Donna Lowe

generally use Latino rather than Hispanic when a broader term is necessary.

Hopefully when used to mean “it is hoped” is a member of a class of adverbs known as disjuncts. Disjuncts serve as a means by which the author or speaker can comment directly to the reader or hearer usually on the content of the sentence to which they are attached.

Italicize franchise names, however, when referring to a media series: e.g., “the Saw movies,”

For a noun or other word that traditionally wouldn’t take a verb form, use a hyphen plus ing to create the verb form if the word ends in a vowel

Generally, -sized is used to comparatively describe the size of something (e.g., a nickel-sized spider would describe a spider roughly the size of a nickel) and -size to indicate something’s function or utility (e.g., child-size furniture describes furniture meant for the use of children,

Bryan A. Garner’s Garner’s Modern English Usage, also known to many in the editing world as the bible

the “well,” or the middle section of the magazine,

Repeat after me: If we speak that way, it’s okay to write that way.

As a general rule, before you toss a few words in between parentheses, ask yourself, “Are these words integral to the meaning of a sentence?” The answer should always be no; they should further explain or qualify, as a service to the reader.