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The Year in Words, 2011 Edition
Taking a look back at some lexical favorites.
Yes, it's time for that annual tradition: picking the words and phrases that best define the past year. Did occupy occupy your attention? Were you talking about tiger moms or tiger blood? Or were you paralyzed by the condition known as FOMO (fear of missing out)?
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Word RoutesExploring the pathways of our lexicon
Trump's "Apprenti": The Return of the Bogus Latin Plural
Was his plural of "apprentice" supposed to be a joke?
Earlier this week, Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich emerged from a powwow with Donald Trump, and they had an announcement to make. Trump told reporters that, at Gingrich's request, he was starting a program for disadvantaged New York schoolchildren, modeled on his competitive reality TV show "The Apprentice." "We're going to be picking ten young, wonderful children, and we're going to make them apprenti," Trump said. That's right, he said apprenti.
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Flash Card: The Elephant Effect
The difference between "affect" and "effect" stumps even experienced writers.
Oh, "effect" and "affect" -- why can't one of you be a noun and the other a verb? That would make life so much easier. But no, you are each a noun AND a verb and thus the inspiration for much head-scratching.
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
On Account of My Peeve
Everybody has a language pet peeve. Erin Brenner's is "on account of."
Recently I was writing a tweet and typed "on account of." Something about it seemed wrong to me, but I couldn't say what. I rewrote my tweet, determined to look into the troubling phrase when I had a moment.
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Grammar Bite: Making Media Agree
It can be tricky trying to decide whether "media" is singular or plural.
When media is used to refer to "means of mass communication," should it be considered a singular or plural noun? According to Erin Brenner, founder of Right Touch Editing, the answer depends on whom you ask.
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Word RoutesExploring the pathways of our lexicon
Little Commas Make Big Waves
Passions over the serial comma can run deep among the stylistas.
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of taking part in a lively panel discussion entitled "More than a Century of Style," celebrating The Chicago Manual of Style. The event, held at the University of Chicago and sponsored by the public radio station WBEZ, brought out more than two hundred committed stylistas, with hundreds more tuning in to a live stream on Facebook. Here's an indication of the type of crowd that braved that rainy Chicago night: when University of Chicago Press managing editor Anita Samen announced that she was "passionately pro-serial-comma," she was met with rapturous applause.
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Setting a Few Parameters
Some words often get confused, like "parameter" and "perimeter."
Though I became an editor partly because I enjoy finding fault in the work of others, I have on occasion tried to help my fellow man and woman right some of the more popular wrongs perpetrated against the language.
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