Ok, I admit I saw this fabulous photo in the Flick Commons archives (1914, Sydney, Australia) and I wanted to use it. So this post responds to the photo. I drew up a list for the curious reader: an alphabet list of editing prompts. Feel free to pass this list along.
A is for active voice. The list was compiled by me. Better: I compiled the list.
B is for blunt. If you want editing help, you need to accept blunt criticism.
C is for clarity. Your number one gift to your reader.
D is for double-checking your facts.
E is for emphasis. Use context before you resort to italics or bolding or underlining.
F is for formatting. Less is more. Keep the fonts readable and consistent.
G is for Google. Do not trust Google for fact-checking. You need a reputable source.
H is for headline style, used in titles and headings. www.capitalizemytitle.com is your friend.
I is for it’s vs. its. The most common mistake. It is becomes it’s. The possessive its (the dog chased its tail) does not have an apostrophe.
J is for jargon. Try not to. Think of explaining your idea in your second or third language.
K Know your subject. Know it so well you could explain it to an inquisitive six-year-old.
L is for large language models. They will never help you be creative.
M is for em-dash. Use them judiciously—once every page might be right—or your writing gets sloppy.
N is for numbers. Consistency is key, but a good general rule is to write out one to one hundred, and use numerals for 101 and up.
O is for official titles. When they precede the name (President Winnie the Pooh) they are capitalized, when they follow the name, they are not (Pooh, the president of Hundred Acre Wood).
P is for punctuation. In North America, it goes inside the quotation mark, except in legal writing.
Q is for scare quotes. That’s when you “draw attention” to a phrase with quotes. Try not to.
R is for repetition. We are all guilty of it in our writing. A good copyeditor can help. Also, reading your text out loud will help you spot where you are droning on a bit.
S is for style sheet. Any writing that goes through multiple edits should have one.
T is for topic. What is your topic? Tell the reader right away, in the most direct language. This makes it easier for the reader to engage with your text.
U is for umlauts, those dots on top of letters (ä ö ë). As with all diacriticals, they are now easy to find under symbols in Word. Make sure you include them for names and foreign languages.
V is for very. You can usually replace very something with a more specific superlative.
W is for www.deadlink.com. Check your links.
X is for Xi Yinping, standing in for Asian names. Remember, Asian first name/surname protocol differs from the Western model. He is President Xi.
Y is for yoghurt and yogurt. OK, I am running out of steam. Point is, two correct spellings, but you need to pick one and be consistent.
Z is for zzzzz. You don’t want your reader nodding off. Get to the point. Make it lively.
Photo courtesy of Flick Commons. E. Ford, a comedian, at the Tivoli Theatre in Sydney, Australia, in 1914. The predecessor of Mr. Bean, am I right?
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