Legal Writing

Holiday quiz from the grammar guide

Posted on December 21, 2008
The Triangle Grammar Guide has a gift for you: a quiz with a holiday theme. The five sentences cover several grammar and usage issues. The quiz contains more graphics and might take a bit longer to load up for you.  Click here or on the gift package to begin...

Verbal habits we loathe

Posted on December 20, 2008
p I wrote a provocative headline on this post. In fact, I am developing a tolerant attitude toward my fellow English speakers' verbal habits. But a couple of e-mail messages this week remind me that some of us are irritated by others' use of certain words and phrases...

Word choice: Choose not to pick a fight

Posted on December 14, 2008
A reader sent this note recently to our editors: Where I grew up we picked cotton, peaches, beans and noses. But even in GA we CHOSE governors, senators, coaches and vinegary barbecue. You might not have noticed, but headline and article writers at the N&O have developed a greater liking for "pick/picked" over "choose/chose...

A matter of distance: farther and further

Posted on December 12, 2008
I am working on a project in a small, somewhat isolated office at the N&O. We're helping to set up a new publishing system. The work is interesting to a geek like me, but one of the chief benefits is that I am in close proximity to three other experienced copy editors...

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Try a Grammar Guide quiz on lay and lie

Posted on November 30, 2008
Need some practice on lay and lie? Lots of people mix up these verbs, and the best way to learn is to practice. Try today's Triangle Grammar Guide quiz. The five sentences contain various forms of lay and lie. Click here or on the question mark icon to begin the quiz...

Broach the subject of a brooch

Posted on November 29, 2008
A brooch is a piece of jewelry. It has a pin and a clasp so that it can be attached to clothing. The word is pronounced "broch," with a long o, and that leads to a common misspelling: broach. A broach is a rod used for roasting meat or a sharp-pointed tool used for making a hole...

Word watch: the verb "vet"

Posted on November 23, 2008
As President-elect Barack Obama and his staff prepare for the new administration, the word "vet" has come up often in news reports. Each Cabinet nominee is to be vetted before the president-elect can announce his or her nomination. One hurdle to Sen...

Word watch: doorstep as a verb

Posted on November 22, 2008
I ran across the word "doorstepped" in a story about a British journalist today. I didn't understand what it meant even in context. So I looked it up. The Oxford English Dictionary offers this definition: of a press reporter, etc.; to call upon or wait on the doorstep for (someone), in order to obtain an interview, photograph, etc...

Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on November 16, 2008
The latest Grammar Guide quiz focuses on word choice. You will be asked to choose the better of two words to fill in a blank. The News & Observer blog system will not accept anonymous comments now. Blog visitors who wish to leave a comment will need to register, which is free...

Clever writers on language

Posted on November 15, 2008
I wrote about Sarah Palin's language and about Roy Blount Jr.'s language book. Now here are two pieces from the New York Times by writers much more adept than I. What gratifying reads they are. Dick Cavett takes on the tangled syntax of the former vice presidential nominee and current Republican star...

Top 10 irritating phrases

Posted on November 15, 2008
Oxford University researchers have released a top 10 list of irritating phrases. The link is to a British newspaper story that uses "comprises" correctly, by the way. One word that makes me cringe lately is "enormity." Television journalists speak of the "enormity" of President-elect Barack Obama's tasks once he is inaugurated...

Comic distraction: bring vs.take

Posted on October 26, 2008
Sunday's "Rhymes With Orange" reminded me of the problems people have with "bring" and "take." The comic strip carries the headline: Where the dove actually went. The panel shows a bird sitting at a bar and telling the bartender: "Another dry martini with olives, but this time leave the branch on so I can bring it to Noah...

Comic distraction: bring vs. take

Posted on October 26, 2008
Sunday's "Rhymes With Orange" reminded me of the problems people have with "bring" and "take." The comic strip carries the headline: Where the dove actually went. The panel shows a bird sitting at a bar and telling the bartender: "Another dry martini with olives, but this time leave the branch on so I can bring it to Noah...

We respectfully disagree: stamp vs. stomp

Posted on October 23, 2008
A lead on a story from a few days ago with the construction "stamped to death" made me stop. I thought other readers might trip over "stamped" in a construction where we usually see "stomped." I checked the dictionary and usage guides...

Get a sip of "Alphabet Juice"

Posted on October 22, 2008
Roy Blount Jr. was on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" today to promote his word book, "Alphabet Juice." If you want to hear the show without pledge breaks, click here. You can also read an excerpt from the book there. Folks called in with favorite words...

Book review: "Alphabet Juice"

Posted on October 19, 2008
"Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists and Spirits of Letters, Words and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics and Essences; With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory" by Roy Blount Jr...

The man who wrote the dictionary

Posted on October 13, 2008
We have this man to thank when we spell the word color instead of colour. Yale University will celebrate Noah Webster this week on the 250th anniversary of his birth. Webster wrote the first comprehensive dictionary of the American language. He was born Oct...

Funny and beautiful words

Posted on October 07, 2008
Do the words hornswoggle, mollycoddle and whippersnapper make you giggle? They are among the 100 Funniest Words in English, according to one list. I am partial to No. 71: namby-pamby. I especially like how William Shatner sneers it in a Priceline commercial...

More on Sarah Palin's fascinating rhythm

Posted on October 07, 2008
My earlier post about Sarah Palin's speech has received a good number of reads since I posted Sunday. I have another link for you. Slate has a piece that turns Palin's interview with Katie Couric into poetry. Thanks to my colleague Judson Drennan for pointing this out...

Just for fun: What accent do you have?

Posted on October 06, 2008
Here is a quiz to help you figure out which American accent you have. Mine is Southern.

It's, like, totally awesome

Posted on October 06, 2008
What's the most overused word in today's English? I nominate awesome. Everyone from the president to the most inane pop star uses the word. The use that prompts today's little rant was in a direct-mail piece that landed in my mailbox this weekend. The flier from a new church promotes the church's "Awesome Children's Program...

Sarah Palin's fascinating rhythm

Posted on October 05, 2008
This year's presidential campaign is filled with interesting word choices and rhetorical devices. Like many members of the news media, I am fascinated with Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president. She seems to have struck a chord with many people, and she appears to be a good communicator...

Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on September 27, 2008
Today's quiz was inspired and aided by John Bremner's "Words on Words." The five sentences on the quiz involve word choices. Some sentences appeared in print; others were composed to illustrate the point. Click here or on the question mark icon to begin...

Found treasure

Posted on September 22, 2008
I happened across a copy of John B. Bremner's "Words on Words" on a bookshelf in The N&O's computer training center last week. It had been left behind in an editor's office. I was excited to find this copy in good shape. My own copy at home is a bit worn, and the book is out of print...

Book review: "The Secret Life of Words"

Posted on September 21, 2008
"The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English" by Henry Hitchings. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 448 pages, September 2008. In "The Secret Life of Words," British writer Henry Hitchings examines words that have entered English from other languages...

Candidates and their rhetoric

Posted on September 20, 2008
Speeches in this year's presidential campaign are awash in a rhetorical device called antimetabole, according to an article in Slate. In this device, the speaker repeats words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order, as in President Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country...

Word watch: Anonymize

Posted on September 14, 2008
A discussion on the radio show "On The Media" about Google's data gathering used this word: anonymize. You can click on the embedded link below to hear the talk between host Bob Garfield and Alissa Cooper of the Center for Democracy and Technology...

Who's a boomer?

Posted on September 10, 2008
I've heard a few journalists refer to Barack Obama and Sarah Palin as part of the post-baby boom generation. In fact, Obama, born in August 1961, and Palin, born in February 1964, were born during the baby boom years, 1946-1964. The baby boom, of course, is mostly made up of the children of the people who lived through World War II...

Looking into "maverick"

Posted on September 07, 2008
A reader sent a note last week about the word "maverick," which Republicans and the news media repeatedly used to refer to Sen. John McCain. The reader looked up the definitions and found this one: "especially a calf that has become separated from its mother...

Try a Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Posted on September 01, 2008
Today's quiz contains various grammar, usage, punctuation or spelling problems. Try the quiz and leave a comment if you wish. I've put no time limit on the quiz, which has the usual five parts.  See my earlier post for a review of a book that plays a part in one of the quiz answers today...

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