Author Information
Precise Edit
Member since 27th August 2007
Occupation: Owner and Chief Editor of Precise Edit David Bowman is the owner and chief editor of Precise Edit, a comprehensive editing, proofreading, and document analysis service for authors, students, and businesses. Precise Edit also offers a variety of other services, such as translation, transcription, and website development.More information about Precise Edit is available at http://PreciseEdit.com.
Displaying 1 to 15 (of 32 articles)
23rd October 2008
As the word is being used here, "hedge" means to qualify your statements, express them as opinions, or tell the reader that you are not confident in what you are writing.
In the following sample statements, the writer demonstrates his lack of confide...
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13th October 2008
I’m looking for a particular quote, and I can’t find it. The quote goes something like this: If you want to know what a good painting is, you only have to look at a million paintings. The same can be said for writing. If you want to know what good wri...
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26th September 2008
A. What Is Pacing?
Think about runners in a relay race. A member of the relay team starts running, makes a loop around the track, and passes off the baton to the next runner. A new runner grabs the baton, runs for a while, and then does somethin...
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19th September 2008
All words are good words. Some, however, are overused without adding value to what you write. As a result, they reduce the readers’ interest, make text seem redundant, and cause the writer to appear amateurish.
We have created a list of 10 overused ...
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03rd September 2008
“Lay” and “Lie” are irregular verbs, but “perplexing” would be a better adjective to describe them. Once you get past the present tense, they change in some surprising ways. I have never figured out a way to remember their forms except by rote...
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21st July 2008
We may have to revise our thinking.
For quite a while, Precise Edit has been saying that the most common error we correct is the misuse of "that" and "which." This may no longer be true. In nearly every document we have edited recently, we are fixing ...
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09th July 2008
Writing is a combination of art and craft. The art comes from lots of reading, talking, thinking, dreaming, and writing. The craft is primarily technique. Some techniques are complex, but a few are very simple and will instantly strengthen your writin...
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19th June 2008
Often when we are editing, we come across sentences that we can revise in several ways. When we cannot easily select a particular revision, we employ a strategy we call R & R, which stands for "Rephrase and Replace."
Rephrasing the senten...
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25th May 2008
Clear writing, direct writing, simple writing, economical writing, easy-to-understand writing. All these phrases mean the same thing, and they have one purpose—Help the reader to understand what you are writing. Their opposites are fuzzy writing, confus...
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06th May 2008
Bob ran really fast down the brightly lit hallway to the slowly closing door at the very end. He was on his way to his most favorite class: Grammar 101.
While we commend Bob's enthusiasm for grammar, this use of adverbs is excessive. We call this "adve...
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03rd April 2008
It's not you. It's me.
The classic break-up line is "It's not you. It's me." How many hearts have been broken over these words?
Once you get past the ungrammatical use of "me," you can translate this statement to mean, "It's I who has the problem b...
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03rd April 2008
Editors like reading. Not only do we learn about new topics, but also the writing sometimes amuses us. I was recently reading an interesting article on RealClearPolitics.com and came across this amusing, yet perplexing, sentence.She will now be free...
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01st April 2008
Overview of the problem
Perhaps you’ve seen this mistake: “Walking down the street, the stroller lost a wheel.” This sentence implies that the stroller is walking down the street, which would be a very interesting sight, indeed. The problem ...
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01st April 2008
Let us say from the start that writing, copy editing, and content editing are different and, as such, require unique skills. Writing is about getting ideas and content on paper. The primary task of writing is to determine what content to communicate. Copy...
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01st April 2008
We feel sorry for the little apostrophe. It is so abused, so often made to do what it shouldn't and so often forgotten when needed. The apostrophe is a proud punctuation mark with specific purposes and does not deserve to be misused. Again and again we se...
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