If any sort of
If any sort of error is inexcusable, it’s an incorrect phone number. One of the cardinal rules of copy editing is that every phone number published must be checked. Bill Walsh
Bill Walsh
Nothing is more effective
Nothing is more effective than sincere, accurate praise, and nothing is more lame than a cookie-cutter compliment. Bill Walsh
I caution against beginning
I caution against beginning or ending a quotation with ellipses Bill Walsh
My theory is that,
My theory is that, just like with omitting a final comma in a list when not essential for meaning, publishers are trying to save paper and ink or pixels on-screen. Bill Walsh
On occasion I omit
On occasion I omit commas. On occasion, I use them. (The more you know about English, the less you’re likely to think there are unbreakable “rules” for a lot of these things.) Bill Walsh
90 percent of the
90 percent of the time the terms are misused or unnecessary. Not every image obtained from a computer is a screen shot. Bill Walsh
The proper use of
The proper use of commas is often more art than science. Bill Walsh
I have a sense
I have a sense of humor. I usually come off as very serious, but I definitely have a dry sense of humor. Bill Walsh
The dash helps to
The dash helps to indicate that the two thoughts are intimately related, and it’s less stodgy than a semicolon, which would have performed the same function (and who talks in semicolons?). Bill Walsh
Machines aren’t replacing proofreaders
Machines aren’t replacing proofreaders at all. Copy editors, who proofread and much, much more, use spellcheck as a tool but read every word that appears in the paper Bill Walsh