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The Technical Stylist Discusses Troubling Irregularities

Kathy Underwood

Which of the following usages are correct according to Edited American English? (Answers are at the end of this article.)

1a The company forecasted a 20% increase in earnings for the fiscal year.
1b The company forecast a 20% increase in earnings for the fiscal year.

2a Last night, meteorologist Greg Fishel forecasted a major storm for this weekend.
2b Last night, meteorologist Greg Fishel forecast a major storm for this weekend.

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Let Go of the Words?

Michelle Corbin

As technical editors, we love words. We love making sure that each word communicates clearly. If you hear that someone is an editor, you immediately think of grammar and syntax and word usage. But, as technical editors, the time has come (really, it came a while ago, but the saying goes, “the time has come”) for us to let go of a singular focus on the words. As technical editors, we must edit so much more than just the words—words on the paper or words on the screen, words in a PDF or words in a help file, words in a user interface or in a message. We have to look beyond the words.

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Vancouver to Host Plain Language Conference October 10-13, 2013

The Plain Language Association InterNational will hold its 9th biennial conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada, Oct. 10 to 13, 2013. The theme of the international conference is Plain Language Advances: New skills, knowledge, research, and best practices. The conference will be co-hosted with Community Plain Language Services Corp.

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