Nancy Rudel

Author's posts

Holiday party game: punctuation goes wild

Holiday letters and cards

It’s late November, and the diligent, organized types are already updating their address list, buying festive stamps, unpacking the greeting cards they bought on clearance sale after last Christmas, and brainstorming the highlights of the annual family letter. Others will decide on December 29 to send a hasty, guilt-driven New Year greeting to reciprocate for …

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2012 Word of the Year

The Oxford English Dictionary has selected omnishambles as the word of the year for 2012. According to BBC News, “the word – meaning a situation which is shambolic from every possible angle – was coined in 2009 by the writers of BBC political satire The Thick of It.” This term could prove useful soon as …

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Quotation

An Editor becomes kind of your mother. You expect love and encouragement from an Editor. -Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, 1929-1994 Since you aren’t six anymore, I won’t force you to do what’s best for your writing. But I am a compassionate critic and care about your feelings as well as your success!  

Halloween costumes for writers and editors: #2

The serial comma! Not all style guides see the need, but that final comma can keep the author’s meaning clear. For a costume, trace the outline of a large comma on the front of an old, solid-color T-shirt then use a glue gun to attach breakfast cereal (Kellogg’s Froot Loops, Post Alpha-bits, etc.) inside. VoilĂ , …

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Halloween costumes for writers and editors: #1

What really makes an editor’s skin crawl? Dangling modifiers! Become a writer/editor’s worst nightmare with a simple home-made costume. Print creepy modifiers on index cards, and attach them with 6- to-18 inch bits of yarn to your sleeves, hair, belt, etc. Some possibilities: Despite the pool of warm blood on the floor, To ensure the …

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Ten better ways to say: cold

It’s October, the month when I put blankets back onto my bed and start wearing slippers around the apartment. It’s not fair to say the weather is ‘cold’ yet, but you can get ready with these ten stronger adjectives: Icy Arctic/polar Chill/chilling Nippy/snappy Cutting/piercing/biting Frosty (Joint-) aching Shiver-inducing Wintry Numbing

Imported English

BBC News takes a look at the appearance of British terms and phrases from American mouths, pens, and keyboards: Britishisms and the Britishisation of American English

Plague of plagiarism

The frequency of plagiarism scandals in the news is worrying to editors. American journalists Fareed Zakaria and Jonah Lehrer and Romanian and Hungarian politicians have been recently accused of recycling their own work or claiming that of others. An editor’s role is not to police the writer, but a good editor may notice red flags. …

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Oldest English words

Researchers have recently released interesting analysis of our language, using historical documents to trace the usages of words and relationships between languages. This BBC article reports a handful of words that are among the oldest (I, we, two, and three, but not four), and which words the research predicts may soon fall from use (dirty, …

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