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Pam Nelson: The Grammar Guide

 

Archive for April 2012

Number of comments in parentheses

24: Today’s reading: Hopefully and only

I haven’t written about the Associated Press style guide editors’ decision to amend the guidance on “hopefully.” Here is the new entry, just in case you missed it: hopefully The traditional meaning is in a hopeful manner. Also acceptable is the modern usage: it’s hoped, we hope. Correct: ”You’re leaving soon?” she asked hopefully. Correct: Hopefully, we’ll be home before dark. I figured everyone else was handling the reaction stories and posts. Indeed, John McIntyre and Bill Walsh, among others, have responded. My favorite post comes from Geoffrey Pullum on Lingua Franca. It explains how “hopefully” came to be sent into sentence adverb exile.[.....]

23: Talking like my generation: apoplectic

Presidential adviser David Axelrod described President Obama as “apoplectic” about General Services Administration spending. I think Axelrod was showing his age, 57, which is close to my own. I can’t imagine that many people under 40 would use that word. I love apoplectic. It sounds Shakespearean and Southern at the same time. It means “furious,” according to the American Heritage Dictionary, Fifth Edition, and it comes from the old word apoplexy, which meant a stroke but later was used to refer to a “fit of rage,” the dictionary says. The word connotes anger so white-hot that the enraged person[.....]

13: ACES 2012: Editing at a hub

I’ll be part of a panel discussion on editing at hubs at the national ACES conference this afternoon (4-13-2012). Here is the description from the ACES program: Editing at a Hub Todd Kistler, Thom Wright, Los Angeles News Group; Pam Nelson, McClatchy Newspapers As the concept of editing hubs spreads, more copy editors find themselves in this work situation. Three hub editors talk about setup and workflow, adaptations they’ve needed to make, and how they’ve solved problems that have arisen, plus answer questions from the audience. Here are the main points that I hope to get across at the[.....]

8: The questioning editor: Isn’t it ironic? No, it’s not (2)

Copy editors can help writers by questioning the logic of a passage or the use of a word. Writers often pick up wrong ideas from reading misused phrases or words. A persnickety copy editor can serve to get a writer to think more clearly. A sentence stopped me as I read today’s local paper (The Clayton News-Star, a semiweekly publication that is part of The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., where I formerly worked). The story was about an N&O press operator from Clayton who had won a lottery prize. I’ll underline the word that led me to[.....]

3: Hey, use a dictionary, kids

The UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication has decided to drop the spelling portion of a test of grammar and usage that it has given students for almost four decades. Here is a post about the change on the Romenesko blog. The J-school will replace the spelling portion with testing on word choice. I am not too worried about the journalists of the future not being able to prevent or catch ordinary misspellings and typos in their copy. Spellcheckers are not perfect, but they are valid tools and getting better. It is more important to me that[.....]

1: Grammar Guide quiz – Words we mix up

The newest Grammar Guide quiz (No. 64) has 10 multiple choice sentences. Some of these sentences came from real-life editing; others I had to make up. I hope you’ll find it worthwhile. Despite the date I am posting, this quiz is not meant to be a trick. If you have a comment, please leave it on this post or send me an email message. Click here to start.