Author Archive
Articles by Merrill Perlman | Email the Author
You Spell Potato, I Spell Potatoe
Spelling “foreign” words
By Merrill Perlman Jul 20, 2009 at 04:16 PM
If you read The New York Times, you’ve run across news of things happening in the Saudi Arabian city “Jidda.”... More
Sacrilegious
“Secular” moves from the church to the state
By Merrill Perlman Jul 13, 2009 at 03:39 PM
We’re living in a “secular” time. Well, duh. Of course it’s “secular”; America has no state religion, as in Israel... More
Uncoupling
Is it OK to omit the “of” after “couple”?
By Merrill Perlman Jul 6, 2009 at 03:26 PM
The coach was talking about his latest trade, which he said was “hopefully the first of several deals to come... More
What’s All the Fuss?
Describing an uproar with fun words
By Merrill Perlman Jun 29, 2009 at 02:46 PM
Journalists love words, and many will go out of their way to find “special” ways of using unusual words. Sometimes... More
False Alarms
What the fire department doesn’t tell you
By Merrill Perlman Jun 22, 2009 at 03:09 PM
The fire department was having a busy day. First it was the “two-alarm” fire and then came the “six-alarm” one.... More
Jumping Off ‘Allege’
The criminalization of a word
By Merrill Perlman Jun 15, 2009 at 03:17 PM
It’s virtually impossible to pinpoint when the misuse of a word or phrase becomes so common that it’s no longer... More
Compounded Interest
Pick your prefix: “dis” or “un”?
By Merrill Perlman Jun 8, 2009 at 05:12 PM
You’ve gotten into a dispute with a merchant, who sold you what you think is defective merchandise. Because the merchant... More
As You Like It
Avoiding “such as” problems
By Merrill Perlman Jun 2, 2009 at 08:00 AM
Journalists often have difficulty with highly focused grammatical concepts like subject-verb agreement, dangling participles, whether “none” is plural or singular,... More
Sick-Out
What do you say when you call?
By Merrill Perlman May 19, 2009 at 10:54 AM
You’re not feeling well. Maybe it’s the swine flu—or the Mexican flu or H1N1—but you don’t want to take any... More
Freelance-A-Lot
Defining the terms of employment
By Merrill Perlman May 15, 2009 at 01:05 PM
What happens to many journalists who are laid off? in many cases, they become “permalancers,” sometimes even for their previous... More
I Want to Be Alone
Why one transition should disappear
By Merrill Perlman May 11, 2009 at 03:13 PM
Journalists are pack animals. If someone does a story, others often follow. So it is, too, with words and phrases.... More
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
Woman’s work - The twisted reality of an Italian freelancer in Syria
Sourcing Trayvon Martin ‘photos’ from stormfront - Not a good idea, Business Insider
Elizabeth Warren, the antidote to CNBC - The senator schools the talking heads on bank regulation
Art Laffer + PR blitz = press failure - The media types up the retail lobby’s propaganda
Reuters’s global warming about-face - A survey shows the newswire ran 50 percent fewer stories on climate change after hiring a “skeptic”
Barack Obama: ‘those old times aren’t coming back’
“It used to be there were local newspapers everywhere. If you wanted to be a journalist, you could really make a good living working for your hometown paper”
The Guardian’s editor opens up on Reddit
Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, answered questions in an Ask Me Anything
The (almost) lost speech of Justice Anthony Kennedy
How his insightful remarks about the Constitution inadvertently make the case for a Supreme Court “media pool”
Fox News sues TVEyes for copyright infringement
Says subscription service sells access to its content without permission nor compensation
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
ACEsTooHigh.com – Reporting on the science, education, and policy surrounding childhood trauma
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
