Fatal wee errors that show you're an amateur

Let's get some very important but rather minor things straight. You won't be considered a serious writer by editors at magazines and newspapers (or in the larger world either) if you are posing as a professional writer but still making amateur errors.

There's the hyphen (-), for example. It should do what hyphens do, like-sisters-in-law, and NOTHING MORE. It isn't a dash, or a finger after a number, or anything else. Its role is vital but not expansive.

The dash in writing is an em dash (see insert, symbols, special on your PC). Alas, I can't show you here or in an email, in which case (and ONLY THERE) it must be seen as two hyphens--like this. Note, no spaces before or after an em dash (except in England and some newspapers in the U.S.). Sometimes your computer will convert the double hyphen into an em dash, but not often or always. Use dashes less frequently than you want, in pairs around parenthetical phrases or to offset a closing to a sentence. Usually they connote humor.

When typewriters abounded so did double spaces between sentences. Now you use one space, without exception. Academics are the worst offenders, and it's a telltale sign to the editor that, if you double too, you aren't properly weaned from school yet.

Avoid semicolons. One or two may be one or two too many, unless you really understand them and the punctuation that surrounds them.

Use full colons sparingly too. They aren't substitutes for a period after a number. They usually indicate a list of items to follow, like "There are four things to do during a rainy recess:" after which four things to do are listed, directly after the colon or numbered below. But the words "like" or "such as" are ways to insert variety in your copy. "There are four things to do during a rainy recess, like ___, ___, ___, and _____."

Those are the ones that are most often used incorrectly. You won't burn in hell (or anywhere) if you err, but you won't be paid much money to write either. That's because those who know the rules and follow them are the ones deciding who sees print, like the editors. They choose professionally written copy almost every time.

Gordon Burgett