Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Muslim - English editing.

Muslim is the preferred spelling for ‘a follower of Islam’ and ‘relating to Islam’, although the form Moslem is also used. The terms Muhammadan and Mohammedan are archaic and are likely to sound deliberately offensive.
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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Moot - English editing.

It is quite common to come across a debatable point being described as ‘a mute point’. This is a logical but mistaken adaptation of the old-established phrase a moot point and is generally not considered good style.
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Monday, October 25, 2010

Mongoloid - English editing.

The terms Mongoloid, Negroid, Caucasoid, and Australoid were introduced by 19th-century anthropologists attempting to classify human racial types, but today they are recognized as having very limited validity as scientific categories. Although occasionally used when making broad generalizations about the world’s populations, in most modern contexts they are potentially offensive, especially when used of individuals. The names of specific peoples, nationalities, or regions of the world should be used instead wherever possible.
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Friday, October 22, 2010

Mongol, Mongolism - English editing.

The terms mongol was adopted in the 19th century to refer to a person with Down’s syndrome (and mongolism for the condition itself), owing to the supposed similarity of some of the physical symptoms of the disorder with the normal facial characteristics of East Asian people. In modern English these terms are offensive and have been replaced in scientific as well as in most general contexts by Down’s syndrome (first recorded in the early 1960s), and related expressions such as a person with Down’s syndrome, a Down’s baby, etc.
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Thursday, October 21, 2010

Mitigate - English editing.

The verb mitigate and militate do not mean the same thing, although their similarity leads to them being often confused. Mitigate means ‘to make less severe’, as in drainage schemes have helped to mitigate this problem, while militate is nearly always used in constructions with against to mean ‘be a powerful factor in preventing’, as in these disagreements will militate against the two communities coming together.
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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Suggest - English editing.

Suggest is a verb. Spell suggest and the related words suggestion and suggestive with a double g. The related word of suggest is suggestible. The suggestible is an adjective.
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Friday, October 15, 2010

Mischievous - English editing.

Mischievous is a three-syllable word, pronounced /miss-chi-vuhss/. It should not be pronounced /miss-chee-vi-uhss/ with four syllables, as though it were spelled ‘mischievious’ (with an extra i), which is also wrong.
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Thursday, October 14, 2010

Minuscule - English editing.

The correct spelling of minuscule with a u in the second syllable, rather than with an i.‘Miniscule’ is a common error, which has arisen by analogy with other words beginning with mini-, where the meaning is similarly ‘very small’.
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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Millennium - English editing.

The correct spelling is millennium with -ll- and -nn-. It may help you if you remember that the first part of the word means ‘a thousand’ in Latin, as in millipede, and is ultimately the basis for the word million. The second part is closely related to the word annual.
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Monday, October 11, 2010

Meter, Metre - English editing.

Meter is the normal spelling in both British and American English for the measuring or recording instrument, such as a gas meter. It is also the American English spelling for the unit of length and for ‘rhythm in poetry’, which in British English are both spelled metre.
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Saturday, October 9, 2010

Media - English editing.

The word media comes from the Latin plural of medium. The traditional view is that it should therefore be treated as a plural noun in all its sense in English and be used with a plural rather than a singular verb: the media have not followed the reports (rather than ‘has’). In practice, in the meaning of ‘television, radio, and the press collectively’, it behaves as a collective noun (like staff or clergy, for example), which means that it is now acceptable in Standard English for it to take either a singular or a plural verb, and few people are likely to object to its use with the former.
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Friday, October 8, 2010

Story - English editing.

Story is a noun. Do not confuse story with storey. Story means ‘an account told to people to entertain them’ (an adventure story), whereas storey means ‘a floor of a building’ (a three-storey house). In American English, the spelling story is used for both senses.
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Thursday, October 7, 2010

Manic depression - English editing.

Though terms that many people are familiar with, manic depression and manic depressive are sometimes felt to be negative by people experiencing the condition and those working with them. A less loaded term which is being increasingly used in medical and psychiatric circles is bipolar disorder, or bipolar affective disorder. People with the condition can be referred to simply as bipolar, or as having bipolar disorder.
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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Majority - English editing.

Strictly speaking, majority should be used with countable nouns to mean ‘the greater number’, as in the majority of cases. Using it with uncountable nouns to mean ‘the greatest part’, as in I spent the majority of the day reading, is not considered good written English by purists, although it is common in informal contexts. It is still a cliché, and the majority is best replaced by most.
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Monday, October 4, 2010

Machismo, Macho - English editing.

The -ch- in machismo can be pronounced either as a k or as in church, and both are acceptable, though the second is closer to the original Spanish. In macho, the -ch- is always pronounced as in church.
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Saturday, October 2, 2010

Its - English editing.

A common error in writing is to confuse the possessive its (as in turn the camera on its side) with the contraction it’s (short for either it is or it has, as in it’s my fault; it’s been a hot day). The confusion is understandable since the possessive forms of singular nouns do take an apostrophe + -s, as in the girl’s bike; the President’s smile.
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Friday, October 1, 2010

(-Ise) - English editing.

There are some verbs which must be spelled -ise and are not variants of the -ize ending. Most reflect a French influence, and they include advertise, televise, compromise, enterprise, and improvise.
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