Editing Secrets
December 24, 2005
Once you’ve plotted out your book, developed the characters and written the last word of text, the real work begins. As busy editors are bombarded with hundreds or even thousands of submissions a year, it’s more important than ever that authors apply their own editing skills to their manuscripts before putting them in the mail. Checking your basic grammar and spelling are of course important, but authors need to go beyond surface editing if their work has a chance of catching an editor’s eye.
Pairs/Groups Of Words Often Confused - Part 6 of 6
December 23, 2005
SALE, SAIL
Sale is either offering something for purchase (”for sale”) or offering it at a special price (”on sale”); sail is part of a ship or boat.
SELL, CELL
Sell is to exchange for money; cell is a small room.
SCENE, SEEN
Scene is the place where something happens; seen is the past participle of see.
“Yet he had seen nothing suspicious at the scene of the accident.” (Of course you wouldn’t write a sentence like that; the two words make for a clumsy combination. I would probably replace “scene” with “site”.)
Pairs/Groups Of Words Often Confused - Part 5 of 6
December 22, 2005
PASSED, PAST
Passed is the past tense of pass. Past means a time that has gone.
“Time passed and we all forgot the incident.”
“In times past it was the custom for women to wear hats in church.”
PEACE, PIECE
Peace means the absence of war (or even noise); piece is a portion of something.
PEAK, PEEK, PIQUE
Pique means to excite or irritate; peek means to peep or snoop; peak as a noun means the summit or tip, and as a verb means to climax. So, you pique someone’s curiosity; you don’t peek or peak it. If someone annoys you, you become piqued rather than peeked or peaked.
Pairs/Groups Of Words Often Confused - Part 4 of 6
December 21, 2005
LATER, LATTER
Later means afterwards; latter is the second of two things.
“Later that day we went for a walk.”
“We have two choices. The latter is the more reliable, but the former would be cheaper.”
Pairs/Groups Of Words Often Confused - Part 3 of 6
ELICIT, ILLICIT
Elicit means to extract or draw out; illicit means not legal.
EVERYONE, EVERY ONE
Everyone means every person in a group; every one means each person and is always followed by “of”.
“Everyone needs to know how to swim.”
“Every one of you should be able to swim.”
FAIR, FARE
Fair means average, good-looking, pale, unbiased (what a lot of meanings for one little word!); fare is the money you pay to go somewhere by bus, train, plane, taxi, etc. It can also refer to a passenger. As a verb it means do, as in:
“I didn’t fare as well in my exams this year as I’d hoped.”