Spacing Out

I noticed that in most printed works there is only one space after a period and other closing punctuations. This is very confusing because when we type papers/manuscripts we are told to use two spaces. Why is there a discrepancy? How do I adjust the spacing between sentences from a manuscript to a layout without manually deleting each of the "extra" space?

I, myself ...

I, myself, am always bothered by phrases like "I myself," "he himself," or "you yourself." I know that it is for effect, in which the emphasis is in the redundancy, but it just seems so--redundant! Also, what part of speech is the "x-self"? It is a non-restrictive clause? Or an appositive? Which would mean that there should be commas in either case but I've seen it without commas.

Tragic grammar

Sometimes, I think, copyediting something could take away the beauty that is found in flaws. Here, an example, is Virginia Woolf's suicide letter. Imagine if someone had copyedit it! Now, that would be tragic.

"I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that — everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer."

Help wanted

I know that this class is titled Professional Editing, but what does that mean? Will we be professional editors after taking this class? Pat emphasized that there is a lot to learn about editing; a lot more than what is covered in the class material. What should we do after this class if we want to pursue a career in editing? Should we take more classes? Practice editing? Look for an entry level job? Many editing jobs require applicants to take an editing test as part of the interview process. If we do well in this class, will we do well on such a test?

three hours on six pages

I am ashamed to admit, but I must have spent about three hours copyediting test #2. What frustrated me was it seemed that the author took no more than an hour to write the piece. In an actual work environment, wouldn't it be more economical to ask the author to take another hour to rewrite instead of having a copyeditor spend hours trying to fix the work?

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Come on, Comma!

I am working on a critical essay where I quote from outside sources. I have taken to using the serial comma in my writing, but some passages I am quoting from did not use the serial comma. Should I leave the punctuation as it is since I am quoting it, or should I change it so that it is consistent with the rest of my essay?

to strike or not to strike?

You mentioned in class that we should not strike out too much of the original text, but savage passages with corrections. You also said that we can use your marks on test #1 to guide us along. I noticed that you did strike out sentences and paragraphs from the text on test #1. So, can I also strike out similar sentences and paragraphs as shown on test #1, or should I just focus on correcting the grammar and puntuations and leave the content alone?

role of thump

Is there a reference book that could be referred for cliches or idioms. If the author has phrased a metaphor incorrectly, is there a way to look it up?
Saying: Toe the line.
Error: Tow the line.

semi-colons

I know that semi-colons should not be used when two independent clauses are joined with a conjunction, but someone told me once that a semi-colon should be used if there are commas
present in each of the independent clauses.
Example: Therefore, I thought he said that his sister, Cindy, lives in Alaska; but it turned out that, in fact, she lives in Hawaii.

But then, someone else told me that a punctuation is not needed at all if two clauses joined by the conjunction already have commas within themselves.
Example: Therefore, I thought he said that his sister, Cindy, lives in Alaska but it turned out that, in fact, she lives in Hawaii.

Or should a comma be used?
Example: Therefore, I thought he said that his sister, Cindy, lives in Alaska, but it turned out that, in fact, she lives in Hawaii.

Is there such a thing as too many commas in a sentence?

...that that...

Whenever I do a grammar check in word processing programs, I am told that sentences containing two thats in a row are incorrect. For instance, "I thought that that was a grammatically correct sentence." It is wrong to use "that that" or is the computer wrong? Is this considered to be a missing antecedent?

But I was told to never do that!

"Never start a sentence with 'but'!" Is this true? I've seen many instances in writings where sentences are started with the word "but." And what about "and," "a," and "an"?

i'm like, "what?"

Quick question: When punctuating dialogue, and the person has the tendency to said "like" a lot; do we need commas around "like"?
I'm asking because I know a court reporter who has to deal with this dilemma when she transcribes depositions verbatim.

I thought he was like going to stab me!
or
I thought he was, like, going to stab me!

Grammar Trees

This is really dorky, but I love drawing grammar trees. I took 402 several semesters ago and really liked the class. The only problem is that the exercises seem a bit useless in evaluating a sentence. How could sentence trees help us edit a sentence? If it doesn't, then what was the point in learning them?