New York, New York

Sometimes a word or phrase comes up in my writing or in that of others and I’m not sure if it’s right. So I go to my bookshelf and look it up in my 2007 AP Style. Last week, for instance, a colleague wrote “buzz word,” which just didn’t look right to me but I wasn’t 100 percent sure it was wrong. AP Style goes from “buss, busses” (which, it turns out, mean “kisses”) to “by,” so it was no help. What to do? Here's a good trick. In instances like this, when the AP Stylebook is useless, I go to one of two sources online: The New York Times and The New Yorker. In both publications I can conduct word and phrase searches. While I can always look up words in a dictionary, I can’t always look up phrases. Both The Times and The New Yorker allow me to see how they, famously persnickety grammarphiliacs, handle questionable situations (E.B. White, who wrote Charlotte’s Web, once said that “commas in The New Yorker fall with the precision of knives in a circus act, outlining the victim”). If it’s good enough for them, who am I to disagree? It works great most of the time and it’s quick in a pinch - plus it’s kind of fun to do. In a review of a book called Paranoia, The New Yorker wrote “The novel’s great strength is its fetishistic attention to the idioms and buzzwords of the tech business and the up-to-the-second catalogue of perfidy’s rewards: the particular Bordeaux or the particular Porsche that tickles the impulses of the New Greedy.” In an article about Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, The New York Times wrote “The word '’strength’' is an important buzzword of Mr. Romney's campaign, but he sometimes struggles to match Mr. Giuliani's testosterone level.” In both cases, I not only got what I was looking for – buzzword is one word - but I got to read a couple of nice sentences, too.

Note: I say this works “most of the time” because there are instances in which the two publications disagree. In fact, as I was writing this post I realized I wasn’t sure if I should capitalize the word “the” before Times, as in the Times or The Times (since it’s The New York Times). The Times uppercases the article, The New Yorker does not. In this case it seemed logical to  refer to it as The Times.

Comments

[Dan]

The AP is also my first source for style advice, but if I can't find the book (or it's waaaaay across the room) I don't jump style guides.

Instead, I've bookmarked a Google News search page with the advanced news search field "News source" filled in with "AP" (this adds the string "source:the_associated_press" to the search). So all I have to do is add in the dubious word or phrase, and Google usually spits out a few recent examples from the Associated Press.

[Cindy Dashnaw]

Are you sure The New Yorker uses AP Style? Or are you saying that even if it doesn't, its style is good enough? I ask because a book review gave a percentage as "twenty-nine per cent," which doesn't match any style I'm familiar with.

[Dan Santow]

Dan, that's a great idea - and one I'm stealing from you! (Er, I mean borrowing.) Thanks for suggesting it.

Cindy, I didn't mean to imply that either The New Yorker or The New York Times follow AP. The New Yorker in particular, has its own style - eccentric to some, charming to others. I'd turn to The Times first. Or, do as Dan, in the comment above, suggests.

[DG]

I thought it was interesting that The New Yorker prefers cell phone, while the New York Times and the OED prefer cellphone.

Google offers up the suggestion, "Did you mean" - buzzword if you type "buzz word" into the query box.