Adjectives: Beware of suffixes -ical and -ic

One of the ways to form an adjective is to add the suffix ~ic or ~ical. There is no clear rule about when to use which. As a rule of thumb, many of the older nouns have the ~ical adjective, while most of the newer ones have ~ic suffix. The suffix ~ic or ~ical means...

British vs. American spelling

Ensuring consistency in spelling is one of the housekeeping kind of editing tasks for a copy editor. Even though Microsoft Word provides a large array of English options, the global publishing world is divided between – or should I say, united by – two variations of...

Does ET have a copydesk?

Sorry to be blunt, but that was the first question that came to my mind after reading this article in the Economic Times yesterday. I’m complaining not about the use – rather the misuse – of commas in the text, nor about the sloppy writing. I’m...