Editing and More
How Do You Write an Editor?
You’ve finished your book / article / story, and you’re ready to hire an editor. You search the internet, find the names and email addresses of some promising-looking editors, and pick out a few to contact. Now what? What should you say? How do you write a message...
Celebrating Those Who Go Forth
The Fourth of July looks a little different to me this year. That’s because it’s only been a few days since my husband and I returned from eight weeks in Florence, Italy, and I’m still keenly sensitive to the differences of life in the suburbs of Southern California...
A Personal History of Persistence
I don’t write book reviews often for this space, but this one is 20 years in the making, so it seems worthwhile. Katharine Graham’s Personal History has been sitting on my shelf for a long time. A former newspaper journalist, I’ve long been interested in Graham,...
Can I Trust Word’s Grammar Checker?
Although I use Word’s spelling checker regularly (see my 2015 post about my affinity for the squiggly red line), I have never found much use for Word’s grammar checker. It’s wrong so often that I generally just turn it off. But Word 2016 has added a little feature...
How Do I Remove My Name from Word 2016 Documents?
My recent update to from Microsoft Word 2011 to to 2016 (for Mac) continues to offer many chances to learn something new. So What I Learned This Week in Editing again is about a changed feature in Word 2016. How Do I Remove Personal Information from a File? When a...
Add Track Changes Toggle to Bottom of Page in Word 2016
A friend moved his family to Germany a few years ago, and he started posting regular updates on Facebook called “What I Learned This Week in Germany.” The posts are filled with witty observations about the differences of life in Germany and the U.S. or very practical...
Looking Forward to 2018–and Year Eight!
Seven years ago this week, I officially unveiled this website, complete with my first Editing and More blog post. A few days later I walked out of my office job for the last time and officially started my life as a small business owner. In the past seven years, I have...
Love It or Leave It?
When I was a kid, the nightly news was filled with images of the Vietnam War and the ugly protests against the war that were raging around our country. Although the pictures were disturbing, I would sit and watch the evening news with my dad any chance I got because I...
Your Words Still Matter
A little more than six years ago, the second post I wrote for this blog came after a mass shooting that targeted a congresswoman, Gabby Giffords. Six people died in that attack, and Giffords suffered serious brain damage. Today, a man in Alexandria, Virginia, opened...
Honoring a Dream
A couple of months ago, I got the chance to spend the day at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture. It's beautiful, fascinating, troubling, and inspirational. And it reminded me that the battle for justice has been long and...