Author Archive
Articles by Merrill Perlman | Email the Author
Caution! Merge Ahead
How two words become one
By Merrill Perlman May 4, 2009 at 03:50 PM
Two-word expressions often cause trouble when they are combined with yet a third word, becoming compound modifiers. Most journalists have... More
Let’s Not Fight About It
It’s arguably not worth it
By Merrill Perlman Apr 28, 2009 at 10:35 AM
For unknown reasons, English speakers insist on making the language more difficult than it already is, by modifying words to... More
The Golden Years
Happy fiftieth birthday, Strunk & White
By Merrill Perlman Apr 20, 2009 at 03:54 PM
April 16 was the fiftieth anniversary of the release of The Elements of Style, the “little book” that so many... More
Serial Killer
Why the ‘serial comma’ isn’t important
By Merrill Perlman Apr 13, 2009 at 11:00 AM
You know it, and you love it or hate it—it’s the last comma in a simple series, the one before... More
Snark Hunt
The search for the true meaning
By Merrill Perlman Apr 9, 2009 at 06:45 PM
Sometimes, dictionaries just don’t get it. this one will define a word one way; that one will define the same... More
Hopefully Yours
Is “full of hope” full of it?
By Merrill Perlman Apr 6, 2009 at 01:36 PM
“Hopefully,” Americans have been watching the first overseas visit of President Barack Obama. Those Americans who were taught English and... More
Firing Blanks
Is everyone who loses a job “fired”?
By Merrill Perlman Mar 31, 2009 at 03:54 PM
The day Brenda Starr has been dreading has arrived. Her new boss, Mr. Bottomline, says she has become too expensive.... More
Stop, Fief!
A long-term lease on a made-up word
By Merrill Perlman Mar 24, 2009 at 01:25 PM
Let us travel back to those thrilling days of feudalism, when lords were lords and everyone else paid high taxes... More
Waif Goodbye
How various dictionaries define the word “waif”
By Merrill Perlman Mar 17, 2009 at 03:07 PM
Let’s say you find a “waif” on the street and take it home. Should you call an orphanage, an animal... More
Wait Lifted
Do you wait for, on, or upon someone?
By Merrill Perlman Mar 11, 2009 at 01:44 PM
For hundreds of years, linguists, grammarians, and others have argued over what word should follow “wait,” as in “I am... More
Persuasive Convincing
On the vanishing distinctions between “persuade” and “convince”
By Merrill Perlman Mar 2, 2009 at 03:42 PM
Back when English grammar was rigorously taught in schools, certain rules were hammered into students’ heads: Never split an infinitive;... More
A Noisome Joy
Another word that doesn’t mean what it looks like it means
By Merrill Perlman Feb 23, 2009 at 01:16 PM
Think of all the words that don’t mean what their spellings seem to indicate they mean—among the ones already discussed... More
Presidents Setting
Attempting to punctuate President(s)(s’)(’s) Day
By Merrill Perlman Feb 16, 2009 at 04:39 PM
We used to have two holidays in February: Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday. Now, we have three, though most of... More
Cultured Plurals
Plurals, singulars, and the de-Latinization of English
By Merrill Perlman Feb 9, 2009 at 03:20 PM
When baseball season starts in just a few short weeks, the New York Yankees will have a new “stadium.” The... More
A Frayed Knot of Words
The difference between “homonym” and “homophone”
By Merrill Perlman Feb 2, 2009 at 01:18 PM
Last week’s posting discussed sound-alike words that are often mistaken for one another, despite their different meanings. That brought a... More
Pedal Pushers
“Soft-peddling” a faulty homonym
By Merrill Perlman Jan 26, 2009 at 12:03 PM
Now that Barack Obama is president, one columnist wanted to know, weren’t the late-night comedians, who had taken so many... More
Able Action
When the audience isn’t in on the definition
By Merrill Perlman Jan 19, 2009 at 05:00 PM
English has no grammar police to prevent someone from taking a word and putting it to work with another meaning,... More
Not So Impeachy
“Impeachment”: a clarification
By Merrill Perlman Jan 13, 2009 at 10:59 AM
When the Illinois House of Representatives voted to “impeach” Governor Rod Blagojevich, a number of blogs carried public comments like... More
Our Tense Past
Sneaking a dive into a swim
By Merrill Perlman Jan 5, 2009 at 05:15 PM
When you tell your friends that you took a swim yesterday, did you say you “swam” yesterday or that you... More
Kicking the Can
Congress describes its take on an auto bailout
By Merrill Perlman Dec 22, 2008 at 03:53 PM
In late November, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told the Big Three automakers that they needed to devise a better financial... More
‘See you on the other side’ - Meet Jessica Lum, a terminally ill 25-year-old who chose to spend what little time she had practicing journalism
#Realtalk: This is the best moment to be in journalism - The old stuff isn’t coming back, but that’s okay
Streams of consciousness - Millennials expect a steady diet of quick-hit, social-media-mediated bits and bytes. What does that mean for journalism?
Sticking with the truth - How ‘balanced’ coverage helped sustain the bogus claim that childhood vaccines can cause autism
An ink-stained stretch - Can Aaron Kushner save the Orange County Register—and the newspaper industry?
What to do if you find a baby bird
Expert advice
Inside Google’s secret lab
We might deplore the practice, but posting pictures of our food online is a way to bring everyone to the table
How the ‘World’s 50 Best’ list changed the way elite restaurants do business
“Every time the restaurant switched up its format, it got plenty of accompanying media coverage that let judges know they needed to return to see what was going on”
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
Uptown Messenger – Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
