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.
