Editor’s Toolkit – Dara Rochlin Book Doctor

The Editor’s Toolkit: OneLook Reverse Dictionary

Posted on May 19, 2016May 19, 2016 by Book Doctor Dara

Have you ever been stuck for a word? The meaning is clear in your head, but you can’t grasp the word you want? I am sure you have said, it’s on the tip of my tongue. This happens to everyone at some point. As a writer, an editor, a student, or just in everyday writing — you get frustrated and start pulling out your hair. This is where OneLook Reverse Dictionary can help you (and me, when I edit!)

How does it work?

OneLook explains it best, so I took this screenshot for you.

HowToUse OneLookReverse — How OneLook Reverse Dictionary works.

Editor’s Advice

Keep your search short to get the best results. OneLook indexes online dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias, and other reference sites for your search term returning conceptually similar words. They suggest utilizing only the first few terms, since it comes back with hundreds sometimes, as seen in the screenshot below where I searched for urge to travel.

OneLook Reverse Dictionary search results on “*urge to travel”*.

Pick the word you want, for example, Wanderlust. When you click on it, dictionary definitions from multiple sources will come up, including the Online Etymology Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Oxford Dictionaries, UltraLingua English Dictionary, Mnemonic Dictionary, and RhymeZone.

Wanderlust-OneLook — *Wanderlust* definitions

Categories

The list you get back is broken up into Categories: General, Art, Business, Computing, Medicine, Miscellaneous, Religion, Science, Slang, Sports, Tech, and Phrases. I really like the Phrases category.

Doing this search, I learned a phrase that includes wanderlust is Broburn Wanderlust — which was a small, wooden, single-seat glider designed in the United Kingdom just after World War II. Only one was built in 1946, and it flew in 1947.

The Wanderlust is a single seat sailplane of wooden construction, with a cantilever shoulder-wing. The wing is covered with ply from the leading edge as far as the spar, aft of which it is fabric covered. Fitted along the whole span are aerofoil section flaps, which are split at about half span so that the outer section scan act as flaps or drooping ailerons. Accommodation in the cockpit is roomy and the pilot’s head is raised well above the wings and fuselage under a Perspex hood. A seat type parachute is provided, with a radio as possible additional equipment. Novel use has been made out of a cut motorcycle inner tube encased in canvas to provide an inflatable shock absorber.

– The Museum of Berkshire Aviation

Be sure to check out the other Editor’s Toolkit posts including The Punctuation Guide, and the Hemingway App. Hope you will come back for what’s upcoming the rest of the week, as I highlight what else is in my Editor’s Toolkit.

Know of other useful writing apps that aren’t included here? Let me know about them on Twitter!

Editor's Toolkit, Language, Writing

The Editor’s Toolkit: Hemingway App

Posted on May 17, 2016May 19, 2016 by Book Doctor Dara

Ernest Hemingway‘s writing style is known almost instantaneously by most readers. It is distinctive, recognizable, and influential. Critics believe his style was honed during his time being a cub reporter in Kansas City. Using short, rhythmic sentences, and selecting only those elements essential to the story, he created a clean style that works with having a journalistic background.

Featured today in my Editor’s Toolkit, the Hemingway App.

The Hemingway App shows you what is wrong with your writing in a clear and easy-to- follow method. Overly long sentences show up in yellow. Adverbs appear in blue. Words or phrases that can be simplified, purple. Green indicates passive voice. And red sentences are very hard to read.

Writer Ian Crouch of The New Yorker took Hemingway’s own writing and put it through the Hemingway App. The opening paragraph from Hemingway’s short story,”A Clean, Well-Lighted Place“, only scored Grade 15 (OK).

It was very late and everyone had left the cafe except an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light. In the day time the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference. The two waiters inside the cafe knew that the old man was a little drunk, and while he was a good client they knew that if he became too drunk he would leave without paying, so they kept watch on him.

Hemingway_A Clean Well-Lighted Place — “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” opening paragraph on Hemingway App. Image courtesy of Dara Rochlin Book Doctor.

I hope this allows you to see how you can utilize different tools and websites to make your writing stronger and more concise. Be sure to check out the other Editor’s Toolkit posts including The Punctuation Guide and the OneLook Reverse Dictionary. Come back for what’s upcoming the rest of the week, as I highlight what else is in my Editor’s Toolkit.

Feel free to let me know what is in your Editor’s Toolkit in the comments and I will mention you if it becomes part of the series.

Know of other useful writing apps that aren’t included here? Let me know about them on Twitter!

Editor's Toolkit, punctuation

The Editor’s Toolkit: The Punctuation Guide

Posted on May 16, 2016May 19, 2016 by Book Doctor Dara

tumblr_mkklekVzwC1rnvzfwo1_500 — alphabet soup cartoon courtesy of Amanda Patterson

Do you ever wonder what really goes on behind the scenes and on the screens of an editor? How many different webpages and reference materials we use to get your book publication perfect? Hopefully, you’ve seen my previous blog post on What’s on Your Bookshelf – highlighting my go-to reference books.

Piggybacking on that, I thought I would show you part of my Editor’s Toolkit. What is an Editor’s Toolkit you may be asking? It is those websites that help me do my job, and perhaps show you something new and different that you don’t know.

First, on this tour of the Editor’s Toolkit, The Punctuation Guide. I like this web app because it has an easy-to-use interface, and clear guidelines. If you are not a writer, and a student in English class, it will also help you understand how and when to use an em-dash (—), an en-dash (–), or a hyphen (-), for instance.

Primarily for American English (AmE), and not British English (BrE); however, it has a section under “Other Matters” entitled British versus American Style.

The Punctuation Guide also brings together punctuation rules from different style guides: MLA, The Chicago Manual of Style, and the Associated Press Stylebook.

Remember… Punctuation Saves Lives.

ff9ec61ffd1cb6d7aed363e8e74dce7a — Let’s Eat Grandma! Lets eat, Grandma!

Be sure to check out the other Editor’s Toolkit posts including the Hemingway App and the OneLook Reverse Dictionary.

Know of other useful writing apps that aren’t included here? Let me know about them on Twitter!

How does it work?

Editor’s Advice

Categories

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