Copyediting Tip: 17CMS 5.91 on Coordinate and Cumulative Adjectives

I'm a copy editor, working with prolific Indie authors who have a great grasp of the written word. Love my job; it's fun, not work. While I may be the grammar and spelling police, I do more than just that because it all comes down to communication that works, that gets the correct idea across. My head is so cluttered with rules and their manifold exceptions, but my main goal when copyediting is to not confuse the reader.

Today's tip is about 17CMS 5.91, Coordinate Adjectives.

Coordinate adjectives take a comma. Example: "the red, white, and blue flag." The test is if "and" could replace the commas. Example: "the red and white and blue flag."

However, cumulative adjectives do not take a comma. While 17CMS 5.91 does not include this extra information, I've found this added explanation to be helpful:

Cumulative adjectives differ from the "same kind" (coordinate) adjectives where serial commas are used. These cumulative adjectives follow a certain order: Number + Opinion + Size + Age + Shape + Color +Origin/Nationality + Material + Purpose (which all identify/modify one particular noun inserted herein at the end). Note that some sources switch the Size + Age to be Age + Size. Just FYI. An example using all noted categories is: “Three perfect petite newborn cupped yellow French organic homeopathic roses lay on the table.” Of course, you would rarely use all the various types of cumulative adjectives in the same sentence; it’s cumbersome.  Also note that the coordinate adjectives are just one kind of cumulative adjective used over and over. My flag example above uses three color adjectives, turning cumulative adjectives of the same category into coordinate adjectives.

This is fascinating to me. Granted, the editing part comes after the creating part. I find myself, when in author mode, intent on getting my thoughts down before they expire. Then, when review time comes, my copyediting self comes into play.

Whether you implement these 17CMS rules or not in your first draft, hopefully you have a great copy editor to catch these for you.

Welcome to My World, Where Every Day Is a Saturday

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

https://deniseannbarker.com

Saving Our Planet: Baby Steps Count

After watching a Farmacy broadcast by Dr. Mark Hyman on YouTube, where he speaks of a rancher who gained like twenty-nine inches of topsoil through regenerative farming practices, I breathed a sigh of relief.

We might be able to save our planet.

Granted, we hear of food waste all the time. But we need to recast that phrase into a planet-saving light. Sure. I don't eat all the food I buy. However, I'm doing three things to address that problem.

• First, I'm really trying to limit my buying to what I will actually eat that week that cannot be frozen for later. I'm a Deep South gal who loves her food, who enjoys cooking, and so the grocery store is a huge lure for me. BTW, frozen kale in my Zuppa Toscana is nowhere near as great as using the fresh kale in my soup. Duly noted.
• Second, I'm adding green drinks to my menu, using up not-so-pretty food but still safely edible. So, if you had planned for a great big salad, got distracted for a couple days, instead plan on drinking your veggies.
• Third, I'm adding that otherwise spoiled food to a backyard compost pile, not to my garbage bag.

Small steps. Big differences.

See my friend Nicci's related post at https://niccicarrera.com/2020/01/22/five-tips-for-waste-reduction/ wherein she has this great motto (which I am now adopting as well):

My motto is a quote that was shared in one of my social media streams:

We don’t need a few people doing waste reduction perfectly; we need a million people doing waste reduction imperfectly.

Amen.

And a great big shout-out to Greta for all her hard work involved in getting the word out in the global arena.

God bless us all.

Welcome to My World, Where Every Day Is a Saturday

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

https://deniseannbarker.com

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

God Bless Us All

¹⁶ Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; ¹⁷ learn to do well; seek justice, ^[a]relieve the oppressed [set right the oppressor], judge [defend] the fatherless, plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:16-17 (ASV).

As We Head into Not Just a New Year but a New Decade ...

I would love for us all to be a kinder, gentler version of humanity. Yet I also see the need for boundaries and for standing up to bullies, with kindness and tact as needed but with a firm stand when required as well. That said, here are some recommendations as we near 2020:

1. Read Candace Cameron Bure's book, Kind Is the New Classy, and others of its ilk. We can all change the world, one person at a time, starting with ourselves. If that book title doesn't call to you, then I suggest watching the rip-roaring action movie, 6 Underground, with Ryan Reynolds, currently offered on Netflix. Yes, I'm tongue-in-cheek here, as you don't need to be a billionaire tech guru or to own guns to pull off this "save the world" motif. But this should get your blood pumping and may inspire you to at least get off the couch and to make yourself into a better human being, one step at a time.
2. Follow through with actions, not just speaking your words or reading someone else's words about good ideas for New Year's resolutions. Make active resolutions, where you follow through. When I cut back on my drive-through Starbucks addiction (ha!), I ended up funneling that money into Kiva loans. I still drink Starbucks but mostly the home-brewed version. Yet this change felt right back then. Feels true now as well.
3. I urge everyone of legal age to register to vote and to cast your vote, regardless of which political election is involved. NOTE: This is not a political forum. Any comments too pointed in that vein will be deleted, even if I agree with you. No names to be named, please. No name-calling will be tolerated here. I urge everyone to register to vote and to cast your vote. It's the American way. So many countries in the world don't have this right. Heck, we American women just got the right to vote less than one hundred years ago, via the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to our US Constitution, officially adopted on August 26, 1920. Not even one century ago could US-born females of age vote. Shaking my head as here I sit, in this country, the land of the free. Hard to fathom, yes. But, regardless of your sex, vote. Offer to drive a senior citizen to the polls with you or someone without a vehicle or whoever you can help to get there who might not otherwise make the effort without a nudge.
4. Be gentle with yourself as well as others, as long as your rights aren't being violated.
5. Speak up if you are being violated. Speak up if you witness others being violated. You have to stand up to bullies. Don't wait. Do it now. This reminds me of a famous Ayn Rand quote, which goes something like this, "Evil requires the sanction of the victim." I would love to further tweak that line to say:

The continuance of evil requires the continued silence of the victim.

Don't be silent when it comes to evil.

Here's to New Year 2020. May it bring in a better era, a brighter decade, a healthier, happier and more peaceful humanity.

Denise Barker

Author, Blogger, Copy Editor

Merry Christmas to All and Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward Men

Per the ASV of the Bible, Isaiah 9:6:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [Emphasis added.]

Best wishes to all, regardless of color, creed or religious preference. And I hope everyone prays for us all. May God bless us all, now and into the coming new decade.

Denise Barker