Pronouncing words

If you can’t pronounce it correctly, you probably won’t spell it correctly either.

Remember Sarah Palin’s “refudiate”? But there are a lot of words people commonly mispronounce, and if they’re spoken incorrectly, most likely they’ll be spelled wrongly as well.
How many people do you know who say “aks” instead of ask, eckspresso instead of espresso, and eckcetra instead of etcetera?

Here are some other commonly mispronounced words:
Affidavid instead of affidavit
Cannidate instead of candidate
Irregardless instead of regardless.
Libel when you mean liable.
Miniture instead of miniature
Perogative instead of prerogative
Revelant instead of relevant
Triathalon instead of triathlon (many people add an extra “a”)
Upmost instead of utmost
Pronunciation is often mispronounced as “pronounciation”.
Hyperbowl” rather than Hyperbole
And for Melbournians Essadon instead of Essendon for the suburb and football team.

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

11 Book Sequels You Probably Didn't Know Existed

Sometimes after you finish reading a book you just can’t wait to read the sequel, or the next one in the series. Finding out it’s a year away from publication, or even worse, that the author hasn’t written it yet, can be horrible.

Even worse, of course, is when Hollywood makes a sequel or a spinoff that is so bad you wish you could unsee it.

Mental Floss has compiled a list of eleven sequels to famous books, but these are sequels that either people have seldom heard of, or that pretty much no one read.

How many books about Tom Sawyer do you know about? Have you read the sequels to “Little Women”? Find out all these and more at: http://mentalfloss.com/article/12764/11-book-sequels-you-probably-didnt-know-existed

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Fascinating British slang terms

Thirty-six fascinating British slang phrases with their meanings. Some date back to Roman times, to the navy, Aesop’s fables and Shakespeare. Some you will recognize, some you may guess, but it’s well worth a read.
Blackmail, Go with the flow, Let the cat out of the bag, and many more.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/danieldalton/36-unexpected-origins-of-everyday-british-phrases


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

The rise and fall of Harlequin

This is an incredibly fascinating article and about the rise and fall of Harlequin. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/05/what-happened-to-harlequin-romances.html

The line that says it all to me is, “Still, according to Digital Book World, in 2013, there were ninety-nine self-published e-book best-sellers. Harlequin, in comparison, only had twenty-one.”

Will Harlequin reclaim its top spot? I don’t know, but like millions of other people I’ll be watching to see.

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Misplaced Apostrophes

Misplaced apostrophes is one of the biggest peevs employers complain about in CVs and resumes. It’s also a big problem in books as well. Maybe some editors don’t know the rules or maybe the mistakes are so widespread authors, when told of their inaccuracies, refuse to fix them.

There’s even a website, http://www.killtheapostrophe.com/, by people who hate them because so few people get them right. But instead of blaming the poor helpless little apostrophe, why not learn how to use them correctly?

The rules are very simple. There are only two places where it is correct to use an apostrophe. First, to indicate a missing letter (or letters), and second, to indicate possession.

John’s hat. (possession).
We’re (we are).

Dates are not possessive and there’s nothing missing, therefore it is the 1780s, NOT 1780’s.

Plurals never require an apostrophe. Apples, pears, cherries, all plural just add s. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are the Smiths. Just add an s.

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Terms to avoid

There are terms or catch phrases that once had a specific meaning, which have become incorporated into everyday speech. Unfortunately most of them have now become overused or virtually meaningless. If you find your characters using these terms, it could be good to use a more specific, meaningful phrase that won’t annoy your readers. Unless the person using the jargon is the villain, of course!

Going forward – because your boss usually expects you to go backward?

To 'action' something – why not use a verb that shows the action?

Touch base – as a promise, about as likely to happen as “doing lunch”

Circle back - as above

Blue-sky thinking – because green sky is so 1990s?

Brainstorm – the term has actually been banned as politically incorrect

To take something offline – why not use explicit words – phone? Talk?

Low hanging fruit – because the easiest option is always the best one?

Get the ball rolling – why not just “begin”

Drill down – makes me think of the dentist

End of the day - which day? And when? close of business? Midnight? Or did you mean when the government changes?

World-class: because we know exactly how it’s done in every other nation

Best practices - as above

I’m sure you can think of many more.

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

99 Book Nerd problems

How many are true for you? (Yes, I ticked most of them too.)

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/99-book-nerd-problems/

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.