Mignon Fogarty's Blog: Mignon Fogarty's Blog, page 2
July 18, 2012
If You Ran the Dictionary
Merriam-Webster has been collecting words through its Open Dictionary for some time, and now Collins Dictionary is getting in the game.
Merriam-Webster includes "humble brag," "tanorexic," and "remail," and Collins includes "amazeballs," "YOLO," and "Tebowing."
Here's how words normally get in the dictionary. What do you think is the best way to handle the flood of new words (some great and some awful) that appear every year?
(The title of this post, "If You Ran the Dictionary," is a tribute to one of my favorite children's books, If I Ran the Zoo.)
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Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl and is the author of the new book Grammar Girl's 101 Troublesome Words You'll Master in No Time.
Merriam-Webster includes "humble brag," "tanorexic," and "remail," and Collins includes "amazeballs," "YOLO," and "Tebowing."
Here's how words normally get in the dictionary. What do you think is the best way to handle the flood of new words (some great and some awful) that appear every year?
(The title of this post, "If You Ran the Dictionary," is a tribute to one of my favorite children's books, If I Ran the Zoo.)
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Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl and is the author of the new book Grammar Girl's 101 Troublesome Words You'll Master in No Time.
July 8, 2012
Two Ways to Win 101 TROUBLESOME WORDS
Tonight (Sunday, July 8), you have two ways to try to win a signed copy of my new book, Grammar Girl's 101 Troublesome Words You'll Master in No Time.
1. Twitter Party
The most important thing to know is to use the hashtag #troublesome. I'm using TweetChat to follow the discussion, and I won't see your tweets unless they include #troublesome.
From 8:00 to 9:00 tonight (EST), I'll ask questions and give away a signed book to someone who answers (and uses the hashtag #troublesome). It will go something like this:
The 10th person to answer the next question wins a signed copy of 101 TROUBLESOME WORDS. Use the hashtag #troublesome.
Q1: What language rule are you most surprised that other people don't know? #troublesome.
Note that I'm using TweetChat to follow the conversation, and I'll be picking the 10th person who I see. If you're using a different Twitter client, I suspect you might see responses in a different order than I do.
I'll give away 10 signed book during the hour, and I'll notify the winners on Twitter. Nobody can win more than one book.
2. Goodreads Giveaway (US Only)
My publisher is hosting a Goodreads giveaway of 10 signed books. Enter here for a chance to win. (It looks like you can enter until about 2:00 AM EST.)
And, of course, the reason we're doing all this is that we hope you'll buy the book and love the book. Thank you!
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Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl. You can find her on Twitter by visiting http://twitter.com/GrammarGirl
1. Twitter Party
The most important thing to know is to use the hashtag #troublesome. I'm using TweetChat to follow the discussion, and I won't see your tweets unless they include #troublesome.
From 8:00 to 9:00 tonight (EST), I'll ask questions and give away a signed book to someone who answers (and uses the hashtag #troublesome). It will go something like this:
The 10th person to answer the next question wins a signed copy of 101 TROUBLESOME WORDS. Use the hashtag #troublesome.
Q1: What language rule are you most surprised that other people don't know? #troublesome.
Note that I'm using TweetChat to follow the conversation, and I'll be picking the 10th person who I see. If you're using a different Twitter client, I suspect you might see responses in a different order than I do.
I'll give away 10 signed book during the hour, and I'll notify the winners on Twitter. Nobody can win more than one book.
2. Goodreads Giveaway (US Only)
My publisher is hosting a Goodreads giveaway of 10 signed books. Enter here for a chance to win. (It looks like you can enter until about 2:00 AM EST.)
And, of course, the reason we're doing all this is that we hope you'll buy the book and love the book. Thank you!
-----------------
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl. You can find her on Twitter by visiting http://twitter.com/GrammarGirl
June 11, 2012
Where "Firefly" and "Beowulf" Intersect
The beloved, canceled space western Firefly and the Old English epic poem Beowulf both mention reavers. Were the TV writers taking literature classes when they wrote this episode?
A couple of days ago I was reading some lines from Beowulf in an advance review copy of Vex Hex Smash Smooch by Constance Hale, when I smashed into the word "reaver":
"Reavers" jumped out at me because the only time I remember hearing that word is in Firefly. Much like in Beowulf, reavers in Firefly are terrifying monsters.
I rushed over to my Oxford English Dictionary browser window and discovered that "reaver" is an ancient word, and it's not unique to Beowulf. It's found in multiple Old English texts and has been in steady use ever since to describe monsters, raiders, and pirates. "To reave" is also a verb to describe plundering, raiding, and stealing.
So Firefly probably wasn't directly taking words from Beowulf. It was just a word I didn't know. But it's still a fun connection between old and new entertainment, so I thought I'd share it with you.
As an aside, I also found an interesting site called Firefly and Western Literature with a post titled "Civilization and Savagery" speculating that the reavers in Firefly take the place of the Indians you'd see in an old American western.
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Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl. She hopes to never meet a reaver of any kind.
A couple of days ago I was reading some lines from Beowulf in an advance review copy of Vex Hex Smash Smooch by Constance Hale, when I smashed into the word "reaver":
on the misty moors; nobody knows
where these reavers from hell roam on their errands.
"Reavers" jumped out at me because the only time I remember hearing that word is in Firefly. Much like in Beowulf, reavers in Firefly are terrifying monsters.
I rushed over to my Oxford English Dictionary browser window and discovered that "reaver" is an ancient word, and it's not unique to Beowulf. It's found in multiple Old English texts and has been in steady use ever since to describe monsters, raiders, and pirates. "To reave" is also a verb to describe plundering, raiding, and stealing.
So Firefly probably wasn't directly taking words from Beowulf. It was just a word I didn't know. But it's still a fun connection between old and new entertainment, so I thought I'd share it with you.
As an aside, I also found an interesting site called Firefly and Western Literature with a post titled "Civilization and Savagery" speculating that the reavers in Firefly take the place of the Indians you'd see in an old American western.
-----
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl. She hopes to never meet a reaver of any kind.
May 28, 2012
Is it harder to write a good ending for an e-book?
I finished reading a novel in e-book form last night, and I was completely surprised when I "turned the page" and discovered that the book had ended. I actually said, "Whaaaaaa?!" out loud. I just didn't see it coming. (I kept belligerently attempting to turn the page, as if doing so would make more chapters appear.)
Then I started to wonder whether it's harder for authors to write a good ending for an e-book. Without holding the physical book in my hand, I had lost track of where I was. I had no visible clues that the end was near. I wasn't getting mentally prepared for the story to end.
Certainly, you can argue that this specific author failed to properly wrap things up. (I don't name the book because if I can't give a book a great review, I just don't review it.) But I also think it might be harder to pull off a great ending if your reader doesn't have a sense that the end is coming.
What do you think? Have you ever been surprised when an e-book ended?
Then I started to wonder whether it's harder for authors to write a good ending for an e-book. Without holding the physical book in my hand, I had lost track of where I was. I had no visible clues that the end was near. I wasn't getting mentally prepared for the story to end.
Certainly, you can argue that this specific author failed to properly wrap things up. (I don't name the book because if I can't give a book a great review, I just don't review it.) But I also think it might be harder to pull off a great ending if your reader doesn't have a sense that the end is coming.
What do you think? Have you ever been surprised when an e-book ended?
May 27, 2012
Looking forward to summer reading.
Summer has always been my favorite time to catch up on reading.
For some people, books go with rainy days, but in Seattle, where I grew up, most days were rainy (and most days had books). Reading books in the sun was a fleeting treat, like chasing the ice cream truck. The blinding glare off the white pages and the heat that goes to your head and leaves you dizzy when you finally put down your book and rise from your lawn chair--they enhance the feeling that you’ve been in another world and are making a slight dimensional shift as you come back to our own.
For some people, books go with rainy days, but in Seattle, where I grew up, most days were rainy (and most days had books). Reading books in the sun was a fleeting treat, like chasing the ice cream truck. The blinding glare off the white pages and the heat that goes to your head and leaves you dizzy when you finally put down your book and rise from your lawn chair--they enhance the feeling that you’ve been in another world and are making a slight dimensional shift as you come back to our own.
May 10, 2012
Mother's Day
Time is running out! Mother's Day is Sunday, and I need to tell you that the official name is singular: Mother's Day.
The founder intentionally made the name singular because she wanted people to honor their own mother. She did not intend it to be a day of celebrating motherhood in general.
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl.
The founder intentionally made the name singular because she wanted people to honor their own mother. She did not intend it to be a day of celebrating motherhood in general.
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl.
April 25, 2012
An English Major Meets a History Book
I'm listening to an audiobook about Irish history (A Brief History of the Druids) and was surprised to learn that in the Iron Age, Celts would make offerings to the gods by throwing their swords (and other metal items) into lakes and rivers.
I immediately thought of the Lady of the Lake tale from Arthurian legends, and lo and behold, I'm not the only one. Check out this webpage that describes the ritual in more detail and connects the Lady of the Lake to Celtic water goddess mythology. Celtic Iron Age Sword Deposits and Arthur's Lady of the Lake
Cool stuff! I wish my English classes in college had brought in more history.
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl
I immediately thought of the Lady of the Lake tale from Arthurian legends, and lo and behold, I'm not the only one. Check out this webpage that describes the ritual in more detail and connects the Lady of the Lake to Celtic water goddess mythology. Celtic Iron Age Sword Deposits and Arthur's Lady of the Lake
Cool stuff! I wish my English classes in college had brought in more history.
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl
April 24, 2012
More on Using Grammar to Hide Clues
My last blog post was about hiding clues in subordinate clauses, and I just talked to someone who uses grammar in a different way to hide information. (It's been a great week for grammar tidbits!)
An old friend who is a lawyer says he always uses active voice in his briefs except when he has a piece of information that looks bad for his case. Then he switches to passive voice because he thinks people gloss over passive sentences more easily than active sentences. He thinks when something is in passive voice, it doesn't draw as much attention.
Interesting approach. If you're a lawyer, do you deliberately switch between active and passive like this?
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl. Read her article about active voice versus passive voice.
An old friend who is a lawyer says he always uses active voice in his briefs except when he has a piece of information that looks bad for his case. Then he switches to passive voice because he thinks people gloss over passive sentences more easily than active sentences. He thinks when something is in passive voice, it doesn't draw as much attention.
Interesting approach. If you're a lawyer, do you deliberately switch between active and passive like this?
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl. Read her article about active voice versus passive voice.
April 22, 2012
Using Grammar to Hide Your Clues
I heard an interesting thing about grammar and mystery novels when I was at Stanford the other day.
It's possible that clues appear more often in subordinate clauses than main clauses of mystery novels because people aren't as drawn to the subordinate clauses. The professor speculated that putting a clue in a subordinate clause is a way to hide it in plain sight.
Has anyone else heard this theory or noticed it in practice?
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl.
It's possible that clues appear more often in subordinate clauses than main clauses of mystery novels because people aren't as drawn to the subordinate clauses. The professor speculated that putting a clue in a subordinate clause is a way to hide it in plain sight.
Has anyone else heard this theory or noticed it in practice?
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl.
February 28, 2012
The LA Times Is Getting Skewered...for Being Right
Today, the print edition of the Los Angeles Times ran the following headline about Octavia Spencer winning an Oscar for her role in The Help:
Now, the LA Times is getting a flood of comments from people who believe the paper erred and that the headline should have read "just desserts," according to Henry Fuhrmann, who oversees the paper's copy desk.
The correct phrase is "just deserts." It has everything to do with the word "deserve" and nothing to do with sugary treats. (You can read more about it on the Grammar Girl site. I also covered it in [Book: 101 Misused Words].)
I heard a similar story a few weeks ago from a different source, which makes me think that "just deserts" may be a skunked term, as Bryan Garner of Garner's Modern American Usage calls words that cause problems no matter how you use them.
Furhmann seems to have a good attitude about the readers' gripes. He writes, "I appreciate their passion, even if they believe we erred."
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl.
Hands down: At last, it's just deserts for Spencer
Now, the LA Times is getting a flood of comments from people who believe the paper erred and that the headline should have read "just desserts," according to Henry Fuhrmann, who oversees the paper's copy desk.
The correct phrase is "just deserts." It has everything to do with the word "deserve" and nothing to do with sugary treats. (You can read more about it on the Grammar Girl site. I also covered it in [Book: 101 Misused Words].)
I heard a similar story a few weeks ago from a different source, which makes me think that "just deserts" may be a skunked term, as Bryan Garner of Garner's Modern American Usage calls words that cause problems no matter how you use them.
Furhmann seems to have a good attitude about the readers' gripes. He writes, "I appreciate their passion, even if they believe we erred."
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl.
