You Don't Say

John McIntyre, whom James Wolcott called "the Dave Brubeck of the art and craft of copy editing," writes on language, editing, journalism, and random topics. Identifying his errors relieves him of the burden of omniscience. Write to jemcintyre@gmail.com, befriend at Facebook, or follow at Twitter: @johnemcintyre. His original "You Don't Say" blog at The Baltimore Sun ran from 2005 to 2021, and posts on it can sometimes be found at baltimoresun.com through Google searches.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Writing is overrated

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I’ve worked with people who believed in writing memos – I used to believe in the practice myself. Spoken English is too sloppy, too casual, ...
18 comments:
Monday, March 22, 2010

Oh, that

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­­­Since being given a thorough thumping by Professor Geoffrey Pullum in 2008, I have not returned to the which thicket, but a former Sun ...
14 comments:
Saturday, March 20, 2010

Tea Party, please note

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The New York Times has an article on the accelerating collapse of ACORN , the grassroots community-organizing group, which appears to be ...
7 comments:
Thursday, March 18, 2010

No Irish need apply

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Sure and it was a grand day when conservatives finally claimed political correctitude for themselves. William F. Gavin, writing for Nati...
13 comments:

Religion and politics

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Yesterday afternoon I sent out this tweet: The Rev. Canon* Mary Douglas Glasspool has received the necessary consents for her consecrati...
17 comments:
Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Maybe hire a copy editor?

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Yahoo News headline: Women, girls rape victims in Haiti quake Comment on CNN screen crawl: Jewish lobby runs America MSNBC: I-Team: Judge ...
4 comments:
Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Manners maketh man

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A post from last September, “Take off your hat, sir,” continues to provoke occasional comments, including this most recent one: “ I know...
11 comments:
Sunday, March 14, 2010

Beware of the editor

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I have spent thirty years working with copy editors, several of whom I have trained and many of whom I admire. They have been boon compan...
6 comments:
Friday, March 12, 2010

It just don't add up

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Before you go all peevy on me about the headline, you should be reminded that it is a direct quotation from a Warner Bros. cartoon of my you...
11 comments:
Thursday, March 11, 2010

The world turned upside down

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Two propositions worth considering: Item: Glenn Beck is a satirist employed by the sinister left-wing media to subvert conservatism by m...
9 comments:
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