Tag: writing

Over the years I have written many formal papers, including two theses and two dissertations. In doing so, I have been required to follow various writing guidelines, such as the Chicago Manual Style, the MLA (Modern Language Association) style, and now “Turabian.” Nicknamed after its author, Kate L. Turabian, the book’s real title is “A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.”

Although tedious to follow, meeting these guides’ respective instructions have been doable—at least up until now, as I strive to get my second dissertation approved. Frankly, I am stymied by Turabian. I study the book, find the appropriate example, and implement it, only to be told that I did it wrong. In desperation, I consulted with a dissertation proofreader, schooled in all things Turabian. She guided me in further fine-tuning my documentation and formatting the layout so that it fully conformed to the Turabian way.

Alas, the results were still not good enough. In some cases, Turabian seems to offer options. I apparently picked the wrong ones. Even though I can site a Turabian section that supports how I did things, my professors can refer me to an alternate section that provides a different approach.

In the end, it is not what Turabian says that matters, but my professors. Their way is the right way.

Of course, my professors don’t always agree about Turabian either. Right now I am tasked with undoing something for one professor, that another one told me to do!

I don’t really care; I just want to get my dissertation approved.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

I’m not sure if this is a malady common to all writers or the fact that I’m a recovering perfectionist, but I am never completely satisfied with what I have written.

Regardless of how clever my sentence constructions, profound my insights, or delightful my vocabulary selections, there is always that nagging inner voice whispering that it could be better. Of course, sometimes it is not so subtle a nudge, but a vociferous scream, proclaiming, “This is junk!”

Aah, isn’t writing grand?

Given this internal struggle, it’s a wonder I ever complete anything. Yet, I do. The trick is knowing when to stop revising. Towards this end, I have two guidelines that signal my work is done:

1. When successive wordsmithing only results in something different but not better.
2. When the edit I made today, merely reverses the edit I made yesterday.

When one of these two conditions occurs I know further tweaking is fruitless. It is then time to post the blog, publish the piece, or submit the article. Any additional delay is merely procrastination.

However, there have also been times when pressed by a deadline or resulting from boredom, I stop too soon, before meeting one of these requirements.

Though it is damaging to stop too soon, it is equally detrimental to never end.

One of the learned skills in the art of writing is to know when to stop.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

A few weeks ago, I lamented about the number of syllables in the letter W.  I asked for he be given equal treatment to the alphabet’s other 25 one-syllable letters.

Today, I have the same concern for seven.  You see, of the single digit numbers, all but seven enjoy one-syllable conciseness.

(In case you are wondering about zero, we already have “aught,” so there is no need to advance another alternative.  Nil also means zero, though I have yet to hear it used in this context.)

Therefore, to offer fairness to seven, treating him like the other single digit numbers, I propose we give him a nickname of “sev” (rhymes with “rev”).  I suppose it could be written like a contraction: sev’.

However, this brings up another problem.  Seven and Eleven rhyme.  So to maintain this convention, if seven becomes sev’, then eleven needs to become ‘lev’ (again rhyming with rev) for the purposes of consistency.

Adopting both of these recommendations will result in one syllable counting from aught to twelve.

What do you think?  Do you want to try it?

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

Recently  I pondered the correct spelling for W. Not finding an official answer, I went with “double-u.” Upon further contemplation, I realized having similar doubts about the spelling of many letters. Therefore, I advance this list, which I ultimately found in Google’s scan of the book “The Institutes of English Grammar” by Goold Brown. (I’ve parenthetically added my own thoughts and suggestions):

A – a (how about “aye”?)
B – bee
C – cee
D – dee
E – e
F – eff (TheFreeDictionary.com indicates “ef”)
G – gee
H – aitch
I – i (How about “eye”?)
J – jay
K- kay
L – ell (TheFreeDictionary.com specifies “el”)
M – em
N – en
O – o (how about “oh” or “owe”)
P – pee
Q – kue (I prefer “queue” or “cue”)
R – ar (how about “are”?)
S – ess
T – tee
U – u (how about “you” or “ewe”?)
V – vee
W – double-u (slang might be “dub-u” or simply “dub”)
X – ex
Y – wy (how about “why”?)
Z – zee

Although vowels are spelled with only one letter, I prefer an alternate, longer spelling.

Why do I need to know these things? It’s quite simple actually: I may need them for crossword puzzles. I’ve already used Cee, Dee, Ell, Ess, and Tee. I want to be ready in case the others pop up. (For the record, no self-respecting crossword puzzle will have a two-letter answer; perhaps that is why I gravitate towards three-letter spellings.)

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

After another post, considering how words are used—and misused—my thoughts turned to how words are pronounced—and mispronounced.

I, for one, have a “flexible” pronunciation style. For any word possessing more than two syllables, I am seemingly able to enunciate it in at least two different ways—sometimes within the same sentence. Amazingly, I have not had to practice this skill; it just comes naturally. In fact, placing emphasis on the wrong syllable occurs so effortlessly that when I try to avoid alternate articulations, I often invent a third utterance.

In this regard, the letter “r” is of special interest to me. When I was a lad, I pronounced “wash” by inserting an “r” in the middle, as in “warsh.” Most of the time this was’’t a big deal; I think there was a local predilection to “warsh” things.

However, at age 10, we moved a scant 15 miles west. There, nobody wanted to “warsh” anything; I faced all manner of ridicule and humiliation over my proclivity to “warsh.” Although it took a concerted effort, I was eventually able to lose the “r” and I began to “wash” like everyone else.

Other people habitually interject an “r” into idea, as in “idear.” This usage is as odd to me as my “warshing” was to my friends growing up.

Then there are those folks who have a penchant for dropping “r”s.  For example “car” becomes “ca” and “bar” becomes “ba.” For example, did you drive your “ca” to the “ba”? Personally, I admire the concise brevity of this approach, though I have yet to adapt that style.

It could be that the misplaced “r”s in the “cas” got used when they were “warshed.” There’s a certain symmetry here that I can appreciate.

Any “idear” where it’s extra “r” came from?

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.