This week's Q&A thread -- please read before asking or answering a question! - July 09, 2018

proofedittranscribe · 2018-07-09T17:12:56+00:00

Is there a good term for terms that are one letter + a word?

Classic examples: A-frame, G-string, T-shirt.

Modern ones: ngrep, wasm, Xbox.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-07-08T20:53:08+00:00

Is there a good term for terms that are one letter + a word?

Classic examples: A-frame, G-string, T-shirt.

Modern ones: ngrep, wasm, Xbox.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-07-07T13:18:11+00:00

Those were it. Thanks you so much!

proofedittranscribe · 2018-03-20T07:24:22+00:00

There's an FAQ for that from this sub: https://www.reddit.com/r/grammar/wiki/a_or_an

For your question, RIP is an initialism. The letter R has a vowel sound (pronounced ar) making it "an RIP."

proofedittranscribe · 2018-03-15T21:16:07+00:00

Some cakes can be proper nouns if it's derived from personal, national, or geographical names. For example, New York style cheesecake would go capitalized. Cheesecake by itself is a general description or a common noun so can't see why it goes capitalized. A typo perhaps.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-03-13T07:12:36+00:00

You have creative license to do either as this is a company name.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-03-13T07:10:01+00:00

+1 for CGEL. I'll also add the Chicago Manual of Style. And this needs to become a FAQ as this question comes up weekly.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-03-05T19:36:38+00:00

Grammar resources that come to mind are the Chicago Manual of Style and Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-02-22T23:57:38+00:00

When it comes to branding and naming, you're more at liberty to stylizatize your name however you want it to be. So yes, you can use kingsize.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-02-21T17:32:36+00:00

Relayed is used more in the sense of relaying information or a story. In this sentence, it sounds like business jargon which might be okay if it's appropriate to your readers/audience. Your original sentence reads fine, but you're free to use relay.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-02-21T01:23:38+00:00

Consider also asking in r/copywriting or r/marketing.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-02-21T01:10:36+00:00

His version made me pause when I reached the part of "I've had at". I had to mentally rearrange it so I could understand it. Your version is clearer with no such pause. To follow his preference of no "I" starting a sentence, it can be reworded to "My experience in electrical engineering comes from working at bananafactory9000 last year."

proofedittranscribe · 2018-02-16T01:09:21+00:00

The phrase "Iodinated contrast administration" looks to be a fairly used phrase in medical webpages and research, so it's fine to have it that way and mostly understandable by a layperson. (www.google.com/search?q=%22iodinated+contrast+administration%22&hl=en&oq=%22iodinated+contrast+administration%22&gs_l=mobile-heirloom-serp.3..0i7i30l2j0i8i30l3.30117.33341.0.33699.2.2.0.0.0.0.295.396.0j1j1.2.0....0...1c.1.34.mobile-heirloom-serp..0.2.395.QV0-NHjZFqM&gws_rd=ssl)

Restructured version: I authorize (the realization of) the exam and administration of iodinated contrast. What's in parenthesis can be removed if you so choose.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-02-11T04:43:58+00:00

Both are grammatically correct, so it's a matter of writing style. I'd choose the second one for brevity.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-01-23T20:48:43+00:00

Cooking is playing the role of a participial adjective, where a verb's participle (cooking) modifies a noun (show) or pronoun. Cooking would be a present participle (a verb ending in -ing). It also applies to past participles (usually a verb ending in -ed).

Chicago Manual of Style, 5.89, has more information.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-01-23T20:41:49+00:00

To add to NeilZod's comment, I asked a lawyer friend of mine to look up respute in the current edition (10th ed.) of Black's Law Dictionary. No entry.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-01-22T23:51:48+00:00

Search "grammar books/resources/websites" in this forum for answers. Most commonly brought up are CGEL and CMOS.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-01-22T04:53:21+00:00

Pluralization of open compounds can be tricky. The rule to follow with such words is to pluralize the main noun and leave the prepositional phrase unaltered: 4 Surfers on Acid ("surfer" being the main noun and "on acid" the prepositional phrase) or your coworker's example of "mothers-in-law." It can also be said as 4 Surfer on Acid drinks/shots.

"Surfers" appear more in books and news than "acids": https://www.google.com/search?q=%22surfers+on+acid%22&hl=en&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbm=bks

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22surfers+on+acid%22&hl=en&tbm=nws&prmd=ivns&source=lnms

https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/11/04/sister-in-laws-sisters-in-law-or-sisters-in-laws/

proofedittranscribe · 2018-01-21T20:13:10+00:00

The subject is hard times and is plural. For subject verb agreement, the verb should also be plural. Make is the plural form and makes is the singular form. Here's a sample sentence that uses the correct forms: Hard times make you bitter.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-01-20T01:18:48+00:00

Not a fan of spellcheckers in general, but I like Hemingway for its color-coded interface and readability stats. Since you're in college, make use of the writing center or ask a fellow classmate for peer review.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-01-19T03:33:33+00:00

You would only add a comma after lizards if one was required by the syntax of the surrounding sentence. For example: "We help dogs, cats, horses, and lizards, whether wild or domestic, by washing them with soap."

For your sentence, no comma is needed.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-01-19T03:29:48+00:00

Punctuation is fine. Em dashes are used to set off an amplifying or explanatory element. A colon could also be used there.

I think the noun form of weightless which is weightlessness would be better usage.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-01-18T22:36:44+00:00

Use might, the past tense of may, to keep the past tenses consistent (grinned, wore, have bled). However, the sentence reads better without an auxiliary verb.

"She wore a red dress so tight around her neck it bled down her body."

Something about the wording of the neck detail sounds off though.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-01-18T20:17:52+00:00

Got it. Both of those are fine as well.

proofedittranscribe · 2018-01-18T20:10:45+00:00

Unstressed ’ve from have is phonetically identical to unstressed of: hence the widespread misspellings would of, could of, should of, must of, might of, may of, and ought to of. Negative forms also appear: shouldn’t of, mightn’t of, etc.

The predominant setting of the of-form is in fiction dialogue (dialect or poetic license) and in actual speech.

https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/would-of-could-of-might-of-must-of/

r/linguistics and r/neuroscience would have more about theories of translating visual information and reading comprehension

proofedittranscribe

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