Paul Yeager's weather book
Paul Yeager's language book
Category Archives: writing
What Is Breaking News
In my recent mock news report (Olbermann Predicts Daring Clinton Heist), I used the term breaking news. I used it incorrectly, but that was part of the intended humor of the post; in the world of actual news reports, however, it’s … Continue reading
Efforting
Two of the most popular trends in language are: 1) turning nouns into verbs and 2) making the argument that common usage is all that is needed in order for a word to become accepted. The non-word efforting is a … Continue reading
Guilty As Charged
On a call-in radio show on Wisconsin Public Radio on Memorial Day, where I was the guest, a caller had the audacity to say that I had used the phrase the simple fact is that on three or four occasions during … Continue reading
Posted in language, writing
Tagged grammar, Joy Cardin, language, the simple fact is, WPR, writing
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Diss Goes Mainstream
It’s interesting to follow the progression of one generation’s trendy words as they spread into the more mainstream lexicon. The reason that the new generation started to create the new, trendy way of speaking was to separate themselves from the … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, language, politics, writing
Tagged Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews, diss, English, grammar, language, MSNBC, Newt Gingrich, politics, writing
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War on Everything
Many of us have heard of the law of attraction, which is the belief that whatever a person experiences is a direct reflection of what he believes. For instance, if he believes that he has to fight for every penny, then he will, indeed, have … Continue reading
Posted in language, writing
Tagged English, grammar, language, law of attraction, war, war on crime, war on drugs, war on poverty, writing
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Definite Possibility
An oxymoron is the pairing of two or more words to create a meaning that is contradictory or seems to be contradictory. A couple of examples of oxymorons that seem contradictory include objective opinion, speed bump, and jumbo shrimp. (For what … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, language, writing
Tagged definite possibility, English, grammar, language, oxymoron, writing
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I Want to Be a Statistic–Sometimes
A statistic is a numerical value or fact or an inanimate numerical representation of a piece of information. Examples include 53% of the the vote, $3.59 cents per gallon, a .309 batting average, and 63% of all bananas that my co-worker brings to … Continue reading
Whether or Not
When I was in high school, I wrote a short, humorous poem about my potential future career; it was titled Weather or Not. Unless you’re reading that poem, which is highly unlikely since it’s never left the back of my closet, you … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, language, writing
Tagged English, grammar error, language, whether or not, writing
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Fed Up with Up
Up, Up, and Away could be the title of a sequel to Literally, the Best Language Book Ever. Rather than a book with 350-plus words, phrases, and expressions that you should never use again, it would be a book with … Continue reading
Politically Incorrect
Its been awhile since I’ve done one of my very unique entires that highlights all of the errors that we’ve talked about in the past month (28 Language Errors in one Post), so I thought I’d write another one today. … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, humor, language, monthly reviews, politics, writing
Tagged Add new tag, democratic nomination, election, English, grammar, language, politcally incorrect, politics, writing
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Everything Language and Grammar 