Posts in category: Style on the Go archive

September 27, 2007: Issue 206

In general, lowercase professional designations:
certified kitchen designer
certified diabetes educator
certified public accountant

However, capitalize the associated acronyms:
CKD
CDE
CPA

Exceptions to the lowercase rule:
Realtor (because the term is trademarked)
Master Gardener (to avoid confusion with master as an adjective meaning skilled)

A blog after our own hearts: Check out Bethany Keeley, who chronicles the gratuitous use of quotation marks. Her collection of passive-aggressive notes is fun, too.

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May 2, 2002: Issue 21

SIM STYLE: Why do noun-verb contractions often get written out by copy editors?
Because such a construction can be misread as a possessive, especially if it comes at the beginning of a sentence and the context is not yet clear. In most cases, ditch the contraction and write out both words.
incorrect: The coffee’s ready.
correct: The coffee is ready.

Like every good rule, however, this one has a time and a place to be broken. If a contraction is well-established and the reader won’t be confused, leave it. Changing “Soup’s on!” to “The soup is on!” is just plain silly.

GRAMMAR: What should I call the tall polelike objects at the corners of a bed?
They’re posts. The bed itself may be called a “four-poster,” “six-poster,” or perhaps even the oh-so-snappy “poster bed,” but the poles are always posts, never posters.

Consider a similar example: Your 8-year-old may be a “third-grader,” but the class level is a “grade.” It wouldn’t make sense to say, “Which grader is your child in?”

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November 8, 2007: Issue 212

Be very careful how you use the words win and winner. No one wins anything unless we’re running a sweepstakes.

A reader who submits a question might receive a book. A website visitor who shares a great idea might get a tiara. But nobody wins anything except in a sweepstakes—in which case we must get legal approval and run all that fine print.

How time flies: We still have 47 shopping days until Christmas, but remember that the magazines we’re closing now will publish next year. Make sure covers, folios, and copyright statements say 2008.

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November 29, 2007: Issue 215

In English, a word’s pronunciation determines its indefinite article.

Words that begin with a consonant sound take the article a, regardless of the actual first letter:
a cutlet
a pillow
a historic building
a euphemism

Words that begin with a vowel sound always take the article an:
an igloo
an ornament
an homage

When a word has more than one pronunciation, go by the first one listed in Web 11.

In the case of large numbers, assume that a reader will use the shortest possible pronunciation. For instance, treat 1,800 as “eighteen hundred,” not “one thousand eight hundred”:
an 1,800-square-foot house

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December 20, 2007: Issue 218

Open this PDF for a Christmas poem. Our thanks to Katie Beckman, and our apologies to Clement C. Moore.

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January 17, 2008: Issue 222

Avoid possessive forms where they’re not needed:

acceptable: the dining room’s ceiling
preferred: the dining room ceiling

acceptable: the living room’s white carpet
preferred: white carpet in the living room

Don’t let possessives stack up:

awkward: the butler’s pantry’s silver sink
preferred: the silver sink in the butler’s pantry

awkward: his mother’s garden’s prize-winning roses
preferred: prize-winning roses in his mother’s garden

And with proper names, avoid clumsy plural possessives when the name alone will do:

awkward: the Joneses’ home
preferred: the Jones home

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April 24, 2008: Issue 236

The Academy of Motion Picture Sciences has the Oscars. Dunder Mifflin has the Dundies. And now Style on the Go has the Eebies.

Named in honor of E. B. White, these occasional awards will recognize outstanding use of language in our publications and new media projects.

The inaugural winner is deputy editor Gary Thompson for this clear, clever wordplay in a Kitchen & Bath Ideashed and dek:

Green We Envy
Yes, this kitchen is environmentally friendly, but it’s also a colorful and contemporary gathering space anyone would love to have.

Congratulations, Gary. And you don’t even have to make a speech.

To make a nomination: We welcome suggestions for full-time employees and freelancers who deserve Eebies. The nominated work must be in current distribution, whether on the Web, in bookstores, or on the newsstand. Eebies will be awarded at the discretion of the Style on the Go staff.

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May 30, 2002: Issue 24

SIM STYLE: Are prefixes hyphenated?
In general, common prefixes are joined to words without hyphens. But add a hyphen if a prefix would create an ambiguous word or one that would make the reader hesitate.
correct: The designer created a semicircular arrangement in the living room.
correct: Walls of shelves hold their collection of nonfiction books.
correct: She recovered her grandmother’s wing chair from the storage room, then re-covered it in a floral chintz.
correct: He resides in a century-old home, which he re-sided.

For more information, see Prefixes section in the SIM Stylebook.

GRAMMAR: Idiom Soup
Do you know these idioms?
 correct: anchors aweigh (not “away”)
correct: bated breath (not “baited”)
correct: beck and call (not “beckon call”)
correct: for all intents and purposes (not “intensive purposes”)
correct: without further ado (not “adieu”)

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May 29, 2008: Issue 241

In general, use periods in academic degrees:
Ph.D.
M.D.
B.A.

The exception is MBA. Most reference books leave the periods out of that one, so we will, too.

In professional certifications, on the other hand, don’t use periods:
CDE
CKD

Sometimes this will result in mixed formats in a single byline:

Jane Johnson, Ph.D., CDE

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July 31, 2008: Issue 250

This is our 250th Style on the Go. We’ll use this opportunity to remind you that SIM style is to use standard type, not superscript, in ordinal numbers.

incorrect: This is our 250^th issue.
correct: This is our 250th issue.

To change superscript to standard type in Microsoft Word, select the type and go to the Format menu. Select Character or Font (whichever is the first item in the menu), then uncheck Superscript.

To stop Word from changing ordinals to superscript automatically, go to the Tools menu and select AutoCorrect. Select AutoFormat As You Type, then uncheck Ordinals (1st) with superscript.

To change superscript to standard type in InDesign, select the type, then go to the type control bar and unclick the superscript button (T¹).

Contest: Take our trivia quiz. Match TV shows with the names of their 250th episodes to win fabulous prizes.

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