26 27 28 29 30 Displaying 271-280 of 309 Results

  1. Blog Excerpts

    The AP Throws in the Towel on "Hopefully"
    Fri Apr 20 00:00:00 EDT 2012
    The big news in the copy editing world this week was the revelation that the Associated Press Stylebook would no longer hold the line against the long-stigmatized use of "hopefully" as a sentence adverb to mean "It is hoped." The announcement elicited some strong reactions both pro and con. Here is a roundup of some of the online responses to the stylebook change. Continue reading...

  2. Candlepower

    The Scoop: How Frozen Desserts Got Their Names
    Mon Jul 14 00:00:00 EDT 2014
    Long before the advent of air conditioning, ice cream, sherbet, and their frozen cousins provided edible relief for summer heat — if you were rich enough to afford them. Today, these icy treats are democratic and diverse, and their names, both generic and trademarked, tell rich stories about language and history. Here are some of the tastiest. Continue reading...

  3. Department of Word Lists

    The Editor Who Esteemed (and Rejected) Emily Dickinson's Poetry
    Wed Apr 22 00:00:00 EDT 2009
    Once again we have asked writer and educator Bob Greenman to select some words to mull over from his latest guide to vocabulary enrichment, More Words That Make a Difference, co-authored with his wife Carol. The book illustrates word usage with passages from the Atlantic Monthly, and Bob takes a look here at words used by one of the Atlantic's most famous editors. Continue reading...

  4. Language Lounge

    Person, Place, Thing
    Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2010
    You're right on the money if you guess that this month's Lounge has something to do with nouns. Specifically, we've been digging up data on these very three nouns — person, place, thing — as a result of hearing a news snippet on the radio a few weeks ago, when a speaker characterized a situation as "a Kumbaya thing." Huh? What exactly is a Kumbaya thing? Continue reading...

  5. Teachers at Work

    I'm a Believer: Vocab Words Out of Context
    Wed May 26 00:00:00 EDT 2010
    Traditional vocabulary instruction holds that students learn new words best when they learn them in context. Our "Teachers at Work" contributor Shannon Reed made the startling classroom discovery that context isn't always key. Continue reading...

  6. Behind the Dictionary

    The Gender-Neutral Pronoun: Still an Epic(ene) Fail
    Mon Aug 09 00:00:00 EDT 2010

    University of Illinois English professor Dennis Baron writes:

    Every once in a while some concerned citizen decides to do something about the fact that English has no gender-neutral pronoun. They either call for such a pronoun to be invented, or they invent one and champion its adoption. Wordsmiths have been coining gender-neutral (or "epicene") pronouns for a century and a half, all to no avail. Continue reading...

  7. Word Routes

    The Year in Words, 2013 Edition
    Mon Dec 30 00:00:00 EST 2013
    As the year comes to a close, it's time once again to survey the new words and phrases that made their presence felt in the popular consciousness. For the Wall Street Journal, I surveyed the "words that popped in 2013," from cronut to Sharknado, but there were too many good choices to include in one article. Here I present my more comprehensive list of notable words of the year. Continue reading...

  8. Department of Word Lists

    Safire's Political Words, Part 2
    Wed May 14 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    Part two of our interview with William Safire focuses on new political terms that have entered the latest edition of Safire's Political Dictionary. Below, for your delectation, you'll find extended excerpts from relevant dictionary entries. Continue reading...

  9. Department of Word Lists

    On the Road Again: Images of a Privileged Childhood
    Thu Mar 25 00:00:00 EDT 2010
    These childhood memories employ a number of words that appear in my book More Words That Make a Difference, with illustrative sentences from the Atlantic Monthly. Continue reading...

  10. Department of Word Lists

    Taxidermy Without the Stuffing
    Tue Dec 21 00:00:00 EST 2010
    Once again award-winning writer and educator Bob Greenman takes us on a journey through words selected from More Words That Make a Difference, a delightful book illustrating word usage with passages from the Atlantic Monthly. Continue reading...
26 27 28 29 30 Displaying 271-280 of 309 Results
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