STYLE SNAPSHOTS: Duplication, plus Single and Plural Nouns

Three quick Snapshots, courtesy of Tony Durham:

Duplication: Avoid unnecessary duplication and redundancies in writing and editing. For example, do not say 7 a.m. Thursday morning or 6 p.m. Friday night. The a.m. and p.m. designations suffice for the time of day. For copy editors, please avoid repeating the same information in the main headline and cutlines. For example, the main headline says, Perrysburg holds farmers’ market and the cutline says the same thing.

Cutlines should be viewed as an avenue to get more pertinent information into display type. For example, the main hed says Perrysburg holds farmers’ market. The cutline could then say the market will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. This way we give the reader more information, instead of just repeating it.

Singular and plural nouns: TPS, UT, FBI, etc, are all singular nouns, so they take a singular verb. For example, TPS seeks levy, not TPS seek levy. In Blade style, couple and pair are plural nouns, which mean they take a plural verb. For example, Couple plead guilty, not couple pleads guilty