Usage and Grammar

Q. I’m editing a book, and many persons mentioned in early chapters appear later. When the author provides biographical information about the person in the early chapters, he often says something like “Mary Smith would become superintendent of schools in 1976.” The “woulds” are becoming annoying. I suppose we could alter them by using “will.” But because the text is overwhelmingly in the past tense (because it’s speaking about the past) I’m wondering if something like the following could work now and then as an alternative to all the “woulds”: “In 1976 Mary Smith became superintendent of schools.” Would putting that in parentheses be enough of an indicator to the reader that we’re slipping something in that they might like to know?

Q. Is it an historical novel or a historical novel?

Q. Please help me to defend this. The boss thinks it’s wrong. “The fit, the style, the stores. It’s all right here.” She thinks it should be “They’re all right here.” Please help me defend “it’s.” Thanks so much.

Q. Clearly, the word “cannot” is in the dictionary as one word. But does this mean that it is incorrect to say “can not” as two words? This controversy is raging in my office and has some people very upset. What are your thoughts?

Q. I am editing a novel that is written in the past tense, and a past perfect question has begun to haunt me. When speaking of events that took place in the more remote past, does every verb need to be conjugated in past perfect, or only the first? For example, would one write,

David had invited me to Los Angeles. “It will be fun,” he had said.

Or,

David invited me to Los Angeles. “It will be fun,” he said.

Q. Good morning. What is the right preposition after the noun “change”? I thought it was always “in.” However, Cambridge.org gives the following examples:

Let me know if there’s any change in the situation.

They’ve made a lot of changes to the house.

Now, I’m confused. Please enlighten me. Thanks.

Q. While incorporating Latin or Greek words into an English text, what case should be used? Take, for example, the phrase “taking up the question of kronon kai ton kairon.” Normally, the English preposition “of” should take the genitive, but the student is relying on a scriptural text which has the preposition peri and has reproduced the accusative case. He could have avoided the difficulty by using the English preposition “about”; however, should he remain faithful to the Greek text or put the Greek words into the genitive, in accord with the English preposition?

Q. I work as an editor for a law firm in Taiwan and was asked whether there is a difference between “attachment” and “enclosure” at work today. One camp is saying that something that is sent along with an email can only be called an “attachment,” and something sent along with a traditional letter or a fax can only be referred to as an “enclosure”; meanwhile, another camp makes no distinction between “attachment” and “enclosure,” or for that matter, “to attach” and “to enclose.”

Q. To me, 12:00 is either noon or midnight, never a.m. or p.m. I keep seeing copy that says “before 12 p.m.” and I can’t convince the copywriters that this is confusing. Can you cite any rule that would clarify this once and for all?

Q. A few of my colleagues in the office seem to be making no distinction between “as well as” and “and.” I find the dictionary definition (“and in addition”) less than clear—although notably the examples pair only two items. Surely you would not provide a list including items “one, two, three, as well as four”?