Welcome to The Persnickety Proofreader site!

Thanks for stopping by. Here you’ll find useful information to help your writing come alive, make your words leap off the page and dance around with glee. You’ve just got to give me some time to get some stuff written, so check back soon, okay?

What’s This Doing Here?

You may be wondering what a cookie recipe is doing in the middle of a proofreader’s blog. The point is this: When is it more crucial for information to be correct then when you’re trying out a new recipe? Okay, so maybe it’s more important for it to be correct when you’re building a skyscraper or flying a jumbo jet. But how many of us are builders or pilots? Let me rephrase that: When – in our day-to-day lives – is it more important for information to be correct? You certainly don’t want to add 12 cups of something to a new recipe only to realize you were supposed to add 1/2 cup of it. Similarly, 1 tsp. of cayenne pepper is certainly a lot to add to a recipe for guacamole – but one tbsp. of cayenne could leave your guests’ mouths on fire for days. So you see my point.

I’ve gotten several requests for my lemon-ginger oatmeal cookies, so I figured I’d post it for anyone who wants to give it a whirl. These are tasty cookies with a light texture and an exquisite mouth feel… particularly delicious with a cup of your favorite tea (as one of my co-workers pointed out).

Rita’s Lemon-Ginger Oatmeal Cookies

¾ cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt (optional)

Freshly squeezed juice of ½ lemon

Grated zest of 1 lemon

¼ cup candied ginger, grated (or finely minced)

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup flour

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Cream together shortening and sugars. (I use my KitchenAid mixer, turned to a medium speed; it generally takes several minutes to incorporate plenty of air into the mixture.) Next, add the egg, baking soda and salt and continue to beat ’til light and fluffy. Now add the lemon juice, lemon zest and candied ginger. Keep beating until everything is well blended. Add the oats in three or four batches, beating well after each addition. Gradually blend in the flour. Dough will be soft and kind of sticky. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls about one inch apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake 15 to 17 minutes or until lightly browned and just barely set. Cool slightly and remove to rack to finish cooling. Makes about 5 dozen.

Speaking Engagement

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything and, in case you were wondering, the session at CAPA-U went really well.

I’ve just gotten another speaking engagement. I’ll be a guest presenter at the Rocky Hill Re-employment Group on Thursday, June 18. My topic will be “Grammar 101: How Not to Blow the Interview When You Open Your Mouth.”

This idea arose from my having to sit through one too many presentations by sales professionals who should know better – folks who say things like, “Me and my partner went to a seminar last month,” or “Him and me are going to talk about red widgets…” or the dreaded, “On behalf of my colleague and myself…”

Are you sensing my frustration here? Hang on a second while I thump my head against my desk in futility.

I’ll probably also veer off a little into the need to proofread your resume carefully. After all, you don’t want to send off your resume to a potential employer only to realize later that you listed your last job as “Pubic Relations Manger.”

I may be wrong, but that kind of thing seems awfully specialized… and I’m not sure many folks are hiring mangers these days, pubic or otherwise.

All levity aside, I must admit, I’m a smidgen anxious about getting up in front of people who are really there; my background is in radio – I’m used to talking to people who aren’t there. Really! I used to spend five or six hours a day in a 10×12-foot room, talking into a microphone to people who weren’t there! Now, I could reasonably assume someone was listening (if only my mother… and Scruffy, my cat), but I had no logical way of knowing someone was actually tuned in and paying attention to what I was saying.

And now – well, I just spend my days sitting at a computer, typing words… granted, I’m building pretty things with those words, crafting all kinds of fun structural stuff and making folks go, “Gee, I really want to buy that, now that you’ve described it so nicely!”

But addressing a group of live human beings? Not so much my comfort zone.

If you speak in front of people, how do you get up there and do it? What are your tips, your suggestions, your tools of the trade that make you not want to squeak, “Eep!” and hide behind your lectern?

Mother’s Day? Mothers’ Day? Mothers Day? Which is correct?

This Sunday is Mother’s Day. That’s right. Not Mothers’ Day. Not Mothers Day. And certainly not mothers day. Mother-apostrophe-ess: Mother’s Day.

A number of folks have asked me via email, “How do I know when to capitalize Mother (or Mom) and when to leave it lowercase?”

Great question. Here’s the quick-and-dirty answer:

If you were writing, for instance, “I went to visit my mother; we played canasta,” the lowercase form of “mother” would be appropriate. However, if you were to write, “I went to visit Mother; we played canasta,” you would capitalize “Mother,” because that is the name you call her.

Have other questions? Just leave a comment.

Oh, and whether you’re currently overrun with young’uns or your kids are grown and gone – or even if you’re someone’s godmother or favorite auntie, Happy Mother’s Day to you!

And, if you happen to be among the women for whom motherhood was cut short, this is your Mother’s Day, too. Take time to honor yourself and your departed child(ren) this Sunday. Remember to be gentle with yourself… and, above all, know there will be better a Mother’s Day for you in time.

CAPA-U… Seven Days and Counting

Next Saturday (May 9, 2009), I’ll be taking part in an editors’ panel at CAPA University, a day-long professional-development day for writers; I’ll be part of a three-member panel of experts. This sixth annual event is sponsored by the Connecticut Authors & Publishers Association.

Some of the topics we’re sure to discuss will be word usage, spelling, grammar, punctuation, general editing and proofreading.

What are your thorniest proofreading/editing concerns? If you were to attend this panel discussion, what burning question would you most like answered or addressed?

To Tweet or Not to Tweet… That is the Question (with apologies to Shakespeare)

Okay, I’m about to expose my online naïveté. I admit it: I don’t know the first thing about Twitter.

But in the interest of striding boldly into the 21st century (and only nine years behind schedule; how d’you like that?!), I’m thinking of taking the plunge — pushing myself out of the nest, as it were.

But before I do something I might end up deeply regretting (like my 58-year-old friend Stella’s hummingbird tattoo that she got when she was 18 and which now looks sort of like a vulture on Prozac), I want to hear from you: What should I know about Twitter before I go and get myself in over my head?

I caved in to the pressure from my pal John and got on Facebook about four weeks ago — and now I spend my free evenings looking for a good 12-step group to get myself unstuck (before I come unglued, that is).

Talk to me… and soon. I’m almost hoping one of you will talk me out of it.

When to use “They’re,” “their” or “there”

Question: Which sentence is correct?

“There putting they’re stuff over their.”

– or –

“They’re putting their stuff over there.”

Answer: The second one is correct.

I was going to put “Obviously” at the front of that sentence, but it’s all too clear that the answer isn’t obvious.

It seems so simple, yet it’s an issue that continually plagues everyone from middle-school students to business executives. Let’s tackle this one with a few simple examples.

Basically, if you’re attempting to replace the words “they are,” you’d use “they’re,” which is a contraction of those two words.

If you’re giving directions, that one’s easy. Just think of it this way: “I just have to put a “t” on the beginning of ‘here’ to get to ‘there.’”

And “their” is a possessive pronoun. So “their stuff” means “the stuff that belongs to them.”

With that in mind, our second sentence could be reworded thus: “They are putting the stuff that belongs to them not here, but in that place.” Or something like that.

What are your spelling bugaboos? Have you got a word you chronically misspell? Talk to us… maybe we can help you come up with a simple solution to remember the correct spelling.

Italian Easter Bread

My godmother, Evelina Betterini, used to bake these elaborately decorated basket-shaped breads for each of her godchildren every year for Easter. It was a tradition for her (and my Uncle Larry) to deliver them to the kids the day before Easter.

The breads themselves were works of art: Perfectly golden brown edible Easter baskets cradling delicate cargoes of brightly hued eggs… with graceful basket handles overarching the colorful bounty. All in all, a little piece of heaven, a true treasure for the senses! Beneath that glistening golden crust lay this rich vanilla-scented bread, with its dense texture and slightly sweet taste… It was an Easter treat par excellence.

Twenty-five years ago, Aunt Ev gave me the recipe, which she’d received decades earlier from her mother. Each year, I’d plan to make it and, every year – no matter how certain I was where I had put it – I would invariably misplace my copy of the recipe. But I knew I could always call Aunt Ev and get it from her again.

In March of 1994, two weeks before Easter, I knew exactly where my copy of that recipe was… and I knew that didn’t bode well – because Aunt Evelina lay in a hospital bed ten miles away, battling cancer.

All along, throughout her lengthy stay in that hospital, my beloved 55-year-old godmother had insisted she wanted to go home for Easter. And early in the morning the Wednesday before Easter, Aunt Evelina went Home.

Now my husband and I have carried on Aunt Evelina’s legacy – and her tradition of delivering these delectable Easter breads to our godchildren at Easter. And now I’d like to share that tradition with you.

This is one tradition I’ve managed to hold firm to in the fifteen years since Aunt Evelina passed away. And, although this has been an insanely busy week for me (between almost-nightly choir rehearsals for Holy Week services and my having started a brand-new full-time job [yippie!]), I’m still going to be bustling about the kitchen tomorrow, baking Aunt Evelina’s Italian Easter Bread.

These breads were a glorious part of my childhood at Easter and I hope they’ll become a family favorite for you – and become a part of your Easter traditions, as well. If you attempt this recipe, I’d love it if you’d let me know how the bread turns out for you.

Just two words of caution:

1) This recipe makes a lot of bread! You might want to try a half recipe your first time around.

2) This bread is highly addictive. So maybe you’ll want to make that full batch after all.

I wish you a blessed and happy Easter, or a blessed and happy Passover, as the case may be.

Mangia!

Aunt Evelina’s Italian Easter Bread

12 eggs, room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 cup shortening, melted and cooled
1 cup milk, room temperature
Pinch of salt
4 tablespoons baking powder (if using large eggs. If, however, you are using medium eggs, 3 tablespoons baking powder; for jumbo eggs, use 5 tablespoons baking powder.)
2 tablespoons vanilla extract (more or less, to taste)
10½ to 12 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat eggs ’til lemony colored. Add sugar a little at a time. Add cooled shortening while beating egg/sugar mixture. Add milk and vanilla. Add pinch of salt. Add baking powder and flour a little at a time. Mix ’til you can’t use a wooden spoon; then mix by hand. Dough should be of a medium-stiff consistency.

Form dough in to desired shapes. Raw eggs may be pressed (gently!) into the dough before baking, then criss-crossed with strips of dough to hold them in place. (You may use hard-cooked eggs, but they tend to get somewhat rubbery during baking.) Bake 25-30 minutes.

Notes: Go easy on the flour – use only enough to achieve the desired consistency. You may want to start with the breads on the bottom rack of your oven for the first 15 minutes, then put them on the top rack during the last 10-15 minutes.

If desired, brush breads with milk before baking, for a shiny, glazed top.

What Was Yesterday?

Surprised to still see this site up and running? You shouldn’t be. Need I remind you that yesterday was April Fools’ Day?

Not only have I not thrown in the proverbial towel (hmm… come to think of it, I don’t think there are any proverbs that actually mention towels — but if you know of any, please tell me), but I’ve got a whole slew of things muddling about in my mushy grey matter, just clamoring to come out. So, while there’s still time, duck and run! Or was that Duck, Duck, Goose?

In short: This chickie ain’t goin’ nowhere, my friends; you’re pretty well stuck with me. (Yes, I realize that was a whole lot of improper English… but even I’m allowed a day off once in a while, right?)

Now, if anyone successfully “got” you for April Fools’ Day, do feel free to share. I always love a good prank!

I’ve Had It!

I’m giving up.

I’m threw with this.

They’re doesn’t seem two be any point, too going on. People dont change there spelling, speeking and punctuation just because some crazy woman harps incessantly about it. I wish I would of considered that before I wasted my thyme; putting up this sight. Their are to many other things I could of focused my energies on.

Im going two look into being an an elevator operator… but I’ve herd even that has it’s ups and downs.

Good buy crewel whirled.

These Guys Are My Heroes!

This recent article from Reader’s Digest details how Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson have made it their business – nay, their calling – to wipe out typos from all public signage. They’ve formed a group called the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) and have traveled around the country correcting editorially offensive signage – now that sounds like my kind of organization!

I doubt they do it as a public service; if they’re anything like me, it’s more of a compulsion than any attempt at re-educating the faultily learned masses. Quite simply: they can’t help themselves.

There’s also – if you can believe it – an Apostrophe Preservation Society – founded by Englander Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves (which is a delightfully funny, if somewhat acerbic, read).

According to Beth Quinn, who wrote in the Times Record-Herald of Middletown, NY (several years back) of Truss and her book:

“In her rather militant way, she pickets businesses that have apostrophe errors in their signage. Off she goes with a great big apostrophe on a stick and marches around in front until the business owner is shamed into correcting his punctuation.”

Now all we need is a Society for the Prevention of Hyphen Abandonment. I’ve got this little plastic box sitting on my desk – a box filled with stray hyphens – which I find myself accessing on a more regular basis lately as I read. It seems people just don’t know what to do with their hyphens, so they fling them about all willy-nilly, giddily hoping they’ll land in some functional configuration (appropriately wedged between two parts of a compound modifier, for instance). Sadly, though, that generally isn’t the case and they end up falling into words that should never be hyphenated – like “never-the-less.”

What’s your favorite maligned punctuation? Hackneyed strings of exclamation points employed by hyper-enthusiastic email correspondents? Interrobangs? (Still considered to be non-standard punctuation, the interrobang combines an exclamation point – or “bang” – with a question mark.) The oxford comma? (This is a comma that precedes the “and” near the end of a list of items.)

Let’s hear from you…