Tag: word choice

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Cat London

Talking Sh!t: Editing Swear Words

May 9, 2024 by Cat London | 2 Comments on Talking Sh!t: Editing Swear Words

As editors, we think and talk a great deal about words. We analyze words, we move them around, we cross some out and we add others in. When we gather at conferences and meetings across the world, we talk about words and then we come home and frequently read and write about words. But there’s […]

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Meaghan Steeves

Uses for a Dictionary (Besides Defining Words)

October 26, 2023 by Meaghan Steeves | 1 Comment on Uses for a Dictionary (Besides Defining Words)

Ever since I was a kid, I was taught to look up words I didn’t know in the dictionary. I used to think it was because the grown-ups were too busy to explain the meaning (or maybe I was being a pest). But now I can’t help but wonder whether I misjudged their reasons. I […]

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Tracey Anderson

“Editing has the power to elevate writing to a level where change is possible”: An Interview with Sheila Cameron

May 4, 2021 by Tracey Anderson | Leave a Comment

Sheila Cameron has 15 years’ experience providing style and copy editing on a wide range of fiction, non-fiction and business materials. Currently, she develops and edits content for eLeadership Academy™, an online educational platform that utilizes neuroscience insights to foster leadership growth. Editors Canada is delighted that on Sunday, June 13, 2021, at 11:15 a.m. […]

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: On the PC Front

December 5, 2017 by Wilf Popoff | 38 Comments on Wasted Words: On the PC Front

The Grey Cup eluded the Edmonton Eskimos again this year, but that’s not the worst of the team’s troubles: the political correctness refs want it to lose its name as well. The club chose its regrettable label in 1949, but it had been widely used by other Edmonton football squads for more than 50 years. […]

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Marianne Grier

Eggplants and Aubergines

January 17, 2017 by Marianne Grier | 12 Comments on Eggplants and Aubergines

Before leaving Canada, I had a solid grasp on Canadian English. I knew there were differences between British and American English, and my language differed from both of these. Beyond that, I didn’t give Canadian English much thought. After finishing my BA, I ventured to Germany to teach in sleepy Uelzen, a village known for […]

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Zanne Cameron

Being Intercultural: The Language of Health

August 30, 2016 by Zanne Cameron | 3 Comments on Being Intercultural: The Language of Health

Being intercultural is often defined strictly in terms of ethnicity and geography, when really each of us lives a multiplicity of cultural identities on a daily basis. Our interactions at work and with family and friends, our activities, faith, offline and online personas, all have their own overlapping and intersecting sets of beliefs, values and […]

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: A Compulsion to Exaggerate

February 24, 2015 by Wilf Popoff | Leave a Comment

Frank McKenna, a San Diego photographer, complains that all photos displayed on the web are described as stunning. “What’s going on here?” he asks. “When did every picture become stunning?” McKenna sees this as word inflation. I agree to a point. Certainly it’s almost insulting nowadays to simply say something is delightful or charming; we […]

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James Harbeck

Whom Do You Believe? | Linguistics, Frankly

January 20, 2015 by James Harbeck | 2 Comments on Whom Do You Believe? | Linguistics, Frankly

First of all: If you can avoid using whom, you should. Any but the most formal texts are better off without it; it’s a foreign word for most users, as evidenced by the general inability of even many language professionals to use it quite correctly all the time. Sometimes, however, you have to use it. […]

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Victoria Neufeldt

What’s an Editor to Do?

January 6, 2015 by Victoria Neufeldt | 2 Comments on What’s an Editor to Do?

The vagaries of language can cause even the most experienced editors headaches. Editors as a group are more attuned to the whims and ways of language than the average speaker, but many strange and challenging usages regularly fly under the radar and pass into public text, despite our best efforts. When should an editor accept […]

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: The Elements and Style

December 2, 2014 by Wilf Popoff | 1 Comment on Wasted Words: The Elements and Style

It’s the time of year when heeding weather reports is a good idea: setting out with meagre insulation can be foolhardy. (News flash: “Hypothermia Blamed When Editor Vanishes.”) I glean data from all sources and sally forth properly kitted, but meteorological claptrap can be irritating. A local CBC station announces that temperatures overnight will go […]

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James Harbeck

What’s English? | Linguistics, Frankly

November 12, 2014 by James Harbeck | 1 Comment on What’s English? | Linguistics, Frankly

Here’s a quick quiz. Tell me which of the following are English and which aren’t. For each one, say why it is or isn’t English and, if it’s not, what language it is. There’s no place to plug your car in in the parkade. A wha dat dey dem people deh nyam ih smell sweet. […]

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Wilf Popoff

Getting Rid of Death

September 23, 2014 by Wilf Popoff | 6 Comments on Getting Rid of Death

Okay, I understand. Most of us simply do not want to die. And over the last two centuries the western world has managed to postpone the occasion: we’ve doubled our lifespan. Postponement, however, is not eradication. Die we must, eventually, although there now appears to be a workaround. Many people are attempting to defeat mortality […]

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James Harbeck

Seriously, What’s the Problem With Sentence Adverbs? | Linguistics, Frankly

September 9, 2014 by James Harbeck | Leave a Comment

The English language is a very complex and powerful thing, capable of many nuances and quite resistant to simplistic attempts at tidying it up. Sadly, not everyone realizes that. Worse still, many people take very narrow and inconsistent views, focusing on pet peeves while letting parallel instances of usage pass unnoticed. It’s as though a […]

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: Jobspeak, the Language of Work

July 8, 2014 by Wilf Popoff | 6 Comments on Wasted Words: Jobspeak, the Language of Work

At an age when young men are learning to shave, I was hanging out at police stations and courthouses. No, I wasn’t in trouble with the law. I was a newspaper reporter, writing about the legal problems of others and the policemen* who brought them to justice. In fact, the only crimes I committed were […]

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James Harbeck

There’s No Way to Truly Split an Infinitive | Linguistics, Frankly

June 17, 2014 by James Harbeck | Leave a Comment

You can’t split an infinitive. I don’t mean I don’t want you to. I don’t mean it’s not proper to. I mean it’s not possible to. This is for the same reason that I haven’t just broken one off three times, at the ends of the three preceding sentences. The English infinitive is one word. […]

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: Careless Pirates

May 27, 2014 by Wilf Popoff | 4 Comments on Wasted Words: Careless Pirates

To create a great language simply plunder other tongues of their attractive words, assimilate them and profess longstanding ownership. English proves this. Oxford has half a million distinct words. Add technical and slang and you’ve topped one million, says the Global Language Monitor. Most are swag. Unfortunately, piracy can be thoughtless. We are all accomplices, […]

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David Ritchie

Invisible Writing

May 6, 2014 by David Ritchie | 1 Comment on Invisible Writing

Thirty years ago, in his film Zelig, Woody Allen portrayed a “human chameleon” — a man who took on the personalities of people around him. A ghostwriter must be something like that: a “chameleon” who can write in the voice of any client. As a ghostwriter, you must convey your client’s message to the public. […]

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Lori Burwash

Lessons Learned From Eminem, David Ogilvy and a Sex Hotline

April 29, 2014 by Lori Burwash | 18 Comments on Lessons Learned From Eminem, David Ogilvy and a Sex Hotline

It all started respectably enough. Publishing courses at Ryerson, EAC workshops and conferences, the Banff Book Editing Workshop. I’ve had rock-solid editorial training. So what have a rap artist, an ad man and a sex hotline taught me about writing and editing? Some pretty useful things, it turns out. Eminem: Write and edit like a […]

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James Harbeck

I Only Wanted to Explain This | Linguistics, Frankly

April 15, 2014 by James Harbeck | 4 Comments on I Only Wanted to Explain This | Linguistics, Frankly

Adverbs are a problematic and much-maligned class of words. Linguists often have trouble explaining exactly why they go where they go. Some sorts of adverbs are baselessly despised (hopefully, people will eventually get over those hangups, but I’m not hopeful). Some people think adverbs should be excised from writing altogether. I’d like to cover all […]

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Kelley Wilson

A Game-Changing Writing Exercise

April 1, 2014 by Kelley Wilson | 2 Comments on A Game-Changing Writing Exercise

As a writer, I always struggle with verbs. How many times have I used said, replied or answered? Can I think of a better verb to avoid being repetitive? Do I even need the verb? Verbs, seriously, keep me awake at night. So when I skimmed a recent online newsletter, Chuck Palahniuk’s “Thought Verbs” practically […]

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Wilf Popoff

An Editor Who Laughed at Her Work

March 4, 2014 by Wilf Popoff | 4 Comments on An Editor Who Laughed at Her Work

As an editor Karen Virag never seemed to flinch when she spotted a gaffe. Why should she? She had the smarts to identify the problem and the skill to correct it. She also recognized that without bad writing she wouldn’t have a job. Such virtues apply to any competent editor, but Karen went further. She […]

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James Harbeck

Topics, We Front Them | Linguistics, Frankly

January 14, 2014 by James Harbeck | 4 Comments on Topics, We Front Them | Linguistics, Frankly

English is normally a subject-verb-object kind of language, but there are some interesting exceptions, especially in casual contexts. Consider examples such as the following: Poodles, we walk them. Labradors, they walk us. Chickens we have; roads, not so much. Not one of the clauses above follows standard English sentence order, and yet we understand them. […]

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: The Tragedies and Farces of History

December 10, 2013 by Wilf Popoff | 3 Comments on Wasted Words: The Tragedies and Farces of History

  “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce, third as more repetition.” I know Marx would have added that last part had he been on the ball. In the event, he was so fixated on dialectical something or other that he didn’t get around to it. And then there was the business about workers […]

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Karen Virag

GETTABLE GRAMMAR: Taking issue with “issues”

July 11, 2013 by Karen Virag | 4 Comments on GETTABLE GRAMMAR: Taking issue with “issues”

I think I remember the first time I heard the word issues used as a synonym for problems. I was watching a long-forgotten television sitcom, and one character commented on another’s weird behaviour by saying, “She has issues.” She overenunciated the word issues and at the same time made little scratching gestures with her index […]

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