Opinion A Word, Please: Does a trio include? Not if a writer follows the rule So what’s so bad about “with regularity”? A number of things. “With regularity” may be the worst assault against my prose yet. And in that role, I am, from time to time, the victim of editorial malpractice. And it produces a lot of useful examples for anyone who wants to write better or just understand good writing.īut sometimes I wear the other hat, the writer’s hat. In that role, I have a bird’s-eye view of many common writing problems and how to spot and fix them. In this column, I usually share experiences from my work as an editor. I know this because I’m the chagrined writer. If you had this reaction, congratulations: You have a better sense of language and communication than the real-life editor who changed “a lot” to “with regularity” - much to the writer’s chagrin. It’s vaguely reminiscent of a laxative commercial. I suspect your inner editor cringed at “with regularity.” It’s stuffy. See if you can tell which phrasing for a light feature article was penned by the writer and which is the edited version. Here’s a before-and-after, but not necessarily in that order, from the world of editing.
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