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).