Prose

“R-variation” indicates purposeful choices counter to style manuals; they should not be reversed by copy-editors unless discussed.

• collapse/quash citations to only those that are novel and necessary
  • try to get 1 citation per para, okay if two, no more than 4
• facts
  • check bio claims (if Smith says “co-founded X”, check X’s webpage)
• generalize and eliminate details
  • paraphrase quotes for concision
  • mention a name only if referenced more than once (see names below)
• grammar
  • begin sentence with familiar character and action; end with new, complex, and subordinate information; see Structure
  • be careful of Dangling Modifiers “Having finished the assignment, the TV Jill turned on the TV”
• avoid split parenthetical
  • and hundreds of thousands of comments, ranging from supportive to insulting, have been left in response, ranging from supportive to insulting
• not splitting infinitive phrases is a myth (infinitive need not be next to verb) “to go boldly” is okay, as is “to boldly go”
• not splitting verb phrases is a myth “will execute faithfully” is okay, as is “will faithfully execute”
• numbers
  • $45 (not spelled)
  • use endash between date ranges
• names/characters
  1. Try not to mention a “character” (novel name/proper-noun) if it never occurs again (speak generally).
  2. Try to keep the mention of new character to three or less per paragraph.
  3. If there is a recurring character, describe them a bit on first mention and if you don’t mention them for a while, remind the reader who they are.
  4. abbreviations (R-variation)
     • don’t expand NASA, MIT and Harvard
     • don’t need all subtitles to books
     • don’t use middle initials
• punctuation
  • include possessive apostrophe on only the second author of joint work
  • okay to have parenthesis without “i.e.,” and “e.g.,”
  • can start sentence with conjuction; no comma after single word conjunction needed
    • “Yet this is the space…”
    • “Sometimes these features lead…”
  • R-variation: I prefer colons to em dashes for delineating something important and reserve em dashes for something that is digressive
  • capitalize hyphenized words in titles
  • American: no hyphens in conjoined terms
• quotes
  • R-variation: I don’t correct or “[sic]” those I quote, unless it’s a minor tweak to improve comprehension. That is, I leave primary sources (especially if quoting from online) as is.
• structure
  • make sure each paragraph has a topic sentence
  • make sure each section has a thesis and conclusion
  • be careful of using too many rhetorical questions
• tense of sources
  • dampen first person
  • Guides
    • Chicago Style 16:5 Grammar
      • present tense
        • generalizations, always true, author or source, fictional events, my interpretations
      • past tense
        • past event, historical context
    • APA and science
      • everything is past tense
• word choice
  • prefer continued over would continue (a past auxiliary)
  • prefer she switched over she had switched
  • prefer contradict to are contradictory
  • limit *seemingly *and presumably (weak)
  • vary *wrote or noted; *try argued, claimed, stated, described, lamented
  • vary said; try recalled, remarked, shared, insisted, contended, noted, divulged, commented, responded, exclaimed, maintained
  • preferon; use upon only for spatial relations
  • careful of immanent (inherent) vs imminent (soon)
  • disambiguate
    • while (time), although (contrast), whereas (opposites)
    • since (time), because (causality)