One of the most important jobs at any magazine or newspaper is fact checking. Every fact must be checked by a professional fact checker, or member of the Fact Checker Unit. There is no lengths to which a member of the FCU will go to check a dubious fact. They scorn Wikipedia and its user-generated content. Bill Murray stars in this short clip from funnyordie.com called "The Fact Checkers."
At last the wait is over. We now know that the 2005 Word of the Year is: "truthiness."
A panel of linguists has decided the word that best reflects 2005 is "truthiness," defined as the quality of stating concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts.
The American Dialect Society chose the word Friday after a runoff with terms related to Hurricane Katrina, such as "Katrinagate," the scandal erupting from the lack of planning for the monster hurricane.
Michael Adams, a professor at North Carolina State University who specializes in lexicology, said "truthiness" means "truthy, not facty."
To use it in a sentence: James Frey stands behind the truthiness of his addiction memoir: A Million Little Pieces (Random House).
The Sacramento Bee reports on an amazing new trend: the sexy grammarian. This article quotes a number of
experts who explain why so many people are determined to gain mastery over grammar, punctuation and spelling: because it makes you more attractive.
"I think people who use grammar correctly are sexy because it means they're smart," says Laurie Rozakis, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style.
While Rozakis often has been a lone grammar gendarme - she notes that her children may need serious therapy for the embarrassment she's caused them with her compulsion to correct - she sees others joining in her mission. Her book, published in 1997, has sold more than 100,000 copies and is in its second printing.
She believes it is part of a societal shift.
"I think there's going to be a return to more formal styles of dressing ... and we're moving away from sloppy grammar," she says. "There's more of a return to traditional values."
The cause? The tightened economy and increased competition in the workplace, she says.
"You whiten your teeth, you get laser surgery on your eyes, and you learn how to speak and you learn how to write," she says.
Rozakis, a former high school English teacher and now an English professor at Farmingdale State University on Long Island, N.Y., has a penchant for correction.
"I live and die by the red pen," she says.
Indeed, she has been known to pull it out to fix a sign at the grocery store. She once knocked on a stranger's door to tell him he should demand his money back because his wrought-iron address sign said "ninty-nine" instead of "ninety-nine."
In her new Talk column, Amanda Hesser decrees that three new words/phrases must be added to the Style Lexicon.
Matchy-matchy
Match·y-match·y (mach' e\ mach' e\) / adj. / two or more things that go together, perhaps too well, in appearance, color or size; e.g., "Her pink KitchenAid mixer and pink floral kitchen towels are way too matchy-matchy."
Domestic
Do·mes·tic (do mes' tik) / adj. / pertaining to the family or household; sometimes dubiously followed by the word "goddess." Also refers to any artisanal food produced in or indigenous to this country, whether a carefully aged vinegar, a cured meat or a runny cheese. Some restaurants use it to suggest heightened quality, as in, "All of our farmstead cheeses are domestic."
Choco-dependent
Choc·o-de·pend·ent (ch ok o' di pen' dnt) / adj. / from the French choco-dependant, referring to a chocolate addict. A growing number of Americans are displaying the symptoms, which may include cold sweats, tremors and irritability that last until le fix - say, a square of François Pralus's 75-percent Madagascar bar -- is administered. Take your medicine!
Not only did we learn some new words, we've now discovered the genius of Francois Pralus, "one of France's three remaining bean-to-bar chocolate makers."
The Fifty Writing Tools series by Dr. Roy Peter Clark, a Vice President and Senior Scholar at the Poynter Institute, offers some terrific advice for writers. Each tool is presented as a complete article that introduces journalists and writers to new techniques they can use to improve their storytelling skills.
At times, it helps to think of writing as carpentry. That way, writers and editors can work from a plan and use tools stored on their workbench. You can borrow a writing tool at any time. And here's a secret: Unlike hammers, chisels, and rakes, writing tools never have to be returned. They can be cleaned, sharpened, and passed on.
Dr. Roy Peter Clark also a has shorter article called 30 Writing Tools located here. (Via lifehack.org)
Who has the "power of rhetorical eloquence" in America? That was the question addressed by Stephen E. Lucas (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Martin J. Medhurst (Baylor University). They asked 137 leading scholars of American public address to rank the top 100 political speeches of the 20th century and made them available for free on the Web.
Some of the speeches picked are not surprising: Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" Speech, John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, and Ronald Reagan's Shuttle Challenger Disaster Address. But there was also a bestselling fantasy/SF author who made the list. Ursula LeGuin's "A Left-Handed Commencement Address" was #84.
In her new Talk column, Amanda Hesser 