Kathy Ide's Blog

As a general rule of thumb, but should be treated like any other conjunction. If what comes before but and what comes after but are both complete sentences, include the comma—unless both parts are short and there’s no chance of confusion or misreading. If what comes before and after but are not both complete sentences, […]

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Commas aren’t the only thing that can change the meaning of a sentence. Wording counts too. Many writers have a problem with the appropriate use of that vs. which. There’s a detailed explanation in my Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors. Here’s just one example: God, thank You for the promises in your Word that never […]

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If you’re unsure whether a two-word phrase should be a single word, separate words, or hyphenated, look it up on Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary (https://www.merriam-webster.com/). If M-W doesn’t have a listing for the phrase as either one word or hyphenated, that’s an indication that it should be spelled as two separate words, without a hyphen. Take, […]

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In many instances, the use of commas can change the meaning of a sentence. Consider this example: One of Israel’s prophets named Malachi wrote this. One of Israel’s prophets, named Malachi, wrote this. In the first sentence, without the commas, you’re saying that Israel had multiple prophets named Malachi, and one of those prophets wrote […]

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Did you know that The Chicago Manual of Style’s guidelines for formatting footnotes/endnotes are different from Word’s defaults? In Word, if you click on Insert Footnote, a superscripted number will appear where the cursor is placed and a corresponding footnote number will be inserted at the bottom of the page under a short horizontal line. […]

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That subject question sounds like a complaint, but I assure you it’s not. I seriously want to know. I mentioned a few months ago that The Chicago Manual of Style […]

When the pandemic shut down travel and group events in 2020, I discovered something about myself: I’m more of an introvert than I thought. (If you know me from conferences […]

The new 18th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style is here! While the print version is scheduled for release on September 19, the online version is already available to subscribers. A page of “What’s New in the 18th Edition” lists “the more significant changes, clarifications, updates, and additions” from the 17th edition. It’s a […]

This year’s PENCON editors’ conference was AWESOME! If you are a freelance editor or interested in possibly becoming one, or a writer who wants to learn more about editing, I strongly encourage you to attend next year’s conference. They’re virtual, so you can attend from anywhere. Sessions are recorded, so you can watch anything you […]