by Nancy Haight | 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...
by Nancy Haight | 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....
by Nancy Haight | 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...
by Nancy Haight | May 13, 2025 | Editing
My oldest daughter has a pretty nifty job working with kids. As she gears up to plan summer programming, one of her ideas is a daytime club for kids—full of crafts, games, snacks, and sunshine (the last one is debatable, though. After all, we live in the PNW). “Mom,”...
by Nancy Haight | May 7, 2025 | Editing
It’s minimalist. It’s chaotic. It’s a little bit poetic in a defiant way. whatifwedidnteverusepunctuationandcapitalization brings a certain vibe to writing—equal parts experimental and rebellious. It dares readers to slow down and decode rather than skim. And for a...