A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post about grammar rules best ignored. I got so much email on that one, I’ve decided to write another with a slightly different flair. These aren’t so much grammar rules as they are a potpourri of language issues that come up all the time—things writers are often unclear about. They’re a bit random: The only unifying thread to these issues is that, as a reader, editor, and teacher, I see writers struggle with them all the time.
Brand Names. I’m always taken aback when I get a submission with a misspelled brand name. J. C. Penney as J. C. Penny. Hertz as Herts. Febreze as Febreeze. I suspect writers screw these up so often because the names aren’t on spellcheckers and no one wants to take the .19 seconds to do a Google search.
But it’s not just misspelling that plagues brand names: It’s the temptation to use them as common nouns. Certain brands have become victims of their own success in this regard: They’re so popular, we’ve started using the brand name generically. For example, if I ask you for a “Kleenex,” I don’t really mean “Kleenex,” I mean “facial tissue,” and I don’t really care who makes it.
In everyday speech, this is fine. But in writing, you have trademark to worry about. So keep in mind: Kleenex isn’t kleenex. Band-aid brand adhesive strips are not bandaids. Cocaine might be coke, but a Coca-Cola is a Coke. And Jell-O isn’t jello (or, for that matter, jell-o, Jell-o, or JellO).
The Singular “They.” Another issue plaguing writers these days is what to do about gender in pronouns. Once upon a time, everyone used “he” whenever they wanted to refer to both males and females. In the 60’s, some of us female types pointed out that this made us feel like we didn’t count—or exist. After a couple decades of condescending disregard, some editors and academics began to take us seriously, and by the 80’s, many publications had explicit policies for using gender-inclusive language, including the ever-charming “he and she” construction, as in:
Each student should put his or her name on his or her paper and he or she should hand it in when he or she has completed his or her work.
The problems with this construction should be obvious. It’s wordy, self-conscious, and hideously inelegant.
To the rescue comes the singular “they.” Simply take a pronoun formerly used only for the plural and expand its use a little. Such as:
Each person has their own unique way of seeing the world.
It’s not like it hasn’t happened before. The pronoun “you” was restricted to the plural long before it became the “you” we all know and love today, able to refer to one person or a billion.
Of course, the language vigilantes go ballistic at the singular use of “they.” I wish I could remember who wrote the article on gender-inclusive language in Ms. Magazine in the 70’s. She was a powerful advocate for women, but she rejected the idea of using “they” as a singular pronoun because, she explained, it was grammatically incorrect. Here she was, advocating for the advance of half the world’s population, the re-defining of basic social institutions, and the upheaval of thousands of years of sexist tradition, but heaven forbid we should break a rule of grammar.
Get over it. Languages change and this change, unlike most, actually has a good reason behind it.
Title vs. Entitled. Onto a smaller issue, but one that grates. Approximately a quarter of the submissions I get include the word “entitled” in sentences like:
I’m attaching my essay entitled, “Better Grammar for a Better World.”
Actually, the essay isn’t “entitled,” it’s “titled.” If something is entitled, it has rights. You are entitled to vote for the candidate of your choice. You are entitled to be treated with respect. You may be entitled to a raise. But your essay is merely titled, meaning it has been given a title.
Have any language questions? Beefs about usages? Disagreements with anything I’ve said? Post them here!