iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Someone in the MS just let out a peel of laughter. So now I'm imagining someone spewing orange peel out of their mouth because they've got the giggles #AmEditing

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Sometimes typos are too brilliant to resist sharing. #AmEditing and so far I've had some absolute gold on this job: - barley a year in - pouring over a map - string of peals - gold or sliver and my favourite: - the library filled with scared books #SpellcheckCannotSaveYou

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I'm copy-editing an incredible novel at the moment, and I'm sure I'm not allowed to share much at this stage, but let's just enjoy this sentence for now: 'The sun has not loosened its grip on the day, but night is waiting in the wings of twilight.' Just beautiful. #AmEditing

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I dread this happening with a book I've worked on - imagine having your book's title misspelled on the cover of a print run (It's a brilliant book, too!)

Screenshot of the cover of one edition of Michael Chabon's short-story collection, Werewolves in Their Youth, in which 'Their' has been misspelled as 'Thier' in capital letters in the middle of the cover

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This thread is just *chef's kiss* and sums it up far better than I could

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

There's something very satisfying about using the OED to settle a language debate on a Facebook page, particularly when the other person weighs in with a confident 'English teacher here' :-)

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Whenever I pass this restaurant, I imagine the chef smoking a little something while cooking

Pictured is a section of a restaurant menu where the list of pizzas appears under the header 'Stoned-baked Pizza'

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

the heavy yolk of marriage > the heavy yoke of marriage #AmProofreading #SpellcheckWillNotSaveYou

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I've rediscovered my love of short stories after picking up a copy of Louise Hegarty's new book, Getting the Electric. The final story, written in a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure format, absolutely blew me away. Highly recommended if you like writers who aren't afraid to experiment and try new things.

Cover of the book mentioned, which depicts an eighties-style platform game in shades of red and pink, with a girl and a paraffin lamp on the top left platform, a bomb on the top right platform, and an axe-wielding, angry-looking monster on the lowest but one platform. Platforms are linked by ladders, and the author's name and the book title are in green, almost underlined by the platforms.

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

As much as I'm loving the book I'm currently reading, there have been some questionable decisions made regarding word breaks. Can you guess how the word continues on the following line?

Close-up photograph of an unnamed book, where a longer word has been broken over a line end, leaving 'houseg' on its own at the end of the line

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

PSA to authors and editors: if doing a global change from double to single quote marks, don't forget to check measurements. I nearly sent a book off to be typeset this morning with a character telling another that he had an 8' penis #AmEditing

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

What's with the Oxford Premium online dictionary closing up 'handjob' but keeping 'blow job' open? Make it make sense... #AmEditing #OneOfLifesBigQuestions

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

peels of girlish laughter > peals of girlish laughter #SpellcheckCannotSaveYou #AmEditing

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

This word break hurts me on a visceral level

Photograph of a page from an unnamed novel where the word 'clubroom' has been split at the end of a line to read clu-broom

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

I also don't want to change 'eighty armed men in the city' to 'eighty-armed men in the city', no matter how much I enjoy the image it conjures #AmEditing

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

MS Word wants me to change 'dragged a forest fir into the cottage' to 'dragged a forest fire into the cottage'. Erm, nope. #AmEditing

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Best #Copyediting typo in a while! Might as well send them a bag of faces > Might as well send them a bag of faeces #SpellcheckCannotSaveYou

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

US #edibuddies and others familiar with the Chicago Manual of Style: Can 'etc.' ever take an initial capital, or should it always be lowercased? And could anyone point me at the right CMoS page to cite on this, as I've searched and searched and can't find what I need! Thanks in advance :-)

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Spotted in the wild at the weekend

A photograph of a red warning sign standing in front of a flight of steps on a play trail in a pine forest. The sign reads 'CLOSED for Public Safety Reasons NO ENRTY'

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

The first garden work of the year: a tale in photographs 1. I feel powerful!

A cordless hedge trimmer lying on a cut lawn

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Do you think I can get away with describing myself as 'Award-winning copy editor and proofreader' if books I've copy-edited and proofread are longlisted for prestigious awards? Maybe I should start charging a premium (the books in question were outstanding before I did my bit, but still...)

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Borrowed/stolen from Threads as this is such an epic typo. And because I would gladly collect soups

Screenshot of an excerpt from a fantasy romance novel in which the author, lavendellebooks, has written 'I don't want to be good at collecting soups' instead of 'I don't want to be good at collecting souls'

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Should be a great event if anyone's down that way on 9 March (sadly, I'm not). It was a pleasure working with the lovely Izidora on the copy edit – and very exciting to see the novel now International Booker longlisted!

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

One thing I've had to google today: 'Can an eel chew its way through a bird's throat from the inside?' #Editing is never dull...

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Anyone else unable to log in to the COED website today? I've been trying since early this morning and keep getting the message 'This premium oxforddictionaries.com page can't be found: No page was found for the web address premium.oxforddictionaries.com/auth/login [followed by login code]'

oxforddictionaries.com

Oxford Languages | The Home of Language Data

Explore Oxford Languages, the home of world-renowned language data.

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

No, MS Word, I don't want to change 'he brought his fists up and glared at me threateningly' to 'he mentioned his fists and glared at me threateningly' #AmEditing

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Question for UK #edibuddies and wordy people in general who know BrE well - is there a good solid and fairly informal equivalent in BrE to the US generic 'nowheresville'? I'm sure there must be something, but my brain is not playing ball today! #AmEditing

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

No, MS Word, I do not want to change 'he farted in the office' to 'he farmed in the office', but thanks anyway #AmEditing

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

That's it. I can handle a lot of bad behaviour from bands, but that apostrophe is just 🤮

Screenshot of promo email from British band The Cure, with the header beginning 'Boy's Don't Cry'

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Had the loveliest feedback today, in the Acks of an upcoming (and very good) novel I've copy-edited: 'Sarah Terry, for a quite brilliant editorial eye.' It's a shame that editorial eye doesn't seem to be transferable to spotting things I've put down in the house and then can't find again...

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

I love working with this guy, but not sure 'I hope it was too distressing to read' was quite the sentiment he intended after I sent my first edited draft through... #AmEditing

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

I guess I have to change my name now. At least it's appropriate given my profession #AmEditing @perfectit.bsky.social

Screenshot of part of email from editing software company PerfectIt, addressing the customer as 'Hi PerfectIt, Thank you for your purchase.'

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Am #proofreading a book where I've been told to ignore the captions under the photos because they're currently just placeholders, which has led to delights like this

Black-and-white photograph of 1920s explorer Alexandra David-Néel. The caption underneath the photograph reads 'UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, c. 1960'

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Drinking my morning coffee out of this mug will never get old

A large mug sits on top of a pile of books on a windowsill, the New Oxford Spelling Dictionary on the top of the pile. The mug is white and is a copy of the famous/iconic Sports Direct mug, except that it has the slogan 'NOT PISS' printed on it, with 'NOT' in blue and 'PISS' in red. Outside, in the background, you can see houses opposite, but these are blurred.

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Hey, USians, I have an #editing question about the format of hospital bracelets over the pond from me... Is there a universal standard or do they vary from state to state? Would the format be last name, first name? And full points or slashes between elements of DOB? Google isn't helping me! TIA :-)

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Gorgeous cover! Aerth is beautifully written (I had the pleasure of being copy editor) and it's lovely to see it IRL

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Watch your homophones when writing, people - I may have spotted the following in my current #copyediting job, but spellcheck wouldn't! toed > towed first aid kid > ... kit prayed > preyed principal > principle (and vice versa) breaks > brakes straight jacket > straitjacket mange > manage

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Unfortunate typo on school message re their English teaching

Cropped screenshot from a school app message telling English students that 'Next week we are looking at EMGLISH!'

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

UK #editors and #proofreaders who do work for public authority clients in other European countries - have you been asked for an organisation number in order to be paid? And is there a way to circumvent this for sole traders, who don't have an organisation number?

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Just came across the loveliest phrase in the book I'm #proofreading: 'a time when I was as happy as a mouse nesting in a wheel of cheese'

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

at the tum of the twentieth century > at the turn of the twentieth century The curse of OCR strikes again! #AmProofreading

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

@uk.theconversation.com Is your site down at the moment? I can't get on it my end and am trying to check an article for a book I'm editing... Thanks!

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Sarah Terry @spellegance.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Adventures in copy-editing this week: - queried whether 'pussy licker' might look better closed up, as with 'cocksucker' - discovered that Australians call a strimmer a 'whipper snipper' If I achieve nothing else this week, I'll be happy 🙂

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