In a series of posts Virtus will provide tips and advice covering many aspects of publishing. This series will be an ongoing selection of language tips, covering areas that many authors find difficult or confusing. These will be short and to the point.

Virtus Publishing Language Tip #7: “May” versus “Might”

During group sessions with copy editors I regularly emphasize the idea of leaving text that is grammatically correct alone: Copy editor (CEs) must learn to be conservative with their edits, particularly to ensure that they are maintaining “the author’s voice.” No one will ever say that you’re a great editor simply based on the number of changes you make.

And authors must also consider word choice when writing. 

One unnecessary change I’ve seen made by both authors and editors regularly concerns changing “may” to “might.”

I knew a CE several years ago who, if presented with a sentence that used “might,” would change it to “may.” With a sentence that used “may,” he’d change it to “might.”

When authors or editors make this change it’s possible that they have a personal preference for one over the other. But it’s also very likely that they are making the change for the sake of making a change. Some incorrectly believe that if they don’t make a lot of changes someone will accuse them of not doing their job. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I once visited a customer who was troubled by the high number of unnecessary changes that were being made in his manuscripts. During our meeting he very dramatically picked up a huge manuscript print out, dropped it on the table and said 

“I don’t care if this comes back unchanged with a note that says, ‘OK as is,’ as long as the copy editor has checked the spelling, grammar, punctuation, and style.”

Returning to Tip #6, the difference between “may” and “might” is subtle.

They both indicate that something is possible, but something that “may” happen is more likely than something that “might” happen. 

Let’s look at an example of each.