New clickbait strategy: write a headline so baffling that you have to click on it to find out what the story is about.

I often see this LinkedIn ad: Leadership schedules, meetings, travel and day-to-day admin. Feature ideas. Blogs, social media, newsletters, 3-4 stories/week. Editorial calendars and content plans for clients. Source information, interview opportunities. Four jobs, £28-34k.

My daughter gave me the trilogy of @Inkyfool books for Christmas. I already had The Etymologicon so, when I visited my brother in Amsterdam last week, I took it with me to give to him. He has a grand total of 14 books on his shelf. One of them is The Etymologicon.

I find it amusing that Americans say "burglarizing" instead of "burgling". Peddlars peddle, burglars burgle. It's like describing growing crops as "farmerizing".

Kurt Vonnegut said semicolons were unnecessary. But when I'm editing pieces by non-writers and I need to keep their prose as intact as possible, semicolons are a godsend.

Irony: I've given up editing this piece on the importance of standardised English. I simply can't understand it.

Looking for the website of the International Group of P&I Clubs, I stumbled across another organisation called IGPI. Beautiful website, full of buzzwords and platitudes, which at no point explains what the organisation actually does.

"Data is plural!" says the person who presumably replies to "I've just been to the opera" with "Did you like them?"

Encountering another author who insists 'data' is plural. Presumably he's just as insistent about spaghetti, broccoli and opera.

Commentators on @bbctms keep confusing "dissect" (cut up) and "bisect" (cut in half).

Writers should stop using "drop" as a synonym for "release". The headline "BBC drops drama series" suggests that the series has been cancelled.

Sorry, this job ad actually offends me. "Sub Editor - Maidstone ME14" They want an editor, subeditor, writer, picture researcher, marketer, statistician, PA and receptionist. Three days a week, on-site, and you might get as much as £17pa (less if you lack experience).

It's ironic that @ReedsyHQ insists on the highest standards for editors with the stipulation: "If this criteria can’t be fulfilled…"

Every now and then I remind @AmazonUK that their listing for a book I edited shows the cover from a completely different book. Nearly seven years on, they still haven't corrected it because their automated, human-free systems are infallible.

Another email, this time from @ebay, stating: "Ensuring your data is secure is our top priority." It might be important to you – and I hope it is – but I very much doubt it's your top priority.

A British perspective on "bail out" vs "bale out": A bail is a bucket, used to throw water out of a sinking boat. So a bail-out is a rescue. A bale is a bundle, sometimes thrown out of a plane, maybe attached to a paratrooper. So a bale-out is an escape or abandonment.

Finished editing a book and got it back from the proofreader (a friend and long-time colleague). He's made nearly 3,000 changes. His mindset seems to be that if he CAN make a change, he will. It doesn't need to be an improvement; it just needs to be possible. #AmEditing

I'm starting to accept "competency" as "officially certified competence". Maybe I'm late to this one.

Given that obituaries are written well in advance with the only edit on publication being "who has died aged XX", you'd think that the @BBCNews obit of #AlexSalmond would have been properly proofread. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd13…

Well done @bbcnews. You managed to get EE's product placement in the photo but didn't bother to tell us who this person is.