Thursday, November 12, 2009

Editing the time element

Found online: Danny Hope, Purdue's fiery first-year coach, shed a tear during his postgame interview after the 4-6 Boilers won their first game in Ann Arbor since 1966 on Saturday.

The sentence is fine ... except for the ending. It looks like they're connecting 1966 and Saturday. If you changed it to ... shed a tear Saturday during ... it would work better.

Too much: I was watching ESPN the other day, and four or five people used "at the end of the day", one after the other. I realize that it's a current buzz phrase, but it's used too often. Steve Young, a bright man and one of my favorite football players, uses it ad nauseum.

At the end of the day, I wish they'd shut up.

Word play: I just used the term "ad nauseum," so I decided to look it up. Ad nauseam is a Latin term used to describe an argument that has been continuing "to [the point of] nausea." Over and over and over and ...

Favorite quote: “If you re-read your work, you can find on re-reading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by re-reading and editing." - William Safire.

Question found online: If Fed Ex and UPS were to merge, would they call it Fed UP?

Contact: Reach me at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

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