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Media Watch
Several weeks ago, a Vatican-endorsed medal honoring Pope Francis had to be recalled because Jesus was spelled “Lesus.” Just last
week, a political placard at a Washington, D.C., press conference spelled filibuster “fillibuster” and against
“againts.” In light of these disgraces, it seems the right time to reopen our Media Malfeasance file…
• “They have arrested two suspects, neither of whom are British.” This decades-old problem is only getting worse. To journalists it may
concern: The pronoun neither, like either and each, is always singular. Make it “neither of whom is
British.”
• “Prop. 32 is an initiative to curb union’s influence.” Ah, apostrophes. Note that one could also say “to curb the influence
of unions”—that’s unions, plural. Plural nouns ending in s show possession with the apostrophe after the s, not before. So make it “curb unions’ influence.”
• “Guess who’s coming to dinner?” Looks all right, you say? The problem is the unnecessary question mark. “Guess” is an imperative—a direct order, not the first word in a question.
• “Rebecca Solnit’s book, Unfathomable City, was celebrated last week.” Remove the commas. This is slipshod
editing. With the commas, the sentence means that Unfathomable City is the only book Solnit has ever written. In fact, she has written over a
dozen.
The rule is that commas set off nonessential information. If the author has written only one book, its title is not essential to the
sentence: “Rebecca Solnit’s [only] book, Unfathomable City, was celebrated last week.” But since she has written several, we
must be told which book directly—no commas. Similarly, The actor, Robert De Niro, was there is incorrect with commas. But The president of the United States, Barack Obama, was there is correct.
As writers’ skills decline, so do readers’ standards. The acerbic avant-garde musician Frank Zappa (1940-1993) once described a rock
’n’ roll magazine as “written by people who can’t write for people who can’t read.” Were he alive today, Zappa might
not limit his assessment to rock-music journalism.
Due to the E-Newsletter's large readership, please submit your English usage questions through GrammarBook.com's “Grammar Blog.” |
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Pop Quiz
See if you can spot the flaws in these actual quotations from the media.
1. “…shot himself with a riffle.”
2. “Is it fair to compare the two crisis?”
3. “It does so many other things that drives up the cost.”
4. “Everyone has come out looking badly.”
5. “Dow closes at new record high.”
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 Wordplay
Now that you are sensitized to declining writing skills, perhaps you will be able to appreciate some of the bloopers below even more. Thank you to Hu O. for sending these.
Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
Don’t let worry kill you off—let the Church help.
Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
For practice, try rewriting any or all of these five bloopers so that what is written is what the writer intended to express.
Pop Quiz Answers
1. “…shot himself with a rifle.”
2. “Is it fair to compare the two crises?”
3. “It does so many other things that drive up the cost.”
4. “Everyone has come out looking bad.”
5. “Dow closes at record high.” (“new record” is a redundancy)
Learn all about who and whom, affect and effect, subjects and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, commas, semicolons, quotation marks, and much more by just sitting back and enjoying these easy-to-follow lessons. Tell your colleagues (and boss), children, teachers, and friends. Click here to watch. |
