Here’s a weird quirk a lot of copy editors have: They change “like” to “such as” anytime it’s used to mean “for instance.” Here’s a for-instance: “Joe loves watching old movies like ‘Vertigo’ and ‘The Birds.’”
Most editors I know would reflexively change that “like” to “such as” before sending the article to the copy editor, me. Then I stare at the sentence for 10 minutes wondering whether I can get away with changing it back.
These editors are laboring under a false belief about “like” and “such as.”
The putative difference, which I’ve always attributed to editing style guides like the AP Stylebook, is that “like” means “similar to,” not “such as.”
If…
