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June 7, 2007: Issue 191

Our standard style for a series is to separate the items with commas, using a comma and a conjunction before the final item:
• She painted the bookcase purple, blue, and green.
• They eat fresh fruits and vegetables, they watch their fat intake, and they walk 10–12 miles a week.

It’s acceptable, though, to drop the final conjunction. Sometimes this construction is helpful to add emphasis or to vary your rhythm. It’s called asyndeton, meaning roughly “not bound together.” Asyndeton shows up in great speeches through history:
• Julius Caesar: “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
• Abraham Lincoln: “government of the people, by the people, for the people”
• John F. Kennedy: “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe”

Like any strong literary device, asyndeton is most effective when it’s used sparingly. But it can find a place in our writing:
• The effect is subtle, quiet, soothing.
• Julie sanded, Brian painted, little Charlie napped.

Asyndeton has a cousin, polysyndeton, in which conjunctions separate all the items in a series:
• I asked and I begged and I shouted and I cried.
• After months of dust and disruption and disorder, our project was finished.

Polysendeton, too, is most effective in small doses.

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June 14, 2007: Issue 192

State and city names function just fine as modifiers without any alteration:
this New York house
true Texas style
a Chicago couple

Save the suffixes for nouns that denote residents of those states and cities:
this native New Yorker
style that suited the Texan
a couple of Chicagoans

The exception is Hawaii, which had a long history as its own kingdom before it became a U.S. state:
Hawaiian cuisine
Hawaiian prints

With countries, use suffixes to create modifiers:
French history
Japanese heritage
Moroccan flavor

When you run across a sentence that mixes state and country modifiers, consider restructuring to preserve parallelism.
awkward: The designer was inspired by California and French coastal styles.
preferred: The designer looked to the coasts of France and California for inspiration.

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May 10, 2007: Issue 188

The word green, like the word democratic, can take a broad philosophical definition or a very specific political one. Capitalization makes the difference clear.

Lowercase green when you describe environmentally friendly products, people, or practices:
Go green at the door with a welcome mat made from recycled tires.
Reflecting their green sensibilities, the homeowners chose passive solar heat.
The community is full of green families, so solar panels are a common sight.

Capitalize green when it refers to a specific political party:
The community is full of Green families, so the party has several seats on the city council.

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May 17, 2007: Issue 189

Time for another look at redundancies to avoid:
added bonus
center island
four-poster bed
free of charge
hot-water heater
newel post
panini sandwich
raised platform
venerable old
wall sconce

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May 31, 2007: Issue 190

A cobblestone is naturally rounded. It’s smaller than a boulder but larger than a pebble, and it’s often used in paving.

Stones that have been cut or artificially shaped are not cobblestones. Neither are stones with sharp edges. Try these alternatives: natural-stone pavers, flagstones, stone-look pavers.

Redundancies—again: Many of you must get cranky when you do your banking. We asked for common redundancies that irritate you, and the two most often mentioned—by a landslide—were “PIN number” and “ATM machine.” Avert your eyes when you claim baggage at the Des Moines airport, or you’re likely to catch sight of an offending sign above the ATM.

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April 12, 2007: Issue 184

Make your main verbs as strong as they can be. Avoid constructions that reduce the most powerful verb in the sentence to an infinitive.

acceptable: With smart repurposing, she managed to slash the budget by half.
preferred: With smart repurposing, she slashed the budget by half.

acceptable: They decided to abandon their typical beige and opted to splash bold red around the room.
preferred: They abandoned their typical beige and splashed bold red around the room.

For once, we’re on The Donald’s side: Watch a very cranky Donald Trump fire a contestant from The Apprentice for putting the wrong phone number in a prototype brochure. (It happens at the end of the clip.) You can’t check a phone number too many times.

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April 26, 2007: Issue 186

A few notes about our updated software:

• Adobe has taken a lesson from Microsoft. InDesign CS2, like Word, understands that when you delete a word, you want to delete a space along with it. The program doesn’t leave those pesky double spaces anymore. Just be careful if you’ve gotten in the habit of hitting the Delete key twice.

• The new InDesign hides the scripting window (to make fractions, dimension x’s, and contact sheets) in a slightly different place. To get to it, pull down the Window menu and select Automation, then Scripts. If you don’t want to mess with this step every time, drag the Scripting window to a corner of your screen instead of closing it when you’re done. It will show up there in each new document you open.

• The first time you save a document that was created in the old program, InDesign prompts you to do a Save As. Go ahead and overwrite the older file; you’ll have to navigate to the proper folder.

Clarification: At least one editor was horrified when we said last week that not all Palladian windows are arched. Although the Dictionary of Architecture and Construction says the middle section is “sometimes arched,” we recognize that the term is most commonly associated with an arched window. To avoid confusion (and to avoid making Eliot spit out his coffee again), use another term when the window is not arched: divided window, window with side lights.

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May 3, 2007: Issue 187

Capitalize bible when you mean the specific book that is the basis for Christianity:
Many people find stress relief in Bible verses.

Lowercase it when you refer to any other book.
Her guide has become the bible of home decorating.

Similarly, capitalize god when you refer to a single, universal deity:
She credits God as much as her cardiologist for her recovery.

Lowercase god and related terms when you refer to one of multiple deities, or when you use these words metaphorically:
A frieze on the portico depicts the ancient Greek god of wine.
Let this color goddess show you how a simple hue can change everything.

Lowercase related pronouns:
“I sense Allah—his presence and his love—in my garden,” she says.
“In his mercy, God brought us to Dr. Hastings,” he says.

This last rule follows Words Into Type, The Chicago Manual of Style, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, and The Associated Press Stylebook. But if you’re worried about offending readers, you might be wise to write around the issue, paraphrasing quotes or using partial quotes when necessary:
She senses Allah’s presence and love in her garden, she says.
“God brought us to Dr. Hastings,” he says.

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March 15, 2007: Issue 181

Incorrect pronunciation often leads to incorrect spelling. Here are some words that are commonly said and spelled wrong:
espresso There’s no x sound, and there’s no x.
chipotle The t comes before the l.
masonry Three syllables. It’s not “masonary.”
mischievous There’s an i in the second syllable, not the third. Think of the root word mischief.
triathlon Three syllables. Don’t try to throw an extra a in there.
verbiage Also three syllables. Don’t forget about that i.

And then there are these words that are usually spelled right but often pronounced wrong:
Realtor Two syllables. Rhymes (roughly) with “kneel, sir.”
jewelry The l sound ends the second syllable, not the first.
nuclear It’s pronounced NEW-klee-uhr. Get it right or you’ll sound like that inarticulate, misguided buffoon Homer J. Simpson.

Trademarks ® us: Please note that we’re no longer using a ® in the middle of our group name. It should read Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications®. Find a complete list of SIM trademarks.

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March 22, 2007: Issue 182

We often insert the word up unnecessarily after verbs.

wordy: They demolished a clunky island to open up the space.
preferred: They demolished a clunky island to open the space.

wordy: She mixed up blue and green fabrics for a watery feel.
preferred: She mixed blue and green fabrics for a watery feel.

Up in these cases functions as an adverb, but prepositions have a similar tendency to creep in where they’re not needed.

wordy: He perused through design magazines for ideas.
preferred: He perused design magazines for ideas.

wordy: Roam around the neighborhood and find landscapes you like.
preferred: Roam the neighborhood and find landscapes you like.

Things get especially awkward when we stack multiple prepositions.

ridiculously wordy: They hung posters up around in the neighborhood.
preferred: They hung posters around the neighborhood.

So watch for those pesky little words, and delete the ones that aren’t pulling their weight.

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