Editorial Help Desk

Survey Questions for the Next MCPS Editorial Summit

With 211 schools and many central services offices, the number of MCPS employees who write correspondence and other documents lies in the hundreds; and the breadth of that work is formidable. Grammar and writing-style standards may tend to be inconsistent, which adversely affects the perception of MCPS as a credible organization of educators.

The purpose of The Editorial Summit is to give participants some tools and resources to help you do your work more confidently. I know this is particularly relevant in these times, as we have lost most of our copy editors and the valuable services they offered.

Help us make the next event a success by answering these questions:

What topics, related to your work, would you like us to address at the next Editorial Summit?

What else would keep you engaged (other than an appearance by Beyoncé)? For example, food, TED Talk, or a round of Q and A.

Thank you in advance for your contributions. We want to make the next summit a memorable one for you.

Tip of the Month

Q. Someone used the word, fairer, in a sentence to mean doing a process this was more fair than doing the process a different way. If we have fair and fairest, to me, that implies the middle term of fairer should be allowed, but that sounded odd.  Is it more fair and most fair?

A. Fairer would be the better word to use in this case.
The suffixes -er and -est usually signal the superlative form of a common adjective having one or two syllables.

An adjective with three or more syllables would use more and most (more quarrelsome, more humorous).

Share your thoughts with us.

As always, when in doubt, check it out! Contact the Editorial Help Desk for help (Donna_M_MarksPleasant@mcpsmd.org).