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Front Page: Accuracy counts
1. Common usage
2. Deciphering writing
Hazards of AutoCorrect
Fragments on the doorstep
Editorial Assistance
AP: Not just for journalists
Formerly known as …
Homes, level and otherwise
© 2000 Analytic Services
Accuracy Counts
How important is accuracy? In the information business, how close is close enough? Jim Lehrer of the Public Broadcasting System, in his memoir A Bus of My Own (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1992), wrote: “We [MacNeil and I] both believed that Getting It Right was the first rule of journalism. And the second, the third, the fourth, and all the way to the tenth. Sloppiness with little facts, items as little even as middle initials or titles, leads to sloppiness with the big facts, the big ideas and most everything else. Reporters and editors who use or permit imprecise language, imperfect sourcing, sweeping generalities, sarcasm, cheap shots and smug morality in straight news stories should be run out of the business.”Lehrer’s zeal for accuracy is appropriate not only for those in the media. There are at least three good reasons for being zealous about accuracy: professionalism, credibility, and business.
If communication is your vocation and not just an assignment, then you will desire to communicate well and not just adequately. Professionalism means doing the best job possible even if some (or even all) of the people you serve do not appreciate the level of quality.
Credibility means that people will trust what you have to say and turn to you for information. Botch a quotation, repeat hearsay as fact, or skew your meaning with misplaced jargon or double negatives, and you may have a big job ahead trying to rebuild your credibility.
If you’re in the information business, credibility is crucial. People won’t pay you to provide information if you can’t assemble and present facts accurately. Accuracy pays, and inaccuracy can cost you. I recall an internal business memo that noted the loss of a client—and the client’s name was written down wrong. Maybe there was a connection.
Don’t sacrifice your professionalism or lose your credibility or your business. Follow rules 1 through 10: get it right. 
Common usage is not good usage when it loses a useful distinction.
—William Safire, Coming to Terms (Doubleday, 1991)
Hazards of Word’s AutoCorrect
In one document I was editing, the ® “registered trademark” symbol showed up unexpectedly: The initials for “aeronautical mobile satellite (route) service” came out “ams®s.” I was baffled till I found that AutoCorrect in Microsoft Word was set to automatically change (r) to ®. That’s the default setting in Word. The default also changes (c) to ©, which can turn a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation into a 501©(3). Check any settings in your software that may automatically replace things that aren’t wrong.
Another hazardous AutoCorrect feature in Word is “Correct TWo INitial CApitals.” If left on, this will alter abbreviations such as BEd (bachelor of education) into Bed. “Capitalize first letter of sentences” will turn Dunham et al. have not approved this into Dunham et al. Have not approved this, mistaking the period in et al. for the end of a sentence.
“Replace as you type … Ordinals (1st) with superscript” is another AutoCorrect default. It changes 21st century into 21st century. Not since the mid-1800s have superscripts been in vogue with ordinal numbers, so why Microsoft Word has this style for a default is a mystery. Words Into Type points out that “superscripts are used for exponents (23), for the mass number of isotopes (235U), and for footnote or bibliographic references (Smith 9, 10)”—it doesn’t mention ordinal numbers; superscript ordinals are passé.
—Steve Dunham
Parens and Periods
Few things look so lonely as sentence fragments. Wrapping them up in parentheses doesn’t solve the problem, either. They look like a baby in a basket left hopefully on a doorstep. (poor baby)That’s an example of an abandoned fragment—it follows the sentence (it comes after the period) but has no punctuation or capitalization of its own.
In that case the best solution is to open the door and bring the fragment inside the sentence (much better). Now the phrase in parentheses is before the period, so it doesn’t need additional punctuation or capitalization.
Usually these abandoned fragments take the form of a cross-reference or citation: (figure 2) or (Dunham, 2000).
The rule still applies. Sentences get the first word capped and take a period, question mark, or exclamation point at the end. Fragments don’t.
See figure 2 (instead of just figure 2) is an example of a complete sentence, however. It could be placed in parentheses within another sentence, with the word see lowercase (see figure 2), or See figure 2 could be a sentence by itself and still be set off by parentheses: (See figure 2.)
To put it another way, treat sentences as sentences, and fragments as fragments, whether or not they’re enclosed in parentheses.
But have a heart—bring those poor fragments inside a sentence. Don’t leave them out on the doorstep.
Editorial Assistance
The AP Stylebook—
Not Just for Journalists
No matter which style guide your publications follow, The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual is a useful resource.The main part of the book comprises 264 pages of alphabetically arranged entries that go far beyond AP’s preferred spellings (such as dialogue, not dialog) and abbreviations (Colo., not CO, for Colorado) and how to capitalize titles (“capitalize the principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters”).
Many entries include explanations of the terms to aid writers and editors in using them correctly. A knot, for example, is defined as one nautical mile per hour and is followed by the multiplier (1.15) to convert knots to miles per hour.
Lawyer is identified as “a generic term for all members of the bar” and is followed by explanations of the terms attorney, barrister, counselor, solicitor, and solicitor general.
The entry for Mach number shows that the M is capitalized, gives its derivation (from Ernst Mach), defines Mach 1 as the speed of sound, and provides a rule of thumb (Mach 1 is about 750 miles per hour at sea level).
The AP guide also directs writers to preserve useful distinctions, such as the narrow meaning of firm: “A business partnership is correctly referred to as a firm.… Do not use firm in references to an incorporated business entity. Use the company or the corporation instead.” The AP guide is full of good editorial advice too:
- “In general, avoid jargon.”
- “Do not use abbreviations or acronyms which the reader would not quickly recognize.”
- “Never alter quotations.”
- On “obscenities, profanities, vulgarities”: “Do not use them in stories unless they are part of direct quotations and there is a compelling reason for them.”
The weapons and weather terms entries are followed by subentries with definitions and explanations of additional terms. Separate sections deal with sports and business terms. Following the alphabetized listings is a 10-page guide to punctuation, which begins, “There is no alternative to correct punctuation. Incorrect punctuation can change the meaning of a sentence, the results of which could be far-reaching.” Some of the rules, such as the use of serial commas, differ from those promulgated in the Chicago manual, the Government Printing Office manual, or The Elements of Style. Nonetheless, the AP guide is unexceptionable in its philosophy of punctuation: “The basic guideline is to use common sense.”
Finally, the libel manual provides useful information to any writer or editor who is dealing with controversial material, and it briefly covers the Freedom of Information Act, privacy, and copyrights as well.
Unlike some style guides that consist mainly of rules, the AP guide is principally an aid to clarity—something to which every writer and editor should aspire. It’s designed to facilitate mass written communication.
Available in many bookstores or from Amazon, The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual is well worth the $15 price.
The Country Formerly Known as …
“The former Soviet Union had to go through the same transformation in the ’60s, after the Cuban Missile Crisis,” said Captain Doug Littlejohns, Royal Navy, in an interview in Tom Clancy’s SSN (New York: Berkley Books, 1996). No, that was the Soviet Union. The former Soviet Union is Russia and the other states that used to be the USSR.We wouldn’t write, “Former President Lincoln authored the Emancipation Proclamation,” or, “Former President Nixon resigned.” They did those things as president. Former President Nixon wrote his memoirs—after he wasn’t president any more.
Former indicates what something or somebody used to be, but speaks of a more recent status. In describing events of the past, however, tell it the way it was.
Do not be satisfied if you write so that someone can decipher it. Tell your story so that anyone with the right background can understand and even enjoy it.
—Matt Young,
(University Science Books, 1989)
—sign next to US 1 in Stafford, VA.
They also offer tilted town homes, which are cheaper.