Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Copyediting

Welcome to the page where we're developing copyediting software to assist the Military History Project. Rules go on this page, discussion on the talk page.

Key

 * Noun, verb, etc: A word, phrase or clause that acts as a noun, verb, etc.

Rules

 * comma + noun + verb ending in -ing: roughly speaking, if replacing this with semicolon + "its/their" + noun + "was/were" + verb works per the usual copyediting rules, then it's probably fine to leave it alone. (So, "The car leapt forward, tires screeching." is okay because "The car leapt forward; its tires were screeching." is okay.) Garner's calls the noun + present participle an "absolute construction" and says that it's generally out of fashion.
 * "being": often redundant