A rabid fan of forensic science shows like Bones, Criminal Minds, and the various CSIs stumbles upon a copy of the National Forensic Journal at the library. Thrilled to dive into some real-world reading connected to his fiction fandom, he cracks open the journal to find an exciting article all about … [Read more...]
What’s the Plural of Mentos (and Other Trade Names)?
Yesterday on Twitter, copyeditor Ashley Bischoff was publicly pondering the singular and plural forms of the yummy candy Mentos. Would she eat one Mento from a roll of Mentos? Or would it be one Mentos from a roll of Mentoses (or even Mentosi)? Or is the word Mentos like deer and moose, both … [Read more...]
Disentangling Your Morning: Wake, Waken, Awake, and Awaken
As if mornings weren’t difficult enough, English has evolved to give us four tricky little verbs to describe the first thing you do each day: wake, waken, awake, and awaken. And the problems go all the way back to Old English. According to Merriam-Webster, Old English had two similar verbs that … [Read more...]
On Using and Avoiding Adverbs
Graham Greene called them beastly. Theodore Roethke said that, in order to write well, you had to hate them. Stephen King wrote that the road to Hell was paved with them. I'm talking, of course, about adverbs. While some English guidebooks and well-meaning authors warn writers away from … [Read more...]
The Language of Rejection
The daily news is so chock full of arguments, accusations, and harsh criticisms nowadays that I am wary of reading it. Sometimes the ire is backed up with well-reasoned arguments and loads of data, and other times it’s fueled by frustration, rage, or a firm faith in a factitious "way things are … [Read more...]
Fictions and Factions
Do you know the difference between a fictitious statement, a factitious statement, and a factious statement? These are just three of a cluster of seven adjectives with overlapping definitions that help us separate fact from fiction from faction. Just the Facts Factional is the adjective form of … [Read more...]