Owl Editing

DON'T	DO
"He is a man who..."	He...
"Owing to the fact that..."	Since...
"...has been engaged in the study of..."	...has studied...
"It will be seen from a consideration of the data in Table 2 that..."	Table 2 shows...
"At an earlier date..."	Previously,...
"In the modern period of time,..."	Currently,...
"It is interesting to note that..."	OMIT
"Typical results are shown..."	OMIT
"It has long been known..."	OMIT
"(please see Figure One)"	(Figure 1)

Avoid needless repetition

Of the many sounds that annoy me, the sound of someone needlessly sounding his horn annoys me most.

Dates

Specific dates should be written as concisely as possible (e.g., May 7, 1955; NOT May 7th, 1955). The scientific method of writing dates is DAY, MONTH, YEAR (e.g.: 7 November, 1978), or for computers, usually DD/MM/YY (or DD/MM/YYYY).

Foreign Words

Words or phrases belonging to foreign languages, especially LATIN, should be in Italics (e.g., et al., in vitro, in utero, etc.).

Numbers

Spell out the numbers from one to ten, use figures for all others.

Summaries

Keep to one tense. When summarizing the action of a drama, use the present tense. When summarizing a poem, story, or novel, use the present, or past tense, if it seems more natural to do so.

Titles

Book titles are usually enclosed in quotation marks, or in Italics.

However

Avoid starting a sentence with "However..." when the meaning is "Nevertheless..."

• INCORRECT: The roads were destroyed. However, we were finally able to reach the camp.
• CORRECTED: Even though the roads were destroyed, we finally reached the camp.

Unique

The word means "without equal" and hence, DEGREES of uniqueness are impossible.

• INCORRECT: It was the most unique egg beater on the market.
• CORRECTED: It was a unique egg beater.