Picky, Picky, Picky

   Reporters often complain that copy editors are picky, moving commas and hyphens arbitrarily, and changing spellings when it doesn't matter. "Readers know what I mean," they say. Not true. Readers only know what you say in your writing, not always what you mean. The goal is communication. If all you want is to impress people with your alleged erudition, go into politics, or become an academia nut.
   General guideline: Stay with English, but if you must use a French or Spanish expression that has found common usage, at least spell it correctly. Example: On a menu, the soup of the day is soup du jour, spelled du, not de.
   More pickings: The past tense of plead is pleaded, not pled. True enough that the past tense of bleed is bled, not bleeded. Look to linguistic history and derivation of the plead and bleed for a reason. If you find one, great. If not, consider that there is no reason, it just is.
   Lot is a single word, as in a lot, meaning a large amount. You can then also have one lot, two lots, or more. Don't use alot, because then you are locked into two alots, three alots, etc. However, there is a verb, allot, with a double l and a different meaning.

   And here's an old guideline from Strunk & White's Elements of Style, likely the best of its kind (it's certainly one of the briefest): -ly adverbs never take a hyphen. So, newly elected, recently enacted, and others of that ilk, no hyphens, please. However, "family" is a noun, not an adverb, so it's possible to write of a family-owned business. Even so, don't bother, because the meaning is clear without it. Likewise "small business man," unless the proprietor is a Munchkin; then you have a problem justifying a reference to size.