A plain language guide to grammar, punctuation and writing well
This is worth sharing. White Debt is a new book by Thomas Harding about a slave uprising on sugar plantations in what was the British territory of Demerara. Harding is a careful writer. This Guardian review of the book highlights his subtle ability to unsettle complacent ways of thinking: He replaces “slave” with “enslaved men… Continue reading Abolitionists not rebels
Others have expressed the usual ‘this is political correctness gone mad’ argument in response to criticism of Cameron’s remark. A lovely catch-all rebuttal which attracts much vigorous nodding and saves the bother of having to explain why it’s OK to insult someone by comparing them to a person who has an inherited neurogical condition.
The Times’s stylebook cautions against use of the term “sexual preference,” with its implication of choice. We should routinely use “sexual orientation” instead.
Similarly, journalists visiting people who are described as ‘working class’ or living in a ‘working class area’ are usually very keen to point out how clean the proletariat manage to keep their homes. Goodness, I expect they even wash their hair sometimes too. And use cutlery.
Isn’t it interesting how the phrase ‘old wives’ tale’ is almost always used pejoratively? Here’s Oxford Dictionaries' definition.
It’s another example of how the everyday words and phrases we use have such immense power -- in this case to deny and denigrate the enormous knowledge and wisdom women have traditionally passed down through the generations.
It’s another example of how the everyday words and phrases we use have such immense power – in this case to deny and denigrate the enormous knowledge and wisdom women have traditionally passed down through the generations.
Female linesman? Shouldn't that just be 'lineswoman'? Or am I getting a tad over-ambitious on the gender accuracy front?
This reads like the commentary of a wildlife documentary film from the 1950s. These days, we do not personify Nature as some kind of Hollywood Homeric goddess whose business is to lay on mesmerising spectacles for the amusement and edification of the human race.
Hmmm. I don't know about you, but I mostly disagree with Guy. Does the caption suggest the personification of nature? And even if it does, does it additionally suggest that the business of nature is to 'lay on mesmerising spectacles' for us?
Wordwatch Towers 