by Tammy Ditmore | Nov 23, 2011 | personal reflections
I think if you maintain any kind of blog, you are more or less required to post a “what I’m grateful for” list at Thanksgiving. My life is filled with blessings, and I could fill several screens without coming close to counting them all. But in this space, I have...
by Tammy Ditmore | Oct 19, 2011 | Alzheimer's, personal reflections
My father never practiced writing or editing, but I’m pretty sure some of the traits I acquired from him make me good at both: an almost-obsessive need to be precise, a driving desire to get things right, and an eye for detail. Whereas those traits help me notice...
by Tammy Ditmore | Sep 11, 2011 | personal reflections
For the past few weeks, I have been reminded frequently about the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. Newspaper stories, TV specials, websites, Facebook postings, flag displays, special memorial services, even...
by Tammy Ditmore | Aug 29, 2011 | Publishing
My family is one of the last holdouts who still pay to have a print edition of the Los Angeles Times delivered to our driveway every day. It’s a tradition I have stubbornly held onto because I strongly believe in the power of the press—and also because I enjoy leafing...
by Tammy Ditmore | Aug 2, 2011 | Language, Speech
Like most Americans, I have been dismayed and disappointed by the tenor of rhetoric coming from Washington in recent months, particularly during the recent debt-ceiling debates. I have a hard time understanding why it seems so difficult to get anything done. But a...
by Tammy Ditmore | Jun 29, 2011 | Language, Speech
I was fascinated this week to learn that some researchers now believe birds use grammar! Discovery News wrote about the study this week, and I found it when a friend shared this link: http://news.discovery.com/animals/finches-songs-grammar-110627.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1....
by Tammy Ditmore | Jun 24, 2011 | Writing
Lately I have noticed ads popping up on my Facebook page that are directly related to specific words I’ve used in my status updates or in comments on my friends’ pages. I find that more than a little creepy. One of the most appealing aspects of the Internet has...
by Tammy Ditmore | Jun 9, 2011 | Writing
A few days ago, my son Jonathan proudly announced that he had received a 98 on his major research paper for his eighth-grade English class. My English-professor husband and I had spent a lot of time and energy offering assistance and advice for this project, and we...
by Tammy Ditmore | May 30, 2011 | personal reflections
Every Memorial Day, I find myself musing about a man I never met. He was my husband’s uncle, but Michael never met him either. This would-have-been uncle-in-law died while fighting in the Pacific Theater sometime during World War II. The man I’ve only heard about was...
by Tammy Ditmore | May 12, 2011 | Editing, Publishing, Writing
As an editor, I spend a lot of time perfecting punctuation marks and verifying information. Determining where an author’s words end and a quote from another source begins can be one of my most difficult challenges. And yet, protecting an author from claims of...
