A friend recently sent me a site listing common errors in English usage, and I’ve been looking for a relevant way of bringing it up on this site. I’ve had some fun clicking around on it.

• First, there’s the satisfaction of seeing some of my pet peeves corrected—nice to know someone shares my frustration at least. “ATM machine” and “I/me/myself” are good examples.
• Then there’s the entertainment factor—the supposedly common mistakes that I wasn’t even aware people were making. “Virii?” ”Disconcerning?”
• And lastly, …Read More…

Couldn’t finish the year out without one more photo of unnecessary quotation marks.

It really is a nice thought. It just doesn’t need to be between quotation marks.

Another one for the activity box. Thanks to Paul for pointing it out.

One of the great resources over at Wordsmith.org is a newsletter called A.Word.A.Day. Today’s word is “rhopalic,” which apparently means “having each successive word longer by a letter or syllable.” Along with the word, the site challenges readers to submit “a rhopalic newspaper headline (can be of increasing or decreasing word lengths) for a real or imaginary event.”

I gave it a go: …Read More…

Look! It’s unnecessary quotation mark’s ugly cousin, the unnecessary apostrophe. Usually only spotted preceding an “s,” this is a rare and exciting find.

I just read Landor’s press release about the identity they created for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. This is one of the more somber identity assignments imaginable, and I think they’ve done a nice job.

And, for the most part, the press release does a good job of explaining the rationale behind the design (although I was surprised it didn’t mention the blue 11’s similarity to a ‘pause’ icon, which is a potentially interesting message). But one word in the press release rubbed me the wrong way. Here’s the line: …Read More…

Scene: Rob and a friend wait for the molasses-powered elevator at the Sheraton San Diego. The emergency exit floor-plan is posted nearby.

Rob: “Egress?”

Jim: “Yeah. It’s the opposite of ‘ingress.’”

Jim was right. “Egress” is the opposite of “ingress.” I was impressed by the demonstration of verbal aptitude. But he’d also failed to see my point.

Jim, realizing why I’d pointed it out: “Oh, yeah…I don’t know why they didn’t just say ‘Exit.’”

This sign reminds me of at least three thoughts to keep in mind for those of us tasked with choosing the right words. …Read More…