Colleagues and readers have nominated another crop of words and phrases that seem to appear with numbing regularity in our prose. Some are unavoidable on occasion, and none deserve to be banned outright. But take this as an invitation to look for fresher alternatives.
---
During election season, one colleague noted several different descriptions of Mitt Romney as “reinventing†himself. Then he noticed that it was not just politicians who were prone to reinvention. In the last few months, we’ve had libraries reinventing themselves, evangelical churches reinventing themselves, two baseball pitchers reinventing themselves, and on and on. Dr. Ruth, Helmut Lang and many others have reinvented themselves, while others have reinvented other things â€" business, schools, classical literature, adult education.
You get the idea. If we’re enthusiastic about inventiveness, let’s devise new ways to express this thought.
---
Our readers, along with a number of
The election may have something to do with it. And indeed, I complained about overuse of this phrase back in 2008, the last presidential election year. But perhaps I shouldn’t have; the total number of “double downs†in The Times that year was a modest 50.
---
In a similar vein, another reader complains about the trendy phrase “tipping point.†It ow! es much of its popularity to Malcolm Gladwell’s 2000 best seller of that name â€" appearances of “tipping point†in The Times jumped from just five in 1999 to 39 the following year. And its popularity has only increased, cementing its cliché status. Last year, “tipping point†appeared in 119 instances in The Times â€" not including appearances on our best-seller lists, where Gladwell’s book continues to have a home.
---
My colleague Patrick LaForge has noted this before, and he’s noting it again: “scrambling†is our default cliché when we are trying to enliven a news story with a sense of action and urgency. It usually doesn’t work, since the verb has lost all its freshness. Three recent examples, with his comments â€" one Metro, one Business, one Foreign:
All day Monday, the city scrambled to deal with a Rubik’s Cube of displacements, delayed openings, moified schedules and new plans for evacuees using school buildings in an attempt to return as many students to classrooms as soon as possible.
(A vivid metaphor (Rubik’s Cube) was weakened by the use of “scrambled,†a shopworn verb we trot out in every crisis.)
After Congress embraced the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which raised the highest capital gains tax rate to 28 percent from 20 percent, capital gains realizations almost doubled as investors scrambled to sell off investments under the lower rate.
(“Rushed†would have been fine.)
The authorities scrambled to soothe that anger; Mr. Putin, then prime minister, visited Mr. Sviridov’s grave carrying a fat bunch of roses.
(One imagines him running pell-mell through the cemetery.)
Â
In a Word
This week’s grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
---
But hearing him sing Valjean mad! e me wond! er if his radiant stage charisma had not helped Broadway audiences (and we critics too) overlook the modest nature of his vocal resources.
Make it “us critics,†the object of “had helped.â€
---
Under the Canadian press baron Roy Thomson, who bought the paper in 1967, Mr. Rees-Mogg worked to restore The Times’s fortunes and editorial authority, and to shed its fusty image. Innovations included a women’s page, a business section and bylines for the paper’s hitherto anonymous reporters and commentators, as well as expanded sports and arts coverage.
What we meant was “theretofore.†But what we should have said was “previously†or some other ordinary word. Here’s what The Times’s stylebook says:
heretofore, hitherto. Both words mean until now. Do not confuse them with theretofore, meaning until then. All three words have their place, but it is in an old-fashioned legal brief. News writing calls fr the simple phrases.
---
By some measures, the tax code might now be the most progressive in a generation, tax economists said, while noting that every American is paying a lower burden currently than they did then.
“May†probably fits better than “might†in this sentence. And plural “they†doesn’t match singular “Americanâ€; rephrase.
---
Tentatively titled Al Jazeera America, roughly 60 percent of the programming will be produced in the United States, while the remaining 40 percent will come from Al Jazeera English.
A dangler. “Tentatively titled Al Jazeera†does not describe what follows, “60 percent …â€
---
Whenever he was on leave, he would stock up on weeks worth of books to read. “This was serious business,†he wrote in an essay called “Mr. Vonnegut in Sumatra,†which appears in “The Braindead Megaphone.â€
---
The next moment, the man’s contact with the electrified rail was all she would be able to imagine when she went to bed over the next six months.
The clash of the two time frames makes this hard to read.
---
Anyone else miss the nice civilized lunch at Le Côte Basque
It is (or was) La, not Le â€" not to be confused with “Le Cirque.â€
---
The men, Devon Ayers, Carlos Perez and Michael Cosme, had been convicted not only of killing Baithe Diop, the livery driver, but also a second person, Denise Raymond, in the same neighborhood, just days before Mr. Diop’s death.
Not parallel. Make it “convicted of killing not only Baithe Diop …â€
---
So she decided to substitute “act†with a word unprintable hre and waited for the angry letters to pour in. …
“Women can say bad words, in movies, cable TV and writing,†Ms. Lakoff wrote in an e-mail. Men cannot only shed tears, she added, “but are celebrated for doing so.â€
In the construction in the first sentence, the direct object of “substitute†should be the replacement thing, not the thing that is replaced; she substituted the unprintable word for “act.†Rephrase, or use “replace†as the verb. In the second sentence, we needed “can not†rather than “cannot,†because “not†goes with “only†(or rephrase to make it smoother).
---
Corruption is a huge element, just like in the illegal ivory trade, in which rebel groups, government armies and threadbare hunters have been wiping out tens of thousands of elephants throughout Africa, selling the tusks to sophisticated criminal networks that move them across the globe with the help of corrupt officials.
---
Dr. David Langer, a brain surgeon and an associate professor at the North Shore-Hofstra-Long Island Jewish School of Medicine, said that if this type of clot was untreated, it could cause blood to back up, and could lead to a hemorrhage inside the brain.
Contrary to fact. Make it “were untreated,†or “if this type of clot is not treated, it can cause …â€
---
[Weather report] High 36. Dry weather and some sunshine is expected as that storm system moves away.
Make it “are expected.â€
---
Indeed, she said she believed one reason he carried out his plot so early was because Mr. Smith would have shown up to work on the house a little later that morning.
“Reason … because†is redundant. Make it “one reason … was that.â€
---
When contacted by federal agents nvestigating fraud schemes related to the shootings in Newtown, Conn., law enforcement officials said Ms. Alba denied that she had posted any messages on Facebook soliciting donations. …
Noah’s uncle, Alexis Haller, told Mr. Rossen that the family was disgusted when they learned people might be trying to make money off the shootings.
The first sentence has a dangler; Ms. Alba was contacted, not law enforcement officials. In the second sentence, “family†should not take a singular verb and then a plural pronoun; rephrase.
---
When she finds someone suffering, she refers them to the company’s full-time doctor or professional counselors.
The plural “them†does not agree with the singular “someone.†Perhaps make it, “When she finds workers suffering, she refers them …â€
---
But however that review ends, one thing is clear, interviews with researchers and a review of scienti! fic studi! es show: the energy drink industry is based on a brew of ingredients that, apart from caffeine, have little, if any benefit for consumers.
One comma doesn’t work. We needed another one after “if any†â€" or, better still, none at all.
---
[Editorial] One imperative is to make sure that natural gas â€" which this nation has in abundance and which emits only half the carbon as coal â€" can be extracted without risk to drinking water or the atmosphere.
Make it “half as much carbon as coal†or “half the carbon of coal.â€
