Prescribe or proscribe?

Prescribe and proscribe differ by one letter, but their meanings are much further apart. Prescribe comes up the most at the doctor’s office, but more broadly, “to prescribe” means “to officially tell someone to use (a medicine, therapy, diet, etc.) as a remedy or treatment; to make (something) and an official rule.” It’s not just about medicine. “To proscribe,” on the other hand, means “to condemn or forbid as harmful or unlawful.” Proscribe lives right next to prohibit in my mind.

Journalist Steven Erlanger used the contrast between the two words to nice effect in a May 2014 article about syllabus requirements in the United Kingdom: “The government does not prescribe — or proscribe — any particular work.” I keep prescribe and proscribe straight by remembering that prescribing is all about something you should do (like follow a doctor’s orders), while proscribing is all about the things you shouldn’t do (like ignore that sage medical advice).

 

 

 

 

Billowing or bellowing?

I came across “a train bellowing smoke” in a client’s presentation last week. This unintentionally poetic line sounded like something Henry David Thoreau would have penned — a train roaring along with smoke screaming out of it. “Bellowing” is a deep shout, but the correct word is “billowing,” which means “to rise or roll in waves.” It’s not a common mix-up to come across in a piece of writing, but it’s definitely an interesting one!

Spanish proofreading for the monolingual set: Yes, those diacritical marks really do matter

That’s no squiggle.

Diacritical marks are one of the biggest problems I see in Spanish pieces I am working on. Spanish uses diacritical marks to distinguish meaning and pronunciation, so when they are used incorrectly or not at all, whole sentences can be rendered nonsensical, unclear, or even downright offensive (more on that later). Screwing up one of these marks may seem like a trivial mistake because they’re so small, but in languages such as Spanish that make use of diacritical marks, it’s no different from any other typo.

Need to write and drawing a blank? A blank page can help.

I’m on deadline, I can’t seem to get much written down, and a mostly blank page is staring back at me. I’m feeling judged by my own computer. I know I wrote a brilliant first paragraph in my head while I was walking the dog, but now I’m in front of my computer and not much is happening except a growing awareness of just how close my deadline is.

I’m a strong proponent of getting off the computer and using pen and paper to get the words flowing, but sometimes that just produces a blank sheet of paper in place of an empty Word doc. When I find myself getting caught up in the lack of words on the page, I take the pressure off by changing the font color to white. Unable to see what I’m writing, I can focus on getting my thoughts on paper and worry about editing them later. Trying to write and edit at the same time is a recipe for frustration and a stalled project, so try writing in white to keep your inner editor (or, for some people, your inner perfectionist) from getting involved too soon.