You too can tighten your copy!

Reading a hunka-hunka burnin' verbiage during a 10-hour shift yesterday, I came across some Personal Copy Pet Peeves (PCPP):

• Continued use of "in fact," as it tends to be superfluous and take up precious column inches.

i.e. Linus was whiny. In fact, he was also short.

• Extraneous use of "that."

i.e. She said that she was sick of writers' excessive use of extra words.

• Using "different" after a number, as below. Again, this is implicit in what's already being said.

i.e. The hellhole* Chinatown apartment was home to more than 100 different species of insects.

• Unnecessary "up"-iness, and other preposition overuse.

i.e. Tighten up, loosen up, open up, close down, reading through, and (my personal favorite) off of.

We all have PCCPs. What're yours?

*One word or two? You decide.

That's bad for your comma

Let's dive right in — I don't think commas are necessary to offset the below-mentioned dictator's name:

[via The New York Times]

I do believe we are in the presence of what I shall henceforth call Press Release Commas. Writers of such releases are quite keen to place commas around all name drops (i.e. Rock icon, Elvis Presley, has left the building). They'd no doubt like you to pause and gawk at all names they mention, hence the commas.

In the above case, I do believe Kim Jong-il acts as an appositive, and commas aren't needed there, because it is essential information in the sentence. Just like here:


If anyone cares to debate this, the floor is yours. I could be (and often am) wrong. Please, you discuss!

Same words, different meaning

Or: So the Mile-High Club does exist!
Caption reads: Lynn Varian, 59, became pregnant with Megan Carmody, 33, while she was a flight attendant. (Photo via CNN)