Some pairs of words are like Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen. Let me explain. The Olsens were the youngest cast members of Full House, a popular TV series that had its original run from 1987 to 1995. They played just one character, the daughter of a widowed sportscaster. The girls were cast jointly for the same […]
Non-Identical Twins in the Dictionary Read More »
With its 18th edition, The Chicago Manual of Style has fully embraced the singular they. This comes many years after the manual and the Associated Press mostly accepted the singular they in a development that one veteran editor called “the middle of the end for the insistence that ‘they’ can be only a plural pronoun.”
Embracing the Singular They Read More »
One too-common mistake in journalism is the misuse of the verb refute. For example, there’s this headline at a regional news website in my part of the world: “Neebing Minor Hockey refutes allegations from Lakehead Minor Hockey League.” The problem here is that the Neebing organization did not refute the allegations. That is to say,
A Commonly Misused Verb: Refute Read More »
Dictionaries have made their choices for 2023 English “word of the year”: authentic, hallucinate and rizz. Authentic is the choice of Merriam-Webster as deepfake video and AI-generated writing and pictures have created a sort of “crisis in authenticity.” A Merriam-Webster editor told The Associated Press that “when we question authenticity, we value it even more.”
The 2023 Word of the Year Is … Read More »
We all know English can be a tricky language. It has an immense vocabulary plucked and plundered from all over the world, many words that look or sound the same but have rather different meanings, some difficult-to-follow grammar rules, and countless curveballs in spelling and pronunciation. One confounding feature of this gloriously eccentric language of
Contronyms and Clear Communication Read More »
Penguin Random House’s proposed (and, as of October 31, court-blocked) merger with Simon & Schuster raised concern about the future of competition in book publishing. Stephen King spoke to those concerns in August when he testified for the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit to stop the merger. In the 50 years since start of his
Coming to Terms with Publishers Read More »
“Never” rules are, in my opinion, always wrong. (Or, if you will, never right.) When I was in my first year of journalism school, a senior student told me to “never lead with a quote.” I just couldn’t agree with him then, and I still disagree. Leading with a quote usually isn’t advisable, but there
A Very Overused Word Read More »
Communicating about disabilities can be tricky. Writers strive to be respectful and sensitive in their choice of words, but there isn’t universal agreement on how to do that and when a line is being crossed. One key issue is whether language should be “person-first” or “identity-first.” Should someone be described as “a person with a
Disabilities and Putting People First Read More »
Preferred terminology for writing about the original peoples of Canada has changed over the years, and it’s important for journalists, business communicators and other writers to keep up with the times. When I was starting my journalism career, the preferred term for First Nations, Metis and Inuit collectively was aboriginal with a lowercase a. That
Indigenous, Aboriginal or . . . ? Read More »
Be careful how you use the word only. Poor placement of this little modifier can confuse the reader and twist the meaning of a sentence. “He only wrote three songs” could be taken to mean he alone wrote three songs or, alternatively, that he wrote three songs and did nothing more with them (i.e., he
Only in the Wrong Place Read More »