A. James Editing, Inc.

I just started reading my first Tom Robbins novel, “Another Roadside Attraction”, and couldn’t help but share this incredible sentence with you:

It is content, or rather the consciousness of content, that fills the void. But the mere presence of content is not enough. It is style that gives content the capacity to absorb us, to move us; it is style that makes us care.

The speaker of this quote is absolutely not talking about the content on your website or in your newsletter, but the content of our lives.


Being a copywriter/content creator, however, I see its direct applicability to written content.


It goes along with my earlier posts about copy and design being a celestial combination, and about how dressing-up/giving some style to RFPs can get you and your services noticed.


I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the well-written word (content) + beautiful design (style) can change the world…and our lives (and your website, and your newsletter, and your RFP, etc).

I had the pleasure of visiting the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) yesterday with a friend. They currently have a space exhibit that is full of all kinds of interesting information, some of which might actually be useful to one’s everyday life.

At the very beginning of the exhibit, the last words spoken by Gene Cernan, the last man to step on the moon, are written large on a wall. This is what is written on the poster:

This is Gene and I’m on the surface and as I take man’s last step from the surface, back home for some time to come–but we believe not too long into the future–I’d like to just say what I believe history will record. That America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow, and as we leave the Moon and Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and God willing as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17.

You can read it as many times as you like and you still might have difficulty. It’s true that people do talk like this, improvised and uncut, but that’s where a skilled copywriter comes in with the skills and knowledge to either create an excellent piece of copy from scratch or, as would have been the case with this quote, rewrite copy to be more easily read without sacrificing the meaning of the original document.

With my copywriting powers combined, this is how I would have rewritten Gene’s quote:

This is Gene and I’m on the surface [of the moon]. As I take man’s last step from the surface, back home for some time to come, I’d like to just say what I believe history will record: that America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow. And as we leave the Moon and Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed [to] the crew of Apollo 17.

Gene’s speech is still a little choppy, but those are his spoken words after all. What I did was utilize various forms of punctuation to force readers to pause and allow the text to move forward smoothly. The exhibit goes until May 31, 2010.

In an effort to ease its budget crisis and reduce its $419 billion debt, the Greek government has approved a series of drastic tax increases and spending cuts. The Greek people, however, were not asked what they thought of the plan and are rising up in protest at the cuts to their income.

Much thanks to the BBC for bringing us this important news, but may I offer a soft critique? Hire another proofreader. The few that you have missed some key things in this article.

The three things that I found were the placement of abbreviations, lack of consistency in comma usage and simple grammar. I’ll outline the errors in that order.

The International Monetary Fund is mentioned twice before the abbreviation, IMF, is given. It is common practice in any kind of writing, whether it be thesis, book or online news article, to give the abbreviation immediately after the term first occurs so the writer can then use the abbreviation throughout the rest of the article instead of having to retype the entire term (this might be more important in print media as space per article is very limited).

There are two instances when the author of this article could have used a serial comma (placing a comma after every item in a list) or not. The author used a serial comma the first time, but not the second. Using one over the other is not necessarily right or wrong, but having a lack of consistency in your usage is definitely not professional. Serial comma usage:

The measures include rises in sales taxes, a cut in holiday bonuses paid to civil servants, and a pensions freeze.

No serial comma usage:

Rises in taxes on fuel, cigarettes and alcohol

The last item I noted was a simple grammatical blip; a matter of the word “a” versus the word “an”. In the following case, “An” would be the correct word to use.

A increase in sales tax from 19% to 21%

Good luck to the Greeks in sorting out what is both best for the people and for the future of the country.

Good evening gentle reader,

For those of you familiar with my blog and those of you who aren’t, I am a freelance copywriter who has until recently highlighted errors in news articles. I call it “Typos in the Nuwz…I Mean News.” Perhaps you’ve seen them around the WP blogroll. No periodical has been safe, The Huffington Post, The BBC, Fox News, MSNBC and even AOL News. I’ve critiqued their typographical errors, clarity and consistency. That’s been fun and the pictures are usually pretty, but I would like to add another facet to my blog: typos in books. In addition to being a copywriter, I am also a trained proofreader and avid reader. Do you see where this is going?

My trained eye picks out errors whether I want to or not and I must must perform the appropriate proofreading markage and make a note to myself at the top of the page. I said it was a gift in my last post. I might have exaggerated a bit and perhaps “curse” is a better word to use.

The first installment will begin…tomorrow! Muahahaha! Now I’ve got you hooked! Which book will it be? The blameless author? Which publisher was careless enough to let these bedeviled blemishes make it to print?!

Find out all that and more tomorrow on A. James Editing!

Love Skype. Love eBay. Love The BBC. Do not love typos. Off the front page of The BBC is an article entitled, “eBay in Skype deal with founders.” Forgiving a few commas here and there whose presence or absence is open to interpretation, no copywriter worth her salt could let these “ises” go uncorrected.

The BBC said:

The deal, announced by eBay in September, is is expected to be finalised in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Freelance copywriter Amber would have said:

The deal, announced by eBay in September, is expected to be finalised in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Simple.