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Pam Nelson: The Grammar Guide

 

‘Newspapers’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

March 31: Stay engaged until the end (2)

A few weeks ago, a young journalist’s blog post about leaving her newspaper job made the rounds on the internet. Allyson Bird wrote well about the demands placed on journalists to keep up with the lightning pace of news these days. I know what she means, but I am on the other end of a career in newspapers, and I probably would still be there if I (and many others) had not been pushed out the door. Allyson said the reason she left was money, and that led my leaving a year ago, too, although it was the newspaper[.....]

Dec. 4, 2012: If you see something, say something: The copy editor’s code (1)

The first sentence in a recent news story in the Clayton News-Star, the community newspaper that is delivered to my house twice a week, stopped me. I puzzled over it for a while before going on to finish the article. Here it is: One home and one camper have been burned to a singe in a fire that the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office suspects was caused by arson. The word that stopped me was the noun singe. I wondered at first if the writer meant to write “burned to a cinder,” which seemed to me to be more idiomatic.[.....]

Dec. 2, 2012: What, me worry? When a copy editor reads the paper (13)

My recovery from newspapers has hit a few bumps lately. I haven’t missed the work exactly, but I have seen a few lapses in my local newspaper, which happens to be my former employer, that caused me to cringe, left me irritated and made me wish I were still there to have (perhaps) averted the mistakes. I write today in sorrow that the organization I once worked for had to thin its ranks of more experienced copy editors. We truly are missed. I started to write this post without identifying the paper because I have friends who work there[.....]

Oct. 15, 2012: This post is due to a misreading (2)

One of the usage rules drilled into my head many years ago is that due to can be used only as an adjectival phrase and that often the phrase we need is because of, which works as an adverbial phrase. The classic example is: I fell because of the ice on the sidewalk. (because of modifies the verb fell. My fall was due to the ice on the sidewalk. (due to acts as a subject complement — an adjective to modify fall.)

July 22, 2012: Life after newspapers: Copy editing skills are portable (1)

I have learned a great deal since I started working for the AICPA‘s magazine and newsletters group about four months ago. We publish the Journal of Accountancy, The Tax Adviser, CGMA magazine and newsletters for certified public accountants. I no longer stumble over acronyms and abbreviations such as GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) and FMV (fair market value), and I have an inkling of how our nation’s tax policy reflects our cherished capitalism. But the most important lesson I have learned is that a conscientious, well-trained copy editor who has worked for daily newspapers for more than 30 years[.....]

June 12, 2012: Irregular verbs: Splitting from or clinging to old forms

A verb in a newspaper report sent me to the dictionary and usage books. Presbyterian churches around Charlotte now face the same philosophical debates over Biblical authority and homosexuality that have cleaved other religions. I wondered whether cleaved was the most accepted spelling for the past participle of cleave, meaning, in this case, to split apart. The tense in that clause is present perfect, which combines has or have with the past participle.

June 10, 2012: Pronouns: “They” is too much with us (2)

I am almost ready to come around on the view that “they,” “them” and “their” are acceptable after a singular pronoun antecedent (When the bell rings, everyone picks up their books to go home.) Almost. I don’t freak out when I read such constructions. (In truth, I probably never freaked out. I am a fairly even-keeled person — except when I see scary whales or  hear Chris Matthews yammering.) I still change such constructions in editing. Where I work, the publication style guide explicitly calls for doing so.  We use “he or she” when such a construction is called[.....]

April 8, 2012: 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[.....]

March 6, 2012: Good usage: Home in vs. hone in

This sentence from a piece by Frank Bruni in the New York Times illustrates the standard use of “home” in a spot where writers might choose “hone.” “Because we didn’t see Santorum coming, we homed in on his extremism late, so that he was able for a long while to play offense instead of defense and choose his talking points.” Bruni is using the metaphor of locking on a signal and following it, as a missile is guided to a target. Some writer would choose “hone in,” thinking perhaps that the image is of narrowing a viewpoint. Usage may[.....]

Feb. 26, 2012: Editing in practice: Jim Fingal, fact-checking hero (2)

A book review from the New York Times gives me a new role model. The book is “The Lifespan of a Fact” by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal. It’s about the struggle to get an essay by D’Agata ready for publication in The Believer. Fingal was an intern fact-checker assigned to the essay. D’Agata believed that he was writing Truth and Art and shouldn’t be too bound by Facts. Fingal pushed back with questions and endured verbal abuse from D’Agata as he did his job, as reviewer Jennifer B. McDonald describes it. “The book presents, line by line, D’Agata’s[.....]

Feb. 15, 2012: “Lowly” copy editor? Surely you jest (2)

A post by Yoni Goldstein at the National Post of Canada asserts, I hope with irony, that the copy editor in modern newsrooms is “basically, a human spellchecker and guardian of the newspaper’s arcane style guide, a set of rules (like whether to spell the word “aging” or “ageing”) most editors and reporters either ignore or forget.” This has caused a stir among our kind. I first saw the link on a Facebook post by Testy Copy Editor and later read a spirited and pointed response from John McIntyre, who has said what needs to be said about this.[.....]

Feb. 10, 2012: We beg you to stop “begging the question”

I read this sentence in a story recently: The churches say they have no money for upkeep, and the world-renowned hospital says it has no need for churches. Which begs the question: what happens to architectural gems that no one can afford to maintain? I don’t even understand why writers started using “begs the question” at all.  It doesn’t even make sense in the way they want us to read it. But even if we could discern that they mean “raises the question” or “prompts the question” or even “dodges the question,” the phrase “begs the question” has a[.....]

Jan. 2, 2012: Check the facts: 10 tips for copy editors (16)

Checking facts is part of some copy editors’ jobs. When I have trained copy editors on newspaper desks, I tell them that the main fact-checkers are the writers, followed by the line editors. But I also tell copy editors that inaccuracy in a published piece hurts everyone’s credibility. I did not learn to check facts in my first few years as a copy editor. I was more focused on correcting grammar, usage and style and on writing a good headline. But when I began working at The News & Observer in 1987, the point of fact-checking was driven home.[.....]

Dec. 18, 2011: Working outside newspapers (5)

I hope it’s clear that even though I am clinging to my job as a daily newspaper copy editor, this blog is aimed at anyone who edits or writes or reads. I am most interested in hearing from editors who are working outside daily newspapers. I would dearly love to read stories about freelance editors — how you market yourself, where you have found work, what kind of work you’re doing. It’s encouraging to hear that people are finding work as editors. I believe in editing and in the value we editors add to writing in any form.

Dec. 14, 2011: Misplaced modifiers amuse and confuse us (5)

If you are a copy editor, you probably recognize the problem in the following sentences, and they probably give you a chuckle just before you realize how challenging it might be to fix the problem. As the 27-year-old owner of four Raleigh restaurants, it’s hard to tell which part of G Patel’s resume is more impressive. Standing at the burned house, where Daniel Moses’ mattress springs can be seen through the charred window, cotton stretches to two horizons. Now in its seventh year, various artists will perform from 7 to 11 p.m. Sept. 30 in downtown restaurants. Co-written by[.....]

Dec. 11, 2011: Why I am still a copy editor (4)

Perhaps the title of this post should be “Why am I still a copy editor?” Certainly, the occupation I chose years ago has been beleaguered through the years. We newspaper copy editors have always had the worst shifts, working at night and on weekends and holidays. We have always been the ones in a newsroom who must make deadline, despite how many deadlines had been missed earlier in the cycle. We have been blamed for mistakes and blamed even more vehemently for not catching mistakes. We made disgruntlement part of our jobs — just like the pica poles, proportion[.....]

Dec. 14, 2007: How to make a word geek happy

I have now in my possession the Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, on CD-ROM, Version 3.1. When it landed in my hands Friday, I was giddy with anticipation. The CD only works on a PC, so I couldn’t try it out on my Mac at work. I finally got it installed on my PC at home this morning. (I had a little Microsoft update to do before it would work.) The CD version has the whole 20-volume dictionary (published in 1989) and the additions series of three volumes (1993 and 1997). The copyright date on this CD-ROM version is[.....]

Feb. 20, 2007: Today’s quiz: Pronouns

Choosing the correct pronoun case can be tough for writers. The sentences in today’s five-question quiz illustrate the problems editors see. Click here to begin. Comments are welcome. This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Co.; is posted here to provide continuity; and is copyright © 2011 The News & Observer Publishing Company, which reserves the right to remove this post.

Jan. 1, 2007: Today’s tip: Neither … nor

When singular subjects are joined with neither … nor, use a singular verb. In this sentence from today’s paper: Neither the College Board nor the State Board of Education require students to take the exams to earn high school credit for the courses … the verb should be “requires.” When subjects are joined by the correlative conjunctions neither … nor or either … or, the verb should agree with the nearest subject. Here is a link to subject-verb agreement rules at the Guide to Grammar and Writing. Today’s bonus link is to Celebrity English/Grammar Examples for examples of grammar[.....]

Oct. 17, 2006: Disinterested parties

Many writers and editors distinguish between disinterested and uninterested. To be disinterested means to be impartial, the Associated Press Stylebook says, or to be unbiased, the dictionary says. In this sentence from a news story Tuesday: Asked whether, as the prosecutor, he was disinterested in what the accused players had to say, Nifong responded curtly. it appears to me the better choice would have been “uninterested,” as in having a lack of interest. Professor Paul Brians lists this as one of the Common Errors in English. [Bernstein and Bremner also write about the difference between the two words.] But[.....]

Aug. 24, 2006: I love this word

A word I didn’t remember seeing before in print shows up in today’s story about the opening of school Public schools start with a 1-day week: administrivia. Here is the quote where it appeared: “The first days end up being a lot of administrivia,” said Paige Mizak, a parent with two children at Davis Drive Elementary School in Cary. “There’s a lot of housekeeping and things like setting class rules. Even without looking up the word, I knew exactly what administrivia was. It was clear in the context that it was the paperwork and other details that must be[.....]

July 9, 2006: Picture it

I have trouble with “peak” and “peek.” I don’t know why. I type those two words wrong all the time. A few months ago, I made a visual representation to help me distinguish the two words. You can see it below. Oddly enough, this rather crude graphic has been the key to my remembering how to spell these words. I invite you to add comments with your favorite devices for distinguishing words that are often confused. This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Co.; is posted here to provide continuity;[.....]