Posts in category: Style on the Go archive

June 5, 2008: Issue 242

This is why they’re state troopers and not grammar cops.

What’s wrong with this picture? The two sentences aren’t parallel, so are doesn’t refer back to anything. (We are what? We are watch?)

They could fix the problem this way:

Are you watching your speed? We are.

But that puts an awful lot of words on the billboard. Here’s an easier fix:

Now that I’ve pointed this out, I’ll welcome donations to defray the cost of my inevitable speeding tickets.

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June 12, 2008: Issue 243

To prevent the appearance of cultural or religious bias, avoid B.C. and A.D. in dates.

Any year in the past two millennia doesn’t need a qualifier.
acceptable: The city was first settled around 1050 A.D.
preferred: The city was first settled around 1050.

If you’re worried about confusion, add “the year.”
acceptable: By 500 A.D., the Byzantine style had taken hold.
preferred: By the year 500, the Byzantine style had taken hold.

For earlier dates, try establishing them in relation to today, rather than in relation to the birth  of Christ.
acceptable: Residents of Crete began cultivating olives around 5,000 B.C.
preferred: Residents of Crete began cultivating olives about 7,000 years ago.

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May 8, 2008: Issue 238

What do you do when you accidentally launch PowerPoint instead of Entourage? Grab a cup of coffee and a Zinger while you wait for the rainbow wheel to stop spinning and the icon to stop bouncing so you can quit PowerPoint? Well, OK—if you need the caffeine and sugar.

But you can quit an application while it’s still launching: Hold down the Control key while you click on the icon in your dock.

Control-click can get you out of other trouble, too. For one thing, it will let you force-quit a frozen application, or exit an application in the middle of a task. It will also give you access to recently opened documents in most programs. Give it a try next time you’re not sure what to do; the option you need might pop up.

The one that we want: After last week’s issue, we were accused of hating animals. (“I bet you cheered when Bambi’s mother died,” as Jeff Myers gently put it.) We adore animals, and we have the furry furniture and chewed-up shoes to prove it. But we apologize if our little pronoun rule offended any card-carrying members of the ASPCA. Here’s our peace offering.

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May 15, 2008: Issue 239

Always spell-check a story before it leaves your desk, whether it’s in Microsoft Word or InDesign. Spell-check will catch misspellings, typos, and duplicate words that can easily slip past you, especially if you’ve seen the story before. Spell-check will also help you spot inconsistent names and missing first references.

Like all powerful tools, though, spell-check must be used carefully. Beware of the “replace all” command. (We’ve used this example before, but type “frounceen orange juice” into Google to see just how much trouble this function can cause.)

And remember there are some things spell-check can’t do for you. It won’t flag a through that should have been thorough, for instance. Spell-check is there to help you do your job, not to do the job for you.

Contest: The spell-check in pagination software at a company where I used to work always tried to change my name to Elizabeth Kissed Sidereal. InDesign’s spell-check wants to turn Eliot Nusbaum into Eliot Unusable and Greg Kayko into Greg Kooky. What’s the goofiest spelling suggestion you’ve seen? E-mail us. Our favorite wins a prize.

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April 17, 2008: Issue 235

A casual synonym for yes is yeah, pronounced with a short a sound (like yak without the k on the end): Yeah, the pink walls and green counters had to go.

A positive response to a roll call vote is yea, pronounced with a long a (rhymes with way): The yeas have it; we’re adjourning for lunch.

Yea is also the spelling of the cheer: Yea, the Jayhawks won the championship!

Yay is not a word, according to Webster’s dictionaries.

(Thanks to Molly Reid Sinnett, who asked this question and who promised to bring us treats if we gratuitously mentioned the Kansas win.)

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May 1, 2008: Issue 237

Whose is an often-misused word.

You know the difference between who’s (“who is”) and whose (“belonging to whom”). But another issue is usingwhose to refer to inanimate objects or concepts. While style manuals disagree on whether this is technically an error, the construction is usually awkward—and some readers will view it as poor grammar.

acceptable: a kitchen whose high style still works for a family
preferred: a kitchen where high style still works for a family

acceptable: the style, whose name derives from architect Robert Adam
preferred: the style, which takes its name from architect Robert Adam

To be safe, reserve whose (along with who and other related pronouns) for people and for animals with names.

correct: the copy editor, whose command of grammar made her a hit at parties
correct: Buddy, whose dewy brown eyes pleaded for liver snaps

Grammatically, treat other animals the same way you treat objects.

correct: the penguin, which had sheltered its egg all winter

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March 20, 2008: Issue 231

Beware the wrath of language purists when you use the word hopefully.

While it’s acceptable in the sense of it is hoped, as in “Hopefully the new stove will fit,” some people still consider this a dangling modifier because hopefully doesn’t modify the verb fit. (How will the new stove fit? Easily, snugly, barely—but not hopefully.)

In all but the most casual writing, avoid this construction. Instead, specify who’s doing the hoping: “I hope the new stove will fit.”

Otherwise, stick to using hopefully to modify a verb in the sentence, as in “My dog gazed up hopefully when she heard the pretzel bag rustle.”

Read more: There’s a nice discussion of this issue in the Web 11 entry for hopefully. Check it out, and then drop the word disjunct into your next conversation with CEs. Hopefully we’ll be impressed.

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March 27, 2008: Issue 232

When things or people function beautifully together, they are in sync—not in synch. Likewise, when you align or coordinate things, you sync them.

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April 3, 2008: Issue 233

When someone has discretion to make decisions, she has free rein—not free reign. The allusion is to horses, not to kings or queens.

Contest: Last week we asked you to devise an *NSYNC-style acronym for your department. Our favorite came from Sharon Lein, who used the first letters of the last names of business office employees (Kim O’Brien-Wollett, Sharon Lein, Jan Crabb, Gabrielle Renslow, Kathleen Armentrout, Susan Bade, and Cindy Slobaszewski) to create OL CRABS. Prizes go to everyone in the department.

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April 10, 2008: Issue 234

Dear Style on the Go:
I feel like my copy editors are neglecting me. I mark my routing slips “HOT” or “RUSH,” in all capital letters, in bright red ink. I circle and underline the words, sometimes two or three times. But I don’t get my stories back the same day, or even the next day. I know they’re reading other people’s stories. Why not mine? What do I have to do to get noticed?
Signed,
Bottom of the Pile in Des Moines

Dear Bottom:
Have you examined the message you’re putting out there? Maybe it’s time to ask yourself what your CEs really need from you.
For instance, are you putting dates on your routing slips? CEs use those dates to set priorities when they’re looking at a deep stack of manuscripts and layouts. Be sure both the “Due to Art” box and the “Due to MIC” box are filled in every time. Stories without dates will languish as CEs pick up other files that are clearly nearing (or even past) their marked deadlines.
“Hot” and “rush” don’t help. Those are subjective labels, and nearly everything CEs read is hot by someone’s standards. Nothing will speed turnaround more than a specific date.
If you must use red ink, try drawing a few hearts.

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