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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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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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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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April 11, 2002: Issue 18

SIM STYLE: Should I capitalize words that Webster’s 11th notes as “often cap”?
Yes, almost always.* And lowercase words Web notes as “often not cap” or “not cap.” It’s important to read the definitions, however; capitalization rules often apply only in certain usages.
• Check out “Down East” and “Jacquard” for examples of “often cap words.
• Check out “Shetland” and “Spartan” for “often not cap” examples that depend on usage.

*Two notable exceptions: We do not cap “mecca” or “nirvana” when used generically.

For more information see Issue 48.

GRAMMAR: Didn’t James Brown mean to sing “I feel well”?
Nope. He meant “I feel good,” and rightly so. Saying that you feel well may seem grammatically correct, but it’s right only if you mean there’s nothing wrong with your sense of touch. If all is right in your world, you’re feeling good. If you’re sick or in a sour mood, you’re not feeling good (unless your fingertips are also numb, but let’s not muddy the waters).

Why? When you describe a state of being—not an action—the adjective (good), not the adverb (well), is correct. If that doesn’t quite make sense, try substituting another adjective for “good”: I feel sleepy (not sleepily); I feel happy (not happily).

Got it? Good, because this next part can be confusing. Applying the same logic, “I am good” works only if you mean to convey that you’re a good person. “I am well” is correct if you’re feeling good. Why? It’s the adjective/adverb thing again. An action is implied (“I am [doing] well”). If you get confused, just say everything is well and good and leave it at that.

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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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March 8, 2007: Issue 180

Here are some important distinctions to keep in mind when you describe appliances:

Use commercial or restaurant to describe an appliance designed specifically for restaurant use. Commercial ranges are generally not appropriate for residential use and are rarely shown in our magazines. Refrigerators, such as the Traulsen brand, are more common.

Combine commercial or professional with grade, duty, quality, or caliber to describe a high-performance appliance designed specifically for residential use: a commercial-grade range, a professional-caliber refrigerator.

Use pro-look or pro-style to describe an appliance that is designed to look high-performance but isn’t. Many stainless-steel models fall in this category.

Get the picture? Speaking of appliances, flat-screen and flat-panel televisions are not the same. Flat-screen TVs can be big and bulky; they simply have flat screens for a crisp picture. Flat-panel TVs are only inches thick. If a television is hanging on a wall, it’s a flat-panel.

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July 2, 2009: Issue 296

He orders a beer and settles on a stool. He hears a voice beside him say “Nice tie.” The guy looks right and left, but he’s the only person at the bar. He takes a drink, and the voice says “Cool haircut.” The guy shakes his head, blinks his eyes, and takes another swig. The voice pipes up again: “You’re one handsome man.”

“Hey,” the guy says to the bartender. “I keep hearing this voice. What’s the deal?”

“It’s the peanuts,” the bartender says. “They’re complimentary.”

The word complimentary describes a bowl of peanuts—or anything else—that’s either flattering or free. When you want to say that something works well with something else, use the word complementary.

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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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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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October 15, 2009: Issue 310

The f-word got plenty of press after an actress blurted it out on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. But for our Web sites and publications, the word she was supposed to say wouldn’t have been much better.

We don’t use the f-word, and we don’t use its close cousins fricking, frigging, freaking, or flipping—not even in quotes. They’re all sound-alike stand-ins for the big vulgarity, and they have the potential to offend.

We’ll close with this exchange from a recent work session:
Garden editor—Did you know the f-word can be any part of speech?
Copy editor—It can’t be an article or a preposition.
Garden designer—Oh, you can get prepositioned with it!

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