Word Wise

Blather. Rinse. Repeat.

I've sent out a writing tip every single Monday since June 9, 2003 – in all, more than 200 of them. So you can understand how much I appreciate it when readers suggest topics to me. Often, not surprisingly, these suggestions are about topics I've already addressed. Fortunately, my ego is fairly healthy (some would say too healthy); I realize not everyone reads these tips every week, not every tip is relevant or meaningful to everyone, and no one can keep track, anyhow. So today I want to address a few topics I've addressed here previously that I continue to be asked about often. Unlike Helicanus in Shakespeare's Pericles, I don't believe these "twould be too tedious to repeat." Can you explain...? Possessives: See Yours, Mine, and Ours Semicolons: See Semicolonoscopy Quotation marks: See Quotation Device Punctuating bulleted lists: See Bullet Train (of Thought) Didn't you write about this at some point? Spaces after periods: See Spaced Out How to style new media terminology? See Web-Time Story When to use me and I: See Me, Myself and I Writing headlines. See Head Case Numbers. See Ten to One Referring to ethnicities and races. See R-E-S-P-E-C-T What are your thoughts on….? IM'ing: See IM What IM Writing staff bios. See Bio-Logic Writing e-mails. See Flip, Don't Flop I'm confused by... Who or Whom? See Who or Whom? Hum i.e. and e.g.? See FYI: i.e. and e.g. Compose and comprise? See Compose. Comprise. Confused?

Which Word When, part III

“I pretty much try to stay in a constant state of confusion just because of the expression it leaves on my face,” Johnny Depp once said. Good for him – it’s a look that’s helped make him a lot of money. But it’s not a look you want your readers to have after they read something you’ve written. These five sets of words are often confused by writers, no doubt leaving Johnny Deppian looks of confusion on their readers’ faces. Try to avoid that. (See Which Word When, Part I and Part II for more.) home and hone: We all live in homes, but home is a verb, as well, that means “to proceed or direct attention toward an objective.” Hone, on the other hand, means “to make sharper or more focused.” We don’t hone in on something, we home in on it. A headline in a recent issue of Smithsonian magazine: “Homing in on Black Holes” The speaker honed her delivery with hours of practice. champ and chomp: To champ is to display our impatience; to chomp is to chew or bite, and often to do so noisily. Aurora was champing at the bit to get on with things. Penelope, however, was too busy chomping on her apple to notice. entitled and titled: Entitled means to have a right to something; titled refers to the name of something. Hotelier Leona Helmsley thought she was entitled to forgo taxes. “Only the little people pay taxes,” she said. The television movie about her life was titled “The Queen of Mean.” assure, ensure and insure: Assure is used to imply the removal of doubt and suspense from a person's mind. Ensure means to make certain. Insure is reserved for use with reference to the insurance business. I assured her that we would ensure that she was insured with our company. precede and proceed: Precede means “to go before,” while proceed means to go on. "Most people think that shadows follow, precede or surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories." – Elie Wiesel "[The waiters'] eyes sparkled and their pencils flew as she proceeded to eviscerate my wallet - pâté, Whitestable oysters, a sole, filet mignon, and a favorite salad of the Nizam of Hyderbad made of shredded five-pound notes." - S.J. Perelman

Slap Dash

A dash is a dash is a dash—unless it’s a hyphen.   Use a dash in place of parentheses when you want to insert a new idea, an explanation or an aside into a sentence—though don’t overdo it—or if you want to emphasize a piece of information and a colon just won’t do (such bores, those colons, and so serious).     Hyphens, on the other hand, don’t separate ideas, they separate words or syllables when a word breaks at the end of a line. Hyphens are the shorter of the two. In most cases, use a hyphen:   to connect two-word descriptions (such as in the phrase "two-word descriptions") when they come before a noun and neither word on its own would make much sense if "quasi" or "self" is one of these two words use a hyphen whether the two words come before or after the noun (that the hyphen is a quasi-confusing punctuation mark is self-evident) with prefixes like "ex" (ex-mistress), when adding "like" would create three of the same letter in a row (this hell-like atmosphere) and when adding a word would create two vowels in a row (ultra-adorable)—the exception to this rule-like counsel is when using "pre" and "re" (preempt, readmit) The dash described above is, technically speaking, known as an em dash. A hyphen is a hyphen, shorter than a dash. There’s also the en dash, which is even shorter than a hyphen and used in place of the word "to," as in pages 45-67, the Paris-Avignon train, Philip Johnson (1906-2005), and John 1:3-5. The visual distinction between a hyphen and an en dash is really a typographical issue, and not one any of us—thankfully—have to worry about.*    * These two-letter words—em and en—are excellent words to remember next time you’re at the tail end of a game of Scrabble.

Kudospectacular

We use the word "kudos" a lot (and hopefully we also get a lot of it!). But the word itself is trickier than you think.   Meaning “praise,” “glory,” or “renown,” “kudos” is a Greek word and, while it may look plural, it is etymologically singular (etymology refers to the history of a word). And because “kudos” is singular it takes a singular verb, as in “The kudos from my client is much appreciated,” not "The kudos from my client are much appreciated."   Here’s where it gets interesting. Because it’s plural, a new singular form of the word, “kudo,” has come into use. This is called a “back formation.” Other examples of back formations are “pea” and “cherry,” shortened from nouns ending in an ess sound (English “pease” and French “cerise”), which were, like “kudos,” mistakenly thought to be plural.   That said, while “pea” and “cherry” are obviously accepted, most likely hardly anyone would know what you were talking about if you used the word “kudo.”  So go ahead and use “kudos,” just use it correctly!

It's About Time

For reasons unknown to humankind, many of us – even those of us who consider ourselves nimble typists with gazelle-like speed and unerring accuracy – are (much to our chagrin) prone to two particular mistakes: typing it’s when we mean its and you’re when we mean your.   Maybe it’s the pleasant physical flair that it takes to pinkie-plink the apostrophe, maybe it’s just inattention, but whatever the reason, it’s a noteworthy yet easily corrected slip-up. But because it’s and its and you’re and your are homonyms – words that are pronounced or spelled the same way but have different meanings – spell-check doesn’t catch them. That means we have to do so manually (eye-ually?).   Take an extra few seconds to check your work for every instance of it’s, its, you’re, and your to ensure that the right word is being used at the right time.   This is easier to do than it sounds. Here's what to do: in Word 2007, click control-f where it says "find what," type the word you're looking for click "reading highlight" click "highlight all" Every instance of that word will be highlighted, making it easy for you to scan your document to ensure you've typed the right word. It's incredibly simple and fast.

The Wednesday Word Wise Round Up

• An interesting article on Poynter.com today about the big difference in meaning little words (like a and the) can make. “Articles are slippery,” it says. “You might be fooled into thinking that a can only be used in the singular and that the carries the plural until you read ‘A million dollars will get you the rarest baseball card in the world.’” Read it here.

• As I’ve mentioned numerous times, despite my overpriced education, career as a writer, editor and all-around word guy, and avidity for crossword puzzles, I still do not really, in my heart of hearts, understand the difference between effect and affect. Apparently, I’m hardly alone, if the Confusing Words blog is correct (and God I hope it is). Affect/effect are the second- and third-most “popular” confusing words of the 3,210 included in the database. Have a word that confuses you? Look it up here – the blog provides very clear explanations and examples of use. It’s greatly effected me – er, uhm, affected me.

 

Gov 101

Whether you’re an Obamaniac or still supporting Hillary for some reason or you're McCuckoo for McCain, here are a few tips that (assuming you're neither nihilist nor anarchist) we can all agree on no matter our political persuasion: political parties: Capitalize their names, including the word “party” when applicable. Smithers belongs to the Democratic Party, though his wife Daphne is a Republican. political affiliations: Capitalize the names of political affiliations when they refer to a specific party or its members, but not when they refer to political philosophies (unless it comes from a proper noun). Daphne  was a Libertarian when she was younger, but today she disavows libertarianism. Smithers, a Democrat, is relieved. Their son Bink, however, is a Marxist, yet his leftist beliefs have not stopped him from becoming an investment banker. “federal”: It is not capitalized unless part of an entity’s formal name. A person is a federal judge and we live under a federal government; some people work for Federal Express or the Federal Trade Commission. “congress”: Capitalize the word “congress” when referring to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives (technically speaking, you may recall from fourth grade civics class, in the U.S. the Congress is composed of both the Senate and House of Representatives, not solely the latter). Lowercase the word “congressional” unless it’s part of a proper noun, as in the publication Congressional Quarterly. “senate”: Capitalize if it’s referring to a governmental legislative body – the U.S. Senate, the Senate, the state Senate, etc. departments, councils, et al: Capitalize the proper name of entities, such as the Department of Transportation and the National Security Council. If you condense the name on later reference, do not capitalize. Smithers’ daughter, Mercedes, works for the Department of Labor. She’s been with the department for a year. “first lady”: This is not a formal title and is therefore never capitalized, even when it precedes the first lady’s name, as in first lady Laura Bush. (One day soon – though apparently not that soon – we’ll  be able to say the same thing about “first gentleman.”) "lame duck": Walks like a lame duck, quacks like a lame duck, and acts like a lame duck - yet still not uppercased. George Bush is a lame duck. 'Nuff said. “president”: Just because somebody happens to be president of the United States – like, big whoop – doesn’t mean he or she is above the rules of grammar. The word “president” is only capitalized when it directly precedes a name. When we wake up Nov. 5, 2008, will it be President Obama or President McCain? Whoever is elected president has a big job ahead of him!

The Wednesday Word Wise round Up

• A worthwhile article on Poynter.com headlined “Hey Kids, Got a Grammar problem? Let’s Take a Vote!” profiles the results of the American Heritage Dictionary’s Usage Panel, "a group of 200 professional users of language, who are consulted to discover their language opinions.” As the piece notes, “In simple terms, the editors of the AHD poll the panel of critics to get a sense of their preferences. Writers can then make informed judgments about choosing one word over another.”

• “England and America are two countries separated by a common language,” George Bernard Shaw famously said. Since I’ve never lived in the UK and really only have one friend who’s British – and he lives in New York and over time sounds vaguely like he’s from Brooklyn – I’m hardly an expert on the difference between American English and British English. But fortunately for us, M. Lynne Murphy, senior lecturer in linguistics and English language at the University of Sussex is. Though obviously living in the UK now, she was educated at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, so her background is impeccable, as is her blog, Separated by a Common Language, “Observations on British and American English by an American linguist in the UK.” Check it out if for no other reason than you’ll get to see her use the phrase “post-rhotic British colonialists.”

• Several people sent me a link to a story in today’s Chicago Tribune about the “grammar vigilante” I mentioned a few weeks ago, when he was profiled in the Seattle Times. I said then he was traveling across the country correcting grammar as he went and apparently he was here. Even more apparent, he’s good at attracting attention from local media. The story is longer than the one that appeared in Seattle and also includes vigilante Jeff Deck's partner-in-crime, fellow Dartmouth grad Benjamin Herson. It has a terrific headline, too: "Typo Personalities.”

Note: My bad: Not long after I posted this, I received a nice comment from M. Lynne Murphy informing me that, in fact, she didn't write "post-rhotic British colonialists" - it was her quoting Mark Liberman from Language Log. Click comments below to read her note in full.

Right of Way

Sometimes it’s the simplest words that trip us up the most. Is it health care or healthcare? Web site or website? Top-10 list or top 10 list? Unfortunately, there’s often no rhyme or reason behind their proper spelling or style, so it’s a matter of memorization through use and habit. Or, you can clip ‘n’ save this list of frequently used words and their correct spelling, style and appearance. healthcare or health care? health care – two words policymaker or policy maker? policymaker (and policymaking) – one word in-house or inhouse? in-house – two words, hyphenated downturn or down-turn? downturn (and upturn, and hopefully soon) – one word daylong or day-long? daylong (and monthlong and hourlong) – one word, even if Word disagrees start-up or startup? startup – one word googled or Googled? Googled – uppercase even when used as a verb, a perfectly acceptable usage soundbite or sound bite or sound byte? sound bite – two words, and yes, I see sound byte regularly top 10 list or Top 10 list or top-10 list or Top-10 list? top 10 list – no capital T (unless starting a sentence, of course) and no hyphen web site or Web site or website? Web site – two words, uppercase W groundbreaking or ground-breaking? groundbreaking – one word best-seller or bestseller? best-seller – two words, hyphenated citywide or city-wide? citywide – one word, no hyphen work force or workforce? work force – two words fundraiser or fund-raiser? fundraiser (and fundraising) – one word timeframe or time frame or time-frame? time frame – two words, no hyphen non-profit or nonprofit? nonprofit – one word (yet for-profit, two words with hyphen, because "non" is a prefix and so wouldn't take a hyphen but "for" is a word, not merely a prefix, so it does require a hyphen) wiki or Wiki? wiki – lowercase w, from wiki wiki, Hawaiian for “hurry”

The Wednesday Word Wise Roundup

• A lot of people whine about other people who treat e-mail so casually they stop using uppercase letters altogether. It says something about that person, these latte-sipping uppercase-using people think. In the case of Jerry Yang, chief executive at Yahoo!, it definitely does. He wrote an all-staff e-mail the other day using no uppercase letters whatsoever to make a point after recent talks with Microsoft fell through. The grand panjandrums of grammar political correctness took notice, and then the Chicago Tribune took notice of them.

• Maybe it’s because of Hillary Clinton's shameless comment to USA Today about “hard working Americans, white Americans” or the now-infamous, spot-on “Saturday Night Live” sketch depicting her as morally degenerate, but yesterday several people sent me a link to a blog called “Stuff White People Like,” which, while funny, also made me a bit uncomfortable (they sent it because one of the things white people apparently like is grammar). Then I saw that yesterday John McIntyre, assistant managing editor for the copy desk at The Baltimore Sun and writer of the excellent “You Don’t Say” column, also took note of the site. “In fact, one of the greatest joys a white person can experience is to catch a grammar mistake in a major publication,” the SWPL blogger wrote. “Finding one allows a white person to believe that they are better than the writer and the publication since they would have caught the mistake.” McIntyre’s response? “The greatest carriers-on often seem to be older white guys, their vermilion wattles trembling with rage as they inveigh against the shoddy education of the younger generation(s), the abysmal decline in literacy and the criminal disregard of English grammar as God intended it to be used.” Read more here, it’s worth it.