SIMPLY EXPLAINED
February 7, 2026
GERMS
By Farida Mirza ã 2025
Germs are tiny living things that are found all over the world. Germs are so tiny that we cannot see them with our eyes. We can see germs only through a microscope. A microscope is like a magnifying glass that makes small things look bigger.
Germs live outside as well as inside our bodies. All living things need food to grow. Germs also need food to stay alive and to make more germs. Germs that live outside our bodies get their food from our surroundings. Germs that live inside our bodies get their food from inside us.
If we wish to stay strong we must eat good food. Imagine you are building a strong wall. If you use strong bricks, the wall will be strong. If you use weak bricks the wall will fall down. Good food makes protein in our bodies. Like strong bricks, protein keeps our bodies healthy. Good food and body movement give us energy to walk, run and play when awake and sleep well at night.
When germs enter our bodies, they make their home inside and stay for a long time. They eat up the healthy parts from the food that we have, parts that help our bodies make protein. In return germs make toxins inside our bodies. Toxins are bad protein that act like poison to make us weak and sick.
However, there are good germs too that live inside our bodies and keep us strong.
There are altogether four types of germs that can enter and live in our bodies:
1. Bacteria 2. Viruses 3. Fungi 4. Protozoa.
Good bacteria live in our intestines and help us digest food. Scientists use good bacteria to make medicines and vaccines. Vaccines are medicines that stop us from getting sick.
Bad bacteria give us diseases such as eye diseases, skin diseases, sore throat, tiny holes in teeth called cavities and pneumonia.
Once viruses enter our bodies they make us sick with influenza or common colds, measles and chicken pox.
There are good and bad fungi. Mushrooms are good fungi that people eat. Bad fungi give us diseases such as Athlete’s Foot, a skin disease that makes the skin between our toes itch.
Protozoa live in damp places and are found in water. If we drink dirty water that has protozoa living in it, we get diseases such as diarrhea, stomach ache and vomiting.
When germs make us sick, we visit a doctor. The doctor takes a small amount of spit, blood or urine from our body and sends it to a laboratory for testing. The tests show what type of germ has made us sick. Once the doctor knows the type of germ, the doctor gives us the right medicine to make us healthy again.
Spit, urine and blood from sick people have germs that can make other people sick through shaking hands, touching or sharing pencils, spoons, plates and glasses. When sick persons cough, sneeze or breathe, germs move through the air to other people and enter their bodies to make them sick.
If you wish to stay healthy, always wash your hands well before eating, drinking and cooking, Wash your hands well after using a bathroom, touching an animal, visiting a sick person or coming home after play. The right way to wash your hands is to count from one to twenty as you rub your hands with soap.
Always cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you sneeze or cough. If you don’t have a tissue, sneeze or cough into your elbow, not your hands. Dirty hands move germs from one person to another through touch.
For good health, eat healthy food, move a lot and get enough sleep. To keep germs away, bathe regularly, wash your hands frequently and keep your surroundings clean. Vaccinations are another way to protect from diseases.
END
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AN ARTICLE I WROTE FOR XCHYLER PUBLISHING
https://www.xchylerpublishing.com/editors-notes-just-know/
CONTENT EDITING, LINE EDITING AND PROOFREADING
As an English teacher correcting student essays, I was content editing, line editing and proofreading without being aware of the differences in the three processes. Equipped with a pen or pencil, I was suggesting, commenting, correcting and doing whatever was necessary to help the student’s writing reach its potential. My goal was to help the student say what he or she wanted to say in the most effective way possible.
It was later in life, when I took up editing as a job, that I realized I had to separate the skills I had been instinctively using into three sections: content editing, line editing and proofreading. Though there is some overlap, there are differences in what each of the three processes involves.
CONTENT (DEVELOPMENTAL) EDITING
A content editor picks up a manuscript and reads it in order to grasp the author’s vision, intention and voice. What follows is a series of exchanges, and back-and-forth edits between the author and the content editor. The author makes revisions as the content editor suggests and guides. A close relationship develops between the two.
The content editor gives comprehensive guidance and helps the author find his/her voice, improve plot credibility, develop characters by enhancing strengths and diminishing weaknesses, deal with rising peril issues, introduce or reinforce emotional content, cut down descriptions if there are too many that might bore the reader, add to descriptions to satisfy a reader, change title and chapter headings to make them more dramatic or relevant, and work towards an attention grabbing beginning or a satisfying ending. A content editor is a guide in all matters of good story-telling.
The content editor ensures that the story stays true to the author’s vision, voice and intention. The manuscript goes through as many revisions as it takes to give it shape and polish and make it effective and sellable.
When the manuscript has undergone revisions, and there will be revisions, and the content editor and author are satisfied that the story is in place, the manuscript is ready for line-editing.
LINE EDITING
Line editors take the manuscript that has been shaped and polished, and help the author give it the sparkle necessary to make it readable and sellable.
Line editing is a qualitative process that follows content editing. Line editors understand the creative use of language elements and ensure the language used is appropriate for the reading level of the audience, conveys the intent of the author, is consistent in voice and style, reads smoothly and uses literary devices to enhance effect.
A line editor will look at the writing in great detail, gleaning out syntax errors, smoothing the flow of words, checking grammatical elements, spellings, punctuation, in general ensuring that all elements of the English language are being used appropriately. Line editors ensure that the author’s voice is not lost in the process.
After many backs and forths between the line editor and the author, the manuscript is sent to the person in charge of the editorial process for a final check. Once the manuscript is approved, it is ready for proofreadin
g, the final stage of the editorial process.
PROOFREADING
A proofreader does the final check of the manuscript before publication. A proofreader checks for typographic mistakes in punctuation, spelling, grammar and spacing. Proofreaders check page numbers, headers, footers, sections, chapters and title. They ensure that font style and size is consistent throughout the manuscript.
Proofreaders correct but not revise. If they come across grammatical or syntax errors, they bring them to the attention of the person in charge of editorial but cannot make any changes themselves. There are reasons why proofreaders are constrained from revising; they might not be aware of language elements that appear to be incorrect but might have been intentionally inserted as a result of some agreement between author and content or line editors.
Bringing attention to the issues rather than revising them is an acceptable way for proofreaders to deal with such discrepancies. Revising the text at the proofreading stage can result in the addition or deletion of words or lines that in turn can result in
the displacement of the typeset of the final copy and the disturbance of graphics.
SOME GUIDELINES FOR EDITORS
• When communicating with one another, through writing or discussions, choose words carefully, ensuring that questions and concerns address the story, not the writer or editor.
• When suggesting a change, explain the context within which the change is suggested and what prompted the change.
• Suggest revisions but do not rewrite.
• When an author is creative with words, coins words and plays around with words, do not reject without careful consideration.
• Never obliterate the author’s voice.
LEARNING DIFFERENCES
By Farida Mirza
I see you, you and you.
Do you see me?
The ‘me’ that’s hidden inside.
The ‘me’ that’s different from you.
I try hard to act like you.
When I do, I see you glance at me,
the way one glances at a stranger.
Why? I ask myself.
I know what you know.
I understand as well as you do.
I can achieve what you can,
and may be more.
Then why don’t you?
You ask me.
I need my own road to accomplishment.
Your way has been chalked out, I need mine.
I have so much to show you, so much to share.
Devise a way for me, you’ll be surprised.
The Vironaut
READ FOR FREE A little boy decides to become a vironaut, a slayer of viruses during the corona virus (Covid-19) pandemic. He does his schoolwork ...
I have written a story, The Vironaut,that provides information in a fun way to young children (8-12 yrs and older) about the corona virus and how to keep safe. I have been careful to include age appropriate and authentic information. The story is free. You can customize it by adding your child's name in the blanks. Send me an email at fmirza@fmirza.com with your email address. I’ll send the story for your child as a pdf file. More info at fmirza.com.
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