hand, is.
I see a lot of signs that have that misplaced apostrophe, and I’m willing to bet some of those were done by people for whom English isn’t a native language, and they think they’re pluralizing when they’re making it a possessive. Poor dears.
I was “copy editor” at my magazine for two years. Then they dubbed me “copy chief.” Howcum I didn’t get any “indians,” and have the same goddam salary I had before they glorified me?
Also, how do I get the hell outta this lousy business?
No longer an editor, but I have been in previous incarnations. And my take on the Whisker Lickin’s is that they’re making plural a Lickin’ … one kitty treat is a lickin’ … its plural would be lickin’s. Of course it’s still wrong, but I’ve been waging the apostrophe war a long time. I think sometimes I’m being sucked to the dark side because, since I write for TV, you can throw apostrophes in all over the place and nobody sees 'em.
And hey, is this my 1000th post?! ::throws confetti:: yippee!
It can be very difficult to get into this business, because there are so many different areas within the industry as a whole. There’s books, magazines, Web sites, and so forth, and then within each medium there’s innumerable genres - science, language, sports, entertainment, and so forth.
An entry-level position for journalism is usually Proofreader. These people aren’t expected to go through literature and rip it to shreds - they’re expected to look over stuff, usually in the final stage before publication. From Proofreader, you can gain experience by becoming a deputy copy editor, and of course having a very firm grasp of the English language and its rules is a must. The Chicago and Associated Press Style Guides are very helpful reference books, but no employer should expect you to know them verbatim - there’s a reason we have the books.
I’m interested in becoming an editor/writer professionally. I do have a couple of questions concerning this trade. What do you do for the majority of the day? All I have is preconcieved notions of reading material and correcting them, plus picking out stories to put in a magazine.
Depends on the job description, Meatros. When I copy edited our college newspaper, I waited until an article had been submitted, then basically ran over it with the proverbial fine-tooth comb. (I also helped out with layout and other things, but it wasn’t part of the job.)
Nowadays, I am primarily responsible for all of the content of a monthly journal. Copy editors where I work basically “shepherd” a paper through the editing process. This entails copy editing the paper (or sending it to a freelance copy editor, then checking their work), communicating with the authors (many of whom are international and use English as a second or third language), processing corrections from the authors, and producing a lineup or dummy issue each time around.
The responsibilities of a copy editor simply differ from company to company. I could edit the contents of a newsletter written by auto mechanics, and their requirements might differ sharply from my current employers.
In “Whisker Lickin’s”, I believe that lickin’ is a noun (a gerund) and the apostrophe represents the missing ‘g’ and the ‘s’ just makes it plural. It’s not an apostrophe-s, IMHO.
Grammatically, I think it’s OK, but when I contemplate what a “whisker lickin’” is, it makes me think of food boogers.
Dantheman, one of my college professors ranted about how stilted and cryptic most scientific prose was. He mentioned an article that claimed that certain standard practices in scientific writing hindered communication. Things like use of passive voice and a style that’s just too…stilted.
What do you think? Are scientists writing to impress or are they just following an accepted style? Are they just being meticulously precise, not intentionally stilted? Is the accepted style changing?
Scientists are writing for their peers. In fact, most reputable scientific journals are peer reviewed. What this means is that the author submits his paper to a journal’s topical editor. The topical editor assigns the paper to two or more reviewers (all volunteer). The reviewers then grade the paper on readability, applicability, and novelty.
There are acceptable formats for writing in a scientific journal. Papers that one may have written in college or high school approach this, but it’s a little more complex than that. At any rate, the authors are as precise as is humanly possible - they have to be, because that precision is one thing that will convince the reviewers that their paper is worthy of merit. (For example, some authors will try to use the word “very,” which is quite vague. When they do this, we ask them to either delete it or quantify it in some way. “very big” or “2-cm-thick.”)
A scientific paper, then, seems stilted to those of us for whom the paper is not intended. If we were scientists, we’d see through the stiltedness and recognize it for its content. But, like reading Shakespeare, the language and the vernacular common to the field can take some getting used to.
What do the various editors here have to say about the apostrophe used to make a singular noun ending in “s” possessive?
For example, Julia Roberts used to be the wife of Lyle Lovett. Was he Julia Roberts’s husband or Julia Roberts’ husband?
The Elements of Style calls for an apostrophe is almost all cases (I think the exceptions are Jesus, Moses and Isis). The well-respected Chicago Manual of Style says Roberts’s. The equally well-respected AP Style Guide says Roberts’.
How about when the “s” is silent as in Illinois or Arkansas. Is it Illinois’s corn and Arkansas’s Ozarks?
And what do we do about Chi Chi Rodriquez? Or Anthony Burgess??? (Burgess’s?)
I have seen punctuation authorities almost come to blows over this issue. What say you?
Poor dears.