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When Spell-Check Can?t Help - Times Topics Blog - NYTimes.com When Spell-Check Can?t Help
By PHILIP B. CORBETT
Notes from the newsroom on grammar, usage and style.
AfterDeadline
A few recent entries in the file of mixed-up words, including one of the most common mix-ups:
???
Andrew Clark, a geneticist who works on the Y chromosome at Cornell University, said the Y?s fast turnover of DNA could effect the activity of genes throughout the genome, because just such an effect has been detected in laboratory fruit flies.
A perennial problem: make it ?affect.?
As a verb, use ?effect? only to mean ?accomplish, bring about.? ?Affect? is the verb that means ?influence.? (The second use of ?effect? here, as a noun, is correct.)
???
Most times, the mishaps for a distracted walker are minor, like the lightly dinged head and broken fingernail that Ms. Briggs suffered, a jammed digit or a sprained ankle, and, the befallen say, a nasty case of hurt pride. Of course, the injuries can sometimes be serious ? and they are on the rise.
?Befallen? refers to something that has happened, not to the people to whom it has happened. Perhaps we confused it with ?fallen??
???
But the hearing shifted to new ground when Phil Angelides, chairman of the group, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, bore in on Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman Sachs?s chairman.
Make it ?bored,? the past tense of the verb ?bore? ? meaning, here, to move steadily forward, like a drill.
?Bore? as a past-tense verb is a form of ?bear,? which is not what we meant. Perhaps we confused the expression ?bore in on? with ?bear down on.?
In a Word
This week?s grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
???
Mr. Bardavid said that on Thursday he filed a writ of habeus corpus with a federal court in Pennsylvania.
Was the Latin editor off that night? Make it ?habeas? (second-person singular, present subjunctive, I think, for those practicing conjugations at home.)
???
?You have a candidate who hasn?t been the most popular elected official in the state, who is pushing an agenda that is completely at odds with the constituents in his state, and you have an economic environment that is the worst the state?s ever faced,? says Danny Tarkanian, one of a half-dozen Republicans lining up for the chance to oppose Reid. He is the son of Jerry Tarkanian, the former University of Nevada, Las Vegas, basketball coach, as big of a celebrity as you can find in Nevada.
Delete the ?of.? The Times?s stylebook says this:
Omit of after a modifier that is followed by a or an: so big of a deal is regional dialect and should be changed to so big a deal. And write so sweet an apple, not so sweet of an apple.
???
The pared-back approach would cover fewer than half of those who, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would gain coverage under the House and Senate bills. But it would not put the government on the hook for what critics say is a new entitlement, a change that would appeal to some Republicans.
No call for the colloquial expression in a straight news story.
???
No one keeps an exact count, but rough calculations based on the government?s survey suggest that perhaps 1,600 American public and private schools are teaching Chinese, up from 300 or so a decade ago. And the numbers are growing exponentially.
As a colleague pointed out, this loose and informal use of ?exponentially? just to mean ?very quickly? has a flavor of hype in a straight news story. (Note that 300 squared is 90,000).
???
With all the talk about the Republican upset in Massachusetts, President Obama did little today to note the one-year anniversary of his inauguration.
Last week?s reminder on this same point had little effect, but no doubt this one will be different. ?Anniversary? by definition refers to years, so ?one-year anniversary? is redundant. Make it ?first anniversary.?
???
[Caption with photo package] Weather, time and general wear and tear take their toll on every kind of material, and the street is as a good a place to notice this as anywhere else. The sole of a businessman?s shoe in Lower Manhattan shows scuffs and the start of a hole. A close look at the sidewalk around Gramercy Park reveals the same thing is happening to bluestone as it is tread upon by millions of feet, decade after decade.
The past participle form is ?trodden? (or, as a variant, ?trod?).
???
Three U.S.C. assistants will be heading to Seattle with Carroll: the linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr., the offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates and the offensive line coach Pat Ruel, each of whom have N.F.L. experience as players or coaches.
Pick one: singular or plural. It could say, ?each of whom has N.F.L. experience as a player or coach,? or ?all of whom have N.F.L. experience as players or coaches.?
???
The provision, however, sparked a torrent of criticism and was derided by Republicans and others as the ?Cornhusker kickback.? Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, referencing Mr. Nelson in his State of the State address, said, ?He got the corn, we got the husk.?
This use of ?reference? as a verb is jargony; make it ?referring to.?
By PHILIP B. CORBETT
Notes from the newsroom on grammar, usage and style.
AfterDeadline
A few recent entries in the file of mixed-up words, including one of the most common mix-ups:
???
Andrew Clark, a geneticist who works on the Y chromosome at Cornell University, said the Y?s fast turnover of DNA could effect the activity of genes throughout the genome, because just such an effect has been detected in laboratory fruit flies.
A perennial problem: make it ?affect.?
As a verb, use ?effect? only to mean ?accomplish, bring about.? ?Affect? is the verb that means ?influence.? (The second use of ?effect? here, as a noun, is correct.)
???
Most times, the mishaps for a distracted walker are minor, like the lightly dinged head and broken fingernail that Ms. Briggs suffered, a jammed digit or a sprained ankle, and, the befallen say, a nasty case of hurt pride. Of course, the injuries can sometimes be serious ? and they are on the rise.
?Befallen? refers to something that has happened, not to the people to whom it has happened. Perhaps we confused it with ?fallen??
???
But the hearing shifted to new ground when Phil Angelides, chairman of the group, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, bore in on Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman Sachs?s chairman.
Make it ?bored,? the past tense of the verb ?bore? ? meaning, here, to move steadily forward, like a drill.
?Bore? as a past-tense verb is a form of ?bear,? which is not what we meant. Perhaps we confused the expression ?bore in on? with ?bear down on.?
In a Word
This week?s grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
???
Mr. Bardavid said that on Thursday he filed a writ of habeus corpus with a federal court in Pennsylvania.
Was the Latin editor off that night? Make it ?habeas? (second-person singular, present subjunctive, I think, for those practicing conjugations at home.)
???
?You have a candidate who hasn?t been the most popular elected official in the state, who is pushing an agenda that is completely at odds with the constituents in his state, and you have an economic environment that is the worst the state?s ever faced,? says Danny Tarkanian, one of a half-dozen Republicans lining up for the chance to oppose Reid. He is the son of Jerry Tarkanian, the former University of Nevada, Las Vegas, basketball coach, as big of a celebrity as you can find in Nevada.
Delete the ?of.? The Times?s stylebook says this:
Omit of after a modifier that is followed by a or an: so big of a deal is regional dialect and should be changed to so big a deal. And write so sweet an apple, not so sweet of an apple.
???
The pared-back approach would cover fewer than half of those who, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would gain coverage under the House and Senate bills. But it would not put the government on the hook for what critics say is a new entitlement, a change that would appeal to some Republicans.
No call for the colloquial expression in a straight news story.
???
No one keeps an exact count, but rough calculations based on the government?s survey suggest that perhaps 1,600 American public and private schools are teaching Chinese, up from 300 or so a decade ago. And the numbers are growing exponentially.
As a colleague pointed out, this loose and informal use of ?exponentially? just to mean ?very quickly? has a flavor of hype in a straight news story. (Note that 300 squared is 90,000).
???
With all the talk about the Republican upset in Massachusetts, President Obama did little today to note the one-year anniversary of his inauguration.
Last week?s reminder on this same point had little effect, but no doubt this one will be different. ?Anniversary? by definition refers to years, so ?one-year anniversary? is redundant. Make it ?first anniversary.?
???
[Caption with photo package] Weather, time and general wear and tear take their toll on every kind of material, and the street is as a good a place to notice this as anywhere else. The sole of a businessman?s shoe in Lower Manhattan shows scuffs and the start of a hole. A close look at the sidewalk around Gramercy Park reveals the same thing is happening to bluestone as it is tread upon by millions of feet, decade after decade.
The past participle form is ?trodden? (or, as a variant, ?trod?).
???
Three U.S.C. assistants will be heading to Seattle with Carroll: the linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr., the offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates and the offensive line coach Pat Ruel, each of whom have N.F.L. experience as players or coaches.
Pick one: singular or plural. It could say, ?each of whom has N.F.L. experience as a player or coach,? or ?all of whom have N.F.L. experience as players or coaches.?
???
The provision, however, sparked a torrent of criticism and was derided by Republicans and others as the ?Cornhusker kickback.? Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, referencing Mr. Nelson in his State of the State address, said, ?He got the corn, we got the husk.?
This use of ?reference? as a verb is jargony; make it ?referring to.?