Legal Writing

Book review: "Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences"

Posted on September 01, 2008
"Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences: A Guide to Avoiding the Most Common Errors in Grammar and Punctuation" by Janis Bell, W.W. Norton & Co., $21.95 hard cover, 128 pages) Janis Bell has written a useful book. She has been teaching writing and grammar for more than 30 years, and her book aims to teach writers how to avoid the common errors...

Error correctors make a big error

Posted on August 23, 2008
The Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) received some attention in the news media and from the justice system recently. Two members of TEAL, which makes a crusade of correcting errors on public signage, have been banned from national parks after vandalizing a historic sign at the Grand Canyon...

What you can grow

Posted on August 23, 2008
This sentence led a reader to call us last week: Since she quit her job in March, her goal has been to continue growing the business. As I indicated with italics, the offending phrase was "growing the business." The reader, who was quite animated, wanted us to stop using this bit of business jargon...

Don't fear the apostrophe

Posted on August 16, 2008
Two advertisements caught our eyes this week. They have apostrophe problems, but different ones. The first, pictured below, falls into the old trap of using an apostrophe to make a plural. The shopping center mentioned in this ad, which came as a direct mail flier, is Clayton Corners (multiple corners)...

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Looking into "saber rattling"

Posted on August 12, 2008
I heard a television commentator refer to recent statements from U.S. politicians about Russia's invasion of Georgia as "saber rattling." That led to my thinking about why we use what sounds like a 19th-century term to refer to a 21st-century act...

Pronoun madness

Posted on August 10, 2008
Yes, there are much more important issues than this, but a few readers do notice when we mix up who and whom. Here is an example from Friday's 2A, a spot where we promote stories coming up in print or features online. Of course, the sentence should read, "Go online now and see whom you selected as the Triangle's Best Bartender...

Try a word quiz on Triangle Grammar Guide

Posted on August 07, 2008
Today's quiz is one of those that a regular commenter has called a "spelling" quiz. True, some of the choices in the sentences on the quiz are between two homonyms, but at least one sentence will ask quiz takers to choose from two words that are often confused but have different uses...

Guess the most common words

Posted on August 07, 2008
This is fun. Click here to see how many of the 100 most common words in English you can guess in five minutes.  (Thanks to Chris for pointing this out.) 

Rules for word order

Posted on August 06, 2008
I ran across this Professor Grammar video on YouTube that explains the English grammar rule on word order for adjectives before nouns. The professor uses the acronym OPSHACOM for opinion, shape, age, color, origin and material. I have linked to the video below if you want to watch...

Word choice: Emigrate and immigrate

Posted on August 05, 2008
A reader called writer David Menconi to object to a word use in Menconi's Arts & Living profile of singer Aline Simone. Simone was born in the Ukraine in 1975, to dire circumstances because her parents were on the outs with the ruling Soviet regime...

Apostrophes plague the sign-makers

Posted on August 04, 2008
My husband visited the North Carolina mountains for a few days and came back with these images of signage mishaps. The second sign is particularly odd. It's on a manufactured item, so presumably hundreds more are out there with the same mistake.              

A dictionary's new entries

Posted on August 04, 2008
The annual update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary includes about 100 new words, according to Merriam-Webster Online. The print version of the dictionary will be out in September. I am a bit late with this news. The Web site asked for reader submissions of their own favorite "mondegreen," which is a word or phrase that results from mishearing something said or sung...

Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on August 03, 2008
Today's quiz is different from previous Triangle Grammar Guide quizzes. In each of the five parts, you will see two sentences and must choose the correctly written (or, at least, the better written) sentence in each pair. I fully expect to hear from you about better versions of the correct sentences and appreciate any comments you have...

What does "in tandem" mean?

Posted on August 02, 2008
This headline brought a note from a reader: 'Extreme Makeover' helped, but ministry now struggles Refurbishing was in tandem with work on member's home The phrase "in tandem," the reader said, doesn't mean parallel or side by side. It means one after the other...

Words for our times

Posted on July 26, 2008
Here is an entry in the 2008 Associated Press Stylebook: outsourcing A business practice used by companies to reduce costs by transferring work previously performed in-house to outside suppliers. I am reading a book (review to come when I finish) about words that have come into English from other languages...

Bread and circuses

Posted on July 21, 2008
Recent letters to the editor refer to "bread and circuses," a phrase that refers to choosing short-term diversions over more important matters. It comes from the Latin phrase panem et circenses, and the English version is a literal translation...

Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on July 13, 2008
Today's quiz has five sentences. You will choose the better of two choices given in the sentences. Have fun and leave a comment. By the way, not everything on the Triangle Grammar Guide quiz or on the blog is about grammar. "Grammar" is my shorthand for all the language problems that come up...

AP Stylebook changes for 2008 (second post)

Posted on July 11, 2008
Among the new entries in the Associated Press Stylebook for 2008 is one on "myriad." The AP says that "myriad" is an adjective and is not followed by "of." The dictionary that AP uses, though, gives the noun use of "myriad" first...

AP Stylebook changes for 2008

Posted on July 06, 2008
I ordered the new version of the Associated Press Stylebook for my home use (we expect to get them in office soon). The book has a summary of the changes right after the foreword on a page titled "What's New." One of the most interesting changes for grammar geeks is the "collective nouns" entry...

Let's get "its" right

Posted on July 05, 2008
My colleague Karen spotted this sign at Umstead State Park:  The sign writer needed the possessive "its" in the second sentence, of course. (Notice the wildlife crawling on the word "wildlife"!)  

Nothing could be finer (adjective forms)

Posted on July 05, 2008
A reader from Charlotte, Anita Keller, sends two of her peeves: The first is the trend toward not using superlatives [comment from Pam: and comparatives]. Example, "more quiet" for "quieter". It happens all the time. It seems I notice it more and more every day...

Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on June 29, 2008
Today's quiz is about word usage. You will read sentences and choose the best word for the blank. Usually, I draw from actual examples to make the quizzes, but this one uses made-up examples. Good luck with the quiz. Click here to begin. Previous quizzes are available in the blog archive...

Word usage: trustee and trusty

Posted on June 28, 2008
A current story in The News & Observer makes a passing reference to a "prison trustee." I thought the term was "trusty." So I checked online first and found this reference in the Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Then I checked the Associated Press Stylebook...

Everyone needs a copy editor

Posted on June 28, 2008
Gene Weingarten's Under the Beltway column in the Washington Post has a funny take on copy editing. We copy editors appreciate Weingarten's humor.

Old catchphrases

Posted on June 24, 2008
"Remember the Maine!" "Dewey captured Manila." For some reason, these two old sayings are in my head today. They both arose from the Spanish-American War in 1898, yet they were commonly quoted in my childhood more than a half century later...

Grammar Guide: Looking for something?

Posted on June 21, 2008
We have updated the News & Observer blogs. That means the grammar guide has a new URL. If you have a bookmark (thanks!), you'll need to update it to http://blogs.newsobserver.com/grammar/home. (You need that "home" at the end.) If you are looking for something that was on the blog before June 17, you can find it here...

Grammar Guide: Looking for something?

Posted on June 17, 2008
We switched our blogging software and moved to a new server. That means that the home address of the Triangle Grammar Guide blog has changed. If you happen to have a bookmark (thanks!), you should update it to http://blogs.newsobserver.com/grammar/home...

Copy editors

Posted on June 17, 2008
The New York Times' Editorial Observer by Lawrence Downes has an eloquent Elegy for Copy Editors. The piece begins with a lament that the Newseum in Washington has no exhibits about copy editors. In the changing word of online journalism, Downes worries, the time for thoughtful copy editing is vanishing...

It's very simple - part 2

Posted on June 17, 2008
In response to a post Sunday, a reader sends this photo of the navigation display in a new Lexus hybrid. This should be the possessive "its," of course. The spelling "it's" is the contraction for "it is." Nick, the reader who sends this photo, also sent it to the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar...

A note to our readers

Posted on June 16, 2008
On Tuesday afternoon, the News & Observer blogs will be moving to a new system and a new server. This change will make getting to our blogs quicker and easier. Most of the blogs will change their appearance, while blogs like Taking Stock and Under the Dome will remain the same...

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