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.

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

The generous and the pinched

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Another wrangle last week, this one in an online discussion with people who insist that the relative pronoun that , against all evidence , m...
2 comments:
Friday, August 26, 2022

God doesn't think he's a doctor

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I got into a back-and-forth online this week over using the title doctor  for people with non-medical degrees.  He's the issue for style...
3 comments:
Thursday, August 25, 2022

Take it out: in the wake of

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Journalism operates on conventions (write one obituary or one police story, and you can write a thousand), and the pressure of time leads re...
4 comments:

Start here

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 When I posted photos of the shelves on which I keep my books on language and writing, Ben Yagoda noticed some gaps and kindly sent me copie...
2 comments:
Monday, August 22, 2022

The small part

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 On Saturday I attended a little gathering of Baltimore Sun employees and alumni to celebrate the belated acquisition of The Sun's 2020 ...
4 comments:
Tuesday, August 9, 2022

End a sentence with a preposition if you want to

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 Yes, I know, Someone told you that it is wrong to end a sentence with a preposition. Someone also told you never to split infinitives, none...
2 comments:
Friday, July 29, 2022

Step up to the Grammar Table

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On a September day in 2018, Ellen Jovin left her apartment in Manhattan and went to the street outside the 72nd Street subway station to set...
Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Classic yard care

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 Taking advantage of a break in the brutal summer heat, I cut the grass this morning in the appropriate classical manner, boustrophedon, mow...
3 comments:
Friday, July 22, 2022

The white man's burden

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 A wooden box of family papers holds the receipt for the property taxes my great-great-grandfather, John Early, paid to Fleming County, Kent...
Thursday, July 21, 2022

Yes, you can, and you may

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An online discussion group recently rehashed the ancient can/may  distinction* with several participants stoutly holding to it. As it happen...
1 comment:
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