Editing “Mallard Fillmore”

The News & Observer publishes “Mallard Fillmore” on its comics pages each weekday and on Saturday. The politically oriented strip has been the subject of debate among readers, with many stating that it should be on the editorial pages along with “Doonesbury,” not in the features section.

I won’t step into that broader discussion. I would, however, question the decision to publish one of the “Mallard” strips this week.

On Wednesday, “Mallard” poked fun at Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker. That’s fine, but the strip has three problems:

• It is ungrammatical. In the text of the first panel, the subject and verb “outrage” and “have” do not agree. (Thanks to Grammar Monkeys for pointing this out.)

• It does not follow AP style. The strip refers to the “Ground-Zero Mosque.” As the AP recently advised, that is inaccurate. The N&O’s editors use the Associated Press Stylebook as their primary reference.

• It uses anonymous sources. The N&O shuns anonymous sources. Sure, “Mallard” is using them in an attempt at humor, but is that an exception to N&O policy?

If a story from a wire service or a staff writer landed on an editor’s desk at the N&O in this condition, it would not be published on its news pages. Why was this comic strip?

Q&A with Grammar Hulk

Grammar Hulk is one of several Hulks on Twitter. In this interview, conducted by e-mail, Grammar Hulk discusses Hulk’s approach to writing and editing.

Q. Why is Grammar Hulk on Twitter? What do you hope to achieve?

A. TWITTER WELL SUITED TO HULKISMS. MANY PEOPLE LEAVE OUT WORDS ON TWITTER, JUST LIKE HULK. ON INTERNET, NO ONE KNOW HULK NOT ACTUALLY A HULK. ALSO INHERENT HUMOR OF COMIC BOOK CHARACTER USING SOCIAL MEDIA AND TALKING ABOUT ERUDITE STUFF WITH BIG WORDS. ALL CAPS WRITING WORK BEST IN SHORT CHUNKS, LIKE 140-CHARACTER TWEETS. (THIS EMAIL GOOD EXAMPLE OF WHY ALL CAPS NOT WORK IN PARAGRAPHS UNLESS ONE NIGERIAN PRINCE EXPLAINING FINANCIAL OFFER.) LOTS OF HULKS ON TWITTER FOR THESE REASONS.

HULK ASSUME YOU MEAN “WHAT” RATHER THAN “WHY” IN SECOND QUESTION. [I fixed this, thanks. -- Andy] HULK START TWITTER ACCOUNT JUST FOR FUN. HULK ENTERTAIN HULKSELF BY PLAYING WITH UNIQUE HULK IDIOLECT–REFER TO SELF IN THIRD PERSON, ESCHEW PRONOUNS AND ARTICLES AND FORMS OF “TO BE,” ALL VERBS PRESENT TENSE–AND TALKING ABOUT GRAMMAR WITHIN NONSTANDARD GRAMMATICAL FRAMEWORK. THEN HULK START FOLLOWING OTHER GRAMMARIANS. NOW PART OF GRAMMARIAN COMMUNITY. HULK HAVE NO PARTICULAR GOAL BUT HANG OUT AND TALK, LIKE MOST TWITTER USERS. HULK APPRECIATE THAT HUMOR USEFUL WAY TO MAKE PEOPLE THINK BUT HULK NOT TRYING TO EDUCATE.

HULK AUDIENCE COMPRISE EDITORS, TEACHERS, PEDANTS, OTHER FANS OF SERIAL COMMA AND SEMICOLON. MOST HULK TWEETS IN-JOKES ABOUT LANGUAGE. THE REST FUN NIT-PICKING. EVEN CORRECT USE OF “COMPRISE” IN-JOKE OF SORTS. ANYONE WHO GOT THRILL FROM THAT SENTENCE–OR REREAD IT TO MAKE SURE IT CORRECT–PROBABLY ENJOY READING @GRAMMARHULK.

Q. What writing errors does Grammar Hulk most want to SMASH?

A. ALL WRITERS MAKE WRITING ERRORS. HULK UNDERSTAND AND FORGIVE THOSE. HULK HAVE BIG CLUMSY FINGERS, MAKE TYPOS. HULK SOMETIMES USE WORD INCORRECTLY AND GET CORRECTED BY @EDITORHULK. THIS PART OF BEING WRITER. AS LONG AS WRITER LEARN WHY ERROR WRONG AND TRY HARDER NEXT TIME, NO NEED FOR SMASHING.

HULK RATHER SMASH PRESCRIPTIVISM. HULK DELIGHT IN PLAYING WITH RULES OF GRAMMAR AND SPELLING; THEY NOT SET IN STONE. HULK THINK LINE BETWEEN “WRONG” AND “NEW USAGE” VERY BLURRY, AND ALWAYS COME DOWN ON SIDE OF CLEARER COMMUNICATION. HULK SEE NOTHING WRONG WITH SPLITTING INFINITIVES, ENDING SENTENCES WITH PREPOSITIONS, USING SINGULAR “THEY.” HULK CHAMPION IDIOLECTS, DIALECTS, CREOLES. HULK CONNECT WITH NETSPEAK, LOL AT LOLSPEAK, FASCINATED BY TXT ABBREV. HULK SMASH PEOPLE WHO CALL ORGANIC LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT “BAD GRAMMAR.” HULK SMASH CENSORSHIP OF “BAD WORDS.” LANGUAGE BEAUTIFUL LIVING THING. SHOULD BE APPRECIATED IN WILD, NOT PUT IN CAGE. HULK SMASH ALL CAGES!

THAT SAID, HULK HATE WHEN PEOPLE NOT THINK ABOUT WORDS THEY USE. IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND WORD ORIGINS, CONNOTATIONS, CONTEXT. “THAT’S SO GAY” FUNNY WHEN GAY PERSON SAY IT, NOT FUNNY WHEN STRAIGHT PERSON SAY IT. HULK FAN OF IRONY BUT NOT AS DISGUISE FOR CRUELTY OR CARELESSNESS.

Q. In the Hulk stories on TV, in comics and in the movies, the alter ego is Dr. David Banner. Are you willing to reveal your alter ego?

A. HULK STILL LOOKING FOR RIGHT PERSON TO WRITE GRAMMARHULK ORIGIN STORY. UNTIL THEN, HULK ORIGINS REMAIN SHROUDED IN MYSTERY.

Q. Twitter has numerous Hulks, including Feminist Hulk and Drunk Hulk. Can all these Hulks get along?

A. NOT MUCH CROSSTALK AMONG HULKS, BUT NO ANIMOSITY THAT HULK SEEN. FUN TO BE PART OF HULK COMMUNITY, THOUGH HULK PROBABLY HAVE MORE IN COMMON WITH @FEMINISTHULK AND @BUDDHISTHULK THAN @DRUNKHULK OR @LONELY_HULK. THAT OKAY. IT TAKE HULKS OF ALL KINDS.

HULK APPRECIATE QUESTIONS! HULK LOOK FORWARD TO BLOG COMMENTS AND STUDENT REACTIONS.

What I edit and what I don’t

This Tweet from Overheard in the Newsroom made me smile and cringe at the same. I smiled because it’s funny. I cringed because it feeds into a stereotype about copy editors.

I don’t edit e-mails from my friends, family and students. I don’t edit status updates on Facebook. I don’t edit Tweets (although some people do). I don’t edit comments on news stories (though some errors are admittedly amusing). And I don’t edit spoken conversation.

I do edit news stories, blog posts on news sites, cover letters, menus, speeches and billboards — anything that’s professionally produced and set into type in print, online or on screen. Even so, I don’t insist that these things adhere to Associated Press style. Style is a choice, not a commandment.

So for those of you with friends and family who work as editors: Relax. It’s OK.

Most of us won’t judge you for a typo in an e-mail or chat session online. If you don’t use the subjunctive mood correctly the next time we talk on the phone, I won’t stop the conversation to point that out.

We all make mistakes sometimes; I’ve made some doozies. That’s why we have copy editors to help us communicate better in professional settings for specific audiences. We want to help, not nag, and we’ll do so with tact and understanding, not mockery.

Got it? So give us a call, send us a text message or drop us a line by email. We’ll chat.

Q&A with Ken Lowery of Fake AP Stylebook

Fake AP Stylebook, a parody of the AP Stylebook, is a hit on Twitter and has been written about in Wired and The New York Times. In this Q&A, conducted by e-mail, co-founder Ken Lowery talks about how Fake AP Stylebook got started, how it works and what’s ahead.

Q. What inspired you to start Fake AP Stylebook, and why did you choose Twitter as the place for it?

A. Just a joke, really. I’d shown my friend Mark Hale the real AP Stylebook feed, and he remarked that he wasn’t sure if he was sad or relieved it wasn’t a joke, and that was that. We’ve done this sort of thing before (with @zombiehorde, @forevercon, @thisreallyhurts and others) but none quite clicked like this one did.

As for why Twitter? It’s a good place to throw out quips and keep easy track of your followers and the general response. It’s a very low-effort messaging system, which likely helped FAPS spread like it did.

Q. Newspapers and magazines typically have stylebook committees to hash out style guidelines. How does that process work at Fake AP Stylebook?

A. There are only a few rules. 1) Nothing too political or nerdy. 2) Nothing overtly antagonistic; we’re not here to piss people off. And 3) Profanity is OK, but don’t go overboard.

Otherwise, we just try to stay absurd and light and funny, not unlike an especially fine-tuned episode of “30 Rock.” The contributors have a Google Group set up, and we exchange submission ideas, share questions people ask us that we think have good potential and other general reactions. It’s a bit like a writer’s workshop, with me and Mark as the benevolent dictators.

Q. In the spirit of social media, do you accept submissions?

A. We don’t. Before, this was because there were already a lot of us and we trusted the “tone” that we’d created, but now it’s a legal issue. If we accept submissions and make money off this later, we open ourselves up to lawsuits, whether they be just or not. S.O.P. for most working writers.

Q. Have you had any response from the real AP Stylebook?

None, though in the past day or so I’ve noticed they’ve gotten a little livelier and a little more interactive. Good for them.

Q. What’s ahead for Fake AP Stylebook?

A. A book. We’ve got an agent and many interested publishers, so we’re neck-deep in that right now. We’ve got 19 (!) experienced writers and designers on staff, so generating material has not been a problem so far.

After this, maybe something else. We want to build up an umbrella brand for future publications, because who knows? These contributors are some of the funniest and most talented people I know. They’re not going to be satisfied with just one book.

Remembering William Safire

William Safire, former Nixon speechwriter and New York Times columnist, has died. He was 79.

Safire was famous for many achievements, winning a Pulitzer Prize for commentary for columns critical of the Carter administration. He wrote numerous books, including several about writing.

Editors and writers remember him as the author of the On Language column in the NYT for 30 years. Some of that work is among in this collection on the Times site, and a topics page there is devoted to him.

Safire also contributed these phrases to our political language:

• Calling critics of the Vietnam War “nattering nabobs of negativism.”

• Calling Hillary Clinton “a congenital liar.”

That and other details are included in the well-written Safire obit on the NYT site. It ends on a grammatical note — a suitable send-off for a man who loved language.

None of us understands this word — or understand it

A front-page story in The New York Times on Sunday included this sentence:

Somehow, none of the Marines were hit in the secondary ambush.

I got stuck on “none.” I expected “was” to follow, as in “not one Marine was hit.”

Whether “none” is followed with a singular or plural verb is a matter of debate. Some people in high places think that it’s always singular, but is that so?

Here’s what the AP Stylebook advises:

It usually means no single one. When used in this sense, it always takes singular verbs and nouns: None of the seats was in its right place. Use a plural verb only if the sense is no two or no amount: None of the consultants agree on the same approach.

In other words, it depends. One solution to this problem is to dodge the issue and rewrite the sentence:

Somehow, no Marines were hit in the secondary ambush.

Can we all agree on that?

The new stylebook’s here! The new stylebook’s here!

My favorite scene in “The Jerk” is when Steve Martin exclaims, “The new phonebook’s here! The new phonebook’s here!”

That’s how I feel when a new edition of the AP Stylebook is released. That time is now.

I prefer the stylebook in print, but if you like your style on screen, subscribe to the online edition. You can also follow the stylebook on Twitter.

Solons mull grammar, word choices

North Carolina’s lawmakers are spending part of this legislative session on wordy matters, as documented in the Under the Dome blog.

• First, the Dome tells us in a series of posts about how legislators use titles of bills to make them more politically palatable. That’s why we have the North Carolina Racial Justice Act and the School Violence Prevention Act, among others.

• Second, we have news of a bill that would ensure that legislation is gender-neutral — the generic “he” would be “he or she.” The issue came up earlier this year when the state’s governor, Beverly Perdue, was described as “he” in an education bill.

Perhaps it’s time that the General Assembly write a stylebook to handle these matters. That’s what newspapers, magazines and book publishers do. The legislators are welcome to start with this one.

UPDATE: The posts on the Dome blog have been compiled and rewritten into a front-page story in The News & Observer.

Yes, it’s National Grammar Day

Today is National Grammar Day. My feelings about this occasion are the same as they were National Buy A Newspaper Day — I offer support, but with reservations.

My reservations are similar to those expressed by a friend and former colleague, Pam Nelson of Triangle Grammar Guide. Here’s an excerpt from her recent post about National Grammar Day:

I would like writers to use lay and lie correctly and to get out a dictionary to be sure of the homonyms they use, but I refuse to get my unmentionables in a bunch over some deviations from the standard, especially in everyday speech.

So yes, let’s recognize how good grammar fosters communication. But let’s not become the pests who have given grammar a bad name. It’s easy to go overboard, after all.

So much for the reservations. Let’s get to the grammar. Here are three books that discuss the topic. Each is accessible, informative and entertaining:

• “Booher’s Rules of Business Grammar,” by Dianna Booher

• “When Words Collide,” by Lauren Kessler

• “Lapsing Into A Comma,” by Bill Walsh

If you prefer your grammar lessons online, take a look at this collection of links.

Cover letters need editing

A recent Q&A on cover letters stayed near the top of the “most popular” list at the New York Times site for nearly a week. It’s certainly a timely article, with many people (including journalists) on the job market. And yes, those letters still matter in the age of the e-mailed résumé.

The last question in the Q&A is an important one. It’s about common mistakes in cover letters. Here’s part of the answer:

A cover letter with typos, misspellings and poor sentence structure may take you out of the running for a job. If you cannot afford to pay someone to review your cover letter and résumé, enlist a friend or a family member with good language skills to do it instead.

It’s true. Those things can take you out of the running for a job. I’ve seen that happen in newsrooms and in academia. If you are on the job market or want to go to graduate school, make sure those letters are clear and clean.