Editing Tip: Avoid what
editors call bad breaks. Here are
some examples:
~They can be widows (where the last line of a
paragraph appears all by its little lonely self on the next page).
~They can be orphans (where a paragraph, title,
subhead, title or section begins on one page and gets left dangling there with
only one line until the reader gets to the next page).
~A bad break can
be a hyphenated word at the end of line that appears as the very last thing a reader
sees on any given page.
~A bad break can
be a word that breaks incorrectly at the end of a line. Check your dictionary
when you must break a word. Dictionaries tell you here syllable breaks are and
we don’t break words anywhere but between syllables. We also don’t usually
break a long word after the very first syllable or before the last one.
~We also don’t
break a name (use a hyphen) after an initials in a name. So, we should leave a
name like “J. R. Turner” on one line with attempt to break it even if avoiding
the break screws with the spacing a tad.
Don’t forget
you’ll find many, many other tips on “Avoiding Humiliation and Ensuring Success”
for your book in The Frugal Editor (http://budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor)
CHJ
-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits, consults. and speaks on issues of publishing. Find her The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (How To Do It Frugally series of book for writers)
. Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com/writers_books.htm , where writers will find lists and other helps including Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips 
on the Resources for Writers page. She blogs on all things publishing (not just editing!) at her Sharing with Writers blog. She tweets writers' resources at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo . Please tweet this post to your followers. We all need a little help with editing. (-:
No comments:
Post a Comment