First Come, First Served (Not Serve)

First Come, First Served (Not Serve)

by | Aug 29, 2025 | Editing

This morning, during an edit for a weekly newsletter I proofread, I came across this line: Golfers will register to play on a first-come, first-serve basis. My client’s organization is hosting a golf tournament in September where member businesses can get together,...
Fun Catches: When the Word Is a Word but Not THE Word

Fun Catches: When the Word Is a Word but Not THE Word

by | Jun 21, 2025 | Editing

Every so often, editing serves up a little treat: the “fun catch”—a word that is spelled correctly and is perfectly ordinary, but it’s the wrong word. These slip-ups often sneak past spellcheck because they are real words. Homophones are common culprits: “their” for...
Make It Sound Like Them

Make It Sound Like Them

by | Jun 5, 2025 | Editing

Early in my editing career—on my very first assignment, in fact—I learned one of the most important lessons I’ve carried with me ever since: An editor’s job is not to make the writing sound like them. It’s to make the writing sound like the best version of the author....
A Good Speller Is Irrisistable

A Good Speller Is Irrisistable

by | May 23, 2025 | Editing

The other day, I took a spelling test. Among the words it asked me to check were committment, wholey, principly, slurr, and totaly. These misspellings felt like old friends—words I’ve corrected in manuscripts time and again over the years. I dutifully fixed them to...