Most Mispronounced

Most Mispronounced Monday: “For all intents and purposes”
You probably misheard your parents saying it – and then misused it over and over again as “For all intensive purposes”. Don’t worry, MS Word will autocorrect this if you are writing. But try to remember that it is for all your “intents” and “purposes”, not just “strong purposes”.

Fast Fact Friday

No words in the English language rhyme with orange, silver or purple.

50 Tools to Improve Your Writing

I find numerous little tips from this website: Dumb Little Man; Tips for Life. A while back they posted 50 tools to improve your writing, and they recently updated each of the links.

Take a look for yourself!

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/07/50-tools-that-can-improve-your-writing.html

Weird Word Wednesday

tyro or tiro\TY-roh\noun:

 

1. One who is beginning to learn something.
2. Someone new to a field or activity.
3. Novice or beginner.

e.g. "Although I have been writing for years, I am still considered a tyro in the professional writing circle."

5 tricks in 5 min to improve your paper's readability.

Nick Oswald has some excellent insights into making your  manuscript more readable.

As he rightly points out, even if you get your work published, no-one will read it if it is poorly written -- so what was the point in having it published in the first place?

Nick helps us bring our focus back to writing a story - not just a paper. Science, like any writing, needs to engage the reader, including different fields.
It is essential that you make your manuscript readable. This is where it helps to have an experienced editor to look over it with you, particularly if English isn't your first language.

Click here to view the full article and see his 5 tips to improve the readability of your manuscript.

For Last Friday....

Its been a pretty busy time with a new puppy in the house! I seem to be playing ref as my new pup and my 3-year-old dog have snarling, wrestling fights. 
A poor excuse, however, for forgetting to put up last week's Fast Fact Friday.


Not really an editing fact, but I thought this was interesting:

In the U.S. there are 18 doctors called Dr. Doctor, and one called Dr. Surgeon. There is also a dermatologist named Dr. Rash, a psychiatrist called Dr. Couch and an anesthesiologist named Dr. Gass. And when I was a kid, I had a knee specialist called Dr. McKnee.

Penny and Dash - on one of the rarer quiet moments. :-)

Weird Word Wednesday

We got a new puppy this week - and she is tiny and adorable. But, our 3-year-old dog wasn't as impressed. Instead, he slavered continuously for the first day whilst staying well clear of her.

slaver\SLAV-uhr; SLAY-vuhr\intransitive verb:

1. To slobber; to drool

\noun:

1. Saliva drooling from the mouth.

Most Mispronounced Monday

COBH, Ireland

I might be of Irish-decent, but even this one caught me by surprise. It’s actually pronounced “COVE”, not “COB” or “COBE”. 

Cobh is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland (see map below). In the past, many Irish placenames had been anglicised by English settlers, so it was spelt 'Cobh' instead of  'Cove' to make it more Gaelic. St. Coleman's Cathedral is the prevailing architecture in the waterfront aspect of Cobh, pictured here.

Fast Fact Friday

 “Rhythm” is the longest English word without a vowel. Great for those scrabble games when you don't have any vowels... although the likelihood of having two H's is miniscule!

Weird Word Wednesday

prolix\pro-LIKS; PRO-liks\adjective:

1. Unnecessarily long or wordy; long-winded
2. So long as to be boring

e.g. "Editing a prolix manuscript is a tedious task."

Most Mispronounced Monday

OAXACA, Mexico.
This one goes out to my friend from Mexico. Her home town is one of the most mispronounced places on the planet! And you can see why....

The correct pronounciation is actually “Wah-ha-ca”. To remember this one – JUST LEARN IT! Sadly, there are no tricks!

Some Quick Oaxaca Facts:

1. Oaxaca chocolate is FAMOUS and they produce some of the best coffee in the world!
2. Guelaguetza festival in July: celebrating cultural diversity and traditions throughout Oaxaca
3. Monte Albán (see photo): archaeological site.
4. Cooking classes in town.
5. The people: renowned as some of the nicest people you will ever meet!

Monte Alban

Fast Fact Friday

It's Friday again and here is another fast fact: No word in the English language rhymes with month.

Meow

These cute kitty photos were sent in by two of my friends. Think they are trying to tell me something? :-)

Weird Word Wednesday

Read slowly when you read this word: it won't be what you first think it is!

lucubrate\LOO-kyoo-breyt\verb:

To work, write or study laboriously, especially into the night.

Most Mispronounced Monday

One of my favourite holiday destinations -- Maldives -- is actually pronounced mawl-deevz. The country is made up of 1,190 coral islands formed around 26 natural ring-like atolls, spread over 90,000 square kilometers.

Experimental Pill Extending Life of Cancer Patients

Developed by Roche and Daiichi Sankyo, a new experimental pill has performed "better than we expected" in clinical trials, according to Dr. Paul Chapman of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

The study included 675 previously untreated patients with inoperable late stage melanoma with B-RAF mutation. Patients taking the drug, vemurafenib, showed

• a 63% reduction in risk of death compared to patients tested with chemotherpy
• a 74% reduction in risk of cancer progression.

And ~50% of patients showed tumour shrinkage, compared to 5% in the chemotherapy treatment regime.

More information.

Lost in Translation?

We are pleased to announce that we now offer limited translation services from German, French and Dutch into English. This may be useful when you are having trouble with phrasing particular paragraphs in your work, or for smaller projects, such as abstracts, resumes, or letters.  Translation Services will be charged in addition to (or separately from) the charges for editing/proofreading as indicated on our prices page.

Fast Fact Friday

Goddessship is the only word in the English language with a triple letter.

Cell Phones Linked to Cancer

It is time to get serious about using your hands-free options for your mobile.

Whilst it has been speculated for some years now, the World Health Organisation has just  announced officially that cell phone use may be carcinogenic to humans (2B classification). These findings show "an increased risk of glioma, a malignant form of brain cancer, associated with wireless phone use".

The International Agency for Research on Cancer panel consisted of 31 of the leading experts in the field, spanning 14 countries. These scientists examined the exposure data, the studies of human cancer, studies in experimental animal models and other relevant data to come to this conclusion.

The Chairman of the working group, Dr. Jonathan Samet (University of Southern California, USA), concluded that "the evidence, while still accumulating, is strong enough to support a conclusion and the 2B classification. The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk."

IARC Director, Christopher Wild, states, "It is important that additional research be conducted....it is important to take pragmatic measures to reduce exposure such as hands-free devices or texting."

One study showed that there was a 40% increased risk for gliomas in the highest category of heavy users: and they classify heavy users are 30 minutes per day over a 10-year period. For some of us using our phones for work, this doesn't actually seem like a lot of talktime.

So dust off those ear pieces or start figuring out how to fix that hands-free gadget in your car.

More information can be found on the IARC website.

Editing biology’s central dogma

Published just last week in Science (M. Li et al. Science doi:10.1126/science.1207018 ; 2011), new findings may call for the rewriting of the central dogma of molecular biology to include an RNA ‘editing’ step during the process of protein assembly.  Such a step, which replaces individual letters in the genetic code to alter the resultant protein, would induce much more variety in protein production from the original DNA. The concept of RNA editing is not new, and many computational biologists are identifying flaws in these published observations. However, the extent of editing posited by the authors is large and, if the concept is confirmed, this could have major repercussions on the way we think about biology and genetics.

More information can be found:
Feature in Scientific American
Feature in Bio-IT world
Feature in Nature News

Premature births linked to busy roads.

Source: Click here for link 

I stumbled across an interesting article this morning on Science Network WA. The work was conducted at QUT, Queensland, surveying nearly 1000 women from Logan City. The study found that living within 400 meters of freeway and road clusters can induce premature births as a result of increased air pollution. Babies were being delivered at 38.2 weeks instead of the usual 40 weeks.


Whilst some of you might be thinking that many doctors consider 38 weeks to be “full term”, a much larger study, conducted in 2009 in California, identified strikingly worse statistics. The group reviewed the births of more than 81 000 infants between 1997 and 2006. They found that women living near the worst traffic-generated air pollution have a staggering 128% increased risk of delivering a baby before 30 weeks. In addition, 42% of these women showed increased symptoms of preeclampsia, a pregnancy-induced high blood pressure condition in the mother that can be dangerous to both the mother and child. For less-severe premmie babies, the chances of delivery between 30-37 weeks were 30%.

Scientists are unsure how the increased air pollution can trigger premature delivery. They suspect that pollutants could either interfere with the placental delivery of nutrients to the foetus, or trigger oxidative stress, particularly from vehicle exhaust fumes.

Now, you probably can’t change where you live. However, this research can help to make pregnant women aware of the risks of air pollution, and arm them with the information they need to decide if it is worth venturing out into the more polluted areas – particularly during the later stages of pregnancy or if they are already pre-exposed or have a history of preeclampsia in previous pregnancies.
At the very least, keep the air con on in the car, and the windows shut!

Full article on the California study:
http://www.ecofriendlypack.com/eco-friendly/car-pollution/
Full article on the QUT study:
http://www.sciencewa.net.au/index.php?/health-and-medicine/health-and-medicine/premature-births-linked-to-busy-roads.html

Best Illusions of 2011

Check out New Scientist's link to the Top 10 Best Illusions of 2011:


New visual illusions using colour and motion to trick your eyes! (The summary below each video).

Source:
http://www.newscientist.com/special/best-new-illusions-2011

Dreams

Have you ever wondered why we remember some dreams and not others? A feature in New Scientist from a few weeks ago says that the mechanism by which memories are stored is the same whether we are awake or asleep - so if your dream is emotionally charged and deemed "important" by the brain, you will remember it!

More information can be sourced: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028114.300-why-do-we-remember-some-dreams-but-not-others.html

St. Expedite – the Patron Saint of Nerds.

Today marks the unofficial feast day of St. Expedite – the patron saint of emergencies, examinees and everyone who needs a quick solution to their problems. Touted the “The saint for real time solutions” and “The Patron saint of nerds”, geeks and hackers have also more recently claimed the saint as their own. 

St. Expedite: Patron Saint of Nerds
Feast Day: April 19.

A very obscure figure in the Roman Catholic Church, almost nothing is known about the life of St. Expedite. He is typically depicted as a young Roman centurion squashing a crow beneath his right foot and often pointing to a sundial. St. Expedite is too pagan to be a proper saint, yet despite attempts to quash the status of his sainthood by the church, he is too popular to simply toss away his statues, as time and again St. Expedite comes through for people in need.

The legend claims that in 1798, a Parisian group of nuns received a crate with the words "spedito" stamped on the side, meaning “rush with haste". However, at that time, crates were usually labelled with the name of the saint on the outside; for instance, St. Joseph would have "Joseph" etc.  Upon opening the crate, the nuns discovered either a beautiful statue of a saint or the deceased body of a saint who had been buried in the Denfert-Rochereau catacombs—the facts as to the contents of the crate are a little shaky.

Those who sent the crate had simply stamped "spedito" on the side (and, if it were a corpse, the necessity of a quick delivery is logical), and no other paperwork was provided. The nuns either assumed Expedite was in fact the martyr’s name or took it as a divine sign and hastily “christened” the statue (or corpse) "St. Expedito", or St. Expedite. They invoked the name of the Saint in prayer and were amazed at how quickly their prayers were answered. The news of this saint who cheerfully dispensed swift miracles soon spread rapidly throughout the Catholic community.
A similar fable exists and has gained popularity about a crate delivered to the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadeloupe in New Orleans.

However, some meagre evidence suggesting the possible existence of the real St. Expedite: a commander of a Roman legion in Armenia who converted to Christianity and he was beheaded by the emperor Diocletian in 303 AD.

It is fitting that St. Expedite is the patron saint for people who need things done in a hurry, as our motto at Expedite Publishing is to provide “fast editing” (usually for those people rushing toward a deadline!).

And in honour of this feast day (as it is our first) we are offering 25% off all editing and proofreading for the month of May. Simply quote “NERD” in the subject line, and send your document to submit@expeditepublishing.com.au
Happy Writing!

More information about St. Expedite can be found at: http://saintexpedite.org/index.html

Weird Word of the Week

I'm sure some of you have an obstreperous child in your home on occasion?
obstreperous\ob-STREP-uhr-uhs\adjective:

1. Noisy or unruly.
2. Resisting control or restraint in a difficult manner

Like lumpy potatoes?

This week's issue of new scientist features satellite images of what Earth really looks like - and it is not the gorgeous sphere we all imagine. In fact, it is more like a lumpy potato.

Click here to check out the new geoid map:

Earth is shaped like a lumpy potato - environment - 05 April 2011 - New Scientist

The Higher Education Bubble

I stumbled across an article this morning that a colleague from many moons ago had posted on her facebook page. It delved into the conundrum of the “higher education bubble”, poised to burst due to the overvalued nature of higher education – just like the housing market did not so long ago.  Peter Thiel, Paypal co-founder and all-round money-making guru, offered some insight into this:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/10/peter-thiel-were-in-a-bubble-and-its-not-the-internet-its-higher-education/

Sadly, he’s pretty much on the mark. But this is not a new concept. In 2010, Glenn Reynolds, writing in The Examiner, conceptualized "the higher education bubble."

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/higher-education-bubble-poised-burst#ixzz1JH6JKPHF

Over the recent years, I have also begun to wonder whether kids today are just expected to go to University – whether or not they have any idea what they want to do!

Something that spurred this thought was a conversation that I had with my mother-in-law. Termite damage permeated through a large chunk of her TV room in about 2008. Luckily for her, she doesn’t watch too much TV and has not been too put out by the fact that the renovations have still to be completed!

These days, it is difficult to find a decent builder, plumber or other tradesman. Is it due to a shortage in people undertaking apprenticeships? Or are the same numbers of people undertaking apprenticeships, but the demand is higher now as the population grows? Or is it that there are too many people enrolled to pursue a useless higher education degree, thrust upon them as they leave their protective high schools?

The current tradesmen are flooded with work - in Brisbane, at least - to the extent that people, like my mother-in-law, are waiting upwards of two years to have some basic work completed on their house!

The Rudd Government, in 2010, proposed to ensure that 40% of Australians aged between 25 and 34 years will have bachelor level qualifications by 2025. In 2006, the figure was just below 30%, and 32% in 2008, Australia-wide. The new projection is a huge figure. Furthermore, they want almost 50% of these students to have attained a Bachelor's degree.

Its seems that the Australian government is in favour of more people holding degrees. Is it wise to keep creating more and more university spaces?

Check out this blog from the AGE last year - it has some interesting feedback from their readers.
http://blogs.theage.com.au/thirddegree/archives/2010/04/uni_for_the_masses.html

It appears to me that degrees are being handed out a dime-a-dozen. It’s not to say that these students don’t deserve their degrees – I am sure they worked very hard. But there is now a lot of very highly educated unemployed 20-somethings moving back home, desperately applying to any job for which they are likely overqualified, simply because there just isn’t enough positions available for them to fill!

Does Australia need more people with university degrees or should we start to focus more on vocational education and training courses?
 

Please tell me your thoughts…

Want to Use Adobe Photoshop - Just for a month?

Adobe are finally giving in to subscription-based services. For as little as $29 a month, you can subscribe to Adobe and use the various software for as long (or as little) as you like! The catch is, however, that your rental payments don't pay off the purchase of the software.

If you are a webdesigner, or graphic artist, then this is obviously not for you. However, this a great option for those people who just occasionally need to use it. I know plenty of people in science who buy the software to create a few graphics for a manuscript, and then never use the software again!

A monthly subscription lets you use the most up-to-date software for just a fraction of the price. And given that they have had two new releases in the last couple of years (they are now up to Adobe CS5), this is probably a smart move, rather than having to constantly upgrade to newer software!

Well done Adobe. It's about time your software become more afforable!


[chart: Digital Inspiration]

Its versus It's rule: it's an easy one to follow once you understand its usage.

It's versus Its.

One simple rule: use the conjunction when you mean: it is. Otherwise, it is (it's) just "its".

Examples:

• It's a strange world out there.
• Its bark is worse that its bite.
• It's a clever dog that can scratch its fleas.
• It's time to come inside.
• I can never tell if it's going to rain.
• Put that remote control back into its holder.

Even though it is the remote's holder, the "it" in reference to the remote does not take a possessive apostrophe.

Feedback!

I have had some great feedback via email. If you would like to leave feedback on the wall, please do so! Just click on the title of the particular blog and it will redirect you to another page where you can leave comments! I would love to hear from you!

Carrie Bradshaw: Have you ever been in love?

Answers Mr. Big: Abso-F*****-lutely!


Weird word for the week: This one goes out to all "Sex and the City" fans....
Tmesis \ tuh-MEE-sis, TMEE-sis \noun:
1. Stuffing a word into the middle of another word.

Examples:

"Wel-diddly-elcome": Made famous by Ned Flanders from "The Simpsons"

"Legen-wait for it-dary": Barney Stinson's catch cry from "How I Met Your Mother"

"Ri-goddamn-diculous": Anchorman


And of course the famous last line from the first episode of Sex and the
City, which I won't post ;-)

Other, less-famous examples:

a-whole-nother
un-friggin-believable
la-dee-freakin'-da


If you think of others, please drop us a line!
Happy Writing!

Is it "three years experience" or "three years' experience"? Using Possive Apostrophes; Tip #1

Over the years, I have been asked by people to help them proofread their curriculum vitae/resume. One of the most common mistakes I have found is the misuse of the possessive apostrophe, particularly in regards to "years of experience".

There are two ways to indicate your experience on your resume:

(1) X years of experience
OR
(2) X years' experience

"Year" is a noun to describe a period of time. "Years" is a thus the plural form of the noun, therefore it takes an "s" as part of the word. The experience belongs to the year or the years

To help understand where to place the apostrophe, I have outline several examples below:

If you have had experience for one year, it would be:

(1) one year of experience
OR
(2) one year's experience


If you have had experience for two or more years, it would be:

(1) two years of experience
OR
(2) two years' experience

In contrast, if you were to use the noun, "decade", which means 10 years, then you would say:

(1) 10 years' experience
OR
(2) a(one) decade's experience

This is because in example (1) you describe ten years whereas in example (2) you are describing one decade.

If, you were describing 20 years, then you would say:

(1) 20 years' experience
OR
(2) two decades' experience

In this case, example (2) is describing "two decades" and not "two decade".

Happy writing, and for all those people out their job-hunting, don't forget this tip and make sure you proofread your work! First impressions are important, and the first impression you make on your future boss is via your resume! Keep it neat; keep it error-free!


For more information on resume proofreading and editing, visit: www.expeditepublishing.com.au/personal.html
More tips and tricks can be found at: www.expeditepublishing.com.au/free.html

Confucius Say.....

One of my favourite photos of erroneous English - except, its not erroneous.... just unfortunate!

Confucius say, "If you are in a book store and cannot find the book for which you search, you are obviously in the.....

Weird Word of the Week

I chose Thursdays as my "Weird Word of the Week" day (better than Mondays!); it's a chance to help others apprecite the English language, add to their vocabulary or, more likely, try to get their tongue around a word they will unlikely never use or see again.

For this week, I found a word that describes something we might all be guilty of doing:

pleonasm \ PLEE-un-naz-uhm \ noun:

The use of more words than necessary to express your idea; redundant word usage.

Some examples include:

1. Absolutely essential
2. Advance warning
3. Basic fundamentals
4. Classic traditions
5. Completely (or totally) deaf (blind; empty; full: these things can be partially, but the use of the word 'completely' is redundant)
6. Constant nagging (we all know nagging is constant!)
7. Empty hole
8. Free gift
9. Foreign imports
10. Invited guests
11. Individual person
12. Join together
13. Joint collaboration
14. New discovery
15. Overused cliche
16. Past experience
17. PIN number (personal identification number number; same for ATM machine)
18. Return back (retreat back, revert back).
19. Safe haven
20. Unsolved mystery

Now that I have made you aware of these, I am sure you will appreciate that there are loads more pleonasms in everyday language. See if you can pick up the next time someone uses one!

Happy writing!

"Retired" in tired Melbourne traffic

I was stuck in Melbourne traffic for about an hour this morning, and for much of it I was following this truck with a mammoth sticker that read: "RETIRED". I guess he is pretty proud of this to display a sticker so prominently on his rear window. I stared at word for a while, and it began to lose its meaning; I started to think about the word "TIRED" and how "re-" as a prefix can be confusing.

For many words, the prefix "re-" is used with stress, with the sense of "again". "Redo", "rewrite", "remake", "realign" etc. Interestingly, even "repeat" derives from the same pattern, stemming from the word "re + petition" and "repetitive" meaning tiresomely iterative. While its true, you are likely to be "tired" when you "retire to bed" or "retire from your job", the prefix "re-" doesn't seem to reflect a state of  "doing tired again".

My big etymology book failed me on this, and I turned to the trusty Google to sift out the answer:

"Retire" comes from re- "back" + old French (written and spoken c. 900-1400)  tirer "draw out, endure, suffer".

In contrast, the origin of the word "tire" is a little shaky. It stems from the old English (written and spoken c. 450-1100) ateorian "to be weary".

Sometimes more confusing when we write, is remembering when the "re-" takes a hyphen or not: for instance, re-cover (to cover again) versus recover (to have something returned); re-call (such as call out a number again) versus recall (remember).

And, of course, "re" is not always a prefix; plenty of words begin with "re", such as "really": it's not re-ally.

I am in awe of everyone who studies English as a second language...keep it up -- and thanks for letting us get away with these inconsistencies!

Happy writing!

Eat Ray Love - the importance of proofreading your work!

My friend, Emma, sent me this the other day.  I am sure Rachel Ray doesn't really want to cook her family and her dog.....
When it comes to proofreading your work, it is so easy to miss punctuation marks. Take the example here from "Tails" Magazine. It should read: "Rachel Ray finds inspiration in cooking, her family and her dog." The editor claims that the comma was there before they went to print, but somewhere along the way, it was lost!

This is just one of the many examples of why it is so important to have your work proofread by someone other than yourself...like Expedite Publishing!

If you have any pictures, please drop me a line!

Happy Writing!

New Definitions

As I was trawling through various websites yesterday, I stumbled on this one, detailing some new definitions of commonly used words. Here are my favourites:

Inkling: A baby fountain pen
Coffee: The person upon whom one coughs
Flabbergasted: Appalled over how much weight you have gained
Balderdash: A rapidly receding hairline

And the winner:
Lymph: To walk with a lisp

Happy writing!

Source: http://www.seiyaku.com/humour/english/new-words.html

Welcome

This is the first blog from Expedite Publishing.
Welcome to Erroneous English!

I am a scientist turned editor. After many years on the bench - yes, I was one of those people pipetting in white lab coats that you often see on the news - I decided that my love of English could be put to good use: and so Expedite Publishing was born. I offer scientific editing for academics and students; however, Expedite Publishing has helped many other people achieve their writing goals (businesses, individuals and those who have English as a second lanuage), and I hope that this continues! Jump on my website if you would like more information www.expeditepublishing.com.au

I am not a writer - and most people assume that editors are. Instead, my hope is that this blog will offer advice about the mis-use, overuse or underuse of certain words, offer tidbits on how to write well and, from time-to-time, highlight interesting science feature articles and news.

I also welcome any photos of Erroneous English (to which I dedicate this site), from signs, billboards, flyers etc. If you stumble upon any photos that fit the bill, please share them with me.

Happy writing!