Editing Tips
Mary Embree, SPAWN's Founder, is a writer, editor, and publishing consultant.
Your computer’s spell-check is helpful but has its limitations. Beware of the words it will not pick up, such as using their (possessive case of they) when it should be there (in or at that place) and emigrate (to leave a country to live elsewhere) when you mean immigrate (to enter a country to live there). Here are some other words that I’ve often seen used incorrectly:
accept to receive; to answer affirmatively
except to leave out, with the exclusion of
affect to influence, to pretend
effect a result, an influence, an impression
born brought forth by birth
bornepast participle of the verb bear: to hold up or support
braketo reduce speed
breakto separate, to destroy
capital a city that is a seat of government; money; uppercase letter
capitol the building in which a legislature meets
compare to examine differences and similarities
contrast to examine differences
flair skill, talent
flare a bright light, an outburst
gorilla an ape
guerrilla a member of an irregular military force engaged in guerrilla warfare
illegible impossible to read
unreadable not interesting; not worth reading
ingenious brilliant, clever
ingenuous simple, naive
its belonging to it
it’s it is
lay to put, to set down
lie to rest in a horizontal position (lay is its past tense); to make an un- true statement
liable responsible; likely
libel a defamatory statement
notable worthy, impressive
notorious widely known and ill- regarded
principal main (adjective); the person in charge (noun)
principle a moral rule; a law
retch to make efforts to vomit
wretch a deplorably unfortunate or
unhappy person
whose possessive case of which or who
who’s who is
your belonging to you
you’re you are
Here’s a misusage that I see constantly and it bothers me every time. It is “very unique” or “totally unique.” Unique is an absolute, like complete, equal, perfect, dead and pregnant. You can’t be a little or a lot of any of those; you either are or you aren’t. Unique means existing as the only one or as the sole example.
Okay, I’ll admit that when I looked unique up in the dictionary, I saw that it has undergone semantic development and that the stupid usage I pointed out above has become standard in all varieties of speech and writing. But I don’t care what anyone says; I still think it’s wrong and if I see it on your manuscript, I intend to circle it in red.
Mary can be reached at embreelitservice@aol.com
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