I have been editor of JTS for about a month now. Ive always had some pronounced pet peeves about writing, but staring at words all day has heightened my sensitivity to them quite a bit. In no particular order, here are some things I see constantly that instantly make me want to send you a nasty email (I dont because of professionalism and such, but the thought crosses my mind): 1. You are stronger THAN someone else. Not stronger THEN someone else. 2. Its a fool-proof solution, not a full-proof solution. 3. Commas can be confusing, and Im not a Nazi about them. Sometimes you put a comma in your writing thats not required, or omit one that should be there because you want to give your writing a particular cadence that bends strict style rules. Thats fine. But if you dont use any commas - and a lot of you dont - it makes me want to burn you with fire. 4. Another stylistic thing: exclamation points. Use them if you must. If this was formal writing, Id nix them all, but in fitness writing, you want to keep an upbeat tone. I get that. But please try to limit their use to maybe one sentence per paragraph. You are not that excited. Periods should be your standard punctuation at the end of a sentence. If the periods:exclamation point ratio starts hovering around 1:1, we have a problem. 5. Basic rules of logic apply. Does your article have to be structured like a formal philosophical treatise? Of course not. But this is how you do X, and I know because I lift a lot, or, such and such is wrong, and you can be sure of this because it comes from this source, who happens to be an idiot, are unacceptable. 6. Be straightforward about whats a fact and whats conjecture. Again, Im not looking for a bibliography with 50 citations, but if you say something that takes the form of a factual statement, I want to see one of three things: 1) a citation. 2) something that is essentially just common knowledge. 3) a note of humility such as in my experience... or I think that... Opinions are perfectly fine. Opinions stated as facts are not. 7. Its Juggernaut, not Juggernaught. Every time I see Juggernaught, I perceive it as a backhanded diss. But I still chuckle every time. With all that said, if youd like to write for JTS to get your message out to a large audience, hit me up. Just make sure what you have to say is legit and well-supported.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 17:03:27 +0000
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