Comments on: Tibetan Situation Getting Sticky

By: Maeve

Maeve — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:44:23 +0000

Jeannie,
It’s a funny thing–errors in other people’s writing seem to leap off the page at me, while my own mistakes have a way of remaining invisible.

By: jeannie stone

jeannie stone — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:44:53 +0000

This is all very interesting fodder, but I was most shocked that I read this quote 4 times and didn’t find the offense until after I read your comment! I have never mistaked viscous for viscious, and yet my eye did not even catch the err (error!). I would never make a good editor!
js

By: Maeve

Maeve — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:23:04 +0000

Julia,
YIKES!
I do have an excuse, though excuses don’t count with published work. I have trouble distinguishing the letters l and i when they come together in sans serif type. And, despite my advice to others, I didn’t run spell check on this one.

Thanks!

By: Julia

Julia — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:06:15 +0000

I think that “vilification” only has one L. Better be careful. Bodeen may make retaliatory jokes about your spelling errors.

By: Maeve

Maeve — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:44:24 +0000

I put the party chief’s name in square brackets because it does not appear in the sentence being quoted.

Square brackets in a quoted passage indicate that information is being added to the original or, in the case of your example [T]he, capitalization has been altered to fit the context.

Parentheses () have different uses. When writing a movie review I use them after a movie title to indicate the date of release:
National Velvet (1944).

I also use them after a character name to indicate the actor that plays the part: Velvet Brown (Elizabeth Taylor).

Writers often use parentheses to enclose a thought that is a bit peripheral to the sentence in which they appear. This use of parentheses can be overdone. I think it’s best to avoid it as much as possible.