Tweed Editing's Blog

Tips, Strategies, and Updates for Academic Writers

Tour the Updated Site

by | Jun 2, 2011 |

New About Page, Tweed Academic Editing

I’ve been rolling out some site updates over the past few weeks, and I’m excited to share them with you now.

First and foremost, Tweed’s home page has been revamped to include a central graphic that is both more dramatic and informative than the previous iteration. The explanatory text below the new image aids readability and therefore inclusivity.

New Tweed Academic Editing Home Page

The new about page explains how I got into academic editing and my commitment to advancing scholarship by working with writers like you. And there’s a brand-new image of me shot by none other than Posy Quarterman, a talented photographer who really captures the heart of her subjects. (Can’t you just see in my eyes how much I love academic editing?) Designer Jeff Hendrickson also contributed greatly to the recent site updates: he smartened up the header image that appears on every single page.

The services page and the resources page are easier to navigate, and I’ve added to the clients page so that it reflects more recent work. Please don’t forget about Tweed’s library of tools for scholarly writers. Feel free to share the complimentary resources with your colleagues. By sharing Tweed’s carefully created content, you help me in my mission to advance scholarship and scholarly writers.

You may also notice that I’ve begun using only an initial capital in the name of the practice: Tweed. The completely capitalized “TWEED” has always been, at its core, a design decision. The website header remains in all capitals, but I have switched to “Tweed” in running text. I think this is becoming of an established editing practice and makes copy more readable. Older elements of this website—previous blog entries, for example—will not be retroactively updated. I hope we can all learn to cope with the inconsistencies that this change introduces. I also hope that we can agree that “Tweed” is the way to go!

One more thing: look forward to more frequent blog posts from me. Most recently, I shared with you some of my trade tools—hyphenation tables—and I asked for your help in deciding what fiction book I should read on my vacation (starting Friday!).

Stay up to date with Tweed’s occasional email newsletter, Annotations, and have a lovely first week of June.

Academic Editor Will Read Fiction—for Fun

by | May 31, 2011 |

With some big academic writing projects of my own completed, I finally have not only the time but the psychological space to read some nonacademic, fiction books—for pleasure.

Now, I read—and enjoy doing so—all the time. As is more than obvious from my site, I perform academic editing on manuscripts from diverse fields. I also have an unhealthy obsession with culture blogs, the New York Times online and in print on Sundays, and magazines of all stripes (we’re talking the New Yorker and Harpers as well as Entertainment Weekly and…Star). These are, with the possible exception of the tabloid, essentially nonfiction publications.

But fiction?

That’s just wild for me. I actually have a hard time with fiction because, as I often opine, reading for my doctoral qualifying exams (several years ago now) basically ruined me. I read for thesis, argument, and juicy quotations to enter into a word-processing program. I always appreciate a good turn of phrase and a well-articulated point, sure, but to sit inside a make-believe story is an altogether different experience.

When I do venture over to the other side of the library, I often resort to frictionless fiction. I’ve been known to reread a certain series of wizardly young adult novels instead of picking up something new and maybe a bit more challenging. In other words, I’ve become sort of a sloth in terms of reading for fun. I just want what’s easy, familiar, and likely to relax (not invigorate) me.

Part of the trick to starting and finishing books read for leisure is simply setting aside the time to read them. Only in extremely fun-deprived situations would I actually schedule time for recreational reading. I usually read in bed, before falling asleep.

However, a trip—also for pleasure—at the end of this week affords me time and space to crack open a new spine or two.

I’m headed to a lake in the Adirondacks, so I may even read at the beach or on a cottage porch in the forest.

An Academic Editor's Summer Reading

These are the books that have been burning holes in my shelves: Caleb’s Crossing, by Geraldine Brooks, is a tale imagined around the historical tidbit that Harvard graduated its first Native American student in 1665. I’ve also procured a copy of J. Courtney Sullivan’s Commencement, a novel about four women’s-college graduates navigating life together and apart.

Then there’s Little Bee, by Chris Cleave, a megabestseller about a fateful chance meeting (so far as I can tell, anyway). Even in a group of well-designed books, this one’s cover really stands out. Finally, those of you who know me must have realized I’d get around to Melanie Benjamin’s Alice I Have Been sooner or later. Benjamin spins a narrative around the life of Alice Liddell after she served as Lewis Carroll’s muse for the famous Wonderland books.

Having just set these books out for reading, I feel an enormous sense of accomplishment. The next big step becomes deciding which I will read first. It’s still a mystery to me. I’m headed to the East Coast, so maybe Caleb’s Crossing would be appropriate. But I’m also traveling, so maybe I should instead pack one of the paperbacks. I’m between two major graduations in my life; surely Commencement would be personally rewarding. And then there’s the beautiful Little Bee cover and the throngs of other readers who recommend it…

Opinionated readers, what say you? Which book should be my first read?

I’m game for editing on my trip, too. So if you’re harboring an academic project needing fine-tuning, send it my way.

(Are you signed up for TWEED Academic Editing’s occasional email newsletter, Annotations? I think you’ll profit from it.)

Trade Tool: Hyphenation Tables

by | May 26, 2011 | , ,

Trade Tools for Academic Editing

Many of the tools I use as a professional academic editor could be used (and well!) by thoughtful writers and revisers, so I’ve decided to start featuring some of the handier implements and resources that are part of my editing routine.

This first one I actually keep in my dock. (That’s the menu bar across the bottom of my Mac’s desktop.) It’s The Chicago Manual of Style’s hyphenation table. Found in chapter seven of the big orange book, the chart summarizes Chicago’s logic regarding compounds and provides very specific examples.

Hyphenation Table for Academic Editing

Let me back up for a second: Chicago has a few foundational guidelines for the treatment of compounds (to hyphenate or not?). First, recognize that compounds tend toward closure. As it becomes more common, a term that’s open (“data base”) will probably become hyphenated (“data-base”) and then eventually close completely (“database”).

Second, a compound modifier appearing before the term (usually a noun) that it modifies tends to be hyphenated: “at-risk students” versus “students at risk.” Those are the most important general trends to be aware of in order to treat compounds according to Chicago style.

The hyphenation table itself contains four main sections:

  1. compounds according to category
  2. compounds according to parts of speech
  3. compounds formed with specific terms
  4. words formed with prefixes

So you want to know how to handle a fraction? Section 1 includes “fractions, compounds formed with” and “fractions, simple.” There, we find examples such as “one and three-quarters” and general rules. Compounds formed with fractions (“quarter-hour session”) are open in noun form and hyphenated as adjectives. Simple fractions are hyphenated all the time unless the second element is already hyphenated.

Those are easy guidelines to follow.

Maybe we want to know whether to hyphenate a compound starting with the prefix “semi.” Section four provides examples that make aesthetic sense: “semiopaque, semiconductor, but semi-invalid.” Of course! “Semiinvalid” would just look strange and would probably cause a reader to think twice, which impedes a composition’s flow.

What about “widely used”? Would that be hyphenated before a noun? Section 2, compounds according to parts of speech, has a listing labeled “adverb ending in ly + participle or adjective.” There, we learn that such terms are never hyphenated, regardless of position: “widely used text,” “text that is widely used.”

I could go on and on. I honestly refer to this table multiple times each day. Because I know Chicago’s general guidelines for hyphenation, I usually know how to handle the compounds that arise, but I like to verify my hunches.

If you have a personal subscription or access to CMOS online through your university library, I suggest you visit and download the chart for quick reference. (Here’s the direct link, or you can go through your library website to access it.)

APA holds to similar principles and provides examples more germane to the social science, but I haven’t seen a digital version of the Publication Manual’s charts. The APA Style website addresses hyphenation here.

MLA also weighs in on the hyphenation discussion, and again the guidelines resemble Chicago’s. The examples differ (sometimes helpfully), and the explanations are less thorough.

That’s often the case: Chicago’s treatment of a style issue is more detailed than can be found in other guides. That’s why I rely on my handy PDF of Chicago’s hyphenation table.

One more thing: you can always look up a specific term in the dictionary, but remember that hyphenation is often advised when a compound modifier appears before what it modifies, but modifiers appearing after what they modify are often left open. The dictionary, then, isn’t a perfect guide.

That’s today’s trade tool. I hope you see the value of a hyphenation table and consider using one as you write and revise your next project.

If you found this post helpful, you’ll want to sign up for TWEED’s occasional email periodical, Annotations. Thanks!

TWEED Academic Editing on Kindle!

by | May 11, 2011 |

TWEED Academic Editing for Kindle

Kindle users: you can now subscribe to the TWEED blog with your e-reader! This means that all my tutorials, guides, tips, resources, tools, service updates, and Twitter posts are auto-delivered wirelessly to your device. Amazon makes the subscription risk free with a two-week trial period.

I have some really content-rich blog features coming up, so this is a felicitous development.

I don’t have an e-reader myself, so if you sign up, please let me know what it’s like to experience a blog on the Kindle. Apparently, I do get a few dimes each time someone subscribes, but I have no control over that, and this is not a get-rich-quick scheme by any means. I simply jump at the chance to make TWEED’s output available in new venues.

In fact, the free RSS feed remains an option for everyone, and it only requires an online aggregator such as Google Reader.

Another way to stay updated is by signing up for Annotations, TWEED’s periodical newsletter.

Being plugged into TWEED means that you will be automatically notified of the powerfully useful blog columns I have on the docket. As I often say, stay tuned.

This Is Where the Academic Editing Magic Happens

by | May 9, 2011 |

TWEED Academic Editing DeskYes, this is my office. A clean workspace helps me focus, but my desk rarely looks like this. More often, the top is covered with style guides, printouts, scraps of paper, bills, and writing utensils. Especially when I’m in the middle of a project, I allow piles to grow high and wide.

My new goal is a clean desk every night before I turn out the lights. Only time will tell if I have the willpower to do it. I just have to remind myself that the clean desk is in service of work, not an end in itself.

Editing is similar: style, mechanics, and formatting aren’t ends in themselves. The editing process isn’t just another hoop to jump through, and it’s not an exercise in vanity. Cleanliness and consistency of expression help convey information, argument, and meaning.

Here’s to another week of strong scholarship, consistent academic editing, and clean workspaces!

(Are you signed up for my newsletter, Annotations? I’m hardly unbiased, but I think you’ll find it helpful and interesting.)

Synchronicity: TWEED and Harvard UP

by | Apr 18, 2011 |


As Sting and the Police sing, “Effect without cause / Sub-atomic laws, scientific pause / Synchronicity.” That’s the case with the similarities I encountered this morning. Harvard University Press has published Gary W. Gallagher’s The Union War, and the cover bears striking resemblance to a few of my own TWEED creations.

It’s not a case of copying or even of strong influence. It’s just great minds thinking alike—and sharing a love of the font Futura.

It’s not a bad thing to start my morning, my day, and my week by noticing resonances between my very own TWEED and Harvard University Press. Cheers!

So do check out The Union War, published just this month.

You can find my Write the Good Fight postcard here. Send one to a writer in your life.

And one more thing: are you subscribed to my newsletter, Annotations?

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