ATTN: Copyeditors and Grammar Fiends

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

Zelda Zonk, Friday, 19 October 2007 14:37 (sixteen years ago) link

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

ailsa, Friday, 19 October 2007 14:46 (sixteen years ago) link

"Treatment ... are"?

xpost

Tracer Hand, Friday, 19 October 2007 14:47 (sixteen years ago) link

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

Dr Morbius, Friday, 19 October 2007 14:52 (sixteen years ago) link

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

jaymc, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:07 (sixteen years ago) link

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.

quincie, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:08 (sixteen years ago) link

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

Dr Morbius, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:11 (sixteen years ago) link

wait asthma IS a pulmonary disease!

quincie, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:13 (sixteen years ago) link

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

Will M., Friday, 19 October 2007 15:13 (sixteen years ago) link

Asthma is treated differently than other pulmonary diseases.

quincie, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:14 (sixteen years ago) link

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.

jaymc, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:14 (sixteen years ago) link

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

s1ocki, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:15 (sixteen years ago) link

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

Dr Morbius, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:15 (sixteen years ago) link

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.

Zelda Zonk, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:15 (sixteen years ago) link

Asthma and COPD are treated differently.

quincie, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:16 (sixteen years ago) link

DO I WIN OR WHAT?

quincie, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:16 (sixteen years ago) link

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!

Dr Morbius, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:18 (sixteen years ago) link

my mom works with COPD patients!

s1ocki, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:19 (sixteen years ago) link

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).

Will M., Friday, 19 October 2007 15:19 (sixteen years ago) link

what about my suggestion morbius

s1ocki, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:19 (sixteen years ago) link

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

Dr Morbius, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:21 (sixteen years ago) link

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

Will M., Friday, 19 October 2007 15:23 (sixteen years ago) link

xpost yay :)

Will M., Friday, 19 October 2007 15:23 (sixteen years ago) link

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

Yeah, I guess you're right!

Zelda Zonk, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:24 (sixteen years ago) link

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

quincie, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:25 (sixteen years ago) link

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

Dr Morbius, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:27 (sixteen years ago) link

Morbius the Scrivener

jaymc, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:34 (sixteen years ago) link

hahaha

Tracer Hand, Friday, 19 October 2007 15:41 (sixteen years ago) link

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

Upt0eleven, Monday, 22 October 2007 11:49 (sixteen years ago) link

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

Madchen, Monday, 22 October 2007 11:51 (sixteen years ago) link

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

Madchen, Monday, 22 October 2007 11:52 (sixteen years ago) link

Tends to depend on style guide/consistency, with yes/no/only-last-one all possible.

Eyeball Kicks, Monday, 22 October 2007 11:57 (sixteen years ago) link

I think I would punctuate it as I would a sentence if I'd chosen to break up the thing with commas instead of bullet points, so if you have three partial ends to a sentence it could end:

+ like this, or
+ like that, or
+ like something else entirely.

ailsa, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:00 (sixteen years ago) link

This is mostly because I like things to look nice and logical, not because I know lots about the "right" way of doing things.

ailsa, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:01 (sixteen years ago) link

I hate it when people end them with 'or', 'and' or (worst of all) semicolons. We are sophisticated readers who understand how lists work.

Eyeball Kicks, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:03 (sixteen years ago) link

It makes me think of leaflets about social security benefits.

Eyeball Kicks, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:03 (sixteen years ago) link

i have thusly been fullstopping because i just think a full sentence should be fully punctuated but most places seem not to. i can't handle the conflict.

Upt0eleven, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:09 (sixteen years ago) link

dos and don'ts
do's and don'ts
do's and don't's

?

Zelda Zonk, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:17 (sixteen years ago) link

First one. Though I'm pretty sure the second one is acceptable as well.

ailsa, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:19 (sixteen years ago) link

I agree, but "dos" still somehow looks a bit wrong...

Zelda Zonk, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:20 (sixteen years ago) link

I remember asking somewhere else about the expression fair dos/fair does/fair do's and being told the former and latter were both acceptable as a pluralisation of do. Don't like it much though.

ailsa, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:21 (sixteen years ago) link

ooh can you do former/latter with a triple option? is the 2nd a... middler?

r|t|c, Monday, 22 October 2007 14:21 (sixteen years ago) link

Probably not, heh, I am keeping this thread on its toes and reminding you all that I am just an amateur pedant so my advice is not to be taken seriously.

ailsa, Monday, 22 October 2007 14:23 (sixteen years ago) link

google tells me it shouldn't be used formally, but is used conversationally as it still conveys what is meant fairly clearly.

ailsa, Monday, 22 October 2007 14:28 (sixteen years ago) link

Re the plural of BBS:

An article just landed on my desk that uses the abbreviation SNS (social networking site) and its plural SNSs. I'm going to query it.

jaymc, Monday, 22 October 2007 17:23 (sixteen years ago) link

Do's appears in many dictionaries as an independent word, because dos and don'ts may look suspiciously like Spanglish for "two and don'ts."

Thus: do's and don'ts

(You can trust me, because I got totally burned on trying to "correct" that a couple years back.)

nabisco, Monday, 22 October 2007 17:27 (sixteen years ago) link

sort of a follow-up on my question about outsourcing copyediting.

tipsy mothra, Monday, 22 October 2007 17:40 (sixteen years ago) link

I thought it was "do's and don't's"? Looks kind of retarded, sure.

Laurel, Monday, 22 October 2007 17:45 (sixteen years ago) link

it would never, ever, ever be "do's and don't's". ever. in any possible universe.

grimly fiendish, Monday, 22 October 2007 17:56 (sixteen years ago) link

I thought whatsherface from the shoots and leaves book had said it was? But my copy is at home. Anyway, I was checking b/c we publish a book by that title and it gets done all different ways in the systems.

Laurel, Monday, 22 October 2007 17:57 (sixteen years ago) link


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