Category Archives: proofreading

Ask PTB – Drug Names–Caps or Not?

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A Proof That Blog reader asked this question:

“Hi Kathy! I need your help! Should I capitalize drug names in sentences: Fentanyl, Methamphetamine, Marijuana? The officers write in lowercase but to me, it is a proper noun, so it should be capitalized. Thank you!”

The actual tradenames of drugs would be capitalized, i.e., ADVIL, which is the trademark owned by PF Consumer Healthcare 1 LLC for their ibuprofen tablets, is capitalized, but “ibuprofen” is not. Since “fentanyl” is the type of drug (a potent synthetic opioid) and not the tradename, it is not capitalized. The tradenames for fentanyl include Actiq, Fentora, and Duragesic, which would be capitalized.

The same is true of methamphetamine. The tradename for that is Desoxyn, so that tradename is capitalized, but the actual drug name “methamphetamine” is not. Marijuana is not a tradename, but is a type of “drug,” so it is not capitalized.

Basically, if it is not the registered tradename of the specific drug but is the type of drug (as it looks like your work would primarily be), it would not be capitalized.

I hope that helps!

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Grammar Giggle – Non-Smiling Home

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I saw this recently in my Facebook feed. It looks to me like this was a Facebook autocorrect that wasn’t caught. It is really important to actually look at texts, posts, emails, etc. to make sure your electronic device didn’t decide it was smarter than you and change a word to what it thinks you wanted to say, even though what they chose was not even close. Just review it quickly, change anything you need to, and then press that big button to send it off. You will feel better knowing that what you are sending actually says what you want it to say and your friends, family, and others won’t wonder why you’re obviously upset and talking about a non-smiling home.

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Grammar Giggle – Spelling Matters!

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A friend sent this to me and I thought I would share it with you. In this case, a misspelling had a happy ending, but that certainly rarely happens.

Ida Holdgreve is credited with being the first female American aerospace worker. She was born in Delphos, Ohio, in 1881. In her 20s she moved to Dayton to look for work. She saw an ad in the paper that advertised for “Plain Sewing Wanted.” She was an excellent seamstress, so she answered the ad. It was, in fact, an ad for “Plane Sewing Wanted” by Orville and Wilbur Wright. Ida became the head seamstress at the Wright Brothers Airplane Factory, sewing the cover for the fuselage, wings, and rudders. Despite her work with airplanes, Ida did not take her first airplane ride until 1969 at age 88.

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Happy National Proofreading Day!

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Every year we celebrate National Proofreading Day. The holiday was started by Judy Beaver in 2011 in honor of her mother on March 8 (her mother’s birthday), as a fun way to remember her mother, who loved to correct people, and to remind people to proofread!

Thank you for all of your positive comments, topic suggestions, and grammar giggles that you’ve passed along for this blog. Hopefully, you are learning a little something. Please continue to send topic suggestions and grammar giggles my way so we can all continue to hone our proofreading skills.

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Grammar Giggle – Convince Me!

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I took this photo on a recent trip. I thought they meant “convenience,” but perhaps part of their business is to “convince” people to use tobacco and vape. Plus, since they are using “etc.,” it already includes a period, so you don’t need another one. It is really unfortunate that the sign is so big and so wrong.

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Grammar Giggle – Rihanna And The The Super Bowl

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This news article was in my feed just as the Super Bowl ended. It has since been fixed, but how many people saw it incorrectly. As I’ve said many times before, the best advice I can give to anyone is to slow down and read what you’re writing before you press “send.”

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Grammar Giggle – It’s Purdy from Perry

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In honor of the Super Bowl this weekend, here’s a recent football-related Grammar Giggle. I’m not a big fan myself, but it took me a few minutes to figure this one out. I know Perry High School is a local school and I thought it was a bit unusual that they mentioned Brock Perry while the people in the photo were wearing jerseys that said “Purdy.” I finally figured out his last name is Purdy and he went to Perry High School. The first line is just very poorly written. It would have been better to say “If the former two-time All-Arizona quarterback Brock Purdy leads the 49ers . . ..”

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Grammar Giggle – Pure Bread Dogs

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A Proof That blog reader sent me this one from her local newspaper. While consistency is good, the word should be “bred.”

And I couldn’t resist including this picture of real “pure bread” dogs because I knew someone would have done it already.

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Grammar Giggle – Occutrousers

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A friend sent this to me and it highlights the danger of “replace all” in documents. It is much safer to search and replace and stop at each instance to verify that it is indeed the word that should be replaced. Otherwise, you will end up with things like this and in a legal document, that could be very bad. So be careful and take the extra time to view the replacements you’re making.

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