Editorial

Back in February, I wrote about Lake Superior State University’s annual list of words that should be banished from the English language (including “viral” and “BFF”).

I’ve always been a believer that the English language has too many words. After all, do we really need nine different words that essentially mean the same thing (think: huge, enormous, gigantic, colossal, vast, titanic, mammoth, grand and really, really big). While they each have sight variations in meaning, in a sentence they each basically mean the same thing (e.g., the iceberg was [fill in your word here]. See? So I’m always happy to banish a few words each year.

Lately, Nyman Ink has been receiving offers from guest bloggers. This is great in one sense – it means our blog is getting noticed and that’s a nice thing. Also, as the company’s (relatively) lone blogger, I admit to feeling a little blogging fatigue at times, and it would be nice to have some guest bloggers to take up the slack once in awhile.

Good infographics aren't exactly hard to find, but good ones about grammar don't come around very often. Today we are sharing the latest amusing, editing-focussed infographic from Copy Blogger.

It defines and warns of 15 common mistakes you may be making on a regular basis. Beware and be educated.

Today I'm going to take a page from Bonnie's book (Bonnie being our Editorial Director and resident grammarian) to talk to you about something that's been annoying me lately: contradictory descriptions.

Contrary descriptions, by which I mean incorrectly used adjectives and adverbs, seem to be everywhere lately, and they're driving me crazy.

Annual reports are something Nyman Ink knows a lot about. We've been commissioned to work on annual reports countless times over the past 20 or so years. They're one of our bread-and-butter specialties — one that has survived the big switch over from print to digital with few major changes.

These days, when we work on an annual report for a not-for-profit, we generally don't write original content, but rather edit the content supplied to us. And frankly, that makes perfect sense. You know your organization best, and you have the background information necessary to write a good annual report.

Unfortunately, that's not always what happens.

For the past 37 years, Lake Superior State University (LSSU) has released a List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness. I generally agree with the words, especially 2011’s “viral” and “BFF”, though I’m not sure I feel the same about “Facebook and Google as verbs” as “Google it” is a staple in my vocabulary. And the new top terrible word for 2012 is:

Amazing.

Does spelling still matter?

A teacher friend of mine told me about a new software program being used in the younger grades in her school. It's used to help with reading and writing, and provides a spell checker and word prediction. Instead of marvelling at this innovative technology, she actually lamented. She feared that instead of teaching the students to spell, it would just do the job for them. (And for those of us who have predictive text on our cell phones, we know this is a scary thing.) For years now, educators and their government counterparts have been promoting literacy with programs such as DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) and Family Literacy. But why learn how to spell when, truthfully, computers can do it for us, quicker and better?

Even established newspapers can fall prey to the dreaded typo.

Just a little internet joke from the editorial team to brighten this (nearly) Wordless Wednesday.

Happy punctuating.

I’ve spent a lot of my life working with kids (as a volunteer youth group leader, a babysitter, a big sister, etc.) and one thing I’ve learned is this: there are certain things about us that just don’t change.

Little kids are great barometers of easy-to-read copy. They can open a book (or a pamphlet or a brochure) and within seconds, will tell you if it’s easy to read (which, in many cases, will determine if they want to read it at all).