Author Archive
Articles by Merrill Perlman | Email the Author
Un-towards
Tacking ‘s’ on to some directional words
By Merrill Perlman Sep 21, 2010 at 12:19 PM
“The electorate seems to be moving towards the right,” one media site said after a conservative candidate won a recent... More
Sic Transitive Gloria
‘For,’ ‘from,’ and ‘on’ go bye-bye
By Merrill Perlman Sep 13, 2010 at 11:35 AM
When a journalism professor gave students the sentence “He snapped to attention only when a tourist asked directions,” a number... More
Been There
Learning to dodge clichés
By Merrill Perlman Sep 7, 2010 at 11:12 AM
Hurricane Earl was a monster, a Category 4 storm. Along the East Coast from North Carolina to New England, news... More
You Said What?
Words that have changed meaning
By Merrill Perlman Aug 30, 2010 at 12:55 PM
Kenn Fong wonders about words whose meanings have been co-opted by popular culture. “The other day a friend spoke of... More
Look It Up!
A dictionary by any other name…
By Merrill Perlman Aug 23, 2010 at 03:43 PM
Twitter was all, ah, atwitter last week because a new edition of a dictionary came out, adding about 2,000 words... More
Double Word Score
The same word, only different
By Merrill Perlman Aug 16, 2010 at 02:37 PM
The truck on the highway carrying dangerous chemicals usually carries a notice that its contents are “inflammable.” If the truck... More
Capital Losses
When a noun is proper, or not
By Merrill Perlman Aug 9, 2010 at 12:23 PM
The coming fall elections promise a lot of intrigue. We will read in The New York Times all about the... More
Sworn Out
How vulgar can you be?
By Merrill Perlman Aug 2, 2010 at 01:21 PM
Caution: Adult content ahead! Only a dork or scumbag wouldn’t acknowledge screwing up, though admitting error really sucks. And only... More
For Giving
How to know when ‘for’ needs an ‘e’
By Merrill Perlman Jul 26, 2010 at 04:00 PM
A golfer who hits a ball into the vicinity of others is beholden to yell “Fore!” to warn them to... More
Two Shall Be as One
The gospel of merging words
By Merrill Perlman Jul 19, 2010 at 03:52 PM
In the beginning, there were two words. And people went forth and used the words separately or together as needed.... More
Presto, Chango!
The magic of a deceptive word
By Merrill Perlman Jul 13, 2010 at 10:21 AM
Many legislators are resorting to interesting budget tricks to try to pay for everything they want without necessarily having the... More
The ‘-ize’ Have It
A popular suffix gets even more so
By Merrill Perlman Jul 6, 2010 at 11:38 AM
News organizations are in a quandary. They’re trying to “incentivize” readers, “monetize” the publication’s content, and “prioritize” their resources. It’s... More
Style-ish
Yahoo shows why the Web really is different
By Merrill Perlman Jun 29, 2010 at 01:38 PM
Yahoo! There’s a new style guide! By Yahoo! Available now on the Web and to be available in print very... More
Dangling by a Thread
Misplaced modifiers can confuse and amuse
By Merrill Perlman Jun 21, 2010 at 02:46 PM
“After beating Jankovic in 60 minutes in the semifinals, Stosur’s parents and two brothers flew in from Australia to watch... More
On Your Mark
Trademarks that no one treats as such
By Merrill Perlman Jun 14, 2010 at 12:50 PM
When you have a cold, you use a lot of kleenex. When you cut yourself, you put on a band-aid.... More
Proof
Is ‘proved’ the same as ‘proven’?
By Merrill Perlman Jun 7, 2010 at 11:30 AM
A basic tenet of the court system, going back to British common law, is that a suspect is “innocent until... More
How Big Is Big?
When numbers are meaningless
By Merrill Perlman Jun 1, 2010 at 04:52 PM
It’s that time of year again. Wildfires are starting to spread, well, like wildfires. And meaningless measurements of the size... More
Soaking It Up
There’s more than one way to blot a spill
By Merrill Perlman May 24, 2010 at 03:11 PM
The aftermath of the Gulf oil spill is giving many readers an education in a booming industry that rarely comes... More
Hyphen Tension
A ‘hyphen’ is not a ‘dash’
By Merrill Perlman May 17, 2010 at 04:57 PM
Precision is necessary in a lot of things in journalism—facts, spelling of names, etc. It’s also vital in Web addresses—tell... More
Stopping the Flow
‘Staunch’ or ‘stanch’?
By Merrill Perlman May 10, 2010 at 04:18 PM
Frantic efforts are underway to shut off the oil flowing from a well in the Gulf of Mexico. Everyone agrees... 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.
