Linkdump: editing and related matters

A bunch of handy links/references related to editing:

• "That's the way to do it": The difference between "that" and "which", helpfully and clearly explained by David Marsh on the Guardian Style blog. I look this up every now and then, usually when a convoluted sentence trips me up.
  
• "The Most Comma Mistakes": Ben Yagoda at the New York Times gets down and dirty with commas and identifiers, and comma splices. My dad sent me this link last night and I knew most of this stuff but only intuitively --- not as sharply delineated as Yagoda's laid out here.
• And here's some good advice I've come across recently on how one can vet a freelance editor: a long, entertaining and insightful shpiel by user HapiSofi on the AbsoluteWrite forum, and Victoria Strauss's "Vetting an Independent Editor" on her blog Writer Beware.
  

HDB 5-room flat sizes, 1974-2016

The Straits Times reports today that the minister for national development, Khaw Boon Wan, said at an event last night that sizes of HDB flats are not shrinking and have been the same for the past 15 years (source: "HDB flat sizes have remained unchanged the past 15 years: Khaw Boon Wan").

I've been looking at HDB flats on the resale market since before Christmas. It's easy to be confused about the actual size of each individual flat, given the many different flat designs out there. My go-to resource is the official HDB Resale Flat Prices website, which provides not only flat prices but the year of construction and floor area of the corresponding flat.

Here are some numbers for floor areas of 5-room flats, which I plucked off the website tonight (other sources as indicated):

• "standard" flat in Farrer Road (built 1974): 120 sq m.
• "improved" flat in Zion Road (built 1974): 114-117 sq m.
• "standard" flat in Marine Parade (built 1977): 117-120 sq m.
• "improved" flat in Toa Payoh (built 1986): 122 sq m.
• "improved" flat in Sin Ming (built 1986-1990): 120-125 sq m.
• "improved" flat in Queenstown (built 1996): 121-125 sq m.
• "improved" flat in Queenstown (built 1997-1998): 121-122 sq m.
• "improved" flat in Sengkang (built 1999): 123 sq m.
• "improved" flat in Sengkang (built 2002): 110 sq m.
• "improved" flat in Pinnacle@Duxton (built 2009): 105-108 sq m (internal). (source: unattributed information at MyHomeTown.sg online forum)
• "improved" flat in Bedok Central (built 2010): 112 sq m.
• "premium" flat at SkyVille@Dawson (to be completed 2014): 98-101 sq m (internal). (source: HDB information reproduced at MyHomeTown.sg online forum)
• "standard" flat at Sengkang (to be completed 2014-2015): 110 sq m (internal). (source: HDB sales launch webpage)
• "standard" flat at Yishun (to be completed 2015): 110 sq m (internal). (source: HDB sales launch webpage)
• "standard" flat at Clementi (to be completed 2016): 110 sq m (internal). (source: HDB sales launch webpage)
  

That is all.