Pronouns

Submitted by Erin Brenner on Wed, 05/01/2013 - 5:20am

05/01/13 News Roundup

Featured Topic: Usage Problems

You’ve seen reflexive pronouns used as subject or object pronouns; should you stet them? Also in today’s News Roundup, we look at the usage of that vs. which and any more vs. anymore.

Submitted by Erin Brenner on Mon, 02/11/2013 - 9:49am

Did you spot the recent doozy of an anachronism in Downton Abbey? Also in Today’s News Roundup: five ways to pre-qualify clients; the problem grammar of academics; one place not to use singular they; and swang.

Top pick

“A Steep Learning Curve for Downton Abbey”: A recent episode of the hit show is guilty of the worst anachronism yet. (Word Routes)

More great articles

Submitted by Erin Brenner on Thu, 01/31/2013 - 6:20am

01/31/13 News Roundup

Five phrases to remember 30 Rock by. Also in today’s News Roundup: the benefits of becoming a company; how to get paid; the trouble over singular you, and reflexive pronouns.

Top pick

Submitted by Erin Brenner on Wed, 01/16/2013 - 6:20am

01/16/13 News Roundup

Will we start using themself … again? Also in today’s News Roundup: a social media schedule for freelancers, owning multiple dictionaries, pronoun antecedents, and how not to correct your author. Welcome to Wednesday, copyeditors!

Top pick

Once an acceptable word. will themself become one again? Read the argument for it in “Should It Be Everyone for Themself Where Grammar’s Concerned?” (OxfordWords)

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Submitted by Dawn McIlvain Stahl on Thu, 12/27/2012 - 11:07am

Questions for a Gamma-Radiated Editor: GRAMMARHULK

GRAMMARHULK, one of a community of Hulk personas on Twitter and an even larger community of language lovers, has been delighting us with grammar, spelling, usage, and editing advice and observations for two and a half years.

WOW, IT REALLY BEEN THAT LONG?

How did your puny human alter ego, a mild-mannered Manhattan editor, get into editing? How long have you been editing and for what sorts of materials?

Submitted by Andrea Altenburg on Tue, 10/23/2012 - 8:45am

Vocab: Extemporize and Improvisation

Many copyeditors are more familiar with the term improvisation more so than extemporize. Improvisation comes up more during theatre when performers act out scenes without previously been given lines. Extemporize comes more from speech and debate when candidates are given a topic and then asked to speak freely without previous research. In reality, both of these words can be used the same way and can be interchangeable.

Definition

Submitted by Andrea Altenburg on Fri, 08/24/2012 - 11:10am

In The News: Igor

The Open Help Conference 2012 brought with it Warren Block, a contributor to FreeBSD. Block introduced igor, the Automating Documentation Proofreading tool. Any editor who has ever had to contend with a document with the same mistake throughout has surely wondered if there were a better way to automate the process outside of the Find and Replace method.

Submitted by Erin Brenner on Fri, 08/03/2012 - 5:20am

08/03/12 News Roundup

What happens when the copyeditors are sent home? Also in today’s News Roundup, Merriam-Webster has a new video out, Chicago has new answers to your questions, and more.

Top pick

John McIntyre reveals the inevitable outcome of a loss of copyeditors in “The Pressure’s on, and the Editor’s Gone.” (You Don’t Say)

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Submitted by Erin Brenner on Tue, 04/17/2012 - 5:24am

04/17/12 News Roundup

The arguments between prescriptivists and descriptivists have more value than just an ego boost. Also in today’s News Roundup: style points from WSJ, comparing access and assess, and the irregular verb wheel.

Top pick

There is purpose in arguing about language—beyond just wanting to be right. Gary Gutting explains in “Arguing About Language.” (The Stone)

More great articles

Submitted by Erin Brenner on Tue, 02/28/2012 - 9:20am

It’s all relative: Using “that” and “who” correctly

Sylvia Needel of Cazenovia College’s Office of Communications wrote to me last week about one of her pet peeves. She keeps seeing people that and companies who everywhere, and it drives her crazy. She asked if I would address the problem in a post, so here it is.

People that