Lapsing Into a Comma A Curmudgeon's Guide to

No writer's or editor's desk is complete without a battered, page-bent copy of theAP Stylebook. However, this not-so-easy-to-use reference of journalistic style is often not up-to-date and leaves reporters and copyeditors unsatisfied. Bill Walsh, copy chief for theWashington Post'sbusiness desk, addresses these shortcomings inLapsing into a Comma. In an opinionated, humorous, and yes, curmudgeonly way, he shows how to apply the basic rules to unique, modern grammar issues. Walsh explains how to deal with perplexing situations such as trendy words, foreign terms, and web speak.

Bill Walsh is the copy chief for the Washington Post's business desk. He also runs a website, www.theslot.com, where he answers questions about style and grammar.

Acknowledgments

vii

Introduction

ix

Beyond Search and Replace

Using Your Head as Well as Your Stylebook

1

(4)

You Could Look It Up!

How to Use a Dictionary With Style

5

(8)

Holding The (Virtual) Fort

Disturbing Trends in the Information Age

13

(18)

Arbitrary Capitalization

20

(8)

Call It Uninati

28

(3)

Literally Speaking

Write What You Mean, Mean What You Write

31

(6)

Giving 110 Percent

Why You Needed Those Math Classes After All

37

(4)

Matters of Sensitivity

Correctness, Political and Otherwise

41

(8)

Dirty Mind, Clean Copy

44

(5)

He Said, She Said

Quotations in the News

49

(16)

``It Is I,'' Said the Fullback

61

(4)

The Big Type

Headlines and Captions

65

(6)

Dash It All, Period

The Finer Points of Punctuation

71

(24)

The Curmudgeon's Stylebook

Details, Details

95

(134)

``The 5'' Habits of Highly Hollywood People

107

(5)

Infinitives

112

(36)

Sloppy Similes

148

(3)

Moniker Lewinsky

151

(9)

The ``The'': Put That Down!

160

(28)

I'm a Member of the Media, But I'm Not a Medium

188

(4)

Retronyms, or Sometimes a Muffin Is Just a Muffin

192

(7)

Passive Aggression

199

(30)

Index

229

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Lapsing Into a Comma A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print--and How to Avoid Them

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials