Your Family Compass
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Editorial Inspirations Blog
From the first word to well beyond the end.
Abbreviations: Plurals and Punctuation
Abbreviations can be pluralized simply by adding an –s. Publications commonly use an apostrophe to form the plural, but the apostrophe is not necessary. Sometimes the -s at the end of the abbreviation does not match the placement of the -s in the written-out word or phrase. For example, “RBIs” stands for “runs batted in” […]
Bookstore Experience
“I don’t think that anything actually matches the experience of actually going into a good independent bookshop.” —Neil Gaiman in a Salon interview titled “I’m Obviously Pissed at Amazon”
The Other Side of Preaching
Copyedited
Each Other vs. One Another
How can you determine whether to use “each other” or “one another”? Consider the number of things to which you are referring. “Each other” is a reciprocal pronoun, meaning that it shows two-directional action. For example, “Nancy and Tom are nice to each other” means that Nancy is nice to Tom and Tom is nice […]
We Need Bookstores
“I know a lot of kids who want to grow up to play shortstop for the Yankees. We don’t want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let’s mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Buy the rest of your […]
Garage Sale
You are at the neighborhood garage sale, looking for nothing in particular. Something inside an old, wooden box catches your eye. The elderly woman who is running the sale comes over to say something about the object. What is it? What did she say and why?
Compound Nouns
Why is it we have project managers but systems analysts? Gumball machines but singles bars? How do we determine which noun in a compound noun to make singular and which to make plural? Below are a few tips in helping you to decide, but first some terminology: The first noun in a compound noun is […]
The Full-Fat Solution
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A Princess in Disguise in Manakin-Sabot
April Michelle Davis brought her young adult book, A Princess in Disguise, to life at the Manakin Farmers Market on June 4, 2022. In the midst of the beauty of the outdoors, she read passages from her book and injected tones in her voice to bring out the characters. April Michelle suggested to her listeners […]
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