Common mistakes writers make when writing
For those writers planning to publish a book, I can only hope that your manuscript goes through extensive editing before it goes to print. This is especially important for those who self-publish or use on-demand publishing services to bring their book to market. These methods generally do not require or offer editing services to catch errors that can cost you credibility as an author.
As an editor for individual authors, as well as working as a contract editor for two publishers, I have seen many grammatical or mechanical errors in manuscripts. I will share some of the most common mistakes in the hope that you can avoid these pitfalls.
Note that the Associated Press (AP) style is commonly used for journalistic works such as newspapers and web text. The examples I am going to use are from the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) published by the University of Chicago Press. It is one of the most respected and trusted guidelines for literary works such as books.
1. A very common error in many of the books I edit or review occurs in the title, headings and subheadings. Chicago Manual of Style 7.127 states: In regular capitalization of titles, also known as title style, the first and last words and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions (if, because, as , that, etc.) are capitalized. Articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, for or) and prepositions, regardless of length, are lowercase unless they are the first or last word of the title or subtitle .
2. A book is not entitled (ie serving, allowed, permitted); is titled (meaning to have a title, label, or name).
3. Titles of books, records, movies, television shows, and scripts should be in italics. Do not use “quotes”. Do not underline these titles unless you are formatting them for a bibliography. However, titles of articles and titles of poems and songs are enclosed in quotation marks.
4. Unless a word is an acronym, it should not be in CAPITAL LETTERS. Use italics for emphasis.
5. OK should be written: okay.
6. ISBN is the acronym for International Standard Book Number. Writing “ISBN number” is the same as indicating the International Standard Book number. It is redundant to use the word “number” or the pound symbol (#) after the ISBN.
7. Percent symbols (%) should be written “percent” unless used in a graph or table. Numbers followed by a percentage must be in numerical form. Example: 91 percent. However, if a percentage is the first word of a sentence in a literary work, it must be spelled out. Example: Ninety-one percent of the students passed the test.
8. Use one space (not two) after a period, question mark, colon, or semicolon. This is the complete opposite of what we were taught in typing class a long time ago! It can be a difficult habit to break.
9. CMOS 5.57 states: “In a string that lists three or more elements, the elements are separated by a comma.” For example: the dog, the cat, the hippopotamus and the cow all jumped over the moon.
10. When writing years, do not use an apostrophe. Example: 1960, not 1960 unless you want the possessive form of the word. If abbreviated: ’60s is correct; 60 is wrong. Note that the apostrophe [ ‘ ] is used as a placeholder for missing numbers, not as a single closing quote [ ‘ ] looking in the opposite direction.
11. Speaking of years, hyphens and numbers are used when you write “the 16-year-old boy.” No hyphen is needed, and the number is spelled when you write “the boy is sixteen.”
12. Internet is a proper noun and the first letter must be capitalized. The debate over whether or not the Web should be capitalized is still ongoing. CMOS says that it should be written in upper and lower case. It is another name for the World Wide Web, which is a proper noun.
EN: Website. When a word is used a lot, its spelling is commonly accepted, even if it is incorrect. The most common spelling and usage of this word is website. However, according to CMOS, it’s two words: website. As long as it’s consistent throughout your book or document, I doubt most people will question the spelling.
13. The Em Script [-] is defined as one em (letter “m”) wide. The double dash will be converted to an em dash, if you type two hyphens (hyphens), and do not put a space before or after it. Or, you can create an em dash in Windows-based programs by holding down the Caps Lock and Alt keys while typing 0151 on your number pad. Similar to a parenthetical sentence (like this one), the em dash separates clauses in a sentence.
14. The script [-] is an en (letter “n”) wide: half the width of an em dash. The en dash is used to indicate a closed range, or a connection between two things of almost any kind: numbers, people, places, etc. For example: June-July 2008. Create a dash in Windows-based programs by holding down Caps Lock and Alt while typing 0150 on the numeric keypad. There should be no spaces before or after a hyphen.
15. When writing dialogue, all punctuation is in quotes. When using a word or phrase to separate text in quotes, the first example below is correct; the second is wrong:
Every day we hear that the price of gasoline has reached an “all-time high”. Every day we hear that the price of gas has reached an “all-time high”.
16. Numbers less than ten should always be spelled out. Some style guides will not agree with higher numbers. Chicago advocates that all numbers less than 101 be spelled out. When in doubt, always consult a style guide. Be consistent and use the same style guide throughout your document or manuscript. Correcting these common errors will make your manuscript much easier and more enjoyable to read.
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