A Word About Word
I love how loyal Microsoft Word is to subject-object prioritization. Continue reading A Word About Word
Tag: Grammar
The Future is in Your Queue
There is a great metric by which companies’ success can be measured. Effectively, if the name of a corporation’s good or service becomes interchangeable with the product category as a whole, the company’s product – or at least its marketing – is probably pretty successful. Older examples would be the use of the word “Xerox” as a verb, or “Kleenex” as a catchall for tissues. In our generation, the use of “Google” as a verb is likely the best example.
Three Little Words
The saying goes “less is more.” Except, of course, in academic writing, where “more is more.” Effectively, the more verbose, wordy and academic-sounding a work reads, the better it seems, regardless of actual content. This logic has unfortunately mixed into the worlds of Literary Criticism, Gender Studies and Postcolonial Theory, with awful results. Consider titles. … Continue reading Three Little Words
Dear Android, Its About Time We Had This Talk
My official Android gripe of the day is autocorrect. I am not sure why, after five years of development and feedback from hundreds of millions of users, Android still does not automatically correct “Its” to “It’s.” I’d wager that 70% of “its” usage is in contraction, not object-possession, form. And yet, somehow, the error persists. … Continue reading Dear Android, Its About Time We Had This Talk
The MLA Now has Guidelines for Citing Twitter
In keeping with the “modern” part of its name, the Modern Language Association has instituted guidelines for citing a tweet. It’s admittedly neat that Twitter posts now have enough resonance to merit inclusion, though the Association’s example – a Pakistani man’s May 2011 observation of a helicopter carrying SEAL Team 6, who shortly thereafter killed … Continue reading The MLA Now has Guidelines for Citing Twitter
Silicon Spatula 