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April 16, 2009: Issue 285

May is a verb meaning to have permission.
present tense: May I ask a quick favor?
past tense: She said I might go with them.

Confusion arises because might is also a verbal auxiliary that expresses possibility:
I might be guilty of overexplaining this issue.

Pop culture can help you remember the distinction. Think of the kids’ game Mother, May I? and the band (or the movie, if that’s more your speed) They Might Be Giants.

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Issue 75

For the 75th issue, Style on the Go featured a quiz with questions taken from the archive. Amy Elbert took home the grand prize.

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November 9, 2006: Issue 164

“Toward” and “towards” mean the same thing, but “toward” is the preferred spelling.
acceptable: She moved steadily towards her goal weight.
preferred: She moved steadily toward her goal weight.

Other words that can do without extra letters include “amid” (not “amidst”) and among (not “amongst”).

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November 2, 2006: Issue 163

“Everyday” is one word when it’s used as an adjective:
• an everyday occurrence
• my everyday clothes

Make it two words when it functions as an adverb:
• something that happens every day
• the clothes I wear every day

Universal problems

Never, ever use a universal search and replace, even for a task as simple and repetitive as fixing page numbers. If you replace every instance of “00,” for example, think about what happens to “100 square feet” or “May 2006.” If you replace every instance of “xx,” a proper name such as Exxon can get you into trouble. Confirm every change. Yes, it takes a little extra time—but so does looking both ways before you cross the street.

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October 26, 2006: Issue 162

SIM STYLE: Has SIM style on end boxes changed?
No. Many magazines are now using special end boxes or symbols, but how and where they should be used remains the same.
• End boxes should be placed at the end of main text or after the final caption in a photo story.
• If the main text ends on a spread with a sidebar, keep the end box at the end of main text.
• If main text ends and a sidebar follows on the next spread, omit the end box for that story.
• Regardless of the symbol used, end boxes are preceded by a fixed space (cmd-opt-shift-space).

2006 UPDATE: The end bug rule has changed. An end bug should be placed in the most logical spot to indicate the end of a story, whether that’s after a caption, sidebar, or main text.

GRAMMAR: Into the fire
“In” and “into” (as well as “on” and “onto”) are not interchangeable. “In” and “on” denote a stationary position or location. “Into” and “onto” denote motion.
incorrect: Dip the brush in green paint.
correct: Dip the brush into green paint.
correct: Once the dog ran into the house, the couple enjoyed dinner on the patio.

Keep in mind, however, that just because “in” (or “on”) and “to” come together in a sentence doesn’t mean they should be combined into one word. Idioms ending with “in” or “on” should be preserved.
incorrect: The designer moved onto the next project.
correct: The designer moved on to the next project. (The idiom is “move on.”)
incorrect: The guests will go into dinner at 6.
correct: The guests will go in to dinner at 6. (The idiom is “go in.”)

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October 19, 2006: Issue 161

Want to hear some atrocious grammar? Flip on your radio or your iPod.

“Them other boys, they don’t know how to act,” Justin Timberlake sings in “SexyBack.”

“If I lay here, if I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world?” Gary Lightbody asks in Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars.”

Our eyes are twitching over here in CE Land. While we can’t do anything about Justin and Snow Patrol, we can clean up grammar in quotes from homeowners and professionals. Our style is to fix tense, case, and number so that sentences inside quotation marks are grammatically correct.

exact quote: “So I find this house by accident, and then I just couldn’t get it out of my head.”
cleaned up: “So I find this house by accident, and then I just can’t get it out of my head.”
cleaned up: “So I found this house by accident, and then I just couldn’t get it out of my head.”

exact quote: “The architect left that decision up to Miguel and I.”
cleaned up: “The architect left that decision up to Miguel and me.”

exact quote: “That group of three of us have weighed in together for 12 years.”
cleaned up: “That group of three of us has weighed in together for 12 years.”
cleaned up: “Three of us have weighed in together for 12 years.”

The speaker’s voice is still there, and we’re not changing vocabulary. We’ve just made the speaker sound good—we’d want someone to do the same for us.

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October 12, 2006: Issue 160

Watch out for modifiers that repeat information specified by other words in the sentence.

redundant:
The end result was a brighter, roomier kitchen.
Neighbors from the surrounding area applauded the renovation.
A new two-story addition gave the kids a playroom and their parents a master suite.
She tried three different reds before she settled on one with a hint of orange.

tightened:
The result was a brighter, roomier kitchen.
Neighbors applauded the renovation.
A two-story addition gave the kids a playroom and their parents a master suite.
She tried three reds before she settled on one with a hint of orange.

ON SIM STYLEBOOK.COM: Find a list of redundant words and phrases.

ROUTING TIP: Never make changes to a file unless you have the routing slip. Don’t worry about what folder the file is in—whether it’s in a folder marked “at CEs,” for instance. All you need to know is whether you have that routing slip. If you need emergency access to a file that’s been routed to the copy desk, talk to a copy editor about getting the file (and the routing slip) back. You’ll spend a few minutes, but please understand that if you alter a file when you don’t have the routing slip, you’ll spend far longer trying to clear up the confusion of duplicate files, overwritten files, or mismatched files and printouts.

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September 28, 2006: Issue 158

Be careful where you put the word “square” when giving dimensions. There’s a difference between “square feet” and “feet square.”

“Square feet” refers to the total area of a space, or its length times its width. “Feet square” refers to the length of each individual side.

A 10×10-foot room is 10 feet square, but 100 square feet.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Our satellite in box has moved. It’s in the cubicle next to Heather Knowles’ office. (And if you haven’t found the CEs’ new home, we’re at the south end of the floor, just off the skywalk.)

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September 21, 2006: Issue 157

As we struggle with the chaos of relocation this week, we know you don’t need a stern grammar lesson. You need swear words you can use at work.

So here you go—a list of terms that sound like profanities but aren’t:

chuff: (v.) to exhale noisily
damnum: (n.) detriment
Damoclean: (adj.) involving imminent danger
fartlek: (n.) training run at a varied pace
feck: (n.) majority
fubsy: (adj.) chubby and squat
fucus: (n.) brown algae (rhymes with mucus)
fug: (n.) stuffy atmosphere
futtock: (n.) ship timber
pisk: (n.) nighthawk
puckfist: (n.) braggart
puckster: (n.) ice hockey player
schist: (n.) crystalline rock
shitepoke: (n.) heron
shittle: (n.) shuttle
vug: (n.) small cave
wangle: (v.) to manipulate or trick

Let fly. And remember, the feck of this Damoclean move will be finished soon.

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September 14, 2006: Issue 156

“Long-term” and “short-term” are hyphenated as adjectives:
This is just a short-term solution.
You’ll need a better long-term plan.

Don’t use a hyphen when they’re nouns:
This solution is for the short term.
You’ll need a better plan for the long term.

ROUTING TIP: When you route layouts to copy editors, make sure the proofs are clean and current. If a proof doesn’t match an electronic file, we’ll send it back to you. This rule serves everyone’s best interest. Last-minute changes are the most likely places for errors to occur, and those are the very blocks of text we won’t see if we read outdated proofs. When you make a change in text after final proof, route that layout back to CEs for a spot-check.

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