Question for the editing gurus

[voluptuary_manque]

I'm working the same story on two different WP programs. On one, the spell check believes that 'hiccupping' has two 'p's' but the other insists that there is only one. Is there a human out there who knows?

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

It's doubled.

 

[_Lynn_]

I'm working the same story on two different WP programs. On one, the spell check believes that 'hiccupping' has two 'p's' but the other insists that there is only one. Is there a human out there who knows?

My Webster's New Explorer Encyclopedic Dictionary gives both.

 

[Guest]

Merriam-Webster's online dictionary says either is correct:

hiccupping
One entry found.

hiccup[2,intransitive verb]

Main Entry:
2hiccup
Variant(s):
also hiccough
Function:
intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s):
hic·cuped also hic·cupped; hic·cup·ing also hic·cup·ping
Date:
circa 1580

: to make a hiccup; also : to be affected with hiccups

 

[Darkniciad]

I can't remember offhand which dictionary SR71 says is the publishing standard. I know that everywhere I look, both are accepted, and I don't see any notations about which is preferred, or whether any of them have regional ranges of acceptance.

I come across words like this all the time. I write in WordPerfect, but prefer Word's spell/grammar for the initial search-and-destroy. Those two disagree all the time on how to spell various words.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

The doubling rule states:


The best way to remember when to double the last letter is to remember the “C-V-C rule.” The C-V-C says that if you are adding a suffix (letters added to the end of a word, like the –ed in happened) to a word, first look at the last three letters of the word. If those three letters are consonant-vowel-consonant, then double the last letter of the word.

This, of course, only applies if the first letter of the suffix is a vowel.

 

[R. Richard]

I'm working the same story on two different WP programs. On one, the spell check believes that 'hiccupping' has two 'p's' but the other insists that there is only one. Is there a human out there who knows?

As has been pointed out, either form is acceptable. However, just to state the obvious, one way or the other, NOT both.

 

[Guest]

As has been pointed out, either form is acceptable. However, just to state the obvious, one way or the other, NOT both.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Who fucking knows!

Everyone has goddamned bots checking submissions, and the bots all have different standards.

Hell! I have fights with copy-editors about correct spelling. What happens is old words assume new spellings, and the copy-editor morons arent familiar with the old, correct spelling. So they tag the correct spelling as 'wrong.'

I create puzzles, and some words have 20 damned meanings!

 

[sr71plt]

the most-used dictionary for fiction publishing in U.S. publishing is Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Publishers almost universally perfer the first-listed variant of a spelling in Webster's. For this word, that would be "hiccuping."

If for some reason you don't wish to use U.S. publishing standards, you could use either spelling--they are both permissable in Webster's.

And computer spell check doesn't substitute for using a real dictionary, you know. Free-use versions of this dictionary are readily available on line.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

In other words, I can use either hiccuping or hiccupping but never hiccuppping?

 

[Darkniciad]

the most-used dictionary for fiction publishing in U.S. publishing is Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Publishers almost universally perfer the first-listed variant of a spelling in Webster's. For this word, that would be "hiccuping."

If for some reason you don't wish to use U.S. publishing standards, you could use either spelling--they are both permissable in Webster's.

And computer spell check doesn't substitute for using a real dictionary, you know. Free-use versions of this dictionary are readily available on line.

That's another one I run into all the time. I'll have both spell checkers tell me something isn't spelled right, when I know damn good and well it is. Look it up, and I'm right.

I stick my tongue out at the spell checkers, add it to the dictionary so it will shut up the next time, and move on

 

[Guest]

That's another one I run into all the time. I'll have both spell checkers tell me something isn't spelled right, when I know damn good and well it is. Look it up, and I'm right.

I stick my tongue out at the spell checkers, add it to the dictionary so it will shut up the next time, and move on

I flip them off.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

That's another one I run into all the time. I'll have both spell checkers tell me something isn't spelled right, when I know damn good and well it is. Look it up, and I'm right.

I stick my tongue out at the spell checkers, add it to the dictionary so it will shut up the next time, and move on

Oh I do that a lot. Spellcheckers have notoriously feeble vocabularies.

 

[sr71plt]

That's another one I run into all the time. I'll have both spell checkers tell me something isn't spelled right, when I know damn good and well it is. Look it up, and I'm right.

I stick my tongue out at the spell checkers, add it to the dictionary so it will shut up the next time, and move on

Yep, and the spell checkers are almost always wrong on hyphenation (which is the most common correction--well, after commas, publishing using more commas than the school systems do).

 

[sr71plt]

I flip them off.

Oh, I don't turn them off. I run spell checks several times in both the writing and the editing process. I don't take what they say as gospel, but they point out all sorts of typos and words that should be checked that I wouldn't otherwise have pinned down.

I do turn off grammar check, though; it is of no use whatsoever in the writing of fiction for publication.

 

[Darkniciad]

I flip them off.

I've been known to point at the screen and scream "Ha! In your face!" a time or two.

Get strange looks from the boy, though...

Not as strange as the looks I got grinding for the Creature soul in Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow on break at work, though. For some reason, "Just give me your soul, you fuck!" attracts attention

Oh, I don't turn them off. I run spell checks several times in both the writing and the editing process. I don't take what they say as gospel, but they point out all sorts of typos and words that should be checked that I wouldn't otherwise have pinned down.

Pretty sure that was "flip them off" as in "fly the bird"

 

[Darkniciad]

Yep, and the spell checkers are almost always wrong on hyphenation (which is the most common correction--well, after commas, publishing using more commas than the school systems do).

I've been wondering about that one. That's not as easy to look up. Sometimes, I leave my hyphenated word as is. Sometimes I give in to the spell checker.

 

[Guest]

I've been known to point at the screen and scream "Ha! In your face!" a time or two.

Get strange looks from the boy, though...

Not as strange as the looks I got grinding for the Creature soul in Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow on break at work, though. For some reason, "Just give me your soul, you fuck!" attracts attention

Pretty sure that was "flip them off" as in "fly the bird"

It was indeed.



(Although I'm liking the "Just give me your soul, you fuck!")

 

[TE999]

(Although I'm liking the "Just give me your soul, you fuck!")

Such poor manners.

That should be "Please give me your soul you fuck!" One must maintain the proper decorum in negotiations.

 

[sr71plt]

I've been wondering about that one. That's not as easy to look up. Sometimes, I leave my hyphenated word as is. Sometimes I give in to the spell checker.

American writers are notoriously "off" on hypenation (and UK-style writers are even worse). They once leaned toward the Germanic, slamming all combining word elements together without hyphens. At some point they railed against that and started salting hyphens in as if they were being sold cheaper than open spaces. U.S. publishing style is to hyphenate as little as possible.

So, if you want to follow U.S. publishing style, there's a simple formula (although it means you don't believe computer spell check and you look up in Webster's anything that might be questionable.

1. If it's listed in Webster's, whether slammed together, or hyphenated, or split with a character space, that's preferable (with the exception noted here later). Most writers don't realize it, but for hyphenation of words with prefixes (like "re"), Webster's gives a whole list right where "re" is alphabatized that will tell you how most common prefixed words are treated. Thus, for recreation (playing ball) as opposed to re-create (make new again), you would best go to where "re" is listed, not where "rec" is listed.

2. If you don't find the combined form in the dictionary, it's open (not slammed together, not hyphenated).

3. The kicker in hyphenation is that hyphenated combined adjectives (e.g., "Brittany's low-cut gown") are not hyphenated when the combined form comes behind the verb (Britany's gown was low cut"). Many writers can't get their attempts at consistency (which is a good instinct) around this and think editors are inconsistent/sloppy when they mark them differently--but they are not.

4. An English-language annomaly is that no combined modifier form word ending in "ly" (e.g., "a distinctly sour smell") takes a hyphen. Ever.

Computer spell checks are hopeless at hyphenation, because they can't handle the quirkiness of the English language--And Gate's boys and girls never asked anyone in U.S. publishing what their preferences/systems of consistency were. Also, you may have noticed that plural and other forms of a root word, in most cases, simply were never entered into the spell check systems. Presumably this level of differentiation would create dictionaries too large for computers to handle (either that or the Gates squad just took a convenient shortcut.) (By the way, I just looked up "shortcut" in Webster's to see how it's combined--I don't assume I know all these combinations--I look most everything up, each time.)

 

[Guest]

Such poor manners.

That should be "Please give me your soul you fuck!" One must maintain the proper decorum in negotiations.

I stand corrected.

And I blame my training as a musician and actor for causing my emotional reactions to such things as faulty spell-checkers.

 

[sr71plt]

I stand corrected.

And I blame my training as a musician and actor for causing my emotional reactions to such things as faulty spell-checkers.

Oh, no, don't stand corrected. The "correction" is missing a necessary comma that you had in your original.

 

[Guest]

Oh, no, don't stand corrected. The "correction" is missing a necessary comma that you had in your original.

I just noticed. Despite the rum.

"Please give me your soul, you fuck!"

Or should that be you fucker?

 

[sr71plt]

I just noticed. Despite the rum.

"Please give me your soul, you fuck!"

Or should that be you fucker?

either will get the point across, I'd think.