From the archives
Editor's Revenge
Second Series
Volume I, Number 2
August, 2009
BEWARE OF ABSOLUTES – First, biggest, only, and others of that ilk will quickly call out someone to contradict. This month's example comes by way of Sonia Sotomayor cited as the "first Hispanic" on the United States Supreme Court. Not so, says a letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer: Benjamin Cardozo, who served as an associate justice from 1932 to 1938, traced his ancestry to Portugal.
HERD JOURNALISM – From the Irish Times: The death of Farrah Fawcett was a big story until about noon, Los Angeles time, "when the herds of reporters . . . perked up like meerkats and swept en masse" to a bigger story, the death of Michael Jackson. Both stories were important, but the Dublin perspective wondered about the amount of time devoted to each. George Bernard Shaw once said newspapers can't seem to distinguish between an accident involving a bicycle and the end of civilization. There's a difference between news and gossip, said our philospher friend Dinty Ramble.
HYPER-BOWL – The Philadelphia sportscaster enthusiastically noted that the Phillies were "hoping for their second straight win." Wow. That's in the same league as the writer who pointed to a "two-game winning streak."
CLICHE CORNER – "The blaze was sparked ... " Fires "engulf." Avalanches and mudslides are "triggered." Accidents are "horrific." Get thee to a thesaurus!
DANGER: INSTANT CLICHE AHEAD – A well turned phrase is beautifully effective the first time out, and with judicious usage can stand some repetition. But when writers and broadcasters in their hundreds pick up and use the same phrase daily, it loses value like an inflated dollar. Points go to Kurt Soller of Newsweek (June 22 issue), who did a Google search of the phrase "In these tough economic times," and found that "this year alone, the nation's 50 biggest newspapers have used the phrase more than 2,500 times. That's a five-fold jump over the same period in 2008."
LAX LANGUAGE – The TV ad for Jose Cuervo tequila features Hispanic music and settings as a voice cheers for the beverage, but spells the cheer as "Vive Cuervo!" The Spanish word for "hooray" is "viva," not "vive," which is French.
GROUPERS – From an AP story out of Washington: "The group were unable to obtain information they requested." The info line on a Comcast screening of a BBC America program: "News from around the world are presented." In American usage, "group" takes a singular verb, as in "the group is . . ." Across the pond, collective nouns can take either a singular or a plural verb, depending on whether the members are acting as individuals or collectively. Examples: "The crew is ready to make sail" (group action) or "the crew are going ashore" (a bunch of incipient drunks). As for the word "news," it is singular. I know, you can cite a Colonial-era publication as writing, "The news are not yet come," but most of us no longer live in the 18th Century. Although I'm not sure about some politicians.
POL TALKERS – Prez W was quoted as saying, "I don't believe that persuasion isn't going to work." Mad Dog O'Shaughnessy is still trying to decipher that one. Lawyers are fond of double negatives. Good writers avoid them. And if you really want to make a politician look and sound foolish, transcribe, in full, every word of what he or she says.
COMIC RELIEF – At his swearing-in ceremony, Al Franken promised "no funny business" in the U.S. Senate. That'll be the day.
DUDVILLE – TV people kept referring to Sarah Palin's "bombshell" announcement that she would resign. A shell by itself is empty. It's the stuff inside that is explosive.
SHE KEEPS GOING – An MSNBC commentator referred to Sarah Palin as "the Energizer bunny of American politics."
SAY WHAT? – Is it possible to understand nonsense? If we understand it, is it still nonsense?
WHEN IN DOUBT, REPHRASE – Reporters and editors too often spend as much as half an hour debating the "correct" use of a word or phrase. Keep in mind that if the phrase slows down supposedly professional users of the language, how much harder can it be for the reader? If it's confusing to you, it will be even more so for the reader; and that's not the purpose of good writing. The point was brought up in a discussion of a story that began, "Two colleges graduated 400 students." The editor insisted that colleges don't graduate students; students graduate from colleges. The defense was that one word is more efficient that two, and in this instance the single word "graduate" is more active. Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference (Sixth Edition, 2007) recognizes both "graduated from" and "was graduated from" as standard, and notes that dropping the word "from" is nonstandard. The position here is that students do the work, and therefore they do the graduating. Using the passive form "the student was graduated from the college" can imply that the reverse, active form "the college graduated the student" would also be acceptable. And many folks do, in fact, use that form. But rather than waste time debating usage that confuses the reader, rephrase the sentence. Suggestion: "The college awarded diplomas." Once again, keep in mind that the goal is to communicate, not to puzzle.
Editor's Revenge is a free newsletter on the use, misuse and abuse of the English language in America. Logomachist: J.T. Harding.
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