Patrick Neylan

Kurt Vonnegut said semicolons were unnecessary. But when I'm editing pieces by non-writers and I need to keep their prose as intact as possible, semicolons are a godsend.

@MerriamWebster 4th Declension Latin nouns end in -us but their plural isnt -i. The English plural of sinus is sinuses, not sini.

Plural of 'octopus'? octopi = from the belief that words of Latin origin should have Latin endings octopuses = an English ending to match its adoption as an English word octopodes = from the belief that bc 'octopus' is originally Greek, it should have a Greek ending

Irony: I've given up editing this piece on the importance of standardised English. I simply can't understand it.

Looking for the website of the International Group of P&I Clubs, I stumbled across another organisation called IGPI. Beautiful website, full of buzzwords and platitudes, which at no point explains what the organisation actually does.

"Data is plural!" says the person who presumably replies to "I've just been to the opera" with "Did you like them?"

Encountering another author who insists 'data' is plural. Presumably he's just as insistent about spaghetti, broccoli and opera.

Commentators on @bbctms keep confusing "dissect" (cut up) and "bisect" (cut in half).

@JohnRentoul On general principle, there should be no age-related restrictions on anyone old enough to vote.

Reminder to those arguing for votes at 16: you have to explain why voting is *different* from everything else, not why it should be the same... You can’t marry, serve in a combat role or buy cigarettes until 18

@CollectPlus *till

☀️ Don’t miss a moment of sunshine, Collect+ has you covered! We're open early ‘til late, so you can collect, return, and send parcels at your convenience, all summer long 🌻📦 #SummerVibes #CollectPlus

@TheBonniePrince I see it a lot in UK media now in just the format I used. Very confusing.

@AngrySubEditor I guess that’s an Americanism? But “drops” in that sense in the U.S. is an intransitive verb, so BBC is in such a case failing twice.

Writers should stop using "drop" as a synonym for "release". The headline "BBC drops drama series" suggests that the series has been cancelled.

Sorry, this job ad actually offends me. "Sub Editor - Maidstone ME14" They want an editor, subeditor, writer, picture researcher, marketer, statistician, PA and receptionist. Three days a week, on-site, and you might get as much as £17pa (less if you lack experience).

It's ironic that @ReedsyHQ insists on the highest standards for editors with the stipulation: "If this criteria can’t be fulfilled…"

Every now and then I remind @AmazonUK that their listing for a book I edited shows the cover from a completely different book. Nearly seven years on, they still haven't corrected it because their automated, human-free systems are infallible.

Another email, this time from @ebay, stating: "Ensuring your data is secure is our top priority." It might be important to you – and I hope it is – but I very much doubt it's your top priority.

@APStylebook All right and alright are clearly different. "He is an all-right guy": he is always correct or possibly politically right-wing in all respects. "He is an alright guy": he's not a bad guy.

It’s all right, never alright. Hyphenate only if used colloquially as a compound modifier: He is an all-right guy.

A British perspective on "bail out" vs "bale out": A bail is a bucket, used to throw water out of a sinking boat. So a bail-out is a rescue. A bale is a bundle, sometimes thrown out of a plane, maybe attached to a paratrooper. So a bale-out is an escape or abandonment.

@reading_while True, but none of these are mentioned in the style guide. As it happens, I've just finished proofreading a book (post-layout) for the same organisation and ignored many things I don't like because they're not "wrong".

@AngrySubEditor Some of those alternatives are considered errors depending on style guide used. Again, a proofreader’s role is to catch every possible error, not to decide which are important and which aren’t.

Finished editing a book and got it back from the proofreader (a friend and long-time colleague). He's made nearly 3,000 changes. His mindset seems to be that if he CAN make a change, he will. It doesn't need to be an improvement; it just needs to be possible. #AmEditing

@reading_while You're quite right, of course, but these are alternatives rather than errors (e.g. "need to" instead of "must"). Of the 1,400 odd changes I've reviewed so far, only two were errors. Maybe I shouldn't complain as I'm on an hourly rate.

@AngrySubEditor A proofreader's job is to point out all and any errors. You have the power as editor to stet any of these changes, but you can't make that choice unless he points them all out in the first place.