contributorMerrill Perlman
English teachers used to drill into students that they did not "feel good." They "felt well." It was the corollary to "I feel bad," not "I feel badly," to which many teachers would reply something like: "Well, maybe if you took off your gloves, you could feel better." "Good," "well," "bad," and "badly" all define how you feel, but not in the same way, grammatically.
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Word CountWriters Talk About WritingCovetous: The Difference Between "Jealousy" and "Envy" March 21, 2013 By Merrill Perlman
The pope gets to wear nice red shoes, and a friend said, "I'm really jealous of those!" But, technically, she couldn't be jealous, unless she thought the shoes were hers, and the pope had stolen them. Instead, she "envied" the shoes, and was "envious" that he gets to wear them.
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Article Topics:Word CountWriters Talk About WritingForward-Looking: Ways of Telling the Future February 25, 2013 By Merrill Perlman
We have weather "forecasts," budget "projections," attempts at earthquake "predictions." Most dictionaries say those are all synonyms for one another. So why doesn't the nightly weather report call them "predictions" or "projections"?
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Article Topics:Word CountWriters Talk About WritingPopularity Contest: Words for the People February 12, 2013 By Merrill Perlman
Merrill Perlman, who writes the "Language Corner" column for Columbia Journalism Review, guides us through some commonly confused words for common folk: "It's a popular mistake to confuse populace and populous. Throw in the similar-sounding populist, and even more mistakes are made. They mean almost the same thing, only different."
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Article Topics:Word CountWriters Talk About WritingRobbing 'Hood: Words Involving Theft January 28, 2013 By Merrill Perlman
Trying to teach journalists the finer points of law is nearly as hard as trying to teach them the finer points of math. So the advice often is boiled down to overly simplistic "rules": A house is "burglarized," but a person is "robbed."
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing"However" You Want: Who's On First? January 8, 2013 By Merrill Perlman
A Florida correspondent writes: "My boss is obsessed with Strunk & White, and so tells me that I can never start a sentence with 'however' when using it to mean 'nevertheless.' I disagree with him and say that I can start a sentence with 'however' when I mean 'nevertheless' if I put a comma after the 'however.'"
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Word CountWriters Talk About WritingThe Trouble with the "Apparent" Heart Attack December 19, 2012 By Merrill Perlman
The American Heart Association says that heart attacks kill about 1,200 people in the United States every day. In many of those people's obituaries or death notices, the cause of death will be given as "an apparent heart attack." Except, as many a journalism professor has noted, "apparent heart attacks" can't kill; only real heart attacks can kill.
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April 9, 2013