Watch Your Phraseology!
There is a growing movement toward redefining the words “homophobia” and “homophobic” to mean a person who hates or disapproves of homosexuals and homosexual behaviour. As an arbiter of correct grammar and proper diction (word choice), I believe that it is incumbent upon me to correct this common mistake before it takes root and becomes a kudzu formation of brobdingnagian proportions.
The fact that a person does not approve of marriage between two persons of the same gender or of sexual relationships between two persons of the same gender does not make that person “homophobic.” The word homophobic means “afraid of homosexuals or homosexuality.” It does not mean “one who hates or disapproves of homosexuals or homosexuality.” The Greek root from which our word phobia derives specifically means “fear of.” The suffix –phobic, likewise, means “fear of.”
There are those who are legitimately described as homophobic. People who will not sit on the same chair as a homosexual for fear of contracting a disease, who will not talk to homosexuals or socialize with them, who run away when a known homosexual approaches — when the reason for their behaviour is fear of the homosexual and his/her lifestyle, then you may legitimately refer to that person as a homophobe.
However, a person who merely disapproves of homosexual behaviour, or a person who hates those who engage in such behaviour, is not afraid of homosexuals, but is, rather, is rejecting their actions. That is his right, and it is just as legitimate as rejecting milk chocolate for dark. What is unacceptable is rejecting the person who is homosexual, especially in an employment situation. It is, however, acceptable for people to choose not to associate with those whose behaviours they disapprove of. As Christiaan Barnard said in his autobiography One Life, “…All men were created to have equal rights. It include[s] the freedom to mix — but also the freedom to not mix.” There is far too much disregard of that second right — the right to choose not to associate.
It is also important to distinguish that a person may disapprove of homosexual behaviour without hating homosexuals, just as a person may disagree with a person of another political persuasion without hating the person. Disapprobation does not equal hatred.
If our society is to continue to grow and to flourish, it is crucial that we remember to acknowledge these fine distinctions, for the fact is that our lives are governed far more by small differences than by large ones.
Getting Started in Freelance Editing
This is a bit of a bio / instruction list. So it runs a bit long.
I’m a freelance copyeditor, typesetter, and writer. I started editing when I was in high school, and was the editor of my college’s literary magazine for three years. When I was in college, I started a typing service (that was in the dark ages, before everyone had his own computer), and cleared about $500 a term from my sophomore year through my senior year.
The typing service morphed into something a bit more advanced as people began to seek me out for help in tailoring their papers so that they would get better marks. By the middle of my first junior term, I was offering full-fledged editing help, giving “consultation sessions” in which I would explain the changes that I would make to a person’s paper, and why I recommended those changes.
I got into freelance editing for publishers when I was a stay-home mother. Someone mentioned a publisher who was looking for freelancers and told me to write in for their tests. I must have done well, because they hired me, and I worked for them for three years before my schedule made it impossible for me to meet the tight, rushed timetables that they worked on. You should be aware that publishers will often send you a 200 to 500 page manuscript for proofing with a three-to five- day turnaround expected. So you need to be able to read quickly and catch mistakes with ease.
I now proof for individual writers, which is a lot more forgiving if you are prone to having emergencies come up and wreck your schedule. I have a rate card which breaks down the charges for each of my services; typesetting is cheapest at $25 an hour; deep editing and tasks that require writing on my part (like putting together press releases) are much more expensive: $50 an hour (creativity should never come cheap!). Realize, though, that rates will vary depending on where you are located and editing for pay in college, I charged $5 an hour for typing, and $10 for editing/ counseling. I’ve got nearly 20 years’ experience under my belt (it helps to start young), so I can charge a lot more.
You should hone your grammar, spelling, and diction (word choice and usage) skills to the sharpest possible point. I’ve also found it helpful to be familiar, not just with the wordprocessing software like MS Word and WordPerfect, but also with desktop publishing programs like PageMaker and QuarkXPress. I own a (used) copy of QuarkXPress for my typesetting and writing work. I also use Quark to design my own logoed letterhead and invoices.
You will have to decide for yourself what types of work you will accept, and what formats you are willing to use for your editing. I do not accept erotica or pornography, or books with explicit love scenes. I also don’t do Stephen-King style horror, because I have too vivid an imagination. I used to edit online using MSWord’s “track changes” feature. I seldom do that now, as I have had some bad experiences with it. I edit on paper only, using red or blue pencil and standard “editor’s marks.” You’ll need to familiarize yourself with those marks so that you can use them comfortably and easily.
As for other references, if you can’t afford an OED (Oxford English Dictionary), get the best unabridged Webster’s you can. Get yourself a copy of the AP Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style. If you are doing term papers for college kids, get the MLA Style Manual and a copy of Turabian’s guide for writers of theses and dissertations. (Make sure you get the most recent editions.) Your big clients will have their own standard reference works, so you need to be prepared to purchase copies of those if you land a corporate client. Larger clients, or those working with publishers, often have a Style Manual or In-House Style Guide that you will be given a copy of; and they will expect you to follow their manuals.
It’s important to be able to shift styles without too much trouble. You can’t indulge your own idiosyncrasies in this work. For example, I am dedicated to the preservation of the serial comma. Some places reject it outright, and when I edit for them, I have to grit my teeth and mark as they want the text to appear. I knew another editor who was dedicated to the obliteration of the word “like” in any definition other than “attracted to.” It caused her trouble with many a client because she would cross out a perfectly good “like” and replace it with stilted verbiage. You simply can’t indulge prejudices that way when you work for the big guys. With the individual clients, you can explain the differences between two schools of thought, but you must let the individual decide whether to follow your inclinations or his own.
Set up a good filing system with a folder or section for each client, and keep copies of everything. Before you return a marked manuscript, copy it! You’d be amazed how many thing get lost in the mail. I don’t “close a file” until a job has been completed for six months. Then all marked manuscripts go in the shredder. Correspondence, invoices and copies of payments I keep for five years. Keep copies of invoices and payment checks. This helps at tax time. Also keep track of expenses; they can be deducted from earnings and taken off your taxes. It also helps to evaluate your business. If income from the business doesn’t exceed expenses for advertising, office supplies, reference materials, and postage, then your business is not profitable.
If You Keep Peeking Over that Peak, I’m Going to Get Seriously Piqued!
Some more sound-alikes to cause you trouble.
A peak is the top of something, like a mountain. It’s a noun.
Examples: Everest is the highest mountain peak on Earth. Bob reached the peak of his career in 1998.
To peak means to reach the topmost limit of ability or performance. It’s a verb.
Example: His lifting ability peaked at 250 pounds.
To peek is to take a furtive look at something. It’s similar to peep. It’s a verb.
Example: If you don’t stop peeking in the gift boxes, I will spank you.
To pique is to make irritated or angry, or to arouse (as in to pique interest). It’s from the same root as piquant and picante. It can be used as either a verb or a noun:
Example — verb: His incessant hints about the surprise party piqued my interest.
Example — noun: Her pique was such that she could think of nothing but his comment.
Just to make it interesting, peaked (/pee-kid/) and peaky can be thrown into the mix. Both mean pale or ill and are used as adjectives, as in She looks a bit peaked this morning; I hope she’s not coming down with something.
Hope this clears up the confusion. I get a bit piqued when I read that someone’s interest was peaked or that they peaked through the curtains.
What? Your Sense of Touch Is Impaired? or Are You Just Guilty?
A very common mistake that a lot of people make (besides writing redundant stuff like the ten words I just wrote) is to say “I feel badly about that.” It seems that this would be correct, but it isn’t.
The reason is that little verb “feel.” “Feel” is a funny word. It can mean something tangible — like when you touch something: “I can feel the sand in the bottom of the tub.” Or it can mean something intangible — like when you sense something emotionally: “I feel hurt by her insensitive remarks.”
When you say “I feel badly,” that means that your sense of touch is not working properly. When you say “I feel bad,” that means that your emotions are negative. (Or you are sick, in which case, for accuracy’s sake, you should say “I feel ill.”)
If this is still as clear as mud to you, drop me a comment, and I will try to explain it better. It’s a muddy area of grammar that is often neglected in modern grammar classes.
If I did my job well, then all I can say is: May you never feel badly and seldom feel bad.
How Does an Annulment Differ From a Divorce?
This question is, of course, raised by the recent appalling marriage and dissolution of marriage between Britney Spears and Jason Alexander.
An annulment is the legal dissolution of a marriage which, essentially, erases the marriage from existence. Legally, the marriage never happened, as there was some problem with the legal contract of the marriage, or with the execution of said contract. The two parties ostensibly return to their premarital state of singlehood, with no legal claims upon one another.
A divorce, on the other hand, is the legal dissolution of a marriage which acknowledges that a marriage did take place, but that the marriage must end. One or both of the parties may have claims upon the other—for spousal support or child support, for example. Divorce does not recognize a problem with the actual marital contract, but, instead, acknowledges that one or the other party has broken the terms of that contract (divorce for cause) or that both parties want out of the contract (no-fault divorce).
Now that you know the difference, use the terms advisedly.
Hey! Get It Right, Can’t Ya?!
I think I know what my first published work is going to be. When I was 10, I started writing a Homonym Dictionary (they call them homophones now). You know what homonyms and homophones are (no, not the nicknames of openly gay individuals nor the earphones they wear with their portable CD players) — they’re words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings. Words like their, they’re, there; hear, here; or two, too, to. I gave that project up when, in the sixth grade, they started hammering us with these confusing word-pairs. I figured that if everyone had this stuff pounded into them in school, no one would buy my book. I was wrong. A lot of the questions that the Grammar Guru receives are from people confused by similar-sounding words. I’ve addressed a lot of these words in this blog, and I want to cover a few more today.
A feint is a move in swordplay or other combat-oriented pursuits (including Chess), in which the person attempts to mislead his opponent into thinking he’s going to move one direction (or pursue a line of action), only to go the opposite direction. It’s a bluff, a diversionary tactic.
Faint can be to pass out or to be weak. The “faint of heart” are weak in the face of danger or ickiness. Women who wear tightly-laced corsets faint because they can’t breathe properly.
A leech is either a parasitic worm that sucks blood from its victim or an archaic term for a doctor (because they used to use leeches to bleed people).
To leach is to extract or draw out: salt pork leaches the poison from festering wounds. Nasty chemicals leach into the water supply and contaminate it.
To write is to put words down in permanent form, on paper or online.
A rite is a standardized and significant ceremony, often marking an achievement or a milestone in life. “Rite of passage” is the term used for the ceremony marking a person’s transition from childhood to adulthood. Religious ceremonies are called rites, as are the ceremonials of various societies (e.g., the Masons).
A right is a intangible concept expressing common consent that one has entitlement to a certain behaviour, action, or standard, and that such entitlement cannot be infringed upon without due process of law and clear reason for the abrogation of that entitlement. For example, in America, one has the right to keep and bear arms. That means that, so long as you don’t use your weapons for illegal purposes, you have the right to own a gun, and no one can take your gun away from you without proving that you have transgressed the law in using it. The “right of way” means that you are entitled to precedence in a traffic pattern; fire engines have the ultimate “right of way.”
Of course, right can also refer to a direction (the opposite of left) or to correctness (the opposite of wrong).
Check those homophones, y’all!
That Pallet of Palettes Isn’t Heavy….
Okay, here are three words that sound almost exactly alike, but mean totally different things.
Pallet: /PA’ lit/ The slatted wooden box that underlies large shipments; also the shipment itself. A pallet jack is a small hydraulic jack/forklift used to hoick a pallet of goods off the warehouse floor and transport it onto a semi for transport. Some people use old pallets to make fences, forts, or shelves. (In the part of the South where I live, a pallet is also a flat nest of quilts and blankets laid upon the floor for a person to sleep on.)
Palette: /puh LET’/ or /PA’ lit/ depending on where you live. The mixing board used by artists for their daubs of paint. Usually an oval shape with a thumb-hole cut in one narrow end. Also used to refer to a spectrum of colours or the range of choices provided in an artistic endeavour. (Example: That artist’s palette consists primarily of muddy colours in the blue and yellow families.) May be used in a metaphorical sense to refer to the range of choices available in any creative endeavour. (Example: The palette of ingredients in Thai cooking includes cilantro, coconut milk, hot peppers, and lime juice.)
Palate: /PAL’ uht/ The roof of the mouth, or the sense of taste. Everyone has a hard palate and a soft palate: areas of the roof of the mouth. The uvula hangs down at the back of the soft palate. When one is said to have a well-developed palate, it means that one enjoys tasting new and exotic foods. One may also be said to need to develop one’s palate: to train oneself to appreciate such foods as wine, foie gras, or truffles (the mushroom, not the chocolate), or to sense subtle differences in varieties of the same food (like wine or grapes). A person with a highly trained palate, like Chef Gordon Ramsay, can often tell you, just by tasting a dish, what ingredients are incorporated in it—even in very complex sauces and highly seasoned dishes.
Don’t Confuse These Two!
Here is a mistake I am seeing more and more often. It bugs the heck outta me.
Where is an adverb meaning “in what location.”
Were is a verb, the past tense of “to be,” meaning “formerly” or “existed in the past.”
Perhaps the mistakes I am seeing are the result of sloppy typing. If so, be more diligent in your spell-checking — computer or manual. Sentences like “We where planning to go to the mall” or “He wanted to know were we went” leave a bad impression — and for those bloggers who are hoping to “be discovered” or just to be taken seriously as a writer, bad impressions are something to be avoided.
You Can’t Censure a Censor for Doing His Job
Three words that are often confused, and that have little to do with each other: censor, censure, sensor, and censer.
Let’s get the censer out of the way first, as it bears no conceivable relation to the other two, except in approximate pronunciation. A censer (/SEHN sur/) is an incense burner that can be swung by its chain to dispense the frangrance of the incense throughout a given area. If you have ever been to a High Mass in the Catholic Church, you have seen acolytes or priests swinging their censers as they process down the aisles.
Next the sensor, for the same reason. A sensor (/SEHN sohr/ or, if you’re sloppy, /SEHN sur/) is a detection device. A motion sensor detects movement and turns on a light, rings an alarm, or otherwise alerts someone that motion has occurred.
Censor (/SEHN sohr/) can be a noun or a verb. In its noun form, it merely means someone who censors. To censor means to examine and remove or suppress any offending bits. For example, the military has a censor who examines incoming and outgoing mail to ensure that no secret information is released, whether deliberately or inadvertently. The movie industry used to have a board of censors who reviewed films to ensure that no prurient or overly suggestive material was produced.
Censure (/SEHN shoor/), however, is an official act of reprimand. It also can be a very harsh rebuke. I may censure you for watching pornographic movies, but I cannot censor them — they are already in distribution.
It is important to maintain the distinction between censure and censor. The one is merely a rebuke, a calling on the carpet for infringing on standards or behavioural guidelines. The other is an active removal of offending material from public dissemination. An example would be an online forum’s practice of sending warning e-mails to those who infringe the Terms of Use (censuring them) followed by banning and removal of a person’s posts if they don’t clean up their act (censoring them).
People, Please! Use Your Dictionary!
Or, if not your actual, hardback, unabridged, at least type things into dictionary.com before you post a spelling that makes you look like a sloppy, uneducated wanna-be writer.
In flipping through blog titles this morning — just titles, mind you — I came across at least a dozen misspellings. Most of these might have simply been typos (which inspires me to urge you to do a careful read-through before you click that “post” button), but some of them were obviously attempts to spell a word with which the writer was familiar, a word that the author knew how to use and understood its meaning, but not its correct spelling.
I am all for phonics. Phonics is one reason that I read 800 wpm and can devour six average-length books a week. Phonics is one reason that I won my school spelling bee in the seventh grade. But phonics will get you only so far in the spelling game. English words come from many different sources: primarily German (surprise!), but also Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, and Dutch. In addition, English borrows scads of words from other languages, so that you can find Chinese, Hindi, Amerindian, Italian, Zulu, Tagalog, Russian, and countless other words that originated in other languages, even non-Indo-European language families.
Therefore, it is crucial to develop some sort of system for learning or verifying the spelling of a word before you try to incorporate it in your writing. For example, the word cynicism, which I have seen misspelled in some really horrifying ways—most of them attempts to spell it phonetically. (Think cinacism, synysym, sinasizm…..etc.) Phonetics won’t work with this word, nor with many others.
However, phonetics can help you find the word in the dictionary, even if you aren’t sure of the spelling. Continuing with cynicism as our example, you know that there are two letters that can be used to indicate the /s/ sound: S and soft C. Pick one to start, and go to the next sound. There are actually three possibilities for /i/, but only two are likely: I or Y. Pick one. Say you chose SI. Go to the SI- page in the dictionary and see if there are any words that incorporate the next sound /n/. You’ll find several, but as you peruse the list, you will find nothing that is pronounced /sin uh sizm/. So you back up. Obviously, one or more of your first choices was not right. Go back to the previous step and try SY. You won’t find anything there, either, so you assume it’s your initial sound that is wrongly written, and you try CI. Nothing. CY … AHA! There it is.
This procedure may sound cumbersome, and it will be the first few times that you act on it. But the more that you do it, the faster you will get. And the extra time is a small price to pay for the protection of your image and reputation as an educated, reliable, careful writer. You’ll be surprised at how much more attention you command with your writing when it is not riddled with spelling errors. Precision spelling, like precision grammar, lends a credence and an authority to your work that cannot be matched by the most erudite and well-thought out arguments. Trust me. Arguments do lose out to mechanics. It is rather petty, but it is part of the human wiring: if someone is not careful with the details, how do I know he can be trusted with the broader picture, and if I can’t trust him, why should I listen to him?
Think about it, and crack a dictionary. You’ll be glad you did!