When is it okay to use "about" -- How to be more precise when copyediting

Rich Adin recently published a blog post on the vagueness of about. When precision is wanted, he maintains, about isn’t going to cut it.

Adin points out that if you can use a precise date rather than “about 50 years ago,” you won’t make readers work hard for the meaning. His example:

About 50 years ago, John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

If your text has a long shelf life, as do the medical textbooks Adin edits, after a while “about 50 years ago” is going to be inaccurate. The second sentence eliminates that future inaccuracy. Writes Adin, “Generally there is no accurate, laser-like precise meaning that can be supplied by a reader when about is associated with a number.”

I agree with his argument to a point. It’s true that using about is not going to give precise information, but the assumption is that precise information is always needed and that’s not true.

Let’s look at two examples:

One phish the author of this article almost fell for about five years ago was filling out a survey for a bank in return for a small amount of money.—Communications of the ACM (January 2012)

Biden told the audience about 25 minutes into his speech that he was cutting his remarks short because of the fire.—Associated Press (2012)

In the first sentence, do we need to know that the author almost fell for a phishing scam 4 years, 10 months, and 16 days, or whatever the precise date was? If the author can’t remember the exact date, does it invalidate his point?

In the second sentence, do we need to know the exact moment Vice President Biden cut his speech short, or is it more important to know that he did?

Other times, the manuscript needs to be vague. Two of the post’s commentators discuss recipes that give directions such as “Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes.” Such phrasing alerts readers that the dish might be done earlier than 25 minutes.

And then there are cases where the writer or publisher wishes to make a situation look better by not being precise:

Nucleic acid extracted from these samples was combined into 48 pools, with 9 or 10 samples per pool. Samples from pools with positive results were identified, and new extractions from these pools were tested individually. However, enough sample material for new extractions was available for only about half of the samples.—Emerging Infectious Diseases (January 2012)

In such cases, I agree with Adin: factual precision is more important than rhythm and style. But copyeditors may lose the battle to business politics.

As I noted above, Adin works with medical textbooks. Factual precision, especially with measures, is often vital, and he should question the use of about.

But such precision is not always necessary for every manuscript. No matter what type of copy you edit, a few simple guidelines can help you ensure that about, and every other word in the manuscript, is the right choice:

• Know the word’s meaning and standard usage. Don’t be afraid to look them up!
• Be familiar with the word’s current usages, whether they’re accepted or not. You may be working on a manuscript that would benefit from a current but nonstandard usage (e.g., dialogue in a fiction piece). Check the Corpus of Contemporary American English, Google News, Google Books, and other depositories of published writing for the latest trends.
• Know the manuscript’s purpose. All manuscripts should precisely communicate meaning, but the meaning might not be precise information. Is it meant to be?
• Know the intended audience. What usages will they tolerate or not tolerate? Do they demand precise details?

Copyeditors have to think. We have to know when precise information is desired and when it’s not.

“It is the editor’s job to help the author understand what the implications are of the word choices made,” writes Adin, “and provide an opportunity for the author to make alternative choices that may better express the message that the author wants the reader to receive.”

Credits: Copyediting.com

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A day in the life of amateurs

I was one who used to look at an editor as someone who went to school to destroy my writing. I had once a fight with a so-called news editor in college. We had an exchange of words after I marked our entire college paper with what I thought were glaring mistakes. He called me in and we discussed. Long and intense, as though our lives depended on how we can prove ourselves right against each other. I have never had such an absurd debate about things that were so stupidly obvious, he or the rest of his staff could not even figure out. Example: The sun sets in the east. Oh really? When did that happen? And so on and so forth.

Glad to let you know that after I gave him "lots of pieces" of my mind, I still got the last laugh. He invited me to become one of the editorial staff.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that I did not have any intention of being an editor back then. In fact, I hated editing. Now I'm a proponent of it. I realize how much crap is being published online that I couldn't even sit for five seconds before I want to get up and say I'm done. Editing is such a vital process in any publication, whether online or offline, that if you thought you have written everything right, you should think again. Of course, unlike my other colleagues, I plan to be more considerate with your feelings.

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Website copy not smelling too good?

Now, this is not a matter of editorial skills, but this online perfume store could use a proofreader.

I'm neither a big fan of justified text alignment. Note that this is not the only mistake I found in this website's copy. Attention webmaster!

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Non sequitur, anyone?

Throw out any sentence that does not flow logically from the previous one, lead logically to the next one, or sound right.
 
Here the skeptical reader might accuse me of trying to weasel out of my promise to stop at ten tips. This is not the case. I end with logic, because it is the key to good writing, and with the ear, because whatever logic misses the ear may catch. If one sentence does not lead logically to the next, no amount of "therefores" or "howevers" can patch them together. Perhaps the greatest single benefit of the word processor is that it makes it so easy for us to move words, sentences, or paragraphs, so that logic, the DNA of analysis, can unfold as effectively as possible. Sometimes I think that writing involves less creating than listening to what was just created, so that the finished product becomes merely the inevitable outcome of the first thought.

In this process, we need to listen for more than logic, because sometimes our minds fail to explain errors that our ears can detect. Or, to put it differently, it is less important to name the problem than to find a solution. Thus the final test belongs to the ear. If after all corrective surgery a sentence sounds bad when read out loud, get rid of it and write a new one.

Thanks to: Sharon Schuman

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Writing on the go? Fix the run-on sentences

It would take a while for me to go through the whole thing because honestly this is not the type of stuff I would listen to even when the author is talking it just sounds like nonstop chatter to me and I'm not exaggerating but when you write could you please put a little pause here and there so that I can catch my breath while reading your run-on sentences? Whew!

Did that get your nerves riled up?

I know, I know. The editor in me just couldn't stop wondering what's going on in this article. Better yet, I couldn't go on. Here's a snippet:

Another site is Cardpool.com  they offer a similar service as Plasticjungle.com and it's the same thing, you can buy gift cards for up to 35% off the face value. Cardpool.com seems to have more of a selection of gift cards to buy. When I need to buy something, I will check out both sites to see which one has better deals, or which site may have the card I want buy in stock.

Both sites offer traditional gift cards and they will mail them to you for free or you can get electronic gift cards. It depends on what they have to offer, and if you want to shop online or at the store. With an electronic gift card, if you are planning on shopping online, you can use it much faster since you will receive it in the form of a coupon code via your email address. If you are giving the gift card as a present, you might want to buy a gift card versus an ecard. Granted, you will have to wait about a week to get the card, but at least you can give that person a gift card versus a piece of paper.

Here is one more tip if you go to Plasticjungle.com or Cardpool.com, first head over to  Topcashback.com . You can get money back just for going from the Topcashback.com website to the merchants you want to shop at websites. Of course they have to be listed on Topcashback.com as a merchant. How much cash you get back depends on what they are offering.

Source: ABC15.com

Sometimes I use a dictation app when I'm in on the go and can't write something down. But when it comes to putting everything in print (or even online), I have to edit. It's the only way to preserve my sanity and the propriety of our language.

Need some help with run-on sentences? Try this resource from Purdue Online Writing Lab.

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Seriously, redundancy, and other serious matters that need serious attention

The holidays are almost here! But hey, I'm not taking a break being on the lookout for articles that make it on the Internet but desperately need some "juice" to make them sizzle. Truth is, there's no shortage of websites, news items, and written stuff that are passable but can be injected with creativity. Here's a good one meant for Black Friday student shoppers:

Editor's Critique:

As a proofreader, I'm not bothered by the college-style writing. As an editor, I find this article in utter need of creativity and depth. On a positive light, the writer seems to have put a good amount of effort in organizing a readable article meant for readers on the student level. Apart from the redundancy of the word “serious,” this text needed only moderate editing.

Source: 

http://suite101.com/article/black-friday-shopping-tips-for-college-students-a263037

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Its versus It's and other sordid shenanigans

I took a quick catch-up on the aspect of keyword density again. One of the popular articles I read came from the authoritative site of SEOBook.com. Upon finishing the text, here are some glaring errors that were "spotted!" by me:

Early / primitive search technology was not very sophisticated due to hardward & software limitations. Those limitations forced early search engines like Infoseek to rely heavily on documents for relevancy scoring. Over the past 1.5 decades search engines have grown far more powerful due to Moore's law. That has allowed them to incorporate additional data into their relevancy scoring algorithms. Google's big advantage over earlier competitors was analyzing link data.

Dr. E. Garcia explained why keyword density was a bad measure of relevancy in The Keyword Density of Non Sense.

    Search engines may place significant weight on domain age, site authority, link anchor text and usage data.
    Each search engine has it's own weighting algorithms. These are different for every major search engine.
        Each search engine has it's own vocabulary system which helps them (it) understand related words.
        Some might place more weight on the above domain-wide & offsite factors, while others might put a bit more weight on on-page content.
        The page title is typically weighted more than most any other text on the page.
        The meta keywords tags, comments tags, and other somewhat hidden inputs may be given less weight than page copy. For instance, most large scale hypertext search engines put 0 (zero) weight on the meta keyword tag.
        Page copy which is bolded, linked, or in a heading tag is likely given greater weighting than normal text.
    Weights are relative.

 Source: http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-density/

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Anchor links matter

One of the biggest aspects that impact the search engine rankings is the "value" of anchor links and how pertinent they are to user search. The following is an edited version of Northport Boarding Kennels website:

Our mission is to provide a clean, friendly atmosphere for your pet. At Northport Boarding Kennels, we treat our guests with professional care, knowledge and compassion.

We have found it crucial that pets in our care receive individual attention. Playtime is given the highest priority. A happy dog is much easier to care for!

Whether the stay is for one day, one week, or longer... you can rest assured that your pet will receive the best of care at Northport Boarding Kennels.

Conveniently located just east of the airport, we are open 7 days a week. Northport Boarding Kennels can provide you and your loved pet with affordable professional boarding and grooming services.

Thank you for visiting us online.

When the need arises, be sure to contact us for all your boarding and grooming needs.

---EDITOR'S CRITIQUE---

Missing anchor links

If not mainly for a few punctuation and spelling errors, I find that the web copy for Northport Boarding Kennels is not a heavy editing task. However, I recommend that because readers scroll through the page, they should include bold text and anchored links such as in this last sentence:

When the need arises, be sure to contact us for all your boarding and grooming needs.

When online text has plenty of anchor links throughout, readers will find it easy to click on any part of the website and enroll in their service without having to finish reading the entire homepage.

AP Style versus Chicago

Instead of changing "open 7 days a week" to the more standard "seven days a week," I let go of this since I believe AP style is more agreeable to web writing than Chicago.

Active versus Passive

The universal rule in effective writing is to always use the active tense instead of the passive because it goads action and is more lively. Therefore:

We have found it crucial that pets in our care receive individual attention.

must be changed to:

We find it crucial that pets in our care receive individual attention.

This rule should apply to the rest of the text in this website.

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A time to absorb

I get really nostalgic when it rains. For some reason, rain reminds me of when I was a pre-teen, huddled in my blanket reading books while it's pouring outside. It also reminds me of when I used to type poems (with an old typewriter that I borrowed from my aunt) when it was stormy and there was nothing else to do. Rain is a writer's natural friend.

Because honestly, as much as I love writing, I also love the outdoors. On a warm day, I would be outside taking a walk, riding my bike, or going for a road trip with my husband. Not in front of my computer trying to beat the deadlines!

As much as I love the outflow of writing, I also love the osmosis of rain. It's a time to absorb. It's a time to hug the blankets and read a good book. It hasn't rained here in a long time. It hasn't felt this nostalgic in a long time.

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Critics can be a writer's best friend

This guest post is by Barb Sawyers of Sticky Communication.

When I first started to write professionally, I hated people editing my work. To deal with these personal attacks, I would rant, cry, drink too much, and otherwise freak out.

But one day I parked my ego long enough to realize that many of these editors were highly skilled. Others knew more about the subject or the organization’s perspective than I did. I needed them.
Working in corporate communication, I was still stuck with the busy-bodies who felt they had to contribute to the tangle of edits that approvals processes create. A few were convinced they were “adding value” by inserting lame jargon or grammar mistakes.

These ego critics drove me crazy, still do. But the wise ones helped me become a better writer, still do. That’s why I seek out people with the skill and tough attitude to give me the criticism I need.

Seek out tough critics

With blogging and other content marketing, the more relaxed approach means many of us are spared the pain of the ego editors. But unless we’re writing for places with lots of editorial involvement, some of us don’t receive the guidance that would help us reach the next level.

We may ask blog buddies to review our work for typos and glaring problems. But how many of these friends are skilled, knowledgeable, and strong enough to deliver the blows to demolish what’s weak so we can replace it with something better?

Few people enjoy constructive criticism, but anyone who wants to become a better at blogging (or pretty much anything in life) has to learn how to handle the petty know-it-alls, open up to the wise ones, and grow. Many young people whose parents piled on the self-esteem building trophies have trouble with this. More...

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