December 2019 — Turner Editing

End of Sentence Prepositions

2020 Jul 21 Tue2019 Dec 25 Wed by Westley

For the end of year posting, our topic is the end of something else: sentences. This is the third of our sticky ‘rules’ in English grammar, having already covered Singular They and Split Infinitives. When a sentence ends in a preposition (also known as Preposition Stranding), some folks get in an uproar, BUT we need to note a couple things before going overboard.

Let’s step back and figure out what all the fuss is about. Just by looking at the word, we can tell that a pre-position must come before something. (Some languages have post-positions that have to come after something, as well as circum-positions that go around something.) So, if it is supposed to go before something, how can it end up at the end of something…with nothing behind it? It can happen three ways: questions, relative clauses, and passives. Here are some examples:

What are you talking about? (You are talking about what?)
This is the book I told you about. (I told you about a book—and this is it.)
This bed looks as if it has been slept in. (It looks as if someone has slept in this bed.)

Some of those rearrangements sound pretty unnatural, so why do we think we aren’t supposed to end with a preposition? Let’s check out the background.

History

Preposition Stranding was perfectly natural in English long before anyone commented on it. Since early Anglo-Saxon times, terminal prepositions have appeared in the writings of Chaucer, Milton, and Shakespeare—they even show up in the King James Bible. It wasn’t until 1672 that we find disapproval. That was when John Dryden complained about the phrase “the bodies that those souls were frighted from” in one of Ben Johnson’s writings. He didn’t explain why he didn’t like it, but he was known for following many Latin rules in his writing—and as Latin doesn’t allow prepositions to be moved from their object, he may have been trying to apply that rule to English as well. Others followed and passed on the ‘rule’ including Robert Lowth who admitted that it was common in English…but not suited for formal writing.

“This is an Idiom which our language is strongly inclined to; it prevails in common conversation, and suits very well with the familiar style in writing; but the placing of the Preposition before the Relative is more graceful, as well as more perspicuous; and agrees much better with the solemn and elevated Style.”—Robert Lowth in A Short Introduction to English Grammar published in 1762

I suppose if we wanted to be more ‘graceful’ or ‘perspicuous’, if we were trying to write in a more ‘solemn and elevated style’, if we thought Latin was the best thing ever, then we should front the preposition whenever possible—BUT I prefer to write what I like to read, so by being more colloquial, I’ll probably have more readers (who buy my books!), and that would be my goal.

Modern Usage

Currently you won’t find many grammarians who agree with this constraint, yet this ‘rule’ is still being taught in schools. According to many, this is one of the most persistent myths in grammar. Fortunately, the Grammar Police won’t arrest you if you end a sentence with a preposition…at least not all the time. On the other hand, when the preposition is extraneous, then we should remove it. Contemporary vernacular is sadly full of unnecessary prepositions. Consider the following:

Where is he at?
Where is he?

They mean the same thing, so the irrelevant preposition shouldn’t be there. How about:

He slid off of the roof.
He slid off the roof.

Same situation, and not even at the end of a sentence! Even in the middle of sentences, any unneeded prepositions need to go. Just try dropping the preposition, and if it still makes sense, still means the same thing, then leave it out!

Edit in Print Preview

2020 Jun 16 Tue2019 Dec 18 Wed by Westley

Yes, Word is mostly WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) or at least pretty close, but sometimes you just need to see the final product as you are creating it. You can always flip back and forth between editing and Print Preview, but that’s a bit of a hassle. Fortunately, there is an option that used to be quickly available in Word that is still there…just hidden a bit. We’ll step you through the process of adding the button to give you access to that alternative editing method.

The first step is accessing the current settings for the toolbar. Click on the blue File tab on the left end of the ribbon, then select Options.

That will take you to the Options dialogue box. Once there, click on Quick Access Toolbar.

Now you need to “Choose commands from: All Commands”, then scroll down about three-quarters of the way to find the Print Preview Edit Mode command.

Add it to your toolbar and close the dialogue box. You should now have a new button available.

Click on that button and you’ll be put into a special Print Preview mode. By default, the Magnifier is turned on each time you get here, so once you find the pages you want to edit, just turn it off. Now you can adjust things around and see the changes to the printed page as you make them. Spend some time here and you’ll find all kinds of tricks to get paragraphs and pages to fit nicely. You can even see the blank pages in the final version that you’ve created with Odd and Even Page Breaks. (Of course, you can’t edit those blank pages, so your cursor will show a red not sign if you try.)

If you’re into shortcuts as much as I am, you’ll be happy to know that tapping on Alt will bring up shortcut hints, showing that (in my case), hitting 5 will go straight there.

Now that you can see what you’re doing, you could even work out the details of doing the formatting and layout of a book. Good luck!

Working in Outline View

2020 Jun 16 Tue2019 Dec 11 Wed by Westley

When working on a long document, especially a non-fiction one with plenty of structure, the Outline View is rather handy. It allows you to see the overall structure as well as the details you need. This view is often used when doing Developmental Editing as that is the step when considering the overall arrangement of information. For a quick and easy view of the whole document, the Navigation Pane works well, but unless you manually click in it, you’ll get the same level throughout. With Outline View, you can have everything showing only Heading 1 except the one or two sections where you are currently working.

After turning on Outline View with Ctrl-Alt-O, the first thing I do is cut back on all the clutter by limiting the display to just the top few headings. Use Alt-Shift-1 to show only the top-most heading. If you need a bit more detail, then you can use Alt-Shift-2 or 3. Much more than that and the display gets too chaotic. The next thing I do is limit the display of longer paragraphs to just the first line: Alt-Shift-L. If I don’t want to see any of the text…just the headings…I’d just hit the asterisk key on the numeric pad.

Note: Be aware that some keys work much differently in Outline View than in the other views, especially on the numeric pad.

In Outline View

Now that you’re in Outline View, you’ll probably be adjusting the headings. Move to any heading and use Alt-Shift-Up Arrow to move the entire pgph up to before the previous one. Alt-Shift-Down Arrow moves it down to after the next. Promoting a pgph to the next higher heading style is done with Alt-Shift-Left Arrow. Demoting is Alt-Shift-Right Arrow. If you want to demote all the way to ‘normal’ text, removing it from the headings, use Ctrl-Shift-N.

Expanding the headings below the one where you are by one step can be done with either Alt-Shift-Plus (on the main keyboard) or just the Plus (on the numeric pad…here’s one of the big differences on the numeric pad). Collapsing lower headings is either Alt-Shift-Minus (on main) or just the Minus (on numeric pad). We already saw that the asterisk on the numeric pad shows or hides all the text level pgphs, but the slash key over there will show or hide any character-level formatting you may have…again, allowing you to focus on the organization, rather than the content.

Here’s another key that works differently in Outline View: Tab. The keys Tab and Shift-Tab demote and promote pgphs, just as the Alt-Shift-Arrows do. If you really want to insert a tab whilst in Outline View, you’ll need to use Ctrl-Tab.

That should cover all the intricacies of using Outline View. I hope it helps you keep your ideas organized.

Writing and Editing Terms #3

2020 Aug 20 Thu2019 Dec 4 Wed by Westley

Well, the year is coming to an end, so this will be the last Terms posting and will have to include all the words and phrases we have left over. This is the third posting in this category, so you might want to go back and read Writing and Editing Terms #1 or Writing and Editing Terms #2. If your interest lies more in getting ink on paper, then you’ll want to read Printing Terms. If you prefer to chat about how language works, then consider Grammar Terms. This time we’ll begin with some features that you may want to include in your story, then go over a few elements that are good to consider, and yet again, we’ll be finishing up with a few avoidances.

Parts of a story

Prologue—Introductory section that sets up the story, usually set in a time well before the story itself (also may be an extract from part way through the story, such as just before the climax)
Epilogue—Closing section of story, similar to a Prologue but ties up story threads and reveals characters’ lives after the story
Black Moment—Third point in plot (also known as Darkest Point), MC has been defeated, all is lost
Foreshadow—Planting hints early in the story suggesting events to occur later (see also Red Herrings)
Flashback—Short narration revealing some information to the reader that took place in the story’s past
Backstory—Information about characters or world, known to author and occasionally included in story
Setting—Time, place, and situation of story to establish context (be certain to reveal early enough to avoid assumptions that might turn out to be wrong later)

Details in the Story

Red Herring—False clue to mislead reader, must be logical and fit in the flow but allow the reader to mis-anticipate later action
Chekhov’s Gun—Dramatic principle requiring details to be relevant, per Anton Chekhov, if a gun is mentioned over the mantelpiece in scene one, it must be fired by scene three or it shouldn’t have been mentioned at all
Telling Detail—Information revealed that may seem minor at the time but may lead to understanding the characters better
MacGuffin—Plot device that moves the story along without being relevant in and of itself
Tension—Significant, dramatic elements of the plot that move the story along (as opposed to a MacGuffin)
Stakes—Potential rewards or consequences of MC’s actions, resulting from success or failure of plan
Description—Giving the reader an idea of the surroundings or characters with vivid sensory details

Items to Avoid

Shaggy Dog Story—Long winded story full of irrelevant details that ends with a whimper instead of a bang, often with a pun (see Roger)
Author Intrusion—Comments in narration not in the POV of any character, author telling us what we should think about the situation or the characters
Product Placement—Mentioning details that don’t add to the story (unless you’ve got them as a supporter!)
Pleonasm—Use of extraneous words not necessary for meaning, sometimes a style issue

Well, that seems to wrap up Terms postings for this year. We’ll see about addressing some of these terms next year…in more detail. Look for the postings that include the terms you’re most interested in.