Legal Writing

Word of the year: Unfriend

Posted on November 19, 2009
Oxford University Press, publisher of the New Oxford American Dictionary, has chosen "unfriend" as the word of the year for 2009. Here is the definition, according to the OUP blog: unfriend ? verb ? To remove someone as a ?friend? on a social networking site such as Facebook...

Copy editors will think this is funny

Posted on November 18, 2009
We used to have a saying on the copy desk: Don't follow the stylebook out the window. In other words, common sense should govern which style rules you enforce. The Associated Press Stylebook is the guide we use for deciding how to handle some usage matters...

Word search: How a copy editor thinks

Posted on November 17, 2009
We work very fast these days with diminished resources, and sometimes my word nerd proclivities have to wait until I am off deadline. Lucky for me, I have shelves filled with dictionaries and usage books at home. I can indulge my need to know more about English when I am not on deadline...

The plain language of death

Posted on November 15, 2009
I wrote a post a few years ago about the language of death. As a regular reader of the paid obituaries in our newspaper, I was fascinated with the many ways that survivors and funeral homes found to refer to death. I concluded that in these short summations of a person's life, the terms such as "called home," "went to his (or her) heavenly reward" and "passed away" could be comforting to the loved ones of the person who died...

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Book review: "My Dog Bites the English Teacher"

Posted on September 20, 2009
Marian Anders tells the truth when she writes, "Unless you want to be an English teacher, you only need to know the grammar necessary to write correctly -- for school, work and your personal life." That is the guiding principle of Anders' book, "My Dog Bites the English Teacher: Practical Grammar Made Quick and Easy" (Aviary Publishers, available in bookstores and online at www...

Word watch: town hall meeting

Posted on August 17, 2009
A reader has an interesting point to make about a phrase that is all over the news these days: "It is sad that Kilpatrick has given up writing his columns on usage.  If he were still writing, I am certain that he would by now have issued one of his 'injunctions' against the currently sickeningly popular cliche 'town hall meeting...

Punctuation mystery: Why a comma?

Posted on August 05, 2009
Staff photojournalist Shawn Rocco and staff writer Martha Quillin reported this week on Cary homeowner David Bowden's very large message to the town of Cary. You can see Rocco's photo below. The ACLU says the town would be abridging free speech if it used an ordinance to get the sign removed...

Mechanics: Plural possessive of a family name

Posted on July 15, 2009
The New York Times report of a well-known British conductor's assisted suicide alongside his wife has a passage that illustrates a rare and tricky challenge. The conductor was Sir Edward Downes, and his wife was Lady Downes. The story never uses the expected plural of Downes: Downeses...

Word news: Don't take a staycation with your frenemy

Posted on July 12, 2009
The editors of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary have added about 100 words for the 2009 edition and to the dictionary online. Among them are staycation, a vacation spent at home or nearby, and frenemy, a person who pretends to be a friend but who is actually an enemy...

Words we like: antebellum

Posted on July 07, 2009
The latest installment in The N&O's Old North State series, Warrenton fights to regain lost glory, allows us a chance to use the lovely sounding word, antebellum. Staff writer Kristin Collins' story refers to the town's "antebellum architecture" and to its heyday before the Civil War...

Modify your misplaced and dangling modifiers

Posted on June 29, 2009
Misplaced and dangling modifiers can sneak in when writers and editors aren't paying attention. A couple of readers found such constructions in recent N&O pieces, and I found a couple in one article I was reading on another Web site. Those examples provide the makings for this post...

Say it like a native: place name pronunciation

Posted on June 27, 2009
Staff writer Martha Quillin's story about the pronunciation of Lejeune reminds me of the peculiarities of place name pronunciation. Even if the name of the family was pronounced one way, the name of the Marine base has come to be pronounced another way...

What the Grammar Guide is about

Posted on June 26, 2009
A slogan I've seen from time to time comes to mind today: Christians aren't perfect -- just forgiven. Sometimes I'd like to post this slogan: Grammar advisers aren't perfect -- just trying very hard.  When I decided to write a blog about grammar, usage and style, I was worried about being perceived as an "expert" or, worse, as a pretender -- someone who aspired to be an expert...

Confusing pairs: gel and jell

Posted on June 23, 2009
When we speak of a group or a team coming together to form a cohesive whole or when we write about an idea becoming a concrete plan of action, we usually use the spelling jell for the verb. However, gel can also mean something has taken definite form...

Word watch: reform

Posted on June 21, 2009
Reform has been in the news, both foreign and domestic. In reports about the Iranian election and its violent aftermath, writers have referred to the leading opposition candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi as a reluctant champion of reform. In the debate over health care here at home, advocates and reporters have called the plans for change reform...

Errors in unexpected places

Posted on June 21, 2009
Sometimes, a error in a public sign surprises me because of the context. I visited Washington late in May and happened to attend an event at the St. Regis, a venerable hotel near the White House. I spotted this sign outside:   I wonder why the sign's writer made the mistake of using 's to make the proper name Astor plural...

You may "Twitter" or "Tweet" now

Posted on June 15, 2009
The Associated Press Stylebook has been updated for 2009. The style guide, used by media organizations throughout the country, has a new entry for Twitter, an online system for distributing messages. The AP says that posting a message on Twitter is to Twitter or to Tweet...

Word choice: Bring and take

Posted on June 09, 2009
A reader objected to this usage in Monday's paper: Stephen Colbert brings his Comedy Central show to Iraq. Indeed, because Colbert was in the United States to start, he must take his show to Iraq. I've run across a couple of other instances of bring where I would use take...

Punctuation particulars: the long dash

Posted on June 08, 2009
Copy editors can be picky. We like accuracy, clarity and consistency. We like to have a good reason for stepping outside the bounds. A recent message from a colleague that referred to the dash as "trite punctuational hyperbole" seemed harsh and rigid to other colleagues...

Phrases you don't hear any more

Posted on May 12, 2009
This morning, the phrase "struck on himself" popped into my head. I realized that I hadn't heard it in ages. It means someone who has an inflated opinion of himself or who is in love with himself. As in, "Earl was the best looking boy in the school, but I thought he was struck on himself...

Dialects: We talk funny everywhere

Posted on May 10, 2009
I love North Carolina dialects. I have one myself -- western Piedmont. I ran across this nifty site today. Take the North Carolina Dialect Quiz and see if you can distinguish among North Carolina regional dialects. One speaker on the quiz sounds just like my mother, born in 1929 in Hickory...

Style guides: 50 years of Strunk and White

Posted on April 16, 2009
Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style," one of the most famous books about grammar and usage, was published 50 years ago April 16. The slim book has sold more than 10 million copies, according to this Associated Press report. Its influence is wide...

Word usage: We just want to celebrate

Posted on April 08, 2009
A reader sent this note to our editors today: You make this mistake almost every time a local team wins a title or tournament, so please teach your writers and editors the difference.  A celebrant is someone who performs religious rites.  A celebrator is someone partying and having a good time...

Words that mean something bad has happened

Posted on April 02, 2009
Those who report the news often apply labels to terrible or urgent events: tragedy, disaster, crisis, emergency.  Sometimes, those labels don't quite fit. We risk overstating the trouble. Whenever I read or hear the word tragedy, I remember Theodore M...

Back from hiatus: Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on March 26, 2009
I've been thinking about how people learn English as a second language and studying inflection, including the way we make plurals and possessives. So here is a short quiz on possessives for native speakers as well as for those who have learned or are learning English as a second language...

Word watch: detainee and combatant

Posted on March 14, 2009
A headline from today's newspaper, "U.S. drops 'enemy combatant' label; detainees remain," made me curious about the suffixes in "combatant" and "detainee." The meanings of the suffixes play  essential roles in the meanings of the words created...

Pronouns without gender

Posted on March 07, 2009
Some have long lamented that English has no gender-neutral pronoun to use in a construction such as this: Everyone needs his or her breakfast. In regular, everyday speech, we might say "their" instead of "his or her." But "everyone" is singular, so the pronoun following it should be singular...

Happy National Grammar Day

Posted on March 04, 2009

Get ready for National Grammar Day

Posted on March 01, 2009

Does this make me a grammarista?

Posted on February 28, 2009

The language of letting go

Posted on February 15, 2009
The words and phrases of an economic downturn fill our newspaper and Web site these days. One such phrase prompted a reader to write that we were "butchering" the language. The offending sentence was in a report of possible job losses in state government...

Word watch: stimulus

Posted on February 07, 2009
The economic stimulus bill that Congress and President Obama have been discussing this week led me to the dictionary today. I figured that the word had Latin roots, and indeed, it does. Stimulus means "something that rouses or excites to action," according to Webster's New World College Dictionary...

Word advice: Differ from vs. differ with

Posted on February 01, 2009
A colleague asked about the distinction between "differ from" and "differ with."  In R.W. Burchfield's update of Fowler's usage guide, he writes that "in the sense to be unlike, distinguishable," differ is followed by from...

Word advice: Prepositions

Posted on January 30, 2009
A colleague asked about a preposition the other day. (Copy editors are funny that way.) He was puzzling over this set of sentences: Hornsby?s boss called the search unlawful and forbade Hornsby to conduct searches without first getting permission from his supervisor...

In defense of editing

Posted on January 30, 2009
John McIntyre, director of the Baltimore Sun's copy desk, has a few things to say about Wikipedia in a recent blog post. But he also has something to say about editing: "My whole professional effort for nearly three decades has been to make sure that the published texts at the newspapers for which I have worked are, as far as human fallibility and the pressures of time will allow, factually accurate, grammatical and clear...

We learned it in third grade

Posted on January 29, 2009
Sometimes, when I see apostrophes used to make plurals, I wonder where those writers were in third grade when most of us were learning to add -s or -es to make plurals. Most of what we need to know to punctuate correctly was taught in the early grades...

The word of the year?

Posted on January 11, 2009
The American Dialect Society chose bailout as the word of the year for 2008. Here is the news release from the society. Among the other nominees: shovel-ready and game-changer. The trend started by references to "Joe the plumber" caught on like wildfire...

Whose pronoun is it anyway?

Posted on January 10, 2009
Even the notoriously smarty pants "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" (and I say that with affection and admiration) makes a mistake that bedevils many of us. In a caption promoting Friday night's story about Sarah Palin's interview, the "Countdown" crew on MSNBC mixed up whose (possessive) and who's (contraction for "who is")...

Bushisms: Presidential language

Posted on January 04, 2009
The Associated Press has a piece analyzing how President George W. Bush's personality affected his legacy and a companion piece on the 43rd president's verbal gaffes. My favorite has always been: "They misunderestimated the compassion of our country...

Top words and new words: It's exhaustipating

Posted on January 01, 2009
I know that some readers of this blog are perturbed by new words and changing usage. Sometimes I am too. But the dynamic nature of English is exciting. We don't have to embrace every new word that comes along and we can keep slang in its place, but sometimes we just have to recognize a good word when we read it or hear it...

Grammar complaint goes nowhere

Posted on December 29, 2008
Professor Stanley Fish has an amusing tale of a grammar complaint on his New York Times blog. Fish is a former chairman of the English Department at Duke University.

Holiday quiz from the grammar guide

Posted on December 21, 2008
The Triangle Grammar Guide has a gift for you: a quiz with a holiday theme. The five sentences cover several grammar and usage issues. The quiz contains more graphics and might take a bit longer to load up for you.  Click here or on the gift package to begin...

Verbal habits we loathe

Posted on December 20, 2008
p I wrote a provocative headline on this post. In fact, I am developing a tolerant attitude toward my fellow English speakers' verbal habits. But a couple of e-mail messages this week remind me that some of us are irritated by others' use of certain words and phrases...

Word choice: Choose not to pick a fight

Posted on December 14, 2008
A reader sent this note recently to our editors: Where I grew up we picked cotton, peaches, beans and noses. But even in GA we CHOSE governors, senators, coaches and vinegary barbecue. You might not have noticed, but headline and article writers at the N&O have developed a greater liking for "pick/picked" over "choose/chose...

A matter of distance: farther and further

Posted on December 12, 2008
I am working on a project in a small, somewhat isolated office at the N&O. We're helping to set up a new publishing system. The work is interesting to a geek like me, but one of the chief benefits is that I am in close proximity to three other experienced copy editors...

Try a Grammar Guide quiz on lay and lie

Posted on November 30, 2008
Need some practice on lay and lie? Lots of people mix up these verbs, and the best way to learn is to practice. Try today's Triangle Grammar Guide quiz. The five sentences contain various forms of lay and lie. Click here or on the question mark icon to begin the quiz...

Broach the subject of a brooch

Posted on November 29, 2008
A brooch is a piece of jewelry. It has a pin and a clasp so that it can be attached to clothing. The word is pronounced "broch," with a long o, and that leads to a common misspelling: broach. A broach is a rod used for roasting meat or a sharp-pointed tool used for making a hole...

Word watch: the verb "vet"

Posted on November 23, 2008
As President-elect Barack Obama and his staff prepare for the new administration, the word "vet" has come up often in news reports. Each Cabinet nominee is to be vetted before the president-elect can announce his or her nomination. One hurdle to Sen...

Word watch: doorstep as a verb

Posted on November 22, 2008
I ran across the word "doorstepped" in a story about a British journalist today. I didn't understand what it meant even in context. So I looked it up. The Oxford English Dictionary offers this definition: of a press reporter, etc.; to call upon or wait on the doorstep for (someone), in order to obtain an interview, photograph, etc...

Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on November 16, 2008
The latest Grammar Guide quiz focuses on word choice. You will be asked to choose the better of two words to fill in a blank. The News & Observer blog system will not accept anonymous comments now. Blog visitors who wish to leave a comment will need to register, which is free...

Clever writers on language

Posted on November 15, 2008
I wrote about Sarah Palin's language and about Roy Blount Jr.'s language book. Now here are two pieces from the New York Times by writers much more adept than I. What gratifying reads they are. Dick Cavett takes on the tangled syntax of the former vice presidential nominee and current Republican star...

Top 10 irritating phrases

Posted on November 15, 2008
Oxford University researchers have released a top 10 list of irritating phrases. The link is to a British newspaper story that uses "comprises" correctly, by the way. One word that makes me cringe lately is "enormity." Television journalists speak of the "enormity" of President-elect Barack Obama's tasks once he is inaugurated...

Comic distraction: bring vs.take

Posted on October 26, 2008
Sunday's "Rhymes With Orange" reminded me of the problems people have with "bring" and "take." The comic strip carries the headline: Where the dove actually went. The panel shows a bird sitting at a bar and telling the bartender: "Another dry martini with olives, but this time leave the branch on so I can bring it to Noah...

Comic distraction: bring vs. take

Posted on October 26, 2008
Sunday's "Rhymes With Orange" reminded me of the problems people have with "bring" and "take." The comic strip carries the headline: Where the dove actually went. The panel shows a bird sitting at a bar and telling the bartender: "Another dry martini with olives, but this time leave the branch on so I can bring it to Noah...

We respectfully disagree: stamp vs. stomp

Posted on October 23, 2008
A lead on a story from a few days ago with the construction "stamped to death" made me stop. I thought other readers might trip over "stamped" in a construction where we usually see "stomped." I checked the dictionary and usage guides...

Get a sip of "Alphabet Juice"

Posted on October 22, 2008
Roy Blount Jr. was on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" today to promote his word book, "Alphabet Juice." If you want to hear the show without pledge breaks, click here. You can also read an excerpt from the book there. Folks called in with favorite words...

Book review: "Alphabet Juice"

Posted on October 19, 2008
"Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists and Spirits of Letters, Words and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics and Essences; With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory" by Roy Blount Jr...

The man who wrote the dictionary

Posted on October 13, 2008
We have this man to thank when we spell the word color instead of colour. Yale University will celebrate Noah Webster this week on the 250th anniversary of his birth. Webster wrote the first comprehensive dictionary of the American language. He was born Oct...

Funny and beautiful words

Posted on October 07, 2008
Do the words hornswoggle, mollycoddle and whippersnapper make you giggle? They are among the 100 Funniest Words in English, according to one list. I am partial to No. 71: namby-pamby. I especially like how William Shatner sneers it in a Priceline commercial...

More on Sarah Palin's fascinating rhythm

Posted on October 07, 2008
My earlier post about Sarah Palin's speech has received a good number of reads since I posted Sunday. I have another link for you. Slate has a piece that turns Palin's interview with Katie Couric into poetry. Thanks to my colleague Judson Drennan for pointing this out...

Just for fun: What accent do you have?

Posted on October 06, 2008
Here is a quiz to help you figure out which American accent you have. Mine is Southern.

It's, like, totally awesome

Posted on October 06, 2008
What's the most overused word in today's English? I nominate awesome. Everyone from the president to the most inane pop star uses the word. The use that prompts today's little rant was in a direct-mail piece that landed in my mailbox this weekend. The flier from a new church promotes the church's "Awesome Children's Program...

Sarah Palin's fascinating rhythm

Posted on October 05, 2008
This year's presidential campaign is filled with interesting word choices and rhetorical devices. Like many members of the news media, I am fascinated with Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president. She seems to have struck a chord with many people, and she appears to be a good communicator...

Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on September 27, 2008
Today's quiz was inspired and aided by John Bremner's "Words on Words." The five sentences on the quiz involve word choices. Some sentences appeared in print; others were composed to illustrate the point. Click here or on the question mark icon to begin...

Found treasure

Posted on September 22, 2008
I happened across a copy of John B. Bremner's "Words on Words" on a bookshelf in The N&O's computer training center last week. It had been left behind in an editor's office. I was excited to find this copy in good shape. My own copy at home is a bit worn, and the book is out of print...

Book review: "The Secret Life of Words"

Posted on September 21, 2008
"The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English" by Henry Hitchings. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 448 pages, September 2008. In "The Secret Life of Words," British writer Henry Hitchings examines words that have entered English from other languages...

Candidates and their rhetoric

Posted on September 20, 2008
Speeches in this year's presidential campaign are awash in a rhetorical device called antimetabole, according to an article in Slate. In this device, the speaker repeats words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order, as in President Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country...

Word watch: Anonymize

Posted on September 14, 2008
A discussion on the radio show "On The Media" about Google's data gathering used this word: anonymize. You can click on the embedded link below to hear the talk between host Bob Garfield and Alissa Cooper of the Center for Democracy and Technology...

Who's a boomer?

Posted on September 10, 2008
I've heard a few journalists refer to Barack Obama and Sarah Palin as part of the post-baby boom generation. In fact, Obama, born in August 1961, and Palin, born in February 1964, were born during the baby boom years, 1946-1964. The baby boom, of course, is mostly made up of the children of the people who lived through World War II...

Looking into "maverick"

Posted on September 07, 2008
A reader sent a note last week about the word "maverick," which Republicans and the news media repeatedly used to refer to Sen. John McCain. The reader looked up the definitions and found this one: "especially a calf that has become separated from its mother...

Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on September 01, 2008
Today's quiz contains various grammar, usage, punctuation or spelling problems. Try the quiz and leave a comment if you wish. I've put no time limit on the quiz, which has the usual five parts.  See my earlier post for a review of a book that plays a part in one of the quiz answers today...

Book review: "Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences"

Posted on September 01, 2008
"Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences: A Guide to Avoiding the Most Common Errors in Grammar and Punctuation" by Janis Bell, W.W. Norton & Co., $21.95 hard cover, 128 pages) Janis Bell has written a useful book. She has been teaching writing and grammar for more than 30 years, and her book aims to teach writers how to avoid the common errors...

Error correctors make a big error

Posted on August 23, 2008
The Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) received some attention in the news media and from the justice system recently. Two members of TEAL, which makes a crusade of correcting errors on public signage, have been banned from national parks after vandalizing a historic sign at the Grand Canyon...

What you can grow

Posted on August 23, 2008
This sentence led a reader to call us last week: Since she quit her job in March, her goal has been to continue growing the business. As I indicated with italics, the offending phrase was "growing the business." The reader, who was quite animated, wanted us to stop using this bit of business jargon...

Don't fear the apostrophe

Posted on August 16, 2008
Two advertisements caught our eyes this week. They have apostrophe problems, but different ones. The first, pictured below, falls into the old trap of using an apostrophe to make a plural. The shopping center mentioned in this ad, which came as a direct mail flier, is Clayton Corners (multiple corners)...

Looking into "saber rattling"

Posted on August 12, 2008
I heard a television commentator refer to recent statements from U.S. politicians about Russia's invasion of Georgia as "saber rattling." That led to my thinking about why we use what sounds like a 19th-century term to refer to a 21st-century act...

Pronoun madness

Posted on August 10, 2008
Yes, there are much more important issues than this, but a few readers do notice when we mix up who and whom. Here is an example from Friday's 2A, a spot where we promote stories coming up in print or features online. Of course, the sentence should read, "Go online now and see whom you selected as the Triangle's Best Bartender...

Try a word quiz on Triangle Grammar Guide

Posted on August 07, 2008
Today's quiz is one of those that a regular commenter has called a "spelling" quiz. True, some of the choices in the sentences on the quiz are between two homonyms, but at least one sentence will ask quiz takers to choose from two words that are often confused but have different uses...

Guess the most common words

Posted on August 07, 2008
This is fun. Click here to see how many of the 100 most common words in English you can guess in five minutes.  (Thanks to Chris for pointing this out.) 

Rules for word order

Posted on August 06, 2008
I ran across this Professor Grammar video on YouTube that explains the English grammar rule on word order for adjectives before nouns. The professor uses the acronym OPSHACOM for opinion, shape, age, color, origin and material. I have linked to the video below if you want to watch...

Word choice: Emigrate and immigrate

Posted on August 05, 2008
A reader called writer David Menconi to object to a word use in Menconi's Arts & Living profile of singer Aline Simone. Simone was born in the Ukraine in 1975, to dire circumstances because her parents were on the outs with the ruling Soviet regime...

Apostrophes plague the sign-makers

Posted on August 04, 2008
My husband visited the North Carolina mountains for a few days and came back with these images of signage mishaps. The second sign is particularly odd. It's on a manufactured item, so presumably hundreds more are out there with the same mistake.              

A dictionary's new entries

Posted on August 04, 2008
The annual update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary includes about 100 new words, according to Merriam-Webster Online. The print version of the dictionary will be out in September. I am a bit late with this news. The Web site asked for reader submissions of their own favorite "mondegreen," which is a word or phrase that results from mishearing something said or sung...

Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on August 03, 2008
Today's quiz is different from previous Triangle Grammar Guide quizzes. In each of the five parts, you will see two sentences and must choose the correctly written (or, at least, the better written) sentence in each pair. I fully expect to hear from you about better versions of the correct sentences and appreciate any comments you have...

What does "in tandem" mean?

Posted on August 02, 2008
This headline brought a note from a reader: 'Extreme Makeover' helped, but ministry now struggles Refurbishing was in tandem with work on member's home The phrase "in tandem," the reader said, doesn't mean parallel or side by side. It means one after the other...

Words for our times

Posted on July 26, 2008
Here is an entry in the 2008 Associated Press Stylebook: outsourcing A business practice used by companies to reduce costs by transferring work previously performed in-house to outside suppliers. I am reading a book (review to come when I finish) about words that have come into English from other languages...

Bread and circuses

Posted on July 21, 2008
Recent letters to the editor refer to "bread and circuses," a phrase that refers to choosing short-term diversions over more important matters. It comes from the Latin phrase panem et circenses, and the English version is a literal translation...

Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on July 13, 2008
Today's quiz has five sentences. You will choose the better of two choices given in the sentences. Have fun and leave a comment. By the way, not everything on the Triangle Grammar Guide quiz or on the blog is about grammar. "Grammar" is my shorthand for all the language problems that come up...

AP Stylebook changes for 2008 (second post)

Posted on July 11, 2008
Among the new entries in the Associated Press Stylebook for 2008 is one on "myriad." The AP says that "myriad" is an adjective and is not followed by "of." The dictionary that AP uses, though, gives the noun use of "myriad" first...

AP Stylebook changes for 2008

Posted on July 06, 2008
I ordered the new version of the Associated Press Stylebook for my home use (we expect to get them in office soon). The book has a summary of the changes right after the foreword on a page titled "What's New." One of the most interesting changes for grammar geeks is the "collective nouns" entry...

Let's get "its" right

Posted on July 05, 2008
My colleague Karen spotted this sign at Umstead State Park:  The sign writer needed the possessive "its" in the second sentence, of course. (Notice the wildlife crawling on the word "wildlife"!)  

Nothing could be finer (adjective forms)

Posted on July 05, 2008
A reader from Charlotte, Anita Keller, sends two of her peeves: The first is the trend toward not using superlatives [comment from Pam: and comparatives]. Example, "more quiet" for "quieter". It happens all the time. It seems I notice it more and more every day...

Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on June 29, 2008
Today's quiz is about word usage. You will read sentences and choose the best word for the blank. Usually, I draw from actual examples to make the quizzes, but this one uses made-up examples. Good luck with the quiz. Click here to begin. Previous quizzes are available in the blog archive...

Word usage: trustee and trusty

Posted on June 28, 2008
A current story in The News & Observer makes a passing reference to a "prison trustee." I thought the term was "trusty." So I checked online first and found this reference in the Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Then I checked the Associated Press Stylebook...

Everyone needs a copy editor

Posted on June 28, 2008
Gene Weingarten's Under the Beltway column in the Washington Post has a funny take on copy editing. We copy editors appreciate Weingarten's humor.

Old catchphrases

Posted on June 24, 2008
"Remember the Maine!" "Dewey captured Manila." For some reason, these two old sayings are in my head today. They both arose from the Spanish-American War in 1898, yet they were commonly quoted in my childhood more than a half century later...

Grammar Guide: Looking for something?

Posted on June 21, 2008
We have updated the News & Observer blogs. That means the grammar guide has a new URL. If you have a bookmark (thanks!), you'll need to update it to http://blogs.newsobserver.com/grammar/home. (You need that "home" at the end.) If you are looking for something that was on the blog before June 17, you can find it here...

Grammar Guide: Looking for something?

Posted on June 17, 2008
We switched our blogging software and moved to a new server. That means that the home address of the Triangle Grammar Guide blog has changed. If you happen to have a bookmark (thanks!), you should update it to http://blogs.newsobserver.com/grammar/home...

Copy editors

Posted on June 17, 2008
The New York Times' Editorial Observer by Lawrence Downes has an eloquent Elegy for Copy Editors. The piece begins with a lament that the Newseum in Washington has no exhibits about copy editors. In the changing word of online journalism, Downes worries, the time for thoughtful copy editing is vanishing...

It's very simple - part 2

Posted on June 17, 2008
In response to a post Sunday, a reader sends this photo of the navigation display in a new Lexus hybrid. This should be the possessive "its," of course. The spelling "it's" is the contraction for "it is." Nick, the reader who sends this photo, also sent it to the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar...

A note to our readers

Posted on June 16, 2008
On Tuesday afternoon, the News & Observer blogs will be moving to a new system and a new server. This change will make getting to our blogs quicker and easier. Most of the blogs will change their appearance, while blogs like Taking Stock and Under the Dome will remain the same...

On Tuesday afternoon, the News

Posted on June 16, 2008
On Tuesday afternoon, the News & Observer blogs will be moving to a new system and a new server. This change will make getting to our blogs quicker and easier. Most of the blogs will change their appearance, while blogs like Taking Stock and Under the Dome will remain the same...

It's very simple -- part 2

Posted on June 16, 2008
In response to a post Sunday, a reader sends this photo of the navigation display in a new Lexus hybrid. This should be the possessive "its," of course. The spelling "it's" is the contraction for "it is." Nick, the reader who sends this photo, also sent it to the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar...

Adverbs at work: slow and slowly

Posted on June 15, 2008
A reader asks: Can you cover the proper use of fast and slow as adverbs? People often say, "drive slow." Should it be "drive slowly"? Both "slow" and "fast" can be either adjectives (a slow drip, a fast computer) or adverbs (The nervous student turned the knob slow...

It's very simple

Posted on June 15, 2008
I had a reason to visit the National Park Service site this morning, specifically the Canaveral National Seashore (mentioned in today's Travel section). The site has interesting facts at the bottom of various pages. The site could use editing, though...

Impracticable

Posted on June 12, 2008
A disclaimer notice that The News & Observer posts on the new story comment system sent me to the dictionary Wednesday. (I added the red circle to show what word stopped me.) Here is what the notice says, in part: However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting...

How to make nouns possessive

Posted on June 11, 2008
A reader asked for a post about using apostrophes to make possessives. Here are the basic rules: * Add 's to all singular common nouns and to plural common nouns that don't end in s: the boy's toys, a day's time, the boss's husband, the children's clothes...

Puzzling typos

Posted on June 10, 2008
As a copy editor, I understand and sympathize about typos and other errors. I've made some doozies over the years, and I've let others slip past me. I once edited temblor, a synonym for earthquake, to trembler. (What was I thinking?!?) But a typo on the television screen this morning baffles me...

"Bests" and a grammar quiz

Posted on June 08, 2008
Some readers were sure we'd made a typo in this headline: They thought we surely meant to write "beats" instead of "bests." One reader wondered if "best" could be a verb. Indeed, a check of the dictionary finds that "best" can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb...

First annual?

Posted on May 30, 2008
The Under the Dome blog refers to grammar types who are irked by the phrase "first annual." I think it's the journalist types (subset copy editors) who are most irked by the phrase. We are taught that an event should not be referred to as the "first annual" because it hasn't become "annual" until it has occurred in several consecutive years...

Two new grammar geek favorites

Posted on May 25, 2008
Minnesota Public Radio has a podcast called Grammar Grater. Writer and producer Luke Taylor and his crew, being radio folks, do a good job of presenting grammar and usage issues in an audio format. I liked the radio drama in Episode 44 about using further and farther...

Test your pronoun skills

Posted on May 11, 2008
Today's Triangle Grammar Guide quiz contains five sentences. In each one, you will choose the proper form of who/whom or whoever/whomever. I hope you enjoy it and either learn something or reinforce your skill at choosing the right case. Send a comment or leave one below...

A pesky personal pronoun

Posted on May 08, 2008
This lead on newsobserver.com confused me this morning: A person was killed just before 11:30 p.m. Wednesday when they were hit by a train in Four Oaks, Johnston County dispatch officials said late Wednesday. Who is "they"? Was more than one person on the tracks? As I read the rest of this short report, I realized that the writer had used "they" to refer to a single person because the sex of the victim was not known...

Closed captions spelling humor

Posted on May 06, 2008
I was watching MSNBC's "Morning Joe" this morning with the closed captions on. As host Joe Scarborough talked to David Axelrod of the Obama campaign, Axlerod said the Latin phrase "ad nauseam," which means something that continues to the point of nausea...

Try the new Triangle Grammar Guide quiz!

Posted on May 04, 2008
Finally, I have a new Triangle Grammar Guide quiz for you to try. I have upgraded to a full-featured version of the freeware I had been using. I will be able to make quizzes with different kinds of questions. But for today the quiz is five simple multiple choice questions...

Good advice for writers

Posted on April 18, 2008
A colleague gave me a copy of the ninth edition of "Style Guide" from The Economist newspaper. Here is the advice that I found in the "grammar and syntax" entry: Try not to be sloppy in the construction of your sentences and paragraphs. Yes! That sums it up...

Isn't it obvious?

Posted on April 13, 2008
A reader, Loretta from Carrboro, wrote recently about a broadcast reports that refer to something that someone did or was "before his [or her] death," such as "Charlton Heston was a conservative activist before his death." It seems obvious that the last prepositional phrase is not necessary...

Hey, Grammar Guide can be cool, too

Posted on April 06, 2008
Grammar Guide wants to be cool like On the Beat, TV Eye and Uncle Crizzle, so here is the "Grammar Rock," verb edition, video from YouTube.

Why good grammar matters

Posted on April 06, 2008
A reader sent an e-mail message last week to point out some grammar problems and typos in the Career Builder section published by the N&O's Classified Advertising Department. The reader is also a writer and teaches writing. She uses the section to teach the importance of good writing...

Spot the problem

Posted on March 31, 2008
Can you tell what's wrong with the sentences in the list below? I think many of you will see the problem in these sentences now that they have isolated. On the other hand, context can certainly help a editor figure out how to fix such problems. * Whether trying to conceive, pregnant or a new mom, trianglemom2mom...

Subjects don't have to be nouns

Posted on March 30, 2008
Writers use a variety of sentence structures. The normal order of English declarative sentences is Subject-Verb. When we are first learning how to build sentences in English, the examples usually stick to the simplest form. Most subjects in the S-V structures are nouns or pronouns...

You could win a bet with this book

Posted on March 26, 2008
Grammar-usage books make it to my desk often. I rarely write about them because they are irritating to read and use or just don't have anything new to offer. A new book is out that I like. It's "Mortal Syntax" by June Casagrande, who writes a newspaper column called "A Word, Please...

Take a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on March 24, 2008
The quiz returns with five sentences I have encountered in print. Today's quiz is all about word choices. Click on the question mark icon or here to begin. Have fun and leave a comment if you wish. By the way, we N&O bloggers get a report each month with our rankings by number of page views...

If it's a verb, it's probably "affect"

Posted on March 23, 2008
Here is a screen caption from a recent MSNBC newscast: The caption writer needed "affect" here, of course. One way to remember this is that "affect" is almost always used as a verb and you can remember "affect" with "the a means action." It would be better, though, to know the difference in meaning...

This means "war"? No, it doesn't

Posted on March 09, 2008
A thoughtful reader wrote to ask that we at The N&O avoid using the language of war to refer to political campaigns. He listed a few terms that show up in political reporting: battleground states, all-out attack ads, war chest, opposing camps. I was reminded of the reader's words as I watched "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" one day last week...

Pervasive spelling error hits CBS

Posted on March 04, 2008
This was on the screen Monday night (March 3) on "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric" during Bob Schieffer's commentary about the Texas presidential primary. My husband spotted it and pointed it out to me. I checked the CBSnews.com site this morning for the video and, sure enough, the mistake was still there...

A new quiz on the grammar blog

Posted on March 03, 2008
Try the quiz. Click on the icon or here to begin. Tuesday is National Grammar Day. Martha Brockenburgh, founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, suggests that we go forth and spread the word about the use of standard grammar. That sounds like a good idea...

The semicolon in the spotlight

Posted on February 21, 2008
If you think that we who care about grammar, usage and punctuation matters are always in the minority, take a look at this. About 6:50 this morning, the top e-mailed story on the New York Times was a short one, posted Sunday, about the proper use of a semicolon on a placard in the subway...

Weird words: Worrywart

Posted on February 20, 2008
A colleague wondered about the word worrywart one day last week. A worrywart is someone who frets, usually about insignificant matters. I haven't found much about the origin of the word except that it appears to have been coined or to have entered wide usage in the 1930s and that it is a combination of worry and wart...

Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on February 18, 2008
Today's quiz has the usual mix of word choice problems. Choose the correct (or better) of two words in parentheses in each sentence. When you finish the five sentences, you can move on to see which ones you answered correctly and read short explanations...

Weird word usage

Posted on February 17, 2008
This sentence in a CNN.com report sent me to the dictionary: Chelsea Clinton will spend three days there to strum up last-minute votes before the state's Tuesday caucuses, said a source from her mother's campaign. Did I miss something? Can someone "strum up," instead of "drum up," support? The dictionaries I checked don't give that meaning for "strum...

A new Triangle Grammar Guide quiz is up

Posted on February 11, 2008
Today's quiz has five sentences that illustrate two of the most common problems in grammar and usage: subject-verb agreement and homonym confusion. It's easy to overlook these in the rush to write on deadline; that's why everyone needs an editor. The problems can be missed in editing, too, and that's why anyone who is editing a piece of writing (a professional editor, a teacher or a parent checking homework) has to be focused and aware...

What is a battle royal?

Posted on February 10, 2008
The reference from page 1A last week might have puzzled some readers. Is it "battle royale" or "battle royal"? A "battle royal" is an all-out fight to the finish. The most famous reference to a "battle royal" is in Ralph Ellison's powerful novel "Invisible Man," one of the 100 best novels...

Calling all diagramming experts

Posted on February 08, 2008
A reader asks: I have a sentence that I am trying to figure out how to diagram. Yes, we still diagram sentences. Here is the sentence: English King John signed the Magna Carta, limiting the king’s power. I have thought a couple of different things...

Hold the homophone

Posted on February 04, 2008
Today started with considerable embarrassment on our desk. Readers pointed out that in the Life, etc., display story today we fell victim to a homophone mistake. I was the copy editor on the story, and frankly, I was near mortification. The homophones were "dying" and "dyeing...

Why it's apiece, not a piece

Posted on February 01, 2008
A reader calls us to task for using "a piece" as two words. The word is apiece, an adverb that means "for each one." My colleagues and I know this, of course, but we overlooked it. The reader's note led me to think about a way to explain to people why it is apiece and not "a piece...

Sneaked or snuck

Posted on January 30, 2008
This is a line from the State of the Union address on Monday night: The people's trust in their government is undermined by congressional earmarks — special interest projects that are often snuck in at the last minute, without discussion or debate...

More grammar-usage peeves from readers

Posted on January 22, 2008
I posted some comments Monday. Here are a few more: Why, oh why, do people use the word "first" to inappropriately modify verbs? For example: "When I first started …"; "When we first moved here, …"; "When I first met Jane, …"; or "When he first began working here, …...

Grammar-usage-pronunication problems that bug you

Posted on January 21, 2008
Here are a few peeves from readers: My personal language pet peeve is the expression "I could care less." If people thought about what they were actually saying they would realize that by saying they "could care less" means that they care quite a bit...

Grammar-usage-pronunciation problems that bug you

Posted on January 21, 2008
Here are a few peeves from readers: My personal language pet peeve is the expression "I could care less." If people thought about what they were actually saying they would realize that by saying they "could care less" means that they care quite a bit...

Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on January 19, 2008
This quiz has 10 sentences, instead of the usual five. I hit the jackpot this week with several examples coming my way. My gratitude goes to a reader who spotted one sentence that shows up on this quiz. I truly enjoy hearing from any reader, even one who takes me to task...

A copy editing scandal?!?

Posted on January 16, 2008
I have watched the first couple of episodes of HBO's "The Wire" this season because the plot involves a newspaper, a fictional version of The Baltimore Sun. I can't make any sense of the rest of the story because I haven't watched during the other seasons, but I certainly understand the newsroom parts...

A new Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on January 14, 2008
At last, I have a new quiz. This one is hodgepodge (or, as a smart but crotchety copy editor once said, "It's not even hodgepodge; it's just podge.") I threw in a usage question that many people will disagree with. (Oy, I ended a sentence with a preposition! Horrors!) Please leave a comment if you wish...

Another "word of the year" list

Posted on January 08, 2008
The American Dialect Society chose subprime as its word of the year. Subprime refers to those risky loans to people who do not qualify for the best rate. The society chose Googleganger as the most creative word of the year. A Googleganger is a person who shows up when you Google yourself...

An old grammar problem lies there

Posted on January 03, 2008
Just in case anyone has any doubts, this head from Monday (Dec. 31) uses the wrong verb. To lay low is an idiom for knocking someone down or overpowering someone. (The big boxer will lay low his opponent.) To lie low is an idiom that means to conceal oneself or to do nothing while waiting for the right moment to act...

A list of overused words

Posted on January 02, 2008
Some people at Lake Superior State University have compiled their 33rd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness. Included on the list are four of my least favorites overworked phrases: "perfect storm," "give back," "it is what it is" and "back in the day...

A matter of writing style: redundancy

Posted on December 31, 2007
A reader calls our attention to this sentence from Saturday's (Dec. 29, 2007) page 2A: There may be biological reasons why. To this reader and others, the phrase "reason(s) why" is an example of redundancy. The sentence would work just fine and sound better without "why...

The year in words

Posted on December 24, 2007
This is the time for word of the year lists. The New York Times Week in Review has an article about the buzzwords of 2007. We in the Southeast who are living in areas of exceptional drought will recognize Navy shower, a water-saving way of getting clean...

Was Hansbrough on the ground or the floor?

Posted on December 17, 2007
A reader takes us to task for this sentence in a sports story: With 5:47 left at Louis Brown Athletic Center, UNC's leading scorer and rebounder was trying to take a charge when he banged his head on a cameraman's knee under the basket, and lay flat on the ground for several moments...

How to make a word geek happy

Posted on December 15, 2007
I have now in my possession the Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, on CD-ROM, Version 3.1. When it landed in my hands Friday, I was giddy with anticipation. The CD only works on a PC, so I couldn't try it out on my Mac at work. I finally got it installed on my PC at home this morning...

The errors writers and editors make

Posted on December 13, 2007
Do you know what's wrong in this sentence? Growing up in Minnesota, one of my favorite things was going to the state fair each summer and watching the guy who would guess your weight within 5 pounds. -- "Losing Weight in the Gulf," Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, Dec...

Triangle Grammar Guide's gift guide

Posted on December 05, 2007
Having edited several gift guides in the past week or so (and facing another when I go in this morning -- let me tell you, I am running out of headline ideas), I decided to issue my own gift guide. Here are three ideas for anyone who cares about writing...

Today's word choice tip: Uncharted

Posted on December 03, 2007
A familiar phrase in news stories refers to uncertainty. Here is an example: After coming out as a gay man eight years ago, Brett Webb-Mitchell left his wife, his Carrboro home, and his job to start a new and uncharted course at the age of 44. "Uncharted" means unmapped, so an "uncharted course" means that someone is on a journey without the benefit of a map...

A copy editor's hero

Posted on December 01, 2007
Today's New York Times carries the obituary of Evan Jenkins, a longtime editor at the Times and the author of Language Corner at the Columbia Journalism Review. The Times calls him "an authority on the linguistic bugbears ... that keep reporters, editors and many others awake at night...

Those holiday cliches

Posted on November 30, 2007
An editor recently sent around a note in our office reminding writers and editors to avoid certain cliches that appear in copy and headlines during the holiday season. The list comes from John McIntyre of the Baltimore Sun. Among the offending cliches are: 'Tis the season 'Twas the night before Christmas The Grinch steals ...

Changing usage: Fun as an adjective

Posted on November 19, 2007
A reader sent this note: On page 5C of the Monday, October 30, 2007 N&O, under "FINALS", the blurb begins "How fun would it be....". I'm wondering who could have written this. I'm under the impression that whoever writes for a newspaper is a professional communicator and should really know basic English...

Grammar Guide: A rule on forming plurals

Posted on November 07, 2007
A headline that was briefly displayed on CNN.com illustrates the violation of a rule on forming plurals. To form the plural of a noun that ends in y preceded by a vowel, add an s. So journey becomes journeys. To form the plural of a noun that ends in y preceded by a consonant, change the y to i and add es...