The Associated Press Stylebook has been updated for 2009. The style guide, used by media organizations throughout the country, has… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Old Triangle Grammar Guide
Word choice: Bring and take
A reader objected to this usage in Monday’s paper: Stephen Colbert brings his Comedy Central show to Iraq. Indeed, because… Read more »
Punctuation particulars: the long dash
Copy editors can be picky. We like accuracy, clarity and consistency. We like to have a good reason for stepping… Read more »
Phrases you don't hear any more
This morning, the phrase "struck on himself" popped into my head. I realized that I hadn’t heard it in ages…. Read more »
Dialects: We talk funny everywhere
I love North Carolina dialects. I have one myself — western Piedmont. I ran across this nifty site today. Take… Read more »
Style guides: 50 years of Strunk and White
Strunk and White’s "The Elements of Style," one of the most famous books about grammar and usage, was published 50… Read more »
Word usage: We just want to celebrate
A reader sent this note to our editors today: You make this mistake almost every time a local team wins… Read more »
Words that mean something bad has happened
Those who report the news often apply labels to terrible or urgent events: tragedy, disaster, crisis, emergency. This article was… Read more »
Back from hiatus: Triangle Grammar Guide quiz
I’ve been thinking about how people learn English as a second language and studying inflection, including the way we make… Read more »
Word watch: detainee and combatant
A headline from today’s newspaper, "U.S. drops ‘enemy combatant’ label; detainees remain," made me curious about the suffixes in "combatant"… Read more »
Pronouns without gender
Some have long lamented that English has no gender-neutral pronoun to use in a construction such as this: Everyone needs… Read more »
Happy National Grammar Day
This is National Grammar Day. Perhaps this is a good day to try the Triangle Grammar Guide quizzes, if you… Read more »
Get ready for National Grammar Day
National Grammar Day is Wednesday (March 4). A day set aside for promoting correct (or, at least, standard) English grammar… Read more »
The language of letting go
The words and phrases of an economic downturn fill our newspaper and Web site these days. One such phrase prompted… Read more »
Word watch: stimulus
The economic stimulus bill that Congress and President Obama This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer,… Read more »
Word advice: Differ from vs. differ with
A colleague asked about the distinction between "differ from" and "differ with." This article was originally posted by the Raleigh… Read more »
In defense of editing
John McIntyre, director of the Baltimore Sun’s copy desk, has a few things to say about Wikipedia in a recent… Read more »
Word advice: Prepositions
A colleague asked about a preposition the other day. (Copy editors are funny that way.) He was puzzling over this… Read more »
We learned it in third grade
Sometimes, when I see apostrophes used to make plurals, I wonder where those writers were in third grade when most… Read more »
The word of the year?
The American Dialect Society chose bailout as the word of the year for 2008. Here is the news release from… Read more »
Whose pronoun is it anyway?
Even the notoriously smarty pants "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" (and I say that with affection and admiration) makes a mistake… Read more »
Bushisms: Presidential language
The Associated Press has a piece analyzing how President George W. Bush’s personality affected his legacy and a companion piece… Read more »
Top words and new words: It's exhaustipating
I know that some readers of this blog are perturbed by new words and changing usage. Sometimes I am too…. Read more »
Grammar complaint goes nowhere
Professor Stanley Fish has an amusing tale of a grammar complaint on his New York Times blog. Fish is a… Read more »
Holiday quiz from the grammar guide
The Triangle Grammar Guide has a gift for you: a quiz with a holiday theme. The five sentences cover several… Read more »