Posts in category: Style on the Go archive

July 30, 2009: Issue 299

This week’s “On Language” column in The New York Times Sunday Magazine surprised us. While the NYT has a reputation for stodgy style rules (“the actor George Clooney” on first reference, followed by “Mr. Clooney,” for instance), this column suggests that grammarians are too prickly about the words they and them.

Purists—count us among them—will tell you these are plural pronouns, not to be used as singular in an attempt to head off sexist interpretations of he and him. But the “On Language” column attributes this rule to one overreaching 18th-century grammarian, and it points out that writers such as Jane Austen and Charles Dickens felt free to ignore the rule. We, however, will continue to follow it.

Why? The NYT devoted more than 900 words to this discussion. A usage note in Web 11 reaches a similar conclusion—but the note is longer than any definition on that page. When you need that much space to explain that something should be common usage, it clearly hasn’t reached that status.

“On Language” offers this challenge: How do you quickly and clearly say “A texter worships his smart phone” in a nonsexist way? Our favorite dodge is to make the entire sentence plural: “Texters worship their smart phones.”

Read the entire “On Language” column (or pick up a hard copy in the CE department).

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July 9, 2009: Issue 297

Keep it short and tweet

When you tweet, 140 characters is the absolute maximum, not a recommended length. Stay well below that count if you can—you’ll leave room for hashtags and for the extra characters added every time someone retweets.

Everything counts toward that total: letters, spaces, punctuation, and URLs (which typically run about 20 characters).

If you can get your message across in 60 characters, do it. There’s no reason to pad. Tight writing has never been more important.

Move over, Mamma Mia! Check out this Broadway-style look at Twitter and other social media.

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July 16, 2009: Issue 298

As managing editor Kathleen Armentrout prepares to leave us, let’s take a look at how to spell and punctuate some terms of farewell:
adios
arrivederci
au revoir
bye-bye
ciao
Godspeed
good-bye
sayonara
shalom
ta-ta

And then there are these three, which rarely confuse anyone but still apply today:
good luck
thanks for everything
we’ll miss you

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June 11, 2009: Issue 293

Dear Style on the Go,
I must say I’m in a tiz-woz. Cheeky copy editors keep changing the spellings of perfectly good words:Moulding becomes molding. Theatre becomes theater. My spellings are in the dictionary, so why must the CEs be such smug buggers?
Signed,
Gobsmacked

Dear Gobsmacked,
We don’t want to insult you or any other Anglophiles, but we don’t use British variations (indicated in Web 11 by “chiefly Brit var”) because most of our readers don’t. So it’s analyze, not analyse. When two spellings are listed with an entry, we use the first. So it’s catalog, not catalogue. We’re sorry if you think that takes the biscuit. Maybe you can corner us in the lift or in the loo to give us an earful.

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June 18, 2009: Issue 294

New media bring up an interesting pronoun issue: How do we refer to readers when we don’t know their sex?

example:
DaffodilLover99 sent us these beautiful photos from _____ garden in Roca, Nebraska.

What possessive pronoun do you use?

Their is tempting, but it’s grammatically incorrect. (Their must refer to a plural or compound noun.)

His/her is grammatically acceptable but hardly conversational.

Our suggestion is to recast and avoid the issue:
DaffodilLover99 of Roca, Nebraska, sent us these beautiful garden photos.

Remember, we still identify readers by full name and city in our print products. But we realize that standards and expectations are different in the Web world. There, a screen name will suffice.

Speaking of new media: Are you our fan on Facebook yet? Once you are, be sure to check out the CE rap from our annual conference.

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June 25, 2009: Issue 295

Routing through Legal
Best practices for SIM magazines

On your MIC date, make two copies of the following:
• masthead
• table of contents
• postal ID statement page

Route both copies to Becky King in Legal, along with a Legal Review routing slip (available from the Business Office). Becky will give everything a quick check to be sure that we’re using our trademarks properly and that we aren’t infringing on anyone else’s.

As part of our standard cover routing process, the Business Office sends magazine covers to Legal for review. If you’re already routing covers through the Business Office, you don’t need to make any changes. If you’re not routing your covers through the Business Office, please start.

Trademark reminder: On this site, you can find lists of SIM trademarks and common nouns to use in place of other trademarked product names. Another great resource for checking trademarks is the International Trademark Association.

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May 21, 2009: Issue 290

Last week we discussed heavenly words. This week, let’s head the other direction.

hell, hellacious, hellish
lowercase in all references
     When the contractor disappeared, these homeowners found themselves in renovation hell.
Learn to recognize poison ivy or you’re in for a hellish itch.

limbo
lowercase a state of uncertainty or oblivion; capitalize the place for the unbaptized
     Their travel plans were in limbo while they waited to hear from the cardiologist.
The painting over the fireplace depicts souls drifting in Limbo.

purgatory
lowercase in all references
After the purgatory of an August drought, the garden was blissfully drenched in September.

Theological note: In traditional Roman Catholic teaching, purgatory is a place where souls can be made ready for Heaven. It’s not eternal damnation. Limbo is generally believed to be a permanent not-quite-heaven for babies who die before they can be baptized.

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May 28, 2009: Issue 291

1-800-CUT-IT-OUT

We don’t use letters in phone numbers.

Our reason of long standing is that letters make readers work too hard. Then there’s the potential for confusion between the letter O and the numeral 0. While words might help TV viewers and radio listeners remember a number, they’re unnecessary in print and online.

With new technology, alphanumeric numbers are moving from inconvenient to impossible. Check out a Treo or BlackBerry keypad and try to guess how to dial 1-800-AZALEAS.

If a company provides only an alphanumeric number, take a minute to translate it into numbers. (And make sure you use an old-fashioned phone.)

Contest: Back when cities had single area codes, New York City’s was 212. Do you know why? Tell us, and you could win a prize.

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April 30, 2009: Issue 287

The word green has taken on new responsibilities in the past few decades, stretching beyond the color spectrum to encompass anything that supports or preserves the health of our planet:
green building
living a green life

The word is working hard already, so let’s not put additional demands on it. Avoid using it as a verb unless you’re talking about something changing color:
My ficus is greening up. Maybe I didn’t kill it after all.

And please don’t turn green into an adverb by adding -ly.

Also, remember that the word can be ambiguous. “Green kitchens” or “green gardens” can be interpreted two ways.

When you need to clarify that you’re using the word in its environmental sense, or if you must use it as a verb, try quotation marks. (This will usually happen in display type, in which case we use single quotes.)
‘Green’ kitchens
10 ways to ‘green’ your kitchen

While we’re on the subject, eco can be a stand-alone adjective:
eco kitchens
eco builders

Hyphenate it as part of a compound modifier:
eco-friendly ideas

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May 7, 2009: Issue 288

Most city and state names can also function as adjectives:
a Tennessee garden
my San Francisco cousins
Minnesota quilters

When you add a suffix, you create a noun for a person who lives there:
a Tennessean who gardens
the San Franciscans in my family
Minnesotans who quilt

Most names of countries, however, need a suffix or a change in form to serve as adjectives:
Chinese tradition
Swedish design
African cloth

Can you tell us why? We’ve searched for an explanation for these rules and can’t find one. Can you? Share it, and you could win a prize.

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