In 1999, writer and editor Constance Hale, perhaps inspired by Karen Elizabeth Gordon’s whimsically worded and illustrated grammar and punctuation guides, wrote Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose. Hale’s book, like Gordon’s works, remains superb proof that reading handbooks about writing can be an experience both nutritious and tasty. Sin and Syntax … Read more
When referring to athletic teams or similar groups, what form of verb or pronoun applies? The recent victory of the Miami Heat over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the National Basketball Association championships indirectly put this issue in the headlines. I don’t follow professional sports, so I didn’t even know these teams existed, but when … Read more
A recent Wall Street Journal article that beamed a spotlight on sophomoric speaking and grammar gaffes in the workplace covered the issue fairly thoroughly but left unsaid some pertinent points. The article discussed the epidemic of informality in critical corporate settings such as staff meetings and in-person communication with clients: What do you do when … Read more
The quote “If you remember the Sixties, you weren’t there,” variously attributed (sometimes with slight differences in wording) to various iconic figures of a distinct cultural era, can appear at least seven ways based just on the treatment of the number. Which version is correct? The answer to the question is a matter of style, … Read more
Are you an Anglist, or an anti-Anglist, or are you neutral in the debate about whether to favor words of Anglo-Saxon or Germanic origin over Latinate language? You may have been unaware that there ever was a controversy about linguistic purism, or that the issue survives at all. Compared to the impassionate debate about the … Read more
No one standard specific routine exists for optimizing the quality of written material, but various models have some procedures in common that are, with adjustments, appropriate to any context and any type of content. What follows is an outline of editorial production for most book publishers, a protocol that, with variations and simplifications, applies to … Read more
When a noun stack — a precarious pileup of nouns — is itself used to modify yet another noun, it is transformed into an adjective stack, which is just as hostile to clarity. The keyword in this case is relax: Shift the anchoring noun to precede the stack, and introduce prepositions as needed. (And insert … Read more
1. “Thanks to technology, we can have independence, relative independence, from the harsh qualities of the real world on a day-to-day basis.” This sentence’s punctuation — a series of three commas — implies a flat progression of ideas without modulation. But the writer, after the fact, modifies the absolute word independence with the qualifying term … Read more
What’s the difference between forgo and forego? It’s a foregone conclusion that there’ll be some confusion, but I’ll forgo further digression to get to the discussion. To forgo is to do without, or relinquish: “He will forgo the pleasure of her company”; “I’ll forgo the formality of requiring a co-signer.” The present participle is forgoing … Read more
What is the difference between intrusive and obtrusive? The distinction between these words, and those between each of them and their synonyms, are subtle but useful. To be intrusive is to involve oneself into the affairs of others, generally in an objectionable manner, tactlessly but not necessarily in a way that calls attention to oneself. … Read more
Have you thought about the impact of using epithets in your writing? An epithet (from the Greek word epithetos, meaning “added”) is a word or phrase used in place of or in addition to a name to characterize the person, place, or thing. In fiction or nonfiction, it’s an effective device for evoking the subject’s … Read more
What’s the difference between paramount and tantamount? The distinction is of paramount importance; it’s tantamount to being right or wrong. Paramount, from the Anglo-French word paramont, derived from the Latin phrase per ad montem, literally translated as “up the mountain,” means “supreme.” It’s also used (rarely) as a noun to refer to a supreme ruler. … Read more