Editorial Inspirations

Write a poem about one thing you can’t live without.

Be sure to share your responses!

The apartments next to my condo were torn down two years ago for the building of luxury townhouses. Rumor says that the company wanted to buy the condominium subdivision as well, but when it discovered that the condos were individually owned, the company did not pursue it.

The apartments were the homes to many lower-class Spanish people. Supposedly, one reason for the purchase of the apartments was to alleviate the people standing on the sidewalks at the intersection, waiting to be picked up and hired for the day.

When the apartments were torn down, the people had no place to go. They rented condos in my neighborhood and lived in them, 10 or more people to a one- or two-bedroom condo. And they continued to wait for work on the sidewalks.

The condo association asked that residents report the address of any location with 10 or more residents, saying that it was a hazard as well as a violation of the renting agreements, which generally stipulated only a small family living in the residence. The condo above me had many Spanish people living in it. Each time the door opened, there was a new face. I don’t know how many people lived there, but they never played loud music or were a bother. I never reported them.

Two years have gone by. The luxury townhouses have not been built. The property was twice sold. The vacant apartments were vandalized, set ablaze, and finally torn down. Only the model luxury townhouses sit on the mound of dirt. But the Spanish men stand on the sidewalks every day, no matter the temperature, the earlier the better, waiting for someone to pick them up and hire them for the day.

Amazon has sent an open letter explaining “what we’re changing with print on demand and why we are doing so.” Amazon has caused a major stir in the POD field with its decision to have publishers who want to sell POD titles directly through its website use its BookSurge POD subsidiary.

In the letter from the Amazon.com books team, the company reiterated that by using machines that are located in its own fulfillment centers, Amazon can have a title ready for shipment quicker than if it needs to wait for a book to be shipped to its facility. The extra time will permit Amazon to “marry” a title with another product that will be shipped in the same box, in most cases hitting Amazon Prime shipping times.

“It isn’t logical or efficient to print a POD book in a third place, and then physically ship the book to our fulfillment centers. It makes more sense to produce the books on site, saving transportation costs and transportation fuel, and significantly speeding the shipment to our customers,” the letter states.

A comma splice occurs when two main clauses are linked by only a comma.

Comma Splice Example: It was raining hard, I decided to  stay at home.

Comma splices can be corrected by (1) replacing the comma with a period, (2) replacing the comma with a semicolon, or (3) inserting a coordinating conjunction immediately after the comma.

Depending on the meaning of the sentence, the following coordinating conjunctions could be inserted: and, but, or, not, for, so, yet.

Correction: It was raining hard. I decided to stay at home.

Correction: It was raining hard; I decided to stay at home.

Correction: It was raining hard, so I decided to stay at home.

Try It!

Below is a rough draft of an essay that includes several comma splices. Find and correct them to make the essay flow better.

The best kind of editor is one whose presence is not even seen. An editor is a behind the scenes person, she improves the grammar of the writer, she makes the message more understandable. An editor improves the image of the author. An editor is a silent advocate for the writer, making the author more trustworthy to the audience. Because the editor is a behind-the-scenes person, many people don’t realize the value of the editor, some never realize the value of the editor, others realize the value of the editor once it is too late and an image or trust has diminished.