Common editing mistakes we didn't discuss last time (for future podcasts)
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- Don't repeat words without a reason.
- Not: A, although B. C, although D. E, although F.
- When possible, don't mix singular and plural descriptions.
- Not: He wrote sonnets (14-line poems) and limericks (a 5-line poem).
- Express yourself in a few words when possible.
- Not: In the new version of the story, A married B, unlike the first version, where A married C. (Write: In the new version of the story, A married B instead of C.)
- Don't shift the viewpoint of verb tenses.
- Not: He couldn't show me anything that can make a difference. (Write "could make a difference". If your viewpoint was the hypothetical "could" at the beginning of the sentence, it's still hypothetical at the end of the sentence.)
- Subject and verb should both be singular or both be plural, except sometimes when the subject is a collective noun ("A bunch of kittens are playing on the porch.") More nouns are considered collective in Commonwealth countries than in the US.
- When writing "X and Y" where X and Y are noun phrases, check to make sure that it's clear which of the adjectives in X also apply to Y. Such problems can often be fixed by writing "Y and X" instead.
- In a
list sentence with list-like elements separated by commas, if one of the elements has commas of its own, it will often work best to make that the last element in the list. If more than one of the elements has commas of its own, you will probably need semicolons to separate the elements in the list.
- Dan Dank55 (talk)(mistakes) 02:22, 23 August 2008 (UTC)Reply
