Bet Your Fourth Grade Teacher Didn't Warn You About This Word Tripper!

I know, I'm grammar nutty. I collect these word trippers and will soon have a new booklet out to follow  Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips . It will be sort of a volume two, though it is hard to call these handly little carry-with-me booklets (also available as e-books) volumes. I just found this one!  It's a rough draft for the booklet, so do let me know if you have edits or suggestions for it!

interment / internment / intern or internship  Interment is what our western culture does to dead bodies. It specifically refers to burial but is often used to denote the entire burial process. Friends and family may be invited to the interment.

 

Internment is a the acting of detaining. Japanese-American citizens and immigrants were interred in several places during World War II including the Santa Anita Race Track in Arcadia, California and a camp just north of the Mohave desert in California.

 

Grammarist.com warns us against confusing either of these words with the word intern or internship which is pronounced with the accent on the first syllable and, as you know “is a student undergoing practical training.”

 

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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. (-:

Wordtrippers: Where Authors Could Easily Go Astray

Well-known nonfiction editor and author Barbara McNichol shares a wordtripper from her extensive knowledge of the little devils. Thank you, Barbara!

By Barbara McNichol

This is an important editing tip for writers who use these terms often in everything from their media releases to their blogs and Web sites.

The difference between edition and issue—These nouns both refer to printed or published materials. While they’re often used interchangeably, they are different. An “issue” is one of a series of something, such as a periodical or a particular month of a magazine. It is often used in print media. An “edition” is a series of printings of the same publication issued at a different time. It is often differentiated by alterations or additions not found in the original and may be limited in number (such as a “collector’s edition”). It can also refer to a specific format, such as electronic, or leather-bound, or illustrated. “The book’s second edition corrected the allegation that the June 1966 issue of Collier libeled the author.”

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About Barbara McNichol

Barbara McNichol provides expert editing of articles, books, and book proposals for authors, speakers, and entrepreneurs. Over the past 19 years, she has placed more than 280 books on her editing “trophy shelf.” Barbara helps authors and businesspeople improve their writing through her monthly ezine Add Power to Your Pen. She has also created Word Trippers: The Ultimate Source for Choosing the Perfect Word When It Really Matters. This handy word choice guide is available at Amazon.com (print and Kindle). Contact Barbara directly at 520-615-7910 or editor@barbaramcnichol.com. Please visit www.BarbaraMcNichol.com or
her blog at www.nonfictionbookeditor.com or connect on Facebook, Twitter or Google +.

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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. (-:

Self-Editing Is Sometimes Essential

Sometimes we don't have the time or the money to hire an editor. Of even to con our old English teacher into reviewing our copy for typos. Here is review of  my little booklet that will remind you of some the dangerous wordtrippers out there.  It is small enough to carry with you when you're on the go. Of course, there is also the Kindle edition, too.

Review of Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers by Kathryn M. Weiland

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is well known among writers for her helpful book The Frugal Book Promoter, and she continues to encourage and guide writers through her many other projects, including this fast read (56 pages), which she advertises as a supplement to her book The Frugal Book Editor. After opening with an intro, reminding authors of the importance of crossing our T’s and dotting our I’s in both our queries and our published works, she launches into the meat of the book: page after page of handy references for spotting and fixing tricky word pairs.

Organized alphabetically with word pairs separated by slashes (e.g., “bereft / bereaved”), the book makes it easy to look up definitions and identify which word should be used in specific circumstances. Although the book’s diminutive length prevents it from anywhere close to exhaustive, it’s a good starting place and can easily be backed up with the more complete list in The Frugal Book Editor.

Priced reasonably (especially the Kindle version) and packed with lots of writerly wit and humor, the book makes for both an enjoyable read and a worthwhile reference manual. To find it go to www.budurl.com/WordtrippersPB

~K.M. Weiland is the author of the historical western A Man Called Outlaw and the medieval epic Behold the Dawn. She enjoys mentoring other authors through her writing tips, her book Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success, and her instructional CD Conquering Writer’s Block and Summoning Inspiration.

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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. (-: