Just for the heck of it, a Bill Walsh Sharp Point on idiotic uses of “ranging from…”
Category: Usage
From Strunk & White’s greatest hits
A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject.
A choice Word Spy entry
Headline risk: The risk associated with something or someone that has the potential to generate an excessive amount of negative publicity. Backgrounder: The real risk involved in headline risk isn’t the initial negative publicity, but how the subject ? usually…
Reader mail
Dear Tom: Something for your “I hate cliches” list. When I was in college, a bunch of folks used to get together to watch old reruns of the Bob Newhart Show (the one where he’s a shrink) and play a…
Wistful, massive
Nicole sets us straight on the right way to use ’em.
Last words on said and says
Willcopy and Clay have been ruminating over attribution, so I might as well settle the matter: “Says” paraphrases a statement of opinion that presumably would not change. “Said” is for direct quotes or paraphrasing statements of fact. Whatever you do,…
Get over it
Stylin’ & Smilin’ insists we continue to replace “over” with “more than.” I still do it reflexively, out of loyalty to my favorite professors or something, but I think this battle is lost. “Over” was come to mean “more than”…