The Nitpicker’s Nook is a monthly collection of language-related articles, interviews, and blog posts. If you read something that would make a good addition, email your suggestion to [email protected].
By Savanna Scott Leslie
- Online tools make plagiarism easier to catch, but plagiarism is still a delicate subject to broach with writers. Adrienne Montgomerie shares some tips that you might find useful next time you query plagiarism. (Copyediting.com)
- Beyond plagiarism, sharing feedback with writers can be tough in general! Emma Darwin offers some great advice for ensuring that your feedback is not only respectful, but useful. (This Itch Of Writing: The Blog)
- Bryan Garner’s The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation came out this month. If you’re not sure whether to pick up a copy, you should check out Richard Adin’s review. (An American Editor)
- Following up on Adin’s April post about the value of editing, Karin Cather calls for uniform copyediting certification. She proposes universal testing because “it does the profession an injustice when we say that anyone should be able to say they are an editor, even though they have no education, training, or experience.” (Plainly Spoken)
- The value of editing services may not always be as clear to potential business partners as we’d like, but it becomes especially evident when a grammatical mistake completely reverses the intended meaning. Is that always such a bad thing? Here’s one example where a lack of editing may have changed the Texas Republican Party’s homophobic platform for the better. (NPR)*
- Rachele Kanigel, the Society of Professional Journalists, and other contributors have released the Diversity Style Guide. This guide to best practices for discussing ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, and more is available for free online. (Diversity Style Guide)
- Conference season is almost upon us! Have you registered for the Editors Canada National Conference on June 10–12 in Vancouver? If you’re on the fence about professional conferences, check out Carol Fisher Saller’s “Should You Attend an Editing Conference?” (The Subversive Copy Editor)
*Thanks to Sara Scharf for submitting this link.
Savanna Scott Leslie is an editor and publishing consultant based in Hamilton, Ontario. She’s also a new and enthusiastic co-coordinator of Editors Hamilton-Halton, and she can’t help but shudder at the word co-coordinator.
This article was copy edited by Nicole North.
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