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In our recent stylebook revisions, we have accepted as standard a few forms that until now were still treated as colloquial or informal. In some cases, these changes just formalize what we had already been doing in practice.
For example, we've dropped the admonition against ad as a short version of advertisement; it is ubiquitous and no longer seems especially colloquial. We've also noted explicitly that despite the judgment of our newsroom dictionary, Webster's New World College, perk is acceptable in all contexts in the sense of an added benefit; who ever says perquisite?
Several writers and editors expressed relief that we are dropping our longstanding objection to fund as a verb in the general sense of finance. Debut can also now make its debut as a verb, though I wouldn't overdo it.
In some cases, we concluded that two forms had gained virtually equal acceptance, and that we no longer needed to insist on one over the other; writers and editors can let their ears be their guides. So we'll allow fit, not just fitted, as the past tense of that verb. Similarly, in most cases either lit or lighted can serve. The nouns picketer and cheater are acceptable, though picket and cheat can still serve as nouns as well.
We've long steered writers toward like as a preposition introducing examples: big companies like Microsoft and General Motors. For just as long, some readers have complained, insisting that only such as can serve in that construction. In fact, both expressions are ubiquitous and acceptable, except in the rare cases where ambiguity might arise over whether “like†means “including†or “similar to (but not including).â€
In another shift intended to keep up with changing usage, we recommend that media be treated as a collective singular noun in many cases. Here's the new entry:
media. In collective references to communication outlets and platforms, generally treat it as singular: The news media is a favorite target of politicians; Social media is playing a crucial role in the uprising. Avoid referring to news outlets simply as the media; that broad term could include movies, television, entertainment, etc. In referring to artistic techniques or materials, treat media as plural (in this sense, the singular is medium): Many different media were on display in the student exhibition.
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Keeping It Simple
In a couple of cases, we simplified a style rule that slot and copy editors had found confusing or hard to apply consistently.
For example, we used to make this exception to our normal rule about spelling out numbers under 10: In any series of directly parallel items including some numbers that would ordinarily be spelled and some that would ordinarily be figures, use only figures. But we were inconsistent in deciding what constituted “directly parallel items,†so we sometimes ended up using figures for numbers under 10 simply because they were in the same sentence or paragraph as figures over 10. Now, we will spell out numbers under 10 even as part of a series:
numbers. In general, spell out the first nine cardinal and ordinal numbers in ordinary copy: He walked nine miles; There were eight applicants; He was the sixth; The game ended in the fifth inning. Use figures for numbers above nine: The table was set for 10; There were 50 in the audience; He owns 63 horses; The game finally ended in the 15th inning. These rules apply even within a single series of numbers: We counted six pigs, eight cows and 12 sheep.
We also simplified the rule for whether to capitalize the first word after a colon, no longer trying to determine whether a full clause after the colon is “formally introduced†by what comes before. Now, we capitalize what follows the colon if it's a complete sentence; otherwise, we don't.
Check back next week for a few more highlights.
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In a Word
This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
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In the first three months of running the biggest, most sensitive dark matter detector yet - a vat of 368 kilograms of liquid xenon cooled to minus 150 degrees Fahrenheit - the researchers said they had not seen a trace of the clouds of particles that theorists say should be wafting through space, the galaxy, the Earth and, of course, ourselves, knocking out at least one controversial class of dark matter candidates.
A science story like this is a natural place to add a Celsius conversion for our international readers. (It seems like a particularly odd omission since we give the weight in kilograms.) With our growing global audience, writers and editors in New York should be alert to these situations.
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It seems clear, for instance, that someone close to the Romney campaign, which was still smarting over New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's post-Hurricane Sandy appearances with President Obama just before the election, disclosed details of a vetting dossier on Gov. Christie, with unanswered questions about his onetime work as a lobbyist, details about his household help and a Securities and Exchange Commission settlement involving his brother.
This style rule has not changed. It's “Gov.†for the first, full reference, but “Governor Christie†for subsequent references.
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[Blurb] Most of us have been poor, at least for awhile.
As a noun in this construction (after a preposition), it's two words: a while.
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[Photo caption] Ajit Pai of the F.C.C. has prioritized the revival of AM.
The bureaucratic “prioritize†is often best avoided. In any case, it means to rank in order of importance, not simply “to focus on†or “to view as important.â€
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Neither Ms. Schwanewilms, the German lyric soprano making her Met debut as the Empress, nor Ms. Goerke, a native New Yorker and a talented and popular alumna of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program who is playing her most substantial house role to date as the Dyer's Wife, consider “Frau†a heavy-handed directive about maternity.
This neither/nor construction requires a singular verb.
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Within five days, two oarfish were found in California last month, giving marine biologists a rare opportunity to study a lengthy and elusive big fish.
“Lengthy†should refer to a duration of time; make this “long.â€
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[Headline] BURNING AND LOOTING SHAKES CAPE TOWN
We wanted a plural verb with the compound subject; make it “shake Cape Town.â€
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Mr. Lhota says Mr. Bloomberg's efforts to bring more taxis to lower-traffic areas makes sense for Upper Manhattan, but not for the other boroughs.
Here, too, we wanted the plural: the efforts “make†sense, not makes.
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But Senator Booker was met with a fair amount of attention from his fellow Democrats, whose excitement seemed to stem less from the fact that, after Senator Frank R. Lautenberg died in June, their party retained the seat as expected - but rather at his significant national star wattage and the fund-raising potential it may bring.
This long and convoluted sentence goes off track. “Less from†should be followed by “than from,†not “but rather at.â€
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It is more of an expression of hope than a polemical packed with facts or accusations.
The noun form is “polemic.â€
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The Renewal Front party, for which Sergio Massa, a municipal mayor, headed the list of candidates, won heavily here with almost 44 percent of the vote, 12 points ahead of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's party, the Front for Victory.
Redundant; delete “municipal.â€
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Like many luxury businesses in China, the explosion of buyers for art here has been fueled by the pent-up consumerism of the newly rich.
A dangler; what noun does the “like†phrase modify? One possible fix: “As in many luxury businesses …â€
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Mrs. Broz made her last public appearance at Tito's funeral three years later, then spent the rest of her life under a kind of house arrest that few, including she, understood.
“Including†functions as a preposition and should take the objective case; make it “including her,†or recast.
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Early on, Ms. Taymor, whom the alternately enthralled and smirking Mr. Berger suggests may have won a few too many prizes for being “uncompromising,†falls hopelessly in love with an idea that has few other fans.
Make it “who,†the subject of “may have won.â€
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Telling drivers to stop or go, or turn or go straight, may sound simple, but these are aggravated commuters limping off a traffic-clogged bridge.
From the stylebook:
aggravate. It means make worse, not anger or irritate.
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More colleges have been offering support, such as scholarships, counseling and housing, to foster youth who might otherwise struggle to get an education.
This is hard to read because at first glance, “foster†seems to be a verb; we meant for it to modify “youth†(i.e., young people from foster homes). Recast.
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That October, after Grady Little overcooked Pedro and then Aaron Boone, and you know the rest, I wore the hat as I stalked home grimly through the gauntlet of bars on Bleecker Street.
The stylebook prefers “gantlet†for this sense.
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Harry S. Truman spoke for many of his successors when he said that “the pressures and complexities of the presidency have grown to a state where they are almost too much for one man to endure.†And that was decades before metadata technology came along.
An odd phrase. While it is used by most software, metadata is not really a technology. It's data, specifically data about other data - lists of phone numbers, for example. Software and technology use it, but it's so basic that this sounds like calling a schedule of TV programs “television technology.â€
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TruYou, the fictional company's core product, has the letters of one of the founder's names, just like PageRank, Google's search algorithm, is named after the Google co-founder Larry Page.
As, not like, to introduce a full clause here.
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Unless one party backs down, the battle could escalate into a reprisal of the partisan strife that paralyzed the Senate for several weeks over the summer.
“Reprisal†means an act of retaliation; we meant “reprise,†something that is repeated.
This week, a few more highlights from the recent revisions in The Times's stylebook.
With the integration of our global editions as The International New York Times, it's important for writers and editors in New York and elsewhere to be mindful of our growing global audience. This doesn't mean we are trying to homogenize our writing or disguise its origins. But in stories of international interest, writers might think twice about American-centric expressions - for example, sports metaphors like “the length of three football fields†or “a slam-dunk.†More broadly, we should consider whether international examples or voices might broaden the appeal of a particular story. The Times's audience includes plenty of educated readers in Tokyo, Brussels and Rio, not just in New York or Houston.
With that in mind, we added this stylebook entry on currencies, allowing wider use of currency symbols when appropriate:
currencies. Amounts in American dollars should use the dollar symbol: $20 billion; $10. For euros, yen and British pounds, spell out the names on first reference in an article: 100 billion euros. If there are additional references to amounts, the appropriate symbol may be used as long as the reference is clear: "20 billion; Â¥100 million; £10,000. Also provide a dollar equivalent at least once, at the latest exchange rate. When a foreign sum is given in round numbers, round the conversion as well, especially if the details are immaterial. Do not use symbols for any other currencies; spell out the names, including for foreign dollars: 100 Canadian dollars.
We are encouraging more Celsius conversions for stories of interest internationally:
temperatures. Fahrenheit readings are the norm for casual or passing references, and in weather stories aimed largely at American readers. But if a story referring to temperatures is likely to be of interest to international readers, provide a Celsius equivalent at least once. Examples might include news of a European heat wave or reports on climate change and other scientific topics. Use an online conversion tool to avoid arithmetic errors, but do not give a converted figure that is more precise than the original: For 75 degrees Fahrenheit, the equivalent is 24 degrees Celsius, not 23.89 degrees Celsius.
We should also consider including metric equivalents for measurements in stories likely to attract a large international audience. In our reports about the typhoon in the Philippines, for instance, we had many references to wind speeds of 140 or 190 miles an hour; Asian readers would no doubt have welcomed a metric reference, too.
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What Things Are Worth
We added this new entry about adjusting for inflation, particularly when reporting on “record†sums:
inflation. Adjusting for inflation is crucial in providing accurate comparisons for dollar figures across time; failing to do so can be seriously misleading. In particular, avoid describing a sum of money as a record or the largest ever unless the superlative is true after inflation is taken into account. So, for example, a baseball player's new contract should not be described as the largest ever unless that is true after adjusting for inflation. Other common examples include government budget figures, box-office totals, legal settlements and merger deals.
When appropriate, use a less sweeping description like one of the largest ever or the largest in two decades.
This is not statistical quibbling. It is simply not accurate to say that $1,000 in 2013 dollars is worth more than, for example, $900 in 1960 dollars; the opposite is true ($1,000 in 2013 is equivalent to about $127 in 1960 dollars). The Bureau of Labor Statistics' online inflation calculator provides easy comparisons.
This entry is part of a larger effort to improve the way we deal with numbers, both in financial stories and in other contexts. More recommendations will follow.
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In a Word
This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
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Critics of the Benghazi report have accused Ms. Logan and her producers of having a conservative bias; as evidence, some have pointed to an Oct. 2012 speech by Ms. Logan that called in passionate terms for American revenge after the Benghazi attack.
Abbreviate the month only when it is followed by the date; otherwise, spell out: “October 2012.â€
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Studies have suggested that, on average, twins fair less well when the pregnancy is allowed to continue to full term.
Fare, not fair, of course.
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But there are reportedly about 300 players in the academy in a given year, and less than 10 percent typically make the first team.
Referring to a number of players (rather than an amount), make it “fewer than.â€
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The runoff was the first of what is likely to be many battles to come over the direction of the party, and it proved, to the relief of many in the Republican leadership, that a strong showing by the establishment can win tough races.
“What†refers to “many battles,†so it needs a plural verb. Also, delete “to come,†since the many battles include the one just past as well as those in the future.
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James W. Giddens, the trustee unwinding MF Global's brokerage unit, recovered large swathes of the money and gradually disbursed it to clients.
The preferred spelling is “swath.†In any case, the word, which means a strip, seems odd in this context.
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As a Jew living in occupied Paris during World War II, her life was circumscribed: There was a yellow Star of David sewn onto her clothes, cinemas and parks were off limits, and she had to submit to an 8 p.m. curfew.
A dangler; the phrase “as a Jew†describes her, not “her life.†Rephrase.
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Not too long after his first recordings, made at 16 with a doo-wop band in Freeport, N.Y., Mr. Reed started singing outside of the song's melody, as if he were giving a speech with a fluctuating drone in a New York accent.
Avoid such double prepositions; there's no need for “of†here.
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New York City has violated the rights of about 900,000 of its residents with disabilities by failing to accommodate for their needs during emergencies, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.
“Accommodate†is a transitive verb that takes a direct object; there's no need for “for†here.
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Her genesis began more mundanely, in a conversation between Sana Amanat and Steve Wacker, two editors at Marvel. “I was telling him some crazy anecdote about my childhood, growing up as a Muslim-American,†Ms. Amanat said.
No hyphen with a religious description like this. From the stylebook:
(-)American. Hyphenate Italian-American, Japanese-American, Irish-American, Polish-American, Asian-American and similar phrases denoting foreign heritage. Though some idioms (like Korean grocery and Irish Catholic) seem entrenched in the language, many members of such groups demand the addition of -American to acknowledge their full membership in this society. Usage does not call for the hyphen in religious references like Jewish American or in French Canadian, English Canadian or Latin American.
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Did the she have pancreatitis? It didn't really fit. And the CT scan was even more concerning.
“Concerning†means “relating to.†It shouldn't be used to mean “worrisome†or “a cause for concern.â€
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[Subheading] The Ownership of Chagalls, Matisses and Other Works Lost During World War II Are in Question
The ownership “is†in question, not are.
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[Headline] Knicks' Chandler Out With Nondisplaced Fracture
This sort of medical jargon seems out of place in a headline.
Tiny as they are, misplaced commas form an outsize blot on a sentence. In the spectrum of grammatical lapses, they seem particularly amateurish.
Here are several that popped up where they didn't belong over just two days recently.
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One question asked by Mr. Gibney, who narrates the film, is why an athlete whose reputation seemed secure after his retirement, returned to competition.
This sentence illustrates the difference between a nonrestrictive relative clause (which should be set off with commas) and a restrictive one (which shouldn't). The clause “who narrates the film†is properly set off with commas. It is a nonrestrictive clause - the information it adds isn't crucial to the sentence. But the clause “whose reputation seemed …†is restrictive; if it were removed the sentence wouldn't make sense. So it should not be set off with commas. As it is, we seemed unsure and tried to split the difference, but there should be no comma after “retirement,†just as there is no comma before “whose.â€
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In his first morning as New York City's mayor-elect, Bill de Blasio spent a cordial, if somewhat awkward hour with the man he will soon replace, Michael R. Bloomberg, making small talk about the intricacies of garbage pickup.
You could treat “if somewhat awkward†as a parenthetical aside and set it off with two commas. Or, perhaps better, you could go with no commas. But it doesn't work to have just one.
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In a clear act of sentiment, the researchers titled their paper, “Forever Love: The Hitherto Earliest Record of Copulating Insects from the Middle Jurassic of China.â€
No comma before the title. This is a common error, perhaps because writers are used to using a comma before a quotation. But the construction here is comparable to “He named the dog Spot†(no comma before Spot). (Also, “hitherto†in the title itself seems misused and in any case unnecessary, but that was not our problem.)
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While Bill de Blasio, was campaigning toward his landslide victory as the next mayor of New York City, his son, Dante, was captivating the news media with his Afro.
Just a typo, I guess. But for a little mark, it certainly is ugly. In a nondeadline story, proofreading should have caught it.
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More Tiny Troubles
We've seen a lot of stray hyphens lately, too. Don't throw one in just on the off chance that it's necessary. Hyphens are sometimes needed for clarity in compound modifiers before a noun. They are much less often used for modifiers that follow a verb.
As a refresher, here's the stylebook entry:
hyphen. Compounds formed with and without hyphens are listed separately or in entries for individual prefixes and suffixes.
Use the hyphen in constructions like three-mile hike and 30-car train and to avoid confusion in words like re-form (meaning form again). See re(-).
Do not use hyphens in compound modifiers when the meaning is clear without them: sales tax bill; foreign aid plan; C minor concerto. But: pay-as-you-go plan and earned-income tax credit. Comparative modifiers using more or less do not need hyphens except on the rare occasions when the meaning is ambiguous without one. Hyphens inserted hastily or automatically can be misleading, since the first word may relate at least as much to the third word as to the second. For example: airport departure lounge; fast breeder reactor; national health insurance. Also use no hyphen in these forms: navy blue skirt; dark green paint.
In some compounds, the hyphen should be used to avoid ambiguity or absurdity: unfair-practices charge, not unfair practices charge. Note the separation of an otherwise solid compound in small-business man (not small businessman) and parochial-school teacher (not parochial schoolteacher). See compound words.
Never use a hyphen after an adverb ending in ly: a newly married couple; an elegantly furnished house; a perfectly explicit instruction. But an adjective ending in ly may take the hyphen if it is useful: gravelly-voiced; grizzly-maned.
The special case of compound modifiers that precede nouns is demonstrated in the entries on ill(-) and well(-). An example: He wore a well-tailored gray suit. But omit the hyphen when the words follow the noun they modify: The suit was well tailored.
Some other compound modifiers, typically those beginning with nouns, keep their hyphens regardless of position in a sentence: They are health-conscious; The purchase was tax-free; The party describes itself as family-oriented; Stylebook editors are awe-inspiring.
Use no hyphens in a title consisting of a principal noun with modifiers: commander in chief; lieutenant general; attorney general; director general; editor in chief; delegate at large; secretary general. (See separate listings.) But use the hyphen in a title that joins two equal nouns: secretary-treasurer.
When a modifier consisting of two or more words is bound together by quotation marks, the hyphen is redundant; thus poison-pill defense and “poison pill†defense are both acceptable, but “poison-pill†defense is not. A long phrase serving as a contrived modifier is best set off by quotation marks rather than hyphens: her “fed up with business as usual†theme.
Use the suspensive hyphen, rather than repeat the second part of a modifier, in cases like this: On successive days there were three-, five- and nine-inch snowfalls.
Some house numbers in Queens take the hyphen: 107-71 111th Street.
Use the hyphen in a compound denoting national origin: Italian-American; Japanese-American. But French Canadian and Jewish American, for example, take no hyphen because both phrases denote current group membership rather than origin.
A couple of recent lapses:
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Some state insurance commissioners caught off-guard by the announcement said they did not intend to allow insurers to reinstate the policies.
No hyphen in this adverbial expression.
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The governors of Oregon and Washington, both Democrats, are working on ways to price carbon, though they could face tough-going in their state legislatures.
Can't imagine why we thought this one was needed. “Going†is a gerund acting as the direct object of “could faceâ€; “tough†is just an adjective modifying the gerund. It's the same construction as “could face big problems.†No hyphen.
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In a Word
This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
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To add a course crunchy texture and strong flavor to your food, use sea salt.
We meant “coarse,†of course. (Also, we needed a comma between the two adjectives.)
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For Jay Z (née Shawn Carter), the timing could not have been worse.
In precise usage, the masculine form would be “ne†or “né.†Better yet, why not skip the French altogether?
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WASHINGTON - President Obama made a vigorous appeal to Congress on Thursday to give breathing space to his efforts to forge a nuclear deal with Iran, and the prospects for an interim agreement may have improved with the release of a report by international inspectors who said that for the first time in years, they saw evidence that the Iranians have put the brakes on their nuclear expansion.
The inspectors, from the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that very few new advanced centrifuges had been installed since President Hassan Rouhani of Iran took office in June, promising a new start with the West, and that little significant progress has been made on the construction of a new nuclear reactor, which became a point of contention in negotiations in Geneva last week.
“Had,†not “have,†for proper sequence of tenses after the past-tense “they saw evidence.†More broadly, these two opening sentences are awfully long, complex and daunting.
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[Subheading] On Sundays on the Upper West Side, she elbows out the men and runs one of the only all-female pickup basketball games in the city.
[Text] Just before 11, Amber Batchelor laces up one of her 30 pairs of brightly colored Nike Dunks or Air Jordans and walks the five blocks to stake her claim for one of the only all-women's pickup games in the city.
Avoid the illogical phrase “one of the only.†Make it “one of the few.â€
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It goes without saying that the only near-term deal with Iran worth partially lifting sanctions for would be a deal that freezes all the key components of Iran's nuclear weapons development program, and the only deal worth lifting all sanctions for is one that verifiably restricts Iran's ability to breakout and build a nuclear bomb.
Two words: break out.
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After being fired for criticizing his newspaper's coverage of the protests, Mr. Baydar wrote in The Guardian, “the country's journalists are enslaved in newsrooms run by greedy and ruthless media proprietors, whose economic interests make them submissive to Erdogan.â€
A deceptive dangler. Because “Mr. Baydar wrote …†is parenthetical and set off by commas, the initial modifying phrase grammatically should be referring to “the country's journalists†- which is not what we meant. We could delete the comma after The Guardian and insert “thatâ€; or start the sentence, “After Mr. Baydar was fired …, he wrote …â€
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For drivers, the specter of medallion ownership has been complicated by several factors.
A “specter†is not just a prospect, but a ghostly or feared one.
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[Subheading] A ‘significant force' in landmarking and preservation.
The stylebook advises against using “landmark†as a verb.
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Eight years later, Ms. Jones Austin came down with a mysterious fever that turned out to be caused by acute myeloid leukemia, one of the illnesses that has since been linked to exposure to the fires on Sept. 11.
Recorded announcement. We would not say, “illnesses has been linked.†Make it “one of the illnesses that have since been linked.â€
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The pooch was being sold by Peter M. Brant, the newsprint magnate who auctioned the canine to raise money to endow his Greenwich, Conn., foundation.
Both of these conspicuous substitutes for “dog†(referring to a Jeff Koons sculpture) are trite.
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The Richmond electoral board reviewed its results on Monday in a handful of precincts after a request by Republicans, who were suspicious that reported turnout in the Democratic-leaning city was higher than historic trends.
We meant “historical,†not “historic.†Or perhaps just say “higher than usual.â€
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Facebook pressed forward on Friday with official changes to its privacy policies, first proposed in August, that make the terms of using Facebook more clear than ever: By having an account on the service, its 1.2 billion global users are allowing the company to use their postings and other personal data for advertising.
Clearer, not more clear.
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Women are the engine of growth for the American wine market and are being arrested for drunken driving more often than before, as the numbers for men have remained stable or diminished.
This is one of those clichés that never made much sense, and it makes even less sense divorced from the metaphor of economic machinery. Rephrase.
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ALGIERS - They have a reputation for smashing everything in their wake.
You can leave things in your wake; you can smash things in your path. But you can't smash things in your wake because you've left them behind you.
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ORLANDO, Fla. - Marlon Byrd was a reclamation project last year, a clunker the Mets hoped they could fix up, polish off and play in the outfield.
“Polish off†means to finish or to get rid of. We probably meant “polish up†or just “polish.â€
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The Times article cited a middle-school student who said he was punched repeatedly by other students on a ride home from a school-sponsored ski trip, after he had been asked whether he were Jewish and he said yes.
No need for the subjunctive; we just wanted the simple past tense “was.†(Also, no hyphen is needed in “middle school student.â€)
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Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Tuesday insisted that Bloomberg News, which he owns, did not censor itself by killing two articles related to China.
The time element here should go after the verb: “insisted on Tuesday.â€
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After the governor went on one particularly long regression, Ms. Gust Brown chimed in with a chiding that only a spouse could offer smiling: “Didn't I tell you he was exhausting?â€
We meant digression, not regression (fixed for later print editions).
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Despite the marketing - touring top works through Doha, Hong Kong, London, Zurich and other art capitals; holding lunches and dinners for major collectors and their advisers; mounting aggressive advertising campaigns; and even letting superrich clients road test a painting on their living room walls - no one, not even the experts, know just how high (or low) a work will go until auction night.
“No one†is singular, so make it “no one … knows.†Also, “road-test†as a verb takes a hyphen, according to our preferred dictionary, Webster's New World College.
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WASHINGTON - I was confused when I started receiving Twitter posts directed at Miami Dolphins lineman Jonathan Martin.
Better here to say “tweets,†as the writer originally did; this was fixed for later editions. Our new stylebook entry offers guidance. Just as “tweet†can seem jarring in serious news contexts, synonyms substituted by rote are equally jarring in informal contexts. The stylebook says the word may be used “for special effect or for articles dealing extensively with social media.†A first-person Sports article solely about a Twitter phenomenon fits the bill.
Slang and colloquialisms have their place, for special effect or to deliberately convey an informal, conversational tone. But otherwise, they can seem trite or hackneyed, and can undercut the serious and literate tone we seek.
Strangely, kicking seems to figure prominently in our recent slang lexicon. All of these instances struck a discordant note in my ear:
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First the State Legislature roundly rejected the law, refusing to create a state insurance exchange and punting it to the federal government to run the new insurance market.
Slang or colloquial use of sports terms can be particularly off-putting to nonfans - to say nothing of some international readers, who may be completely baffled by punting, hitting a home run, etc.
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The fact that these reforms are kicking in at the same time that Democrats enjoy ironclad control of the government makes it difficult to draw long-term conclusions about their effectiveness.
The colloquial “kicking in†adds nothing here; make it “taking effect†or something similar.
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Or did he merely kick the can down the road three months so he and Congress will be in the same place again, repeating a pattern that will define his remaining three years in office?
This colloquial “kick the can†cliché has been rampant in Washington lately, but that doesn't mean we have to adopt it. In fact, it's a very good reason to avoid it.
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A security officer checked areas usually off limits to students, including the roof, Mr. Beckman said. Students are warned that going on the roof can result in their being kicked out of the dorm. Nothing was found on the roof, Mr. Beckman said.
The colloquialism wasn't conveying a special effect or tone; this was simply a straight news story. Expelled, barred or some other verb would have worked.
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BLACKSBURG, Va. - Trailing in polls and outspent on the airwaves, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, who has sought to capture the swing state of Virginia by building on his Tea Party base, faced his last, best chance to reboot the race for governor in a debate here Thursday.
All right, “reboot†isn't really related to kicking. And used for computers, it's straightforward and unobjectionable. But let's resist this clichéd and colloquial metaphorical use.
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And Still More Slang
Beyond the punting, kicking and rebooting, these other recent colloquialisms also seemed jarring:
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Playdom has been a disappointing acquisition for Disney, in part because the once-promising social games market started to flatline shortly after the purchase.
In a medical context, it's jargon; in other contexts, it's colloquial.
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But they looked plenty assertive Tuesday, never trailing and never taking their foot off the gas.
As a noun, “plenty†is standard. As an adverb, it's not.
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A friend of Mr. Souza's said he got a standing-room ticket from a photographer he knew, who then invited him into the press box when another photographer did not show.
“Show†in the sense of “put in an appearance†is colloquial. “Show up†is standard.
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Several residents said Mr. Mitchell, who also went by the monikers P.W. or P-Dubbz, went out of his way to be kind to children and the aged.
Slang used in ostentatious avoidance of a normal word - like “names†- draws even more attention to itself. Don't.
Â
In a Word
This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
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New York is one of 41 states that bans texting while driving and one of 12 that bans hand-held cellphones at the wheel.
Arrghh. Twice in one sentence. Recorded announcement, courtesy of the stylebook:
[N]ote the plural verb in a construction like She is one of the people who love the Yankees. The test is to reverse the sentence: Of the people who love the Yankees, she is one. The subject is people, not one.
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Still, it's better to be dying on screen then sitting at home watching other actors get to do it.
A vexingly common typo. Than, not then.
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Shortly after 7 a.m. Friday, as the sun was starting to rise in Norridge, Ill., Anna Gonzalez and Alex Molina were loading their Kmart shopping bags into the trunk of the car. After five-and-a-half hours of shopping, they were exhausted and heading home to sleep.
We're suffering an epidemic of unwanted hyphens. None are needed in an expression like this; it's just a number describing “hours.â€
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Ms. Warren, who has emerged as a fund-raising powerhouse, collected $42.1 million for her race last year in Massachusetts, the most money a woman has ever raised in a Senate campaign. Second place goes to Mrs. Clinton, who raised $38.7 million for her 2006 Senate re-election campaign.
The most ever? Well, no, actually. As noted in the recent stylebook update, we should be careful about comparing dollar figures across time. Without adjusting for inflation, a superlative like this may be inaccurate. As a sharp-eyed reader noted, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Inflation Calculator, $38.7 million in 2006 dollars is equivalent to about $44 million in 2012 dollars.
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Exactly who or what the N.S.A. was monitoring, however, was unclear from the CBC's description of the report. The document does indicate, however, that the N.S.A. believed that its mandate during the summit meetings included “providing support to policy makers.â€
“Whom,†not “who,†since it's the object of “was monitoring. Also, “however†in consecutive sentences has a head-snapping effect. It seems unneeded in the second.
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A combination of the across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration and a 2011 cap on military spending - of which the environmental cleanup is technically part - do not leave them with enough money to meet their commitments, they say.
“A combination†is the subject, requiring a singular verb. Or recast the sentence.
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In an effort to overcome those obstacles, an increasing number of school districts, including Boston, Cincinnati and Washington, have recently begun initiatives to expand Advanced Placement course offerings and enroll more black and Hispanic students, children from low-income families and those who aspire to be the first in their generation to go to college.
Presumably we meant “the first in their families�
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[Caption] Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his daughter, Georgina.
He has two daughters. So without the name, “daughter†is not fully specific. That means there should be no comma.
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The problem is that so-called back end systems, which are supposed to deliver consumer information to insurers, still have not been fixed.
“Back end†should be hyphenated as a modifier. Beyond that, this is a common bit of jargon, so phrasing it so gingerly made us look clueless. We could have eliminated the “so-called†and simply used the phrase. Even better, eliminate it altogether, since “systems that are supposed to deliver consumer information…†is perfectly clear.
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He hated birthdays and holidays, and forbid his mother from putting up a Christmas tree.
The past tense is forbade, and it should be followed by “to†- “forbade his mother to put up …â€
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The rules would also effect political activity by conservative and liberal grass-roots organizations, including Tea Party groups whose complaints of aggressive treatment and harassment by I.R.S. employees led to the resignation of several high-ranking agency officials last spring.
This is one we should not get wrong. Make it “affect.â€
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Mr. Ferrell and Mr. McKay were at first dead set against making sequels to any of their movies, particularly when there were other original stories to tell. But as more and more people clamored for an “Anchorman†sequel, their reticence disappeared.
We meant “reluctance.â€
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Better returns would influence pension firms and other big investors to give more money to the V.C.'s, which would in term increase the number of deals.
“In turn,†not “in term.â€
It's been barely a month since my last litany of subject-verb agreement errors, but the file is overflowing once again. The topic is tedious, the errors exasperating. Readers notice and find it hard to understand why we make so many rather rudimentary mistakes. A good question.
Here's the entry from The Times's stylebook, which describes some of the pitfalls:
number of subject and verb. After a neither-nor construction, if the subjects are both singular, use a singular verb: Neither Dana nor Dale was happy. If the subjects are both plural, use a plural verb: Neither the Yankees nor the Mets were hitting. If one subject is singular and the other plural, use the number of the one nearer the verb: Neither the man nor his horses were ever seen again.
A verb that merely connects two elements in a sentence takes the number of the preceding noun or pronoun, which is the subject: Her specialty was singing and dancing and playing the violin. The verb most often used this way is to be. Others that can serve as connectors include appear, become, feel, look, seem, smell and taste. When the subject is the pronoun what, the writer must decide whether to construe it as the thing that (singular) or the things that (plural). Once the decision is made, all affected verbs must conform: What was remarkable was the errors made on both sides; What were most in demand were language ability and a degree in Russian studies.
When a verb is far removed from its subject, especially if another noun intervenes, mistakes like this may occur: The value of Argentina's exports to the United States are 183 million pesos. The verb should be singular because its subject (value) is singular.
Misidentification of the subject also causes trouble: Terry Cordeiro is one of those people who goes in for striking colors. The verb should be go, since the subject is who, which refers to the plural people. Test such constructions by reversing them: Of those people who go in for striking colors, Terry Cordeiro is one.
Sums of money are usually treated as singular because the focus is on the sum, not on individual bills or coins: Ten dollars buys less now than five did then. Similarly: Five pounds of rice feeds a family of four for a week (because the pounds are not counted one by one). Use the plural when the focus is on individual items: Three hundred parcels of food were shipped.
Total of or number of (and a few similar expressions, like series of) may take either a plural or a singular verb. In general, when the expression follows a, it is plural: A total of 102 people were injured; A number of people were injured. When the expression follows the, it is usually singular: The total of all department budgets is $187 million; The number of passengers injured was later found to be 12.
If couple conveys the idea of two people, treat it as a plural: The couple were married. But: Each couple was asked to give $10.
And here are some of the latest lapses:
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DVDs and, before that, VHS tapes have allowed audiences to catch up on shows for a long time - in fact, the popularity of “Family Guy†DVDs were partly credited with the 2005 revival of the once-canceled Fox animated comedy.
Here's perhaps the most common problem - an intervening phrase that throws us off track so we forget whether the real subject is singular or plural. Make it “the popularity … was partly credited.â€
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Another tipping point were reports that Clarence Norman Jr., a former chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party and former assemblyman who was convicted of accepting illegal campaign contributions, had helped Mr. Thompson's get-out-the-vote effort, Mr. Hynes's spokesman, Jerry Schmetterer, said.
The subject, which determines the number of the verb, is the singular “tipping point.†Don't be led astray by the predicate noun “reports.â€
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[Subheading] While Capitol Hill grinds to a halt, research and innovation suffers.
Occasionally two nouns joined by “and†are so closely linked that they can be treated grammatically as one unit: Whiskey and soda is my favorite drink. But normally such a compound subject is plural; make it “research and innovation suffer.â€
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Charles Townsend, the chief executive of Condé Nast, was there as well. Oh, and so was David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker; Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair; Stefano Tonchi, the editor of W; and Jim Nelson, the editor of GQ. …
The inverted word order apparently confused us; make it “were†to agree with the compound subject that follows.
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Michael Douglas was in the house. So was Mick Jagger and Al Pacino.
The very same problem. Mick and Al were, not was.
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Decades of experience with Medicaid, the program for low-income people, show that having an insurance card does not guarantee access to specialists or other providers.
Here's a subtler problem. “Decades†is plural and seems to require the plural verb “show.†But the phrase “decades of experience†describes an amount or extent of experience, not a number of separate items. So treat it as a singular: “Decades of experience … shows.â€
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Laurence H. Tribe, a law professor at Harvard, is one of the skeptics who agrees with the White House.
No roundup of agreement problems is complete without this oft-bungled construction. The verb in the relative clause should be plural: of the skeptics who agree with the White House, Tribe is one.
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More recently, the Shabab have put Kenya in its cross hairs, especially after Kenya sent thousands of troops into Somalia in 2011 to chase the Shabab away from its borders and then kept those troops there as part of a larger African Union mission to pacify Somalia.
Don't treat the same word as singular and plural in the same sentence. Shabab is correct as a plural, so make it “the Shabab have put Kenya in their cross hairs.â€
Â
In a Word
This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
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WASHINGTON - To Speaker John A. Boehner, it is “job-killing.†To Senator Ted Cruz, it is “hurting the American people.†To Senator Mitch McConnell, it is a “big reason we are turning into a nation of part-time workers.â€
But to many independent economic analysts, it remains too early to tell how the sweeping Affordable Care Act will affect the jobs market.
The “its†in the first graf all refer to the same thing. But the next “it†involves a different construction and does not have the same antecedent, so the whole passage is muddled.
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On many of these cases, the outcome may depend again on a single vote - and often, but not always, that means Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose vote decided more 5-4 cases than any other member of the court last year.
The comparison is not parallel; it compares “vote†to “member.†One simple revision: “whose vote decided more 5-4 cases than any other justice's last year.â€
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And while keeping guns out of their hands won't put an end to gun violence, it might at least mitigate against these ritual slaughters of innocent people.
Not the right word. Here's what the stylebook says:
militate, mitigate. Militate against something means exert weight or effect against it: High taxes militate against relocating the plant. Mitigate, which means ease or soften, is never the word to use with against: Tax reductions mitigated the financial pressure.
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“Save us from the madness,†the chaplain, a Seventh-day Adventist, former Navy rear admiral and collector of brightly colored bow ties named Barry C. Black, said one day late last week as he warmed up into what became an epic ministerial scolding.
O.K., I get the point, but it does look as though the bow ties are named Barry C. Black.
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Video footage from local television stations showed the bus on its side, blocking lanes of traffic, with the tractor-trailer partly off the road. Dozens of emergency vehicles surrounded the wreckage, which smoldered for hours.
“Video footage†seems redundant here.
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In another case, Mr. Ulbricht is accused of asking an undercover agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to kill a former Silk Road employee whom Mr. Ulbricht feared would become a government witness, according to an indictment.
Make it “who,†the subject of “would become.â€
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While there is little evidence about how racism, sexual assault or drinking at Dartmouth really compare with its peers, it is undeniably different in several ways beyond the popularity of the Greek system.
The compound subject with “or†is singular, so the verb should be “compares.†But the bigger problem is that the comparison is not parallel. Rephrase to compare Dartmouth with its peers, or the problems of Dartmouth with the problems of its peers.
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Virtually every major turn in the legal process has sparked riots, either by Islamist or secularist protesters, and the authorities on Tuesday had increased security in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, and in Chittangong, Mr. Chowdhury's native region.
Parallelism problem. Make it “by either Islamist or secularist protesters.â€
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Under the high ceilings, the fluorescent lights still bright, there were just15 or so industrial sewing machines in a sprawling space meant for triple that amount.
Make it “triple that number†or “three times as many.â€
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Twitter has several women vice presidents in business, not technical, roles …
Avoid “women†as a modifier. Make it “female vice presidents†or “women as vice presidents.â€
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Ms. Kirshenbaum, a single parent to two adopted Guatemalan daughters and two cats, lives in a 13-by-30-foot row house near downtown Philadelphia.
The adoptive status of the children doesn't appear relevant and so should not be included.
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As trainees in a large teaching hospital, we knew numerous sales reps by name and the products they pedaled; and it was odd, even disappointing, to go to an educational conference where one of them was not standing next to a table laden with tchotchkes, information brochures and free take-out.
Peddled, not pedaled.
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In short, setting up the ideal home network is often easier said than done. There are ways, however, to make it less aggravating and more reliable.
See the stylebook entry:
aggravate. It means make worse, not anger or irritate.
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Not long ago, I met five young Yale alumna at a Vietnamese restaurant in Cambridge.
“Alumna†is singular; the plural (for women) is “alumnae.â€
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The case, which is being coordinated by federal prosecutors in New York, is part of a larger push by federal authorities to police elicit commerce along the frontier of the Internet.
Illicit, not elicit, of course.
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But the Supreme Court's ruling on the health care law last year, while upholding it, allowed states to choose whether to expand Medicaid. Those that opted not to leave about eight million uninsured people who live in poverty ($19,530 for a family of three) without any assistance at all.
The phrasing was confusing because it's natural to read “to leave†together as an infinitive. Rephrase, perhaps like this: “Those that opted not to expand the program leave about …â€
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The stumbles have proved particularly challenging because they arrived with Metro-North already at a crossroads. The railroad, which was brought under the transportation authority's auspices in 1983, has endured a spate of departures that have left several positions either vacant or filled by less-experienced employees.
The hyphen wasn't necessary.
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She was the eldest daughter of one of the only black families in Longmeadow, Mass., who arrived home to see their new house scrawled with racist graffiti. …
They are, in their relationship, their politics and, above all, their lifestyle, a striking departure from the city's reining pair, Michael R. Bloomberg and Diana L. Taylor, his longtime girlfriend.
Avoid the illogical expression “one of the onlyâ€; make it “one of the few.†Also, we meant “reigning,†not “reining†(fixed in later editions).
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Mr. Boehner even mocked the president on Monday for refusing to negotiate over health reform, as if he actually expected Mr. Obama to join in wrecking a law that will provide health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans under threat of blackmail.
Watch where you put those prepositional phrases; neither the provision of health care nor the millions of Americans are under threat of blackmail.
For this week's roundup of grammar, style and other editing missteps, I turn once again to the popular After Deadline Quiz. Try to identify at least one problem in each of the following passages; my answers and explanations are below.
Thanks to colleagues and readers for contributions.
1. Ms. Ahrendts's rein at the top of Burberry has been a rewarding one for shareholders.
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2. Georgia Nell Blume and William Donald Sugerman are to be married Sunday at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in Brooklyn.
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3. Revenge porn is one of those things that sounds as if it must be illegal but actually isn't.
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4. There are live webcams of her practicing at her home in North Carolina, long blonde hair tossing and brow furrowed in concentration as she reads through new works.
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5. A video featuring Patrick Stewart discussing domestic violence was uploaded more than six million times after it was posted in May.
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6. Mr. Giuliani turned to Tamra Roberts Lhota, a soft-voiced, unprepossessing native of Napa, Calif., who mapped out a yearlong blitz of New York City's big givers: nearly 300 house parties, law-firm breakfasts and sit-down meetings with real estate and financial barons.
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7. Mr. Obama's promise the day after the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks to bring to justice those responsible for the attacks in Benghazi, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans, and the lack of success so far, has led the Republicans to renew their criticism of the administration for its handling of the episode, as officials have made the case that Congress should authorize a military strike against Syria.
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8. Jason Baretz wore a striped convict's outfit as he addressed a group at Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest on a recent Monday evening.
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9. The president also repeated, as many Republicans have acknowledged, that the House could pass measures both to finance and reopen the government and increase the nation's borrowing limit, averting a catastrophic default, if Mr. Boehner would allow votes.
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10. Cabrera walked and flew out in his first two at-bats, but he came up against Maurer in the sixth inning with the score tied at one.
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11. Transfer all the money directly to a charity that has no political underpinnings or simply forego your claims entirely and move on.
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12. Mr. Koppelman and Mr. Levien have engaged in this kind of latter-day rat-packery before - in their scripts for “Rounders,†“Knockwound Guys†and “Ocean's Thirteen†- but usually with more verve and intelligence than is evident here.
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13. “I'm the one who wanted to recruit her,†Ms. Brier said, adding that she likes to have women employees around her when possible.
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14. The company on Wednesday said it was eliminating the charges that a customer normally paid to use their phone number and data service in a foreign country, called roaming fees.
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15. The leading candidate to succeed Mr. Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, is a no-bones-about-it critic of charter schools who rose to prominence in part by berating the mayor's educational agenda.
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16. Even before the announcement, he said, one journalist had invaded Dr. Higgs' building looking for an interview.
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17. Local women still adhere to centuries-old Islamic traditions, wearing the abaya, a long cloak, and niquab, or face covering; images of women are routinely censored in books and magazines.
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18. At the start of the school year on Aug. 28, she tried to register the children in two public schools near her new home. At both, she said, the principles told her to wait until a double shift system could be put in place, with one set of students attending in the morning and another, mostly Syrian, in the afternoon.
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19. In the fiscal year ending June 30, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions fell short in raising corporate underwriting for the show, and had to appeal several times to PBS for emergency cash infusions, according to public television employees familiar with the financial situation.
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20. Mr. Drexler was standing at his recently opened clothing store, Alex Mill, staring intently down at the socks, which were displayed unrolled, in a windowless frame, laying flat on a counter.
Â
Answers
1. Ms. Ahrendts's rein at the top of Burberry has been a rewarding one for shareholders.
One of our most frequent homophone mixups. Reign, not rein.
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2. Georgia Nell Blume and William Donald Sugerman are to be married Sunday at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in Brooklyn.
As opposed to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in Queens? We seemed to follow our formula out the window.
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3. Revenge porn is one of those things that sounds as if it must be illegal but actually isn't.
As careful After Deadline readers surely know, in this construction, the relative pronoun “that†is plural (agreeing with “thingsâ€) so the verbs in that clause should be plural as well.
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4. There are live webcams of her practicing at her home in North Carolina, long blonde hair tossing and brow furrowed in concentration as she reads through new works.
According to The Times's stylebook, as an adjective it's always “blond.â€
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5. A video featuring Patrick Stewart discussing domestic violence was uploaded more than six million times after it was posted in May.
Uploading refers to posting something online; this video was probably uploaded once, or maybe a few times to different sites. It was then viewed millions of times.
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6. Mr. Giuliani turned to Tamra Roberts Lhota, a soft-voiced, unprepossessing native of Napa, Calif., who mapped out a yearlong blitz of New York City's big givers: nearly 300 house parties, law-firm breakfasts and sit-down meetings with real estate and financial barons.
“Unprepossessing†means unimpressive or nondescript. It's clear from the sentence and even more clear from the overall context that we didn't mean that. Presumably we wanted something like “unpretentious†or perhaps “low-key.â€
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7. Mr. Obama's promise the day after the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks to bring to justice those responsible for the attacks in Benghazi, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans, and the lack of success so far, has led the Republicans to renew their criticism of the administration for its handling of the episode, as officials have made the case that Congress should authorize a military strike against Syria.
Make it “have led,†plural. The subject is “Mr. Obama's promise … and the lack of success so far.†(The grammatical flaw suggests a bigger problem - the sentence is too long and cumbersome.)
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8. Jason Baretz wore a striped convict's outfit as he addressed a group at Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest on a recent Monday evening.
O.K., maybe not an error. But I still couldn't help wondering: Do the striped convicts dress differently from the plaid convicts? Perhaps “a convict's striped outfit.â€
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9. The president also repeated, as many Republicans have acknowledged, that the House could pass measures both to finance and reopen the government and increase the nation's borrowing limit, averting a catastrophic default, if Mr. Boehner would allow votes.
Not parallel. Make it “both to finance and reopen … and to increase†Or omit “both.â€
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10. Cabrera walked and flew out in his first two at-bats, but he came up against Maurer in the sixth inning with the score tied at one.
In the baseball context, the past tense is “flied out.â€
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11. Transfer all the money directly to a charity that has no political underpinnings or simply forego your claims entirely and move on.
A common error. Make it “forgo.â€
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12. Mr. Koppelman and Mr. Levien have engaged in this kind of latter-day rat-packery before - in their scripts for “Rounders,†“Knockwound Guys†and “Ocean's Thirteen†- but usually with more verve and intelligence than is evident here.
Make it “more verve and intelligence than are evident here.â€
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13. “I'm the one who wanted to recruit her,†Ms. Brier said, adding that she likes to have women employees around her when possible.
Don't use “women†as a modifier. Make it “female employees,†or rephrase.
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14. The company on Wednesday said it was eliminating the charges that a customer normally paid to use their phone number and data service in a foreign country, called roaming fees.
“Their†should not be used with a singular antecedent, in this case “customer.†A simple fix here is to make “customers†plural. (Also, the modifying phrase “called roaming fees†has roamed awfully far from what it modifies, “charges.â€)
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15. The leading candidate to succeed Mr. Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, is a no-bones-about-it critic of charter schools who rose to prominence in part by berating the mayor's educational agenda.
“Berate†means “scold,†and as with “scold,†the direct object should be the person berated, not the grounds for the criticism. Make it something like “criticizing†or “assailing,†or rephrase to say “berating the mayor for his educational agenda.â€
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16. Even before the announcement, he said, one journalist had invaded Dr. Higgs' building looking for an interview.
The possessive of Higgs is Higgs's.
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17. Local women still adhere to centuries-old Islamic traditions, wearing the abaya, a long cloak, and niquab, or face covering; images of women are routinely censored in books and magazines.
The correct spelling is “niqab.â€
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18. At the start of the school year on Aug. 28, she tried to register the children in two public schools near her new home. At both, she said, the principles told her to wait until a double shift system could be put in place, with one set of students attending in the morning and another, mostly Syrian, in the afternoon.
Principals, of course, not principles.
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19. In the fiscal year ending June 30, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions fell short in raising corporate underwriting for the show, and had to appeal several times to PBS for emergency cash infusions, according to public television employees familiar with the financial situation.
Ended, not ending. From the stylebook:
ended, ending. Use ended for the past, ending for the future: the weather for the period ended last Tuesday; the weather for the period ending next Friday.
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20. Mr. Drexler was standing at his recently opened clothing store, Alex Mill, staring intently down at the socks, which were displayed unrolled, in a windowless frame, laying flat on a counter.
Readers really hate this mistake, and so should we. Lying, not laying.
This week, we've introduced a number of updates and revisions to our in-house stylebook, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. The changes are mostly modest and don't alter our goal of publishing clear, literate prose that is largely free of jargon, journalese, slang and sloppiness. But a lot has changed since 1999, when the stylebook was published. While we have updated many entries over the years, we thought it was time for a more systematic look. (For now, the updated style guide is available only to Times writers and editors. But we hope that the revised version may be published for general readers in the foreseeable future.)
Over the next couple of weeks, After Deadline will highlight a few of the changes.
Of course, we're deleting some outdated entries. Some are obvious - companies or other entities that no longer exist, for example. In other cases, we simply decided that a term was so unlikely to be used that even a prohibition seemed outdated. We don't expect a rash of college girls or authoresses in our pages, despite removing the caution flags from the stylebook. Dated, offensive or insensitive terms like mongoloid or admitted homosexual don't seem to require guidance any longer. And yes, we all know that bikini, for the bathing suit, is lowercase; no reminder necessary.
We couldn't recall anyone ever trying to use baldish instead of balding, so we decided guidance to that effect was not required. And it seems that the battle for debark instead of disembark, always quixotic, is now thoroughly lost, so that entry is gone.
A few other terms were once in the headlines but are now a part of history; we didn't feel they needed entries any longer. A-bomb and Tontons Macoute are examples.
Â
Let's Get Technical
My colleague Patrick LaForge offers this overview of the online- and tech-related style revisions.
When the print stylebook came out in 1999, many of our readers were unfamiliar with online media. There were no iPhones or iPads. Blogs were still called Web logs. The future founder of Facebook was 15.
As technological change accelerated, we tweaked the stylebook here and there - shortening the World Wide Web to the Web, for example. The latest revisions continue in this spirit.
Many of the day-to-day entries have been revised with digital publication in mind - there are more references to The Times and fewer to “the newspaper.†We have eliminated outdated terms (diskette, DAT). For the spelling of corporate names, we mostly direct editors to official sites, instead of listing names separately in the stylebook, now that nearly all companies are online.
By popular demand, we're removing the hyphen from email. But we'll discourage other newfangled e-terms: keep the hyphens in e-book and e-commerce, for example. Better yet, just call them books and commerce, unless it is worth noting the digital format.
We're also going to follow The Associated Press and others in lowercasing the web. It is acceptable in all references to the World Wide Web, which should be used only for historical references (and keep in mind that worldwide is normally one word).
For consistency, we'll lowercase website and make it one word. Often, the simpler site or a more specific term is better. But the Internet remains uppercase, in line with the most common current practice in the United States.
A new entry spells out our policy on links (link generously, link often, link to related material a Times reader would want to see, link to articles that scooped us).
We've added a new entry on blogs and bloggers that codifies current practice (including a warning against saying a blog when you mean a post on a blog). There's a new entry that codifies our existing practice on tweet (which is somewhat informal, but acceptable as both a noun and a verb for special effect, or in articles about social media). There's also an entry on hashtags, which should be used sparingly.
You may now text a text on a mobile system. And we even offer guidance on LOL, OMG and other online and texting abbreviations (use them rarely and in the way readers are used to seeing them). But we'll hold the line against friend and Google as verbs, except in light contexts or direct quotations, or for special effect.
Â
In a Word
This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
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The Booker bestows an author with an instant boost in sales and recognition.
“Bestow†is a transitive verb; the thing given is the direct object. So make it “The Booker bestows an instant boost … on an author,†or use a different verb.
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Whether what they say is true, Mr. Palmer, wearing an Army-style camouflage hat but still in slippers, fled the property, his breakfast of eggs half eaten.
When the “whether†clause modifies a verb, as it does here, we need “or notâ€: “Whether or not what they say is true …â€
Here's what the stylebook says:
whether. Often or not is redundant after whether, but not always. The phrase may ordinarily be omitted in these cases:
When the whether clause is the object of a verb: She wonders whether the teacher will attend. (The clause is the object of wonders.)
When the clause is the object of a preposition: The teacher will base his decision on whether the car has been repaired. (The clause is the object of on.)
When the clause is the subject of the sentence: Whether the car will be ready depends on the mechanic. (The clause is the subject of depends.)
But when a whether clause modifies a verb, or not is needed: They will play tomorrow whether or not it rains. (The clause modifies play.)
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Political resistance to Chinese acquisition of foreign-owned companies, particularly when issues of national security are at stake, have highlighted the dilemma.
The political resistance has highlighted the dilemma, not have.
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His ambitious composition uses both a full orchestra and a Gypsy band, with references to music from Klezmer to rap to Mozart.
Make it klezmer, not Klezmer.
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HONG KONG - The famine that gripped China from 1958 to 1962 is widely judged to be the deadliest in recorded history, killing 20 to 30 million people or more, and is one of the defining calamities of Mao Zedong's rule.
As the stylebook says, for a range like this, make it “20 million to 30 million.â€
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The carrying of handguns is regulated in Texas: many residents are allowed to carry a concealed pistol if they receive a state-issued permit, but they are forbidden from carrying that weapon openly and unconcealed in public.
Make it “forbidden to carry.â€
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The industry would most likely seek to spend money to influence the regulatory process that would determine where exactly the new casinos are, and who operates them, as well as to persuade a future governor and Legislature to ultimately allow full-fledged casinos in New York City or the surrounding areas, which would be much more lucrative because of its tourism and population density.
The overstuffed sentence is difficult to read. Also, the pronoun “its†does not agree with the plural “surrounding areas.â€
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He mentioned Mr. Booker's campaign and Twitter messages to an Oregon stripper, and made a play on words to reference his own momentum.
From the stylebook:
reference is business jargon when used as a verb: She referenced the new transmission standards. More natural substitutes include cite, mention and refer to. But cross-reference (n. and v.) is conversational English.
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He steps outside at 2:30, as the waitstaff, having decided against going out for more drinks, disperses into cabs.
The stylebook discourages this coinage.
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In that case, and in this, much of the outrage has been driven by social media, with the hacking collective Anonymous among the most vocal players, lashing out against people that it believes have failed or mistreated the accuser.
The antecedent was people, so we meant “who it believes have failed …â€
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At 45 feet, they passed a sunken ship, the Honey Bear, and at 85 feet, beneath the buoy line, they saw further evidence of the former marina - steel beams, pilings and sunken watercrafts.
In referring to a boat, the plural of craft is craft. So make this “watercraft.†(This was later fixed online.)
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If you're a Grisham obsessive with a C-note burning a hole in your pocket - not to mention two-and-a-half hours of time to slay - by all means, come on down, y'all!
The hyphens are unneeded and unwanted, and “of time†is redundant with “two and a half hours.â€
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The stakes are high, and getting higher, as demand for tablets has exploded in the last few years.
“High stakes†is a cliché; let's seek alternatives.
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Deepak Chopra, the controversial New Age guru and booster of alternative medicine, lives just below the penthouse on the 69th floor of a Midtown West condominium.
Nearly everything and everyone we write about is involved in controversies, so this modifier often doesn't mean much. What's more, after raising this in the lead, the article never explains the controversy.
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The Red Sox grinded and muscled their way past the Tigers, knocking around Anibal Sanchez for the win and taking a three-games-to-two series lead.â€
The past tense of “grind†is “ground.†Better still, let's avoid this locker-room cliché.
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Never an emotive figure, Mr. Cheney has long been reticent to talk in much depth about the five heart attacks and multiple surgeries he has endured.
“Reticent†means unwilling to speak freely. So he has been reticent about the heart attacks, or reluctant to talk about them. But not reticent to talk.
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Given the astronomic rise in house prices here, he wasn't speaking metaphorically.
“Astronomical†is the preferred form.
Singular goes with singular, plural with plural. Sounds easy. Yet agreement problems abound in our prose, between subjects and verbs, between nouns and pronouns. The perils are all familiar: phrases intervening between subject and verb that throw us off track; collective nouns that veer from singular to plural; tricky words like “eachâ€; and, of course, that infamous “one of the people who …†construction that we simply refuse to get right.
The only safeguards are greater care in the writing and closer scrutiny in the editing. The latest roundup of lapses:
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All the information, including the official microblog posts, were still controlled by officials who generally knew what to expect, the analysts noted.
The subject is the singular “information,†so the verb should be “was controlled,†not “were.†As so often happens, we were thrown off track by the intervening plural phrase “microblog posts.â€
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But the potential for conflicts are particularly acute at ESPN, which has tentacles throughout the sports world and whose mission is to cover sports that it actively promotes.
Here, too, the plural “conflicts†in the intervening prepositional phrase confused us. Make it “the potential … is particularly acute,†not “are.â€
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The S.E.A. [Syrian Electronic Army] first emerged in May 2011, during the first Syrian uprisings, when it started attacking a wide array of media outlets and nonprofits and spamming popular Facebook pages like President Obama's and Oprah Winfrey's with pro-Assad comments. Their goal, they said, was to offer a pro-government counternarrative to media coverage of Syria.
This is a surprisingly common problem - shifting to the plural pronoun “they†after a clearly singular noun. It frequently occurs after a reference to a company or organization. It's usually simple to fix by introducing a plural noun in the second reference - “executives,†for example, after a company reference. In this example, the second sentence could begin, “Members said their goal was …â€
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Across the street, the Osborne family has been tenants for two years, moving in after the previous owner lost the house in a foreclosure. They are happy to have a decent place to call home but, like many renters, they have not done much to improve the appearance or join the community.
This is a related but slightly trickier problem. “Family†and many other collective nouns can be either singular or plural, depending on whether the emphasis is on the unit or the individuals. But we should avoid switching back and forth. Here, we followed “family†with a singular verb but then the plural “tenants†and “they.†Probably better to keep it plural throughout - or avoid “family†and just say “the Osbornes have been …â€
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Each had contracted H.I.V. as teenagers.
Used as a pronoun, “each†is generally singular, so the later references should also be singular: “Each had contracted H.I.V. as a teenager.â€
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Allyson Felix of the United States and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica kept on pace for a showdown in the 200, each winning their heats.
The same problem here; make it “each winning her heat,†or change “each†to “both.â€
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At the time the results, as stitched together by Chris Marker, seemed more self-congratulatory than coherent, though this may be one of those movies that now has more to say about its own cultural moment than it does about its ostensible subject.
A perennial problem. In this construction, the relative clause describes all the movies in the category, not just the one movie, so the verb and pronouns should be plural: “those movies that now have more to say about their own cultural moments …â€
Â
In a Word
This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
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Flashes of the usual brilliance remain but occur less frequently, less consistently, until a player who once seemed anything but beatable is now imminently so.
Eminently, not imminently.
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Digitalization of their titles proceeded slowly.
Digitization, not digitalization. As we noted in May, “digitalization†is formed from “digitalize,†which actually means to administer digitalis drugs to a heart patient. No kidding.
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The wrenched and twisted wreck was, in itself, shocking enough: A passenger bus in Kenya crashed through a barrier at a sharp curve on Thursday, flipping over, tearing off the roof and killing 41 people, according to the Kenya Red Cross.
Redundant; all buses carry passengers.
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At least, some have been saying that to me, when they find out I've spent the summer keeping track of power outages caused by squirrels.
Power outages caused by squirrels are a new hobby of mine, a persnickety and constantly updating data set that hums along behind the rest of my life the way baseball statistics or celebrity-birthing news might for other people.
“Outage†was used throughout this piece. See the stylebook entry:
outage is jargon and a euphemism for failure, shutdown or cutoff (of electricity or water, for example). Use the simpler words.
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[Photo caption] An American college education, or a high school degree, has become a badge of prestige in China. …
Now, many Chinese companies are catering to the expanding ambitions of Chinese parents, and their offspring, by offering summer experiences costing $5,000 to $15,000 for several weeks in the United States, often a first step to an American college education, or a high school degree, which have become badges of prestige here.
We've slipped on this several times lately. High school graduates are awarded diplomas, not degrees.
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The physician and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. traveled through the gently rolling hills of the Brandywine Valley in southeastern Pennsylvania during the Civil War when he came there to search for his son, whom he feared had been killed in battle.
Who, not whom; it's the subject of “had been killed.â€
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He devoted hours of time and thousands of repetitions to mastering pro skills.
“Hours of time†seems redundant.
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“Mostly, though, $3 million to $6,†he said. “I love that market - there are probably 10 times as many people in that market than to buy an eight- or nine-million-dollar house, right?â€
“$6″ - that is, six dollars - is presumably not what he said. We could have paraphrased that part of the quote, or simply rendered in words exactly what he said, whatever that was, e.g. “Mostly, though, three million to six.â€
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About a week later, he admitted to a Navy investigator that while unloading his weapon, it accidentally discharged, copies of his statements show.
Dangler; the “unloading†does not describe “it.†Make it, “While he was unloading his weapon …â€
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He seemingly never has a conversation without referencing Scripture.
Avoid this jargony verb. Make it “citing†or “referring to.â€
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The teachers' union is one of the municipal unions itching for retroactive pay raises in contracts that expired under Mr. Bloomberg and need renegotiating.
Make it “retroactive raisesâ€; as the stylebook notes, “pay raises†is redundant.
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For decades, Japanese studios dazzled, terrified and tickled global audiences with monster movies and television shows featuring actors in rubber suits laying waste to scaled-down Tokyos, or dueling atop miniaturized Mt. Fujis.
Mount, not Mt. From the stylebook:
Mount. Capitalize the word as part of a name and spell it out: Mount Vernon. The abbreviation (Mt. Vernon) may be used in headlines, charts, tables and maps.
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[Photo caption] New court filings claim that J. Ezra Merkin, right, questioned the legitimacy of investments by Bernard Madoff, left, leaving court in 2009, even as he steered investors to Mr. Madoff's fund.
The odd placement of the phrase “leaving court in 2009″ makes this caption awfully hard to read.
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If he were known at all to Western security analysts who track the origins of spam, and in particular the ubiquitous subset of spam e-mails that promote male sexual enhancement products, it was only by the handle he used in Russian chat rooms, Engel.
This is just a simple past-tense conditional clause, not a contrary-to-fact condition, so the subjunctive wasn't called for. Make it “If he was…â€
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For a moment, it looked like what Paul McCartney needed when he was 71 was not someone to send a valentine or a birthday bottle of wine, but someone to fix his social media accounts.
We should avoid this informal use of “like†as a conjunction; make it “as if†or “as though.â€
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In 2006, it looked like the longstanding acrimony between Robert A. Durst, the real estate scion, and his family was coming to an end, with one final separation.
Here, the same problem, also in a lede. As if, not like.
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The generous $3.75 piece of coconut cream pie, slapped unceremoniously into a Styrofoam container and served by Kameron, was an outrageously dense, gloriously goopy, utterly enthralling dessert that would be a runaway hit at twice the price if sold from a Manhattan food truck.
From the stylebook:
Styrofoam is a trademark of the Dow Chemical Company for a polystyrene used in insulation and boat construction. It is not used in cups or food containers; for those, write plastic foam.
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Two-and-a-half years ago, The Times reported horrifying abuse of people with developmental disabilities or mental illnesses by state employees, who were rarely punished for it.
The hyphens weren't needed here.
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Sabathia has endured a drop in velocity, an inability to locate pitches and questions about whether his weight loss has attributed to his decline.
Contributed, not attributed, of course.
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One of the sharpest critics was Geir Thorsteinsson, the president of Iceland's federation, who suggested that Johannsson interest in playing for the United States purley financial.
Ugh. Multiple errors in this early version. We meant “…that Johannsson's interest in playing for the United States was purely financial.â€
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“It takes awhile for news to get out,†Ms. Christian said by telephone from Pitcairn on Thursday.
Here we wanted “a while,†two words; it's a noun acting as the direct object of “takes†(As one word, “awhile†is an adverb.)
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It remains to be seen whom that should be, said Paul Anderko, the president of the GPS Conservatives for Action PAC.
Who, not whom.
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When Patinkin reigns himself in, he can be magnificent.
A distressingly common error. Make it “reins,†not “reigns.â€
Now, a brief respite from carping, and another small sampling of sparkling prose from recent editions:
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Metro, 9/7:
Kiss Baby, Smile, Check Phone (Over and Over)
New York City's race for mayor this year has featured a number of conspicuous novelties …
Less conspicuous, perhaps only because voters are too busy staring at their own smartphones to notice, is the way the ubiquity of mobile devices has introduced a new peril into candidate-voter interactions: distracted campaigning.
At a forum last month, typical of the scores of such events around the city over the course of the campaign, candidates fiddled ceaselessly with their phones, though they were onstage before an audience of over 1,500 and the event was televised.
The phenomenon is in part a fact of contemporary life - people everywhere check their cellphones constantly - and in part a tacit acknowledgment of a reality of campaigning: It can be boring to listen to the same rival candidates saying the same things day after day, night after night.
Sarah Maslin Nir's observation on the latest campaign-trail trend was full of vivid details and deft phrases.
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Metro, 8/30:
Come On In, Paddlers, the Water's Just Fine. Don't Mind the Sewage.
Some people questioned the wisdom of establishing a boat club at a Superfund site.
But such is the lure of water, even when sludge seems like a more fitting descriptor, that the North Brooklyn Boat Club emerged out of one of New York's most-polluted estuaries, Newtown Creek.
Its docks sit just downstream from a sewage treatment plant and a recycling center. Its clubhouse is flanked by salvage yards and warehouses, not far from an area so contaminated by decades of oil spills that the soil resembles black mayonnaise. And, flashing a winking self-awareness, its logo features a rowboat in a stream gushing out of a sewer spout while a tin can and a dead rat drift alongside.
The understatement of the lead and the telling details drew readers into Emily Rueb's intriguing Brooklyn feature.
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Culture, 8/21:
Democracy May Prove the Doom of WBAI
WBAI likes to call itself “radio for the 99 percent.†But most of the time the station - a listener-supported and proudly scrappy mainstay of the left since 1960 - is lucky to be heard by 0.1 percent of the New York radio audience.
A reader praised this sharp lead by Ben Sisario, which summed up WBAI's challenge in two quick sentences.
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Metro, 8/21:
Nonprofits Are Balking at Law on Disclosing Political Donors
In Albany, where even transparency is discussed in secret, the state ethics commission voted behind closed doors to grant an exemption to Naral Pro-Choice New York, a prominent abortion rights group.
Another reader submission: Tom Kaplan's pitch-perfect observation on business as usual in Albany.
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Obituaries, 7/13:
Jim Buck, Who Made Walking Dogs a Job, Dies at 81
There are eight million occupational stories in New York City, and none cries Gotham louder than that of the professional surrogate - the shrewd city dweller who spies a void that other New Yorkers are too hurried, harried or hard-pressed to fill and rushes enterprisingly in.
Over time, the city has spawned professional car-movers and professional line-standers, but its most visible - and audible - paid surrogates are indisputably its professional dog walkers.
By all accounts, Jim Buck was the first of them.
It's hard to do a “Bright Passages†tally without an entry from Margo Fox - here, from her delightful who-knew? obit for the dean of Manhattan dog-walkers.
Â
That Darn Subjunctive
Now, back to the carping. Sparkling prose notwithstanding, the subjunctive continues to torment some writers and editors. We skip it when we should use it - and, more conspicuously, overcompensate by using it when it isn't called for. A recent example of each problem:
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In the case of Roger Federer, every sign of struggle sets the radar on high alert because he's Roger Federer and the current downward slope of his career is monitored as if the sport is watching its own electrocardiogram.
This is a “contrary to fact†condition (the sport is not, in fact, watching its own electrocardiogram). Use the subjunctive: “as if the sport were watching …â€
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If he were known at all to Western security analysts who track the origins of spam, and in particular the ubiquitous subset of spam e-mails that promote male sexual enhancement products, it was only by the handle he used in Russian chat rooms, Engel.
Here's the hypercorrection. This is just an ordinary past-tense condition, not a contrary-to-fact condition or a hypothetical construction that would call for the subjunctive. Make it “If he was known at all … it was only by the handle …â€
Â
In a Word
This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
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Although there were two voting booths, the couple went sequentially. Ms. McCray, wearing a flowered dress and sandals, voted first.
But what was Mr. de Blasio wearing? Please be careful about such descriptions. (This one was eventually removed.)
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Mr. Byford was made redundant in October 2010 after 31 years with the BBC but remained on the staff with pay for eight months before receiving severance of nearly £1 million (about $1.55 million): a year's salary of £474,500 and the same again in lieu of notice.
Even in a story about Britain, let's avoid this Britishism. Make it “laid off.â€
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Athletes with facial hair is not a new phenomenon.
“Athletes†is plural: those with facial hair are not a new phenomenon.
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With the prevalence of fierce bidding wars for apartments in Manhattan, homes that get poached within a day of the open house, and interest rates that keep inching up, a buyer could become so frustrated by hunting for real estate in the 212 area code that he or she might just decide to give up.
This reference is archaic. Since the 1990s, Manhattan has had two additional area codes (646 and 917) that can be either cell or land lines (and Marble Hill is in 718).
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People, not products, are the main cause of food-borne illnesses, and they can be avoided by following certain basic principles of food safety.
O.K., I get what we are trying to say. But in this construction, “they†seems at first glance to refer to “people.â€
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In his autobiographical essay written for the Nobel committee after being awarded the prize, he recalled being taken by his father at age 11 to a phrenologist to hear what could be discovered from the shape of his head.
Dangler. Make it “after he was awarded,†since it is not the essay that was awarded the prize, and the phrase goes with “written,†not “recalled.â€
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But once rescued, finding new homes for beleaguered birds - de-beaked, atrophied and often suffering from osteoporosis - can be a challenge.
Another dangler. Make it “But once they are rescued,†since what is rescued is the beleaguered birds, not finding new homes.
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For nearly half a decade, on a 10-acre plot that was once owned by Henry Francis du Pont, Mr. Klein, the fashion designer, has been erecting a minimalist palace the likes of which is seldom seen in an area of increasing architectural homogeneity.
Make it, “the likes of which are seldom seen.â€
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Indeed, Time Warner Cable executives had said earlier that a reason the company decided to remove the CBS stations in early August was because of the recognition that it would lose leverage the closer it got to the N.F.L. season.
Make it, “a reason … was the recognitionâ€; “because of†is redundant after “reason.â€
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But the ballpark it is eyeing for possible games lies not in big sports centers, like London with its Wembley Stadium, or Paris, with the Stade de France, but this midsize Dutch town on land that until about 150 years ago lay deep under water.
For the sentence to be parallel, a preposition must follow “butâ€: make it, “lies not in … but in this midsize Dutch town …†(Also, “eyeing†in this sense is journalese; perhaps “consideringâ€?)
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But here they are on what used to be Super Saturday, with Federer long gone, and with Nadal ready for Gasquet in a match where the stakes (and the video quality) will be quite a bit higher than it was back at age 13.
“The stakes … will be a quite a bit higher than they were…â€
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Mr. Buatta is perhaps the only decorator people outside of the Palm Beach-Upper East Side-Southampton axis could actually name …
Avoid these double prepositions; no need for “of†here.
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[Headline] Facing Fear, With Family, in the Sierras
The Sierras began to form 10 million years ago and are made of speckled granite that shines like crystal.
From The Times's stylebook:
Sierra Nevada; the Sierra (not Sierra Nevada Mountains or the Sierras).
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1:30 p.m. Greets shoppers preparing for Rosh Hashanah at Seasons Supermarket in the Flushing section of Queens.
Plunging headfirst into public diplomacy, Mr. Zarif chose to open his dialogue with fellow users of the social network by extending greetings for the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.
Our style is Rosh Hashana.
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The two-day visit was Mr. Bezos's first trip to The Post since he agreed to buy the paper in early August for $250 million. Before the deal closes in October, Mr. Bezos made the visit to chat with employees from both the business and editorial sides about his plans for the company.
The agreement, not the sale, came in August. A simple fix would clarify the timing: “since he agreed in early August to buy the paper.â€
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Many young adults willingly pay twice as much for a fourth-floor walk-up in Gotham than they would spend in Milwaukee or Tucson for better space.
Make it “twice as much … as they would,†not “than.â€
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Money is flowing to elections like never before.
“Like†in this sense is a preposition that should be followed by a noun or pronoun; make this “as never before.â€
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The American bar mitzvah, facing derision for Las Vegas style excess, is about to get a full makeover, but for an entirely different reason.
This compound modifier needed a hyphen: “Las Vegas-style excess.â€
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My father, A.R. Schwartz, known as Babe, was a member of the Legislature between 1955, two years before I was born, until 1980, when I was in college and he was swept out of office with the Reagan tide.
Make it “between 1955 … and 1980,†or “from 1955 … until 1980.â€
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There were guilty grimaces when asked if they regularly composted their food scraps.
Another dangler; it's not natural to read the participle “asked†to refer to the pronoun within the following subordinate clause. Rephrase, e.g., “There were guilty grimaces when the candidates were asked …â€