What Copy Editors Know

Highlights from an article I put together years ago, when I was part of the crack copy-editing team at San Francisco Focus ...

> "Whenever writers say, 'Not to quibble,' they're about to quibble."

> "There's no comma in 'Louie Louie,' no period in Dr Pepper, and no apostrophe in Grants Pass. There should be but there isn't."

>"'Not to mention' is a mention."

>"It's okay to end a sentence with a preposition. Always has been. I don't care what English teacher told you. That's the sort of bogus rule up with which I will not put."

> "The word very is supposed to be an intensifier, but it's used so much that most statements are stronger without it."

> "Isn't it weird how many exceptions there are to the rule: i before e except after c?"

> "Never begin a story with 'Yes, Virginia,' 'According to Webster's,' or 'What do ____, _____, and _____ have in common?'"

> "Most stories can be improved if you shorten them by about a third."

> "I believe it was Rene J. Cappon, the veteran Associated Press editor, who said: 'Call a spade a spade and you evoke a picture. Call it an agricultural implement and you might be talking about a plow, a rake, or an air-conditioned tractor."

> "Quotes are doctored all the time in the name of clarity and grammar. Q&A interviews look like transcripts, but they're not. You wouldn't want to read them if they were."

> "Never use an exclamation point!"