A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Common Errors Found by Copyeditors

 

(photo by Frank Perez)

Today is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.

Today's topic is about errors typically found by copyeditors. Some of them will not be picked up by spellcheckers. Avoid these to impress acquisition editors.

Word Choice. The words that you use portray a picture of you as an author. The most successful authors choose their words well.

• The verb to be is not your best friend, but when you read the manuscripts of many authors who would like a publishing contract, you wonder if they know any other verbs at all. Linking verbs provide no action, no definition, no story. They just connect two nouns, making the sentence static. Replace all the linking verbs in your manuscript, and you will help your manuscript come alive. 
• Just like linking verbs, expletives waste words. Just start the with noun as the subject, Instead of writing, "There is a clock in the corner that reminded him of the passing time every single hour," write "A clock in the corner reminded him of the passing time every single hour. Fewer words almost always make a stronger statement.
• No one knows "it" unless there is a referent.
• "It was a good day."
• "They felt good about it."

• The conjunction, but, is overused. Every time you use but, you negate what came earlier. You can quickly lead the reader down a winding and confusing trail.

Punctuation. It sure seems that punctuation is not taught in schools anymore. That probably is not the case; rather, students forgot about proper punctuation once out of English classes. Even journalists make routine errors in punctuation. Here are a few of the worst offenders:

• Main clauses are separated by a comma; compound predicates are not. Thus, "The man went to the store, and then he went home" requires a comma, but "The man went to store and then went home does not." Main clauses require a subject; compound predicates do not.
• Unrestrictive clauses require a comma; restrictive commas must not have one, "John, who went to school with me, knows more about my childhood than many other people" vs "This is the John who went to school with me."
• Ellipses are used to indication omissions, not for change in the train of thoughts or asides. The latter require the use of a dash.
• Hyphenation in English is tricky. Use the automatic hyphenation feature in the software program or look up the proper hyphenation in the Merriam Webster dictionary. Just because you have seen it punctuated a particular way in a particular text does not mean its correct. The dictionary will decide any argument accurately.

Grammar

• Use the proper possessive adjective. "The child should do their homework every day right after school." is grammatically incorrect. The proper possessive adjective is his/her -- or pick a gender, but a child is not plural. This appears to be the influence of social media where "their" has assumed an odd role of meaning "his" or "her". 
• The same is true nouns and pronouns. "The child should not homework promptly. Parents should check on them regularly." The correct pronoun is him/her. The reluctance to use the he'she awkward construction has led to the grammatically incorrect usage of they and them. Look for alternative ways to word the sentence.
• Make sure the subject and verb agree. Compound subjects often trip up authors. "The man who went to school with me and the new girl in our class *is working very hard." Obviously, they are working hard. It is amazing how many times subject-verb agreement is missed by authors.
• Watch out for hanging participles. The subject of a sentence must be the same as the participial referent. "Going to school, I heard that she fell." Who was going to school? It is unclear. Clarify "When I was on the way to school, I heard that she fell" or "Going to school, she fell, or so I heard."

The bottom line is that authors typically, even with spellchecking, miss silly errors that copyeditors will have to fix. Look for the ones above yourself. Better yet, let a dozen friends read your manuscript and point out the errors that they see. Turning in clean sample chapters (and eventually a clean book) will land you a contract ahead of the next guy who is not as meticulous.

The examples cited above are a few of the common mistakes we see in manuscripts that are sent to us--and generally that we turn down. Want more specific guidance on this topic? Check on Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. Yes, that little book that most English classes use in high school. It is equally good for mature authors.

Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: Avoid common errors to impression acquisition editors.

Do not rely on spellcheckers to catch everything. Proofread your manuscript for the common editors found by copyeditors listed above.

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