ATTN: Copyeditors and Grammar Fiends

“It’s even easier when you don’t care whom you kill.”

Doesn’t this passage look really odd? The one below looks better, IMO, but is the one above even acceptable?

“It’s even easier when you don’t care about whom you kill.”

Eh, sentence, even.

"It's even easier when you don't care who you kill."

Fixed!

Isn't "caring about" ambiguous here, because it could mean not having feelings for the victim rather than not caring about their identity?

I think we're seeing a breakdown of the who/whom distinction. There are cases in which the use of 'whom', although tradionally correct, now looks a bit odd and you should use 'who' instead.

Thanks. I found it in this Slate piece, which is why I was a bit puzzled. =)

Isn't "caring about" ambiguous here, because it could mean not having feelings for the victim rather than not caring about their identity?

isn't "who you kill" a subject/predicate on its own? So who is acceptable over whom? It's been a while since I studied this stuff. I'm rusty and mostly operating by feel.

I think I only use "whom" when it's part of a prepositional phrase. "Around whom did you fanny" for instance.

MS Office tells me this is wrong, is it?

"...this task could take an additional three or four man-hours to sort out..."

It says that I should delete the word "an." WTF?

MS Office is full of shit half of the time.

Man, just do CTRL-A, DELETE... problem solved.

WTF I JUST DID THAT YOU ASSHOLE

HOW DO I MAKE IT GO BACK OH GOD IT WAS 18 PAGES LONG

I GUESS THAT'S 3-4 LESS MAN-HOURS

Funny guy.

"Treatment for asthma and pulmonary disease are not identical"

the prob I see with using "treatments" is it no longer reads like a 1-to-1 comparison.

Add a "the" to the start?

I'd keep treatment singular, but add another 'for' for clarity:
"Treatment for asthma and for pulmonary disease are not identical"

The treatment (singular) sits clunkily with "are" though.

"Treatment ... are"?

xpost

I'm putting the s on in a query, ja

The treatment for asthma and that for pulmonary disease are not identical.

I r a medical editor. Therefore you must do as I say and use 'The treatments.'

xpost jaymc I love you but that is horrible.

yes, esp as it also has to go in a callout.

wait asthma IS a pulmonary disease!

Sentence is too long. Consider simply going with "Fixin' lungs is tough."

Asthma is treated differently than other pulmonary diseases.

xpost jaymc I love you but that is horrible.

Well, if it were up to me, I'd probably use "treatments," but the good Dr. Morbius seemed like he wanted to avoid that.

"The treatment for asthma is not identical to the treatment for pulmonary disease."

I shortened it, quincie; the other disease is actually COPD, but I didn't wnat to confuse the civilians...

I dunno. "The love I have for Berlin and for Paris are quite different."
You wouldn't want "loves" there, would you? The second love is simply understood without being written out.

Asthma and COPD are treated differently.

DO I WIN OR WHAT?

no, I can't rewrite it that much. It's not my decision, I merely (feebly) suggest. Also the AMA stylebook NEVER has the example I'm looking for, ever!

my mom works with COPD patients!

Zelda, that sentence is weird either way. That "are" is like a cyst on that sentence. Why wouldn't you say something like, "I love Berlin and Paris in different ways" or something? Also, active voice, because you're talking about yourself (not as easy with the COPD/Asthma sentence since the treater of diseases is mostly irrelevant to the sentence).

what about my suggestion morbius

I have no power over what the Krell -- I mean, my editor -- will decide. I've added an "s" query and moved on.

I still think the original sentence with "treatments" instead of "treatment" doesn't read unclearly, btw, Morb.

xpost yay :)

<i>Zelda, that sentence is weird either way.</i>

Yeah, I guess you're right!

You really have to query something as small as that? God, I'd go nuts.

I don't have to; I simply don't want to decide.

Morbius the Scrivener

hahaha

full stops at the end of bullet-pointed sentences, yay or nay?

I say nay, unless you have more than one sentence per bullet point.

(I don't know why, other than it feels somehow right so somebody else will have to give you a proper answer).