Writers and Editors

What's wrong with the capitalization and punctuation here? 

Finally, a place to report errors!

 

Some examples:

 

Capitalization: Assuming the length of the word conveys importance. Many important words are small.

• Top 10 Chronic Conditions in Adults 65+ and What You Can do to Prevent or Manage Them
• How I Found Out I had Pancreatic Cancer (Good video, but "had," a verb, should be capitalized.)
• "Do" and "can" BS "be" are as important as "Prevent" or "Manage" and more important than "in" or "to".
• California's Collusion with a Texas Timber Company Let Ancient Redwoods be Clearcut

Errant commas: 
Unlike traditional, antibiotics, which wipe out good and bad bacteria indiscriminately, precision treatments would target the specific bug responsible for the urinary tract infection, while leaving the rest intact.  (from “So You Might Actually Not Be Allergic to Penicillin” by Jeanette Beebe for The Daily Beast)

     Mind you, the editors should have caught this error. There should be no comma before "antibiotics."

Misunderstanding of commas. (When the title, name, or word is essential, use no comma. Use commas to surround words that are parenthetical.) 

Her debut into show business, however, comes from her landing a role in the Broadway play, Barefoot in the Park, which premiered in 1966.

 

Online discussion: Aren't we fortunate to have as our teachers, Jim Birren and Cheryl, to bring these incredible ideas to life?

 
"The publisher of The Intercept earlier this week called on the Missouri attorney general to launch an investigation into the arrest of reporter, Ryan Devereaux, during last week's protests in Ferguson, Mo." 

 

Wrong words and words in wrong place:

"These days disabled toilets and access plus proper kitchen facilities are needed for meetings and events."

 

Feel free to cite errors you find and where you found them

A brilliant and useful oldie but goody.

 

• Remember to never split an infinitive.

• The passive voice should never be used.

• Do not put statements in the negative form.

• Verbs have to agree with their subjects.

• Proofread carefully to see if you words out.

• If you reread your work, you can find on rereading agreat deal of repetition can be by rereading andediting.

• A writer must not shift your point of view.

• And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.

  (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.)

• Don't overuse exclamation marks!!

• Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.

• Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.

• If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.

• Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.

• Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.

• Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.

• Always pick on the correct idiom.

• The adverb always follows the verb.

• Last but not least, avoid clichés like the plague; seek viable alternatives.

 

Intelligent advice to make you both think and smile.

• A Guide to Copyediting Marks (NY Book Editors, 6-2013) The logic behind most of these copyediting symbols is simply to make punctuation changes more visible. Who would notice a comma if it didn't have a little roof above its head? This post  applies only to copyeditors who copyedit by hand. Most copyeditors use track changes in Word.
• Copy Editing Marks (California State University Chico) Good explanations.
• Proofreaders’ Marks (Chicago Manual of Style)
• Proofreading Marks at a Glance (Barbara Every, BioMedical Editor, Northwestern University)
• Proofreading Marks Chart (Teacher created)
• Proofreading Marks: What Do They Mean? (Scribendi)
• Proofreading marks chart (Graphic design)

Excellent resources for writing (or reading) about science:
• Science Writers Database (SWD)

The Open Notebook’s free, public database of journalists, writers, editors, and other communicators who cover science and related fields.

The database currently contains 1774 approved entries, from professionals in more than 85 countries.
---FAQs about Science Writers Database
• The Craft of Science Writing: Selections from “The Open Notebook,” Expanded Edition (book, edited by Siri Carpenter)
• Story behind the story interviews (TON)

• Feature Reporting & Writing

• Reported Features (TON) 

     Examples:
--- Roundtable: Reporting on Reports—How Journalists Harness Hundred-Page Documents (Claudia López Lloreda, TON, 4-29-25)
--- Duaa Eldeib Investigates the Faulty Forensic Test Used to Convict Mothers of Murder (Claudia López Lloreda, TON, 8-6-24)
• Historical Research
• Pitch Database
• Science Journalism Master Classes 

     Free, thanks to a generous grant from The Kavli Foundation.
• Covering Science at the Local Level
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources (TON)
---Guide to Tracking Source Diversity
---Finding Diverse Sources for Science Stories
---Sample Script and Survey for Tracking Source Diversity
---Diverse Voices in Science Journalism
• Science Writing Resources (Elsewhere) That We Like
• TON en Español
• Workshops and Consultations

Updated 6-20-25:
• Musk Adviser May Make as Much as $1 Million a Year While Helping to Dismantle Agency that Regulates Tesla and X

  (Jake Pearson, ProPublica, 5-14-25)

Records show that Chris Young is simultaneously working as a political adviser to Musk while serving in the Department of Government Efficiency, helping to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Ethics experts said Christopher Young’s dual role — working for a Musk company as well as the Department of Government Efficiency — likely violates federal conflict-of-interest regulations. Musk has publicly called for the elimination of the agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, arguing that it is “duplicative.’’ Government ethics rules bar employees from doing anything that “would cause a reasonable person to question their impartiality” and are designed to prevent even the appearance of using public office for private gain.

 

• Techno-Fascism Comes to America (Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 2-26-25) When a phalanx of the top Silicon Valley executives—Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Google’s Sundar Pichai—aligned behind President Trump during the Inauguration in January, many observers saw an allegiance based on corporate interests.

    The ultra-wealthy C.E.O.s were turning out to support a fellow-magnate, hoping perhaps for an era of deregulation, tax breaks, and anti-“woke” cultural shifts. The historian Janis Mimura saw something more ominous: a new, proactive union of industry and governmental power, wherein the state would drive aggressive industrial policy at the expense of liberal norms.

     In the second Trump Administration, a class of Silicon Valley leaders was insinuating itself into politics in a way that recalled one of Mimura’s primary subjects of study: the élite bureaucrats who seized political power and drove Japan into the Second World War. The historic parallels that help explain Elon Musk’s rampage on the federal government.

•  Elon Musk’s Most Alarming Power Grab: Can anyone stop his space-based internet? (Ross Andersen, The Atlantic, 5-25) If Elon Musk continues to dominate the space-based internet, he could end up with more power over information than anyone in history. "Musk first announced his intention to build a space-based internet, which he would eventually call Starlink, in January 2015. He had plans to settle Mars, then the moons of Jupiter, and maybe asteroids too. All those space colonies would have to be connected via satellite-based communication; Starlink itself might one day be adapted for this use. Indeed, Starlink’s terms of service ask customers to affirm that they “recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities.”

• Elon Musk has direct business interests in 70% of the government agencies that DOGE targeted (Robert Reich chart on Facebook, 5-9-25) "Elon Musk has financial conflicts of interest at more than 70% of the departments and agencies targeted by DOGE — including the CFPB, NLRB, and DOJ. DOGE was never about "efficiency." It was about making Musk more wealthy and less accountable."

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