Category: Style & usage

Writing and speaking styles, correct usage, proper vs colloquial communication, vernacular and formal, best use of words and language.

Fowler for the 21st Century

Books & Reviews / Grammar / Language & Grammar / Style & usage / What I'm Reading Now / Words & etymologyOne Comment

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On the desk of every writer, every reporter, every editor, every PR director and every communications officer is a small library of reference books. A good dictionary (Oxford, American Heritage, Merriam Webster, Random House but gods forbid, never a generic Webster’s). A thesaurus (likely Roget’s). A style guide (CP for Canadians, or AP for Americans… Canadians likely have both).  A dictionary of quotations (because the print version is reliable as a source, and the Internet isn’t). And a usage guide. That’s de rigeur for these professions, and the very minimum that they likely have in front of them every time … click below for more ↓

Type Crimes and Taxes

Canadian Politics / Critical Thinking / Fonts & Layout / Grammar / Language & Grammar / Politics / Style & usage / TypographyOne Comment

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Type crime is the term author Ellen Lupton uses in her book, Thinking With Type, to describe egregiously bad typography. That description came to mind as I perused the latest fluff mailer from our MP; the so-called “Tax Guide.” So-called because it isn’t a guide: it’s the usual, dreary Conservative whack-a-mole propaganda about how great they were when in power and how evil the Liberals are now. In fact, if you want actual information, the publication has a final page where you have to send in to get it (or call the Canada Revenue Agency). And unless you’re an accountant, you’ll … click below for more ↓

Teas or Tisanes?

Critical Thinking / Food & Drink / Language & Grammar / Style & usage / Tea & coffeeOne Comment

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I suppose it’s crotchety of me, but whenever I hear the term “herbal tea” used to refer to an infusion of leaves or fruits that contains no actual tea, I get shirty. They’re actually not tea at all, they’re tisanes, a pleasant French word that means’herbal infusion.’ They should be called such and labelled appropriately in stores. Tea is, properly a plant originally from China: Camellia sinensis. How the word came to be used as a descriptor for any hot drink in which leaves were infused or decocted, I don’t know, but it’s lazy language; misleading and dishonest.* Tea drink … click below for more ↓

The Secret to Good Writing

Grammar / Language & Grammar / My Writing / Style & usage / Writing & FictionLeave a comment

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Spoiler alert: the secret to writing well is…. (insert drum roll)… writing. Writing a lot. Every day. Every possible minute you can spare. Writing and writing more and then writing even more. But doing so within a pre-specified limit. Oops… Now we all know that, aside from some local bloggers and EB columnists, most of us get better the more we practice a thing. Writing – aside from the aforementioned inept exceptions – included. It means not vegging in front of the TV all night, or trolling the Net for images of the Kardashian’s oversized ass, or scrolling through Facebook … click below for more ↓

Grammatical Hell in a Handbasket

Grammar / Language & Grammar / Style & usageLeave a comment

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The Washington Post has started the apocalypse. Yes, they have. And the whole world is about to go to hell in the proverbial handbasket because of it. The maw of Hell has opened… The Post has decided after decades – centuries? – of editors, writers and grammarians arguing about the lack of gender-neutral singular pronouns in English, to accept “they” as the stand-in. Can you see the dominoes starting to topple? I shudder with that. It’s a diagnosis of grammatical ebola. There is no vaccine. The story popped up on Mental Floss today: Post copy editor Bill Walsh explains that he … click below for more ↓

Moved by myself…

Collingwood / Council / Language & Grammar / Style & usageLeave a comment

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After watching Collingwood council meetings on Rogers again, I felt I should re-post a link to a piece I first wrote several years ago, then again in 2014, then re-wrote in April of this year: Me, myself and I Every time I watched the meetings, I also watched councillors say the same thing: “move by myself.” The incorrect use of the reflexive is like nails on a blackboard. We don’t expect all of our elected officials to be English majors, or great orators, but we do expect them to know – and speak – the basics. We expect them to speak better than some … click below for more ↓

A Sense of Pinker’s Style

Books & Reviews / Grammar / Language & Grammar / Style & usage / What I'm Reading Now / Writing & FictionLeave a comment

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I share one of Steven Pinker’s passions: I like to read style books, grammar books, language books. To me, they’re like literary chemistry sets. When I was young, getting a chemistry set for Christmas or a birthday opened a whole world to me. I’d explore all sorts of interactions and experiments until I had run out of chemicals to do them with. Used litmus paper littered my bedroom. Reading a book on style or usage is similarly exciting to me. How words can be placed, can work together, how they meld or conflict, the alchemy and the choreography of language, all … click below for more ↓

Me, Myself and I Redux

Collingwood / Council / Grammar / Language & Grammar / Style & usageOne Comment

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At Collingwood Council meetings, you will always hear someone say “Moved by myself…” when presenting a motion at the table.* Argh! Where did these people go to school? Clearly our education system has failed us if people were raised to say that. And this is in the public record, too. To me it’s like nails on a blackboard. It’s like saying “I seen…” and “yous.” The grammatically correct way to present a motion is, of course, to say, “Moved by me…” So why the mistake we so frequently hear at the table – and in fact in many other councils across … click below for more ↓

Abusing quotation marks

Humour & Satire / Language & Grammar / Memes; Internet & Social / Style & usageOne Comment

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What goes through your mind when you see words in a paragraph or a sentence surrounded by quotation marks? Like that sign in the image on your left? That they are words excerpted from conversations or written content? Or that they are special; peculiar words, or perhaps used ironically, sarcastically or in jest? Take these examples from the “Blog” of Unnecessary Quotation Marks: “Chicken” pot pies $5.99 Please open the door “slowly” “Push” the last channel button. No “Free” refills It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? What is in the pie that isn’t “chicken” but we’ll pretend it is? Try reading … click below for more ↓

Ruthful, funct and doleless

Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Style & usage / Words & etymologyLeave a comment

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Why can’t someone be clueful, only clueless? Hapful, not simply hapless? Aweless instead of just awful? Ruthful not merely ruthless? Doleless, not just doleful? Gormful, not just gormless? We can be thoughtful or thoughtless, careful or careless, mindful and mindless. Why not ruthful and gormful? Why not the qualities of ruthiness, gormliness and doleliness? Can we be kempt or just unkempt? Couth or just uncouth? Gruntled or just disgruntled? Shevelled or just dishevelled?* Maculate or just immaculate? Domitable, or just indomitable? Ruly or just unruly? Can we come ravelled instead of just unravelled? Can we member a corpse instead of just … click below for more ↓

Me, Myself and I

Grammar / Language & Grammar / Style & usageLeave a comment

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At council meetings across the province, you will hear someone say “Moved by myself…” when presenting a motion at the table. To me it’s like nails on a blackboard. The grammatically correct way to present a motion is, of course, to say, “Moved by me…” So why the mistake? Common misunderstanding and discomfort, it appears, according to the grammar sites I read today. People often (and incorrectly) think “me” is incorrect or even coarse (well, it is when you say something like “Me and my friends are going dancing” of “I got me a pickup truck…”). That unnecessary caution is why some … click below for more ↓

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