The Importance of Word Choice (or How Not to Anger Your Fans)
Posted: March 24, 2011 Filed under: Word choice | Tags: Boo 1 Comment »One thing I plan on writing about a lot on this blog is word choice. After all, the rules of grammar are needed to ensure we communicate clearly – but what’s the point of being grammatically correct if you use the wrong word and your message is completely misunderstood?
Case in point: Let’s say you’re the head basketball coach at a fairly large state university in the Midwest. When you joined the program, it was in pretty bad shape, and in your five years there, you’ve turned things around. You still haven’t taken a team to the Final Four, but you went to the Elite Eight a couple of years ago, and the fans love you. Then the university where you served as an assistant coach for 17 years fires its coach and comes sniffing around. What do you say to the media when they ask if you’re interested in that position?
“I plan on being at [state university in the Midwest] for a long time, retire here. I’m happy. I think that’s the most important thing. It’s always about being happy.”
Note the word used in the first sentence: “retire.” Now let’s look up “retire” in Webster’s New World College Dictionary:
to withdraw from one’s position or occupation: conclude one’s working or professional career
Ah, so what you’re saying is you’re going to stay in this position until you’re done coaching and ready to chill out with your millions on a tropical island. You’re 51 years old, so fans can rest assured that they probably have at least a good 15 years left to cheer you and your teams on.
But wait! Less than three weeks - not 15 years - later, you say this:
“I am extremely excited to once again be a part of this special [other university]. With the continued passionate support of all [other university's mascot] fans, I am confident that we will have the opportunity to succeed on and off the court and continue to build on the [other university's] championship tradition.”
This is a prime example of using the incorrect word. You didn’t mean “retire.” What you meant was “stay here until someone offers me a lot more money.” Perhaps you didn’t understand the definition of the word “retire.” Perhaps that involved too many words and your mouth was already tired from talking out of both sides of it while negotiating contracts with the two schools. Perhaps that was simply too straightforward.
Whatever the case, your word choice stunk, and you did not communicate clearly. Perhaps your new university should’ve saved some of that cool $2.2 million they’re paying you to buy you a dictionary.
When Two Is Not Better Than One
Posted: March 20, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »When I receive something to edit and find it riddled with two spaces after each period, I cringe with the realization that I have a huge task ahead of me. What this tells me is the author hasn’t learned anything about writing since Mrs. Taylor’s seventh-grade typing class. I also expect to find many references to looking something up “on the World Wide Web” and poodle skirts.
Yes, using double spaces after a period is old-fashioned. This incredibly annoying, distracting habit came about with the invention of the typewriter and its use of monospaced fonts. Farhad Manjoo gives a great explanation of this over on Slate (where he also states that using two periods is “totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong”), but essentially, double spaces made periods easier to spot when using a typewriter. Then along came computers and their easy-on-the-eyes proportional fonts. The second space was no longer needed.
This happened about 40 years ago, people. It’s time to give up your double spaces already. I understand some habits are hard to break (see: my buying every Philippa Gregory novel the second it’s available in paperback). But try this one, and you’ll see how much better your life, or at least your typing, gets. You’ll realize that the urge to hit the space bar twice as soon as you type a period was nothing more than a nervous twitch. Your thumb will stop aching after an especially long email.
And, best of all, you’ll stop being judged by us editors – at least until we spot your allusion to fuzzy dice.
A Meat-scrap Hash of Skeletons
Posted: March 19, 2011 Filed under: Cool words | Tags: What? Leave a comment »I will readily admit that I do not have the biggest vocabulary. This can be embarrassing for an editor in certain instances, such as when your co-workers turn to you to help them with a crossword puzzle. Or when you’re playing Scrabble against … pretty much anyone. I know enough words to be able to communicate at a fourth-grade level, and that’s why I went into journalism instead of, say, academia.
Therefore, when I encounter a word I’ve never seen before, this doesn’t necessarily mean much. That said, I ran across a word in Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that I’m pretty sure 99 percent of Americans have never seen or used in their lives:
“Every family had a few skeletons in their cupboards, but the Vanger family had an entire gallimaufry of them.”
“Gallimaufry”! What a delight! What does that mean? Judging from the context, maybe it’s a pantry? Or a vault? Or a super-fancy walk-in closet?
Or maybe not.
The fourth edition of the Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines “gallimaufry” as “a hash made of meat scraps” or “a hodgepodge; jumble.” The first definition makes no sense, and the second is a bit of a stretch. I’m thinking this is an example of something getting lost in the translation. Nice try, Mr. Translator. Considering you were translating a novel known for its bad writing, I can’t fault you for trying to jazz it up a bit.
You Say E-mail, the AP Stylebook (Now) Says Email
Posted: March 18, 2011 Filed under: Style | Tags: AP style Leave a comment »The day we knew was coming is here: The AP Stylebook has changed “e-mail” to “email.” The new spelling was inevitable following last year’s announcement that “Web site” was becoming “website” (it may have made more sense to revise both terms at once, but that would’ve taken away the suspense). Although many people are cheering the change, I have mixed feelings about it. Sure, it’ll save me approximately one one-bizillionth of a second in typing time. Who doesn’t need more hours in the day (yeah, I type “e-mail” that much. E-maile-maile-mail)? But I can’t help but fear that AP is kowtowing to popular opinion rather than making a reasoned change – and this makes me worry about what we may be in for next year.
After last year’s “website” announcement, AP Stylebook posted the following on its Facebook page:
Followers of AP style — editors, writers, students, P.R. professionals, word lovers — have for several years argued that the two-word spelling of “Web site” is out of date … Clearly, the public’s voice — the preference of social media activists, including within the AP — played a significant role in AP’s decision. Social media users have no doubt been the loudest voice for change. The one-word spelling is dominant on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere on the Internet (yes, Internet with a capital I).
Apparently bloggers are making the rules now. This frightens me. What’s next? Is “it’s” going to become interchangeable with “its”?
The rules don’t seem to be consistent, either. AP uses “website” and “webcam” – and “Web feed” and “Web page” (similarly, the new entry says to use “email” but “e-book” and “e-commerce”). What? I wasn’t the only one puzzling over this; I found the following exchange on AP’s “Ask the Editor” page:
Q. In re the recent style update on Web, website, Web feed — my colleagues and I do not understand the difference between terms like website, webcam and webmaster being downcase and 1 word, and terms like Web feed and Web page being uppercase and 2 words. Can you please explain the logic here? Seems to us that all common “web” terms should be the same, but … Thanks in advance. – from Escondido, CA on Wed, Apr 21, 2010
A. Compounds are lowercase: website, webcam, webmaster, webinar, etc. Certain other terms remain two words, cap-W for the proper noun, in AP usage: the Web and Web page.
Is there an answer somewhere in there? Oh, right, now I see it: “Because we said so.”
Finally, in case those two concerns aren’t reason enough to grumble about the new spelling, I think “email” looks funny.
I use AP style, however, so I’ll follow the rules. Just don’t ask me to justify them.
P.S. My guess for next year’s big announcement? “Internet” will become “internet” (yes, internet with a lowercase i).
