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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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September 18, 2008: Issue 256

And she’s checking it more than twice. Cindy updates group e-mail lists at least once a week. Save yourself some trouble and use these lists instead of trying to keep your own. You’ll find them in your drop-down e-mail contacts if you type SIM in the “to” field.

The lists include:
SIM Admin
SIM All Groups
SIM Creative Collection
SIM Food Group
SIM Garden Group
SIM Health Group
SIM Home Design Group
SIM New Media Group

And the Eebie goes to … Erich Gaukel, for his editor’s letter in the fall issue of Renovation Style. This column is a nice mix of personal anecdote, peek behind the scenes, design history lesson, and news you can use. Erich receives a commemorative paperweight.

(The Eebies, named for E. B. White, are occasional awards that recognize outstanding use of language. Make a nomination.)

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June 13, 2002: Issue 26

SIM STYLE: Do I use a comma or a slash to separate a photographer’s name from the studio name on credits?
Both. It is usually not SIM style to include both the photographer and the studio name, but there are some exceptions. In those cases some use a comma, and some use a slash. But they are not interchangeable. Follow the style on the credits list.
 correct: Steve Hall, Hedrich-Blessing
For more information, see the Credits section in the SIM Stylebook, or Issues 12, 20, 63.

GRAMMAR: Is passive voice always wrong?
No. It’s true that using active voice usually keeps writing peppier, but that doesn’t mean the passive need always be avoided. The passive voice is sometimes a better choice if the person or thing doing the action can be inferred or is not of interest.
passive: Slate tiles were laid on the diagonal for visual interest.
active: Workers laid slate tiles on the diagonal for visual interest.

Sometimes, it’s a matter of emphasis. In the following sentence, rewriting to the active voice would take the focus off the subject, the pendants.
passive: The strikingly angular pendent lights were designed by an unknown French artisan.
active: An unknown French artisan designed the strikingly angular pendent lights.

Then, of course, there’s this classic example:
passive: The suspect was arrested at a local market.
active: Officer Lopez arrested the suspect at a local market.
Which matters more to you? The arrest, or who made it?

The bottom line: Stick with the active voice in most cases. But if it just doesn’t sound quite right, think about what you’re really telling the reader. If you’re struggling to make a sentence active, and the passive voice just sounds more natural, it’s probably the better choice.

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December 11, 2008: Issue 268

You might have noticed Wal-Mart’s new logo, which has no hyphen and a lowercase m (along with a starburst at the end). But the company name remains Wal-Mart, and that’s how we’ll continue to treat it in text.

This follows our style of referring to companies by their corporate names, not their logos. The best resource to find a company’s name is the “About Us” or “Contact Us” section of its website.

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June 20, 2002: Issue 27

SIM STYLE: Do we use accent marks on foreign words?
Yes. Pay particular attention that the right marks are used with the right letters. Misusing accent marks means a word is misspelled. Follow Webster’s 11th or an appropriate foreign-language dictionary for proper usage.

For a list of the most common accent marks and how to create
them in Word and Quark, see Accent Marks section in the SIM Stylebook.

GRAMMAR: Is there a difference between “despite” and “in spite of”?
Here’s what The Associated Press Stylebook says: “Despite means the same thing [as ‘in spite of’] and is shorter.”

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June 27, 2002: Issue 28

SIM STYLE: What are our rules on hyphenation at the end of a line?
Follow these guidelines to keep your copy looking clean:

• Don’t hyphenate the last word on a page.
• Don’t hyphenate the last word of a paragraph; the final line should include a complete word.
• Don’t allow two or more consecutive lines to end with a hyphen.
• Don’t hyphenate ragged-right copy.
• Don’t hyphenate one word within an already hyphenated phrase; break the line on a hyphen that’s already there.
• Avoid hyphenating display type, such as headlines and intro blurbs.

It’s true that getting rid of some hyphenation can improve the look and flow of copy. But arbitrarily getting rid of ALL hyphenation in justified type creates awkward spacing and unsightly gaps between words that are far more distracting for readers than hyphens would be. Hyphenation within these guidelines is fine.

For more information, see Issue 61.

GRAMMAR: Is it mettle, meddle, medal, or metal?
Here’s a clue! A clue!
correct: Having proved their mettle by solving the mysterious amusement-park haunting, Scooby and friends—once considered nothing more than a group of meddling kids—were presented with a medal of platinum, a precious metal.

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