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Danglers Ahead
Danglers in their various forms are one of our most common grammatical lapses. Participle phrases, “like” comparisons, appositives and other modifying constructions generally must be adjacent to the noun or pronoun they refer to. Otherwise, they dangle — and leave a clumsy or confusing sentence. After Deadline http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/danglers-ahead/
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Popular orange vegetables and silly synonyms
They, or their ‘bland green vegetable’ counterparts were out in force over the past 12 months Try your hand at our interactive quiz here Henry Porter got me thinking. The acclaimed author and journalist’s recent paean to the lost art of creativity bemoaned the apparent slump in inspirational behaviour among the UK workforce. Citing ONS […]
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The Pov quiz of the year
Complete the fiendish question-based test Jamie Fahey Media: Mind your language | theguardian.com http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/quiz/2014/jan/06/pov-quiz-of-the-year
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Johnson: And the winner for 2013 is…
THE year’s end has come. As the hangover from January 1st recedes, it is time to work off another kind of hangover: a look back at the wonderful, weird and terrible things the English language did in 2013. At the end of the year, various dictionary-publishers, language societies and other assorted word-nerds published their “words […]
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Bright Passages
In the spirit of the season, we’ll take a brief break from carping to offer a small sampling of sparkling prose from recent weeks. After Deadline http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/31/bright-passages-18/
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Getting Guns Right
Gun facts and terminology can be complicated for those not intimately familiar with the topic. But many readers are knowledgeable, and lapses can hurt our credibility with them. After Deadline http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/24/getting-guns-right/