by Nancy Haight | Jan 3, 2025 | Editing
It’s time to get a grip on English. We gotta clinch it. Or do we clench it? Uh-oh…I sense word-choice insecurity. I recently came across this sentence during an editing project: “They will be crushed,” the warlord said, clinching his fist. Word Alert! Historically,...
by Nancy Haight | Jan 2, 2025 | Editing
What a strange feeling to find out that a word you use isn’t a word at all. Typo Alert I was recently editing a book for a client and came across this line: Everyone bursted with relief and joy. I quickly fixed “bursted” to “burst,” because—and here’s where your mind...
by Nancy Haight | Dec 30, 2024 | Uncategorized
Hmm. Have an itch? Do you scratch it or itch it? English can be so irritating (pun intended). Scratch Scratch as a verb most commonly means to tend to an itch, usually by scraping it with your fingernails. But here’s the rub: it can also be a noun. If you get an owie...
