Language Corner
Grainy Picture
‘Granularity’ and other business jargon
By Merrill Perlman Dec 6, 2010 at 12:47 PM
For a number of years, some attendees of jargon-heavy business meetings have played “Buzzword Bingo”: Someone prints out cards with... More
A Matter of Taste
On “gourmet,” “gourmand,” and loving food
By Merrill Perlman Dec 1, 2010 at 04:17 PM
When a word takes on unwanted connotations, people seeking a replacement often settle on something close, thinking, perhaps, that the... More
Never the More
Replacing a word in a quotation can lead to trouble
By Merrill Perlman Nov 29, 2010 at 02:40 PM
What happens when a public official misspeaks? Should a news outlet edit the quotation, paraphrase it, or just leave it... More
Degrees of Rejection
‘Refudiate’ may have a use after all
By Merrill Perlman Nov 22, 2010 at 11:31 AM
The “words of the year” lists are beginning to appear, and we’re generally going to ignore them, since those words... More
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
‘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?
This is the best moment to be in journalism (25)
The WSJ editorial page hits rock bottom (19)
Public television’s attempts to placate David Koch
One journalist took matters into his own hands when a fellow audience member wouldn’t stop using her smartphone during a theater performance
Purchasing Tumblr is Yahoo’s flashy bet on a shift in social media
The shift from Facebook to more creative social networks
Gay Talese’s outline for ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,’ 1966
Handwritten on a shirt board
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.
