Clik here to view.
Book review: ‘Talk on the Wild Side’ by Lane Greene
Language today is partly tame and partly wild, and the two will always be in tension. —Lane Greene, Talk on the Wild Side It’s funny how many people profess to love the English language yet express...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Science-writing tips from Cormac McCarthy
The science journal Nature recently published tips from author Cormac McCarthy on ‘how to write a great science paper’. Though familiar with McCarthy’s novels,* I hadn’t known about his work elsewhere,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
That puzzling omission
The following line appeared in a recent article in the Guardian: Researchers who questioned more than 90,000 adults found “complete” compliance with government safety measures, such as physical...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Headline trials halted
This headline appeared on the front page of the Guardian website last weekend and came to my attention via Mercedes Durham on Twitter: Vaccine trials halted after patient fell ill restart It’s quite...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Joyce County by Ray Burke
It was a hundred years ago, in 1922, that James Joyce’s Ulysses was first published in Paris. Joyce famously set the novel over the course of a day in Dublin; his connections with Galway, a smaller...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Unlikely syntax will lead to clarity
This Reuters story about monkeypox, published on 30 May 2022, has an unfortunate ambiguity in its headline: The same headline appeared on sites syndicating the report, like Yahoo! News and Nasdaq, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mom vs mam, and Americanisms in Irish English
I was recently approached by the Irish Independent newspaper for comment on the influence of American English and pop culture on Irish English speech. The resulting article, by journalist Tanya...
View Article
