http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/?track=rss Headlines from baltimoresun.com en ©2012, baltimoresun.com Sun, 27 May 2012 13:25:00 -0400 By John E. McIntyre http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/bal-defending-bryan-garner-20120527,0,2898638.story?track=rss Weary as you must be by now of the hopefully hullabaloo, a post at Language Log by Mark Liberman, "The H-word,"   gives rise to some further observations. Sun, 27 May 2012 13:25:00 EDT By John E. McIntyre http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/bal-its-worse-than-you-think-20120525,0,3458472.story?track=rss I remarked yesterday on the consequences of newspapers' eagerness to throw their copy editors over the side and the erosion of quality that inevitably follows. You may have imagined that I exaggerate. So let me show you a particularly painful case.  Fri, 25 May 2012 13:11:00 EDT By John E. McIntyre http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/bal-the-empty-copy-desk-20120523,0,1491312.story?track=rss Gregory Moore, the editor of the Denver Post , is, I believe, a good man grappling with a difficult challenge. The Post , as described in an article at Poynter.org by Steve Myers , is essentially eliminating its copy desk. Eleven are going or gone, a couple have been reassigned to other duties, and the nine survivors become assistant editors assigned to the various newsroom departments. Wed, 23 May 2012 10:50:00 EDT By John E. McIntyre http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/bal-editing-and-etiquette-20120521,0,5090083.story?track=rss I have been brooding for the past week over a part of a comment at the Language Log post "A half century of usage denialism," in which Deniz Rudin writes: Mon, 21 May 2012 12:23:00 EDT By John E. McIntyre http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/bal-in-a-word-defenestrate-20120521,0,2438722.story?track=rss Each week The Sun's  John McIntyre  presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar — another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: Mon, 21 May 2012 10:58:00 EDT By John E. McIntyre http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/bal-supporting-troops-20120519,0,5740904.story?track=rss The other day I heard a radio news reader describe an attack in Afghanistan in which "a troop" was killed. Now troop  is a word with a good deal of elasticity in it, but you can stretch it too far.  Sat, 19 May 2012 15:31:00 EDT By John E. McIntyre http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/bal-dodransbicentennial-20120517,0,1792637.story?track=rss In September 1986 I took a seat on the copy desk of The Baltimore Sun . It was only a few months previously that Times Mirror had bought the paper, so the newspaper I worked on that first night and the colleagues who produced it were still those of the A.S. Abell company. Thu, 17 May 2012 09:39:00 EDT By John E. McIntyre http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/bal-joke-of-the-week-last-wishes-20120515,0,2579993.story?track=rss Tue, 15 May 2012 13:54:00 EDT By John E. McIntyre http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/bal-in-a-word-embonpoint-20120515,0,6489311.story?track=rss Each week The Sun's  John McIntyre  presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar — another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: Tue, 15 May 2012 10:40:00 EDT By John E. McIntyre http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/bal-a-bad-week-for-joan-acocella-20120512,0,1562408.story?track=rss Since Joan Acocella of The New Yorker   reviewed  The Language Wars by Henry Hitchings , which she appears not to have understood, she has been subjected to a rare old pounding.  Sat, 12 May 2012 21:28:00 EDT