Category: Editing links

The V-formation

Also known as the pace car phenomenon. It’s what happens when traffic bunches up behind a cop car. More details courtesy of the Word Fugitive.

Put your proofing skills to work

Sheila Lennon posted this notice on her blog: Is there a copy editor lurking inside you? You might want to help the all-volunteer Distributed Proofreaders put more free texts online for Project Gutenberg: The first step to take to help…

Stop by Nicole’s blog

For a guide to holiday myths. For instance: “Xmas” is a modern abbreviation that is disrespectful for “taking the Christ out of Christmas.” (The first letter in the Greek word for Christ is chi, which looks like an X in…

Digging for news

Joe Adams’ “I Dig Answers” blog is mostly about using public records in Florida (which has about the best open-records laws anywhere) to find out stuff and keep people honest. Joe was chief of the Peninsula Bureau at the Tampa…

Hipster copy editor wannabe at mcsweeneys.net

Get this guy on the rim, stat: I’m going to try to put this as simply as possible, because I realize that some people thought of English as an elective in college. “FARTHER” is a word that refers to distance.…

Scoop o’ the day

Derek Willis links to a Mobile Register story about fiscal recklessness in the Alabama Legislature. Over two years, the payments have ranged from supplements of a few hundred dollars per paycheck to one-time bonuses of several thousand dollars, the records…

Tracking police hiring

Derek Willis of The Scoop points to an interesting bit of reportage in the Dallas Morning News: One recently hired officer had to pay $1,200 in traffic tickets and drove with a suspended license 8 months before being fired. The…

He’s got a Reason

MediaBistro interviews the editor of Reason magazine (posted as a shoutout to Matt Welch, who writes for the mag). His philosophy: Fundamentally, I don’t think the magazine is interested in controlling people’s lives. What we’re interested in doing is reducing…

What about Western?

The ACES folks want to know: upper or lower case, particulary in regards to music?