how the guide controls my thoughts

The post for this week is the topical guide that starts on page 173 and goes to page 219. I have found the topical guide to be an interesting source of information. This is because of how the guide can be used as a source for editing. I believe the topical guide is a condensed form of the AP Stylebook in that is has common words and grammar guide mixed in to help guide the editor when the editor has a problem with an article prior to publication.

Some of the biggest problems with grammar are in this guide. Some examples of this is the difference between then and than and when to use the right one. When it comes to numerals you can see the guide explains that you are to write out the numbers up to ten. Another set of words people have trouble with is poor, pore and pour. Which one to use can be quite an issue, but this guide can be of great help. And yet, you will be able to refresh your memory on grammar itself as in what is a clause or a comma splice or even words that end in ics. These words that end in ics can create problems with agreement because of the word ends in a s which could make the word look plural and it might actually be singular. The one set of words that I would have thought that would have been in this guide is the words which and witch. This is because of a cartoon that is titled “Which Witch is Witch?” this is a Scooby Doo show from the 1960s.

As to the editing mistake of the week, I found a run on sentence in a 2015 HOG Magazine where the sentence reads “Longer road trips can revolve around food, as well, and some states have capitalized on this by designing food trails there’s the Hot Tamale Trail in the Mississippi Delta and the Green Chile Cheeseburger trail in New Mexico, to name a few.” I would have placed a period after food and started a new sentence with some. Then changed “there’s” to “such as” which would have been a better and stronger sentence.