State of the Blog Address

It's Blue Pencil Editing's one hundredth post! It took me more than two years to get here, but it's about quality, not quantity, right? (To those of you who post daily, I tip my hat.) So, in honor of this milestone, I'm taking stock by taking a poll.

As my tagline indicates, this blog was created as a resource: for editors (such as myself) and for those in need of editorial enlightenment (also like myself - it's a continuous learning process). I've covered a variety of topics (editing, grammar, language, proofreading, punctuation, spelling, style, word usage, writing) and resources (articles, blogs, books, products, Web sites), often in response to reader suggestions. (For an overview, see Labels.)

In keeping with this mission, I'm asking readers which posts you find the most helpful and entertaining - the posts with the most, if you will. (See poll to the left; you can select more than one answer.) And if there's a particular post or series of posts (be my guest, big offenders, dear BPE, handy hint, reviews) you especially enjoy, let me know!

I'm looking forward to your responses. Here's what I've learned from this blog so far: many, many people want to know the difference between "toward" and "towards"; interest in grammar and language is thriving; and there's an online community of witty, wonderful word nerds I might not have met otherwise.

Thanks for reading!

Handy Hint: Continual vs. Continuous

Which is correct?
A) I continually confuse continual and continuous.
B) I continuously confuse continual and continuous.

Well, that depends. When choosing between continual and continuous, you must consider the context. Do you occasionally forget which is which, or have you never been able to tell the difference? If it's a recurring event, it's continual (answer A). If it's constant, it's continuous (answer B). To remember, I associate the ending of "continual" with the ending of "annual," which refers to a repeated occurrence (yearly).

Although many argue the two words mean the same thing, others disagree. AP and Chicago styles distinguish between them, and Merriam-Webster falls somewhere in the middle, categorizing them as synonyms but acknowledging their different implications.

I would like to thank my mom for asking whether I'd covered this topic yet—her continual suggestions and continuous support are greatly appreciated.

Here's to Punctuation!

It's National Punctuation Day, "a celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotes, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis," thanks to founder Jeff Rubin and his partners in punctuation.

This year's festivities include a baking contest, which challenges revelers to create a tasty pastry in the shape of a punctuation mark. Visit the holiday's Web site for contest rules, ways to celebrate the big day, and information about your favorite mark—in my case, the dash!

What in the Word?

Are you a slapsauce? Or would you rather mimp at the dinner table? You're probably confused, but if you're also curious, you'll want to take a look at The Wonder of Whiffling (and Other Extraordinary Words in the English Language), by Adam Jacot de Boinod, which comes out tomorrow. (A slapsauce is "a person who enjoys eating fine food" and to mimp is "to play with one's food.")

The press release I received from the author describes the book as "a hugely enjoyable and surprising journey through the English language, revealing interesting and unusual words from Old and Middle English and Tudor-Stuart, through the rural dialects collected by Victorian lexicographers, the argot of nineteenth-century criminals, slang from two world wars, right up to our contemporary jargon that has grown from activities such as darts, working in an office, and texting."

The excerpts on the site are amusing, particularly the section on laughing—I'm sure those who know me can hear my cachinnating now ("to laugh loudly and immoderately"). The book reads like a fun, quirky dictionary, with Jacot de Boinod providing the date or place of origin for each word. So far, my favorite is petrichor (1964): the pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell. Word lovers may also enjoy his first book, The Meaning of Tingo (and Other Extraordinary Words from around the World), which explores other languages.

I wonder if there's an interesting and unusual word for reading about interesting and unusual words?

In a Literary State

In addition to freelancing, I work part time as communications director for the North Carolina Writers' Network, one of the largest literary organizations in the country. This weekend, I was fortunate to represent the Network at the North Carolina Literary Festival, "a celebration of reading and writing." The four-day event, hosted by my alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, featured more than one hundred writers, including John Grisham, Anna Deavere Smith, and Elizabeth Strout, author of 2009 Pulitzer Prize–winner Olive Kitteridge.

The South was well represented, as you would expect, especially North Carolina, a state that produces as much writing as tobacco. Tar Heel natives Doris Betts, Clyde Edgerton, and Robert Morgan were in attendance as well as many other writers who like calling North Carolina home, such as Elizabeth Edwards and Daniel Wallace. I had the privilege of introducing novelists Ron Rash and Lee Smith and poets Dorianne Laux and Maureen Sherbondy at their sessions, which were sponsored by the Network.

I also helped man a booth for the Network along with administrative director Virginia Freedman and three fantastic volunteers (and fantastic writers): Mark Hardy, Jan B. Parker, and Whitney Vaughan. Thanks to them, I was able to step away and hear first-time authors (and fellow North Carolinians) Wells Tower (Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned) and Erica Eisdorfer (The Wet Nurse's Tale) discuss their books in a session moderated by the always entertaining Allan Gurganus. I was particularly interested in hearing Tower speak because we went to the same high school. (No, I don't know him, and yes, that's his real name.) Another graduate, Sarah Dessen, was also on the schedule. Go Tigers!

The whole experience was both professionally and personally satisfying, being a lifelong reader, creative writer, and North Carolina native myself. So, it got me thinking—shouldn't we have a grammar and language festival? An event where grammar goddesses Martha Brockenbrough and Mignon Fogarty (a.k.a. Grammar Girl) read from their books and discuss the demise of the semicolon? Comma-Con, perhaps?

Count me in.

Kreativ Blogs (and Creative Spelling)

It's awards season! And I'm a proud recipient of the Kreativ Blogger Award, bestowed on me by Fran Hill of Being Miss. Given that she's an English teacher, I'm especially honored.

In turn, I'm to award seven other blogs and share seven personal tidbits. In keeping with the theme of this blog, I offer up the following "languagey" (to use Fran's term) blogs from professional writers and editors in addition to the ones under Language Links to the left (Mighty Red Pen gets a double mention; The Engine Room was already wisely nominated by Fran). Too bad we already have "the Grammys" ...

Conjugate Visits ("You know, like grammar and stuff.")
Everything Language and Grammar (The title says it all.)
Mighty Red Pen (Check out her 10 Blogs Word Nerds Will Love too.)
Mots Justes (Which means "exactly the right word or phrasing.")
A Semicolon's Dream Journal (Perhaps the most creative blog ever.)
The Sentence Sleuth ("You write, me edit.")
Terribly Write (And terribly funny.)

And here's some grammatical gossip about me:
I don't like "k's" used in place of "c's" any more than Fran does.
My favorite punctuation mark is the dash.
My least favorite punctuation mark is the hyphen.
I regularly use the contraction "y'all."
I'm a member of The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar.
I wish descriptivists and prescriptivists would agree to disagree.
I have a lot style. (Manuals, that is.)

On that note, who am I going to wear to the ceremony ...