Language Corner
Passing the Blame
A “scapegoat” by any other name …
By Merrill Perlman Nov 15, 2010 at 12:38 PM
Antonio Pierce, on ESPN, was talking about how the Washington Redskins seemed to be blaming their quarterback for a lot... More
Stock Answers
A stylebook takes on financial terms
By Merrill Perlman Nov 8, 2010 at 02:42 PM
If you’ve been reading too much “financial porn,” you might be tempted by the “skirt-length theory” and try to “buy... More
Leading Questions
How some journalism terms were born
By Merrill Perlman Nov 1, 2010 at 01:52 PM
The Associated Press recently said it would stop using some wire-service jargon as instructions on its stories. Among them were... More
Boo!
Scary words
By Merrill Perlman Oct 25, 2010 at 03:00 PM
Halloween is next week, and thousands of people are “scarifying” their houses in anticipation of the hordes of trick-or-treating children.... More
Overly Possessive
Why the lack of an apostrophe sometimes isn’t wrong
By Merrill Perlman Oct 18, 2010 at 01:13 PM
A student recently asked why she had been corrected when she wrote “The teacher’s union voted to strike.” That’s easy:... More
Loan Ranger
Money can change a noun to a verb
By Merrill Perlman Oct 11, 2010 at 12:48 PM
The reporter seemingly couldn’t make up his mind. In an article about a mayor’s financial problem, the reporter used a... More
Who, I?
When personal pronouns don’t get along
By Merrill Perlman Oct 4, 2010 at 12:34 PM
If you go to Language Corner’s Facebook page (and while you’re there, you may as well “like” it), you’ll see... More
Echo Chamber
On redundant acronyms and initialisms
By Merrill Perlman Sep 30, 2010 at 04:59 PM
An acronym or initialism can become so familiar that we forget what it stands for and add one of its... More
Selling Short
When words are truncated, spellings differ
By Merrill Perlman Sep 27, 2010 at 03:03 PM
By now, just about everyone knows what an “app” is, and knows it’s short for “application.” The verb form of... More
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
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”
In one tweet
Luke Russert is the Golden Boy of DC
And it drives young journalists crazy
It’s official: We never need to worry about the future of journalism again!
The NYT shows us why
Why does Florida produce so much weird news? Experts explain
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.
