Acknowledgments

Substitute damn every time you’re inclined to write very; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

—Mark Twain

I didn’t follow Mark Twain’s advice in this book (the word very appears throughout), but if my writing still appears “just as it should be,” then it’s because of the keen minds and sharp linguistic eyes of the editors at Pearson Education. Near the front of the book you’ll find a long list of the hard-working professionals whose fingers made it into this particular paper pie. However, there are a few folks I worked with directly, so I’d like to single them out for extra credit. A big, heaping helping of thanks goes out to executive editor Loretta Yates, project editor Charlotte Kughen, and technical editor Bob Umlas.