Tag Archives: language

Is it Disorganized or Unorganized? What a Mess!

Posted on July 1, 2009 by languageandgrammar

A reader wrote to us to say that she’s heard, on several occasions, people in the media use the word unorganized when they should have used disorganized. If something  (or someONE) is a mess, thus creating a difficult situation, then … Continue reading →

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Yellowbook It

Posted on June 25, 2009 by languageandgrammar

I recently wrote a post about the expanding usage of google it (Googled It on Youtube), but now Yellowbook is actively trying to turn the name of its company into a verb by suggesting that people should yellowbook it when … Continue reading →

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Googled It on Youtube

Posted on June 22, 2009 by languageandgrammar

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. I actually heard someone say “I googled it on Youtube.” Google, of course, is a search engine, not a verb. If it were a verb, it would most likely mean to search for something on … Continue reading →

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Tornadoes Versus Reports of Tornadoes

Posted on June 20, 2009 by languageandgrammar

While you’ll most likely hear both the number of tornadoes and the number of reports of tornadoes in the media this weekend, these terms are not synonymous. Rather than go into that explanation here, I’ll refer you to the literally, … Continue reading →

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Thoughtful Sports Figure?

Posted on June 10, 2009 by languageandgrammar

We usually give examples of poor communication in the blog, but I recently heard a quote from an unusually candid and thoughtful sports figure. Since sports personalities usually answer in nothing but cliches, I thought the exception  was worth noting. … Continue reading →

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Post-Consumer Material

Posted on June 7, 2009 by languageandgrammar

We’ve all read something that was so full of convoluted words and confusing sentence structures that we knew it had to be written by someone very smart; it was clearly over our heads. What was REALLY happening is that we … Continue reading →

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Passive Versus Patient

Posted on June 3, 2009 by languageandgrammar

As I mentioned in the first Words to Live By post, Desperation Versus Determination, positive language leads to a more positive life. I also believe that any negative word (and associated emotion, belief, or action) has a positive side that … Continue reading →

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You Said It…

Posted on June 1, 2009 by languageandgrammar

I’m sure that our regular readers have noticed that we’ve occasionally taken to making posts out of your pet peeves, so that’s what we’ll do again today. We agree with most of them. We’ve written about some of them (links … Continue reading →

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Why Just Unfaithful? Be FUNfaithful!

Posted on May 29, 2009 by languageandgrammar

Here’s one for all of the descriptivists out there. Since many of them who write to us insist that as long as people use an arrangement of letters, that means it’s a legitimate word, I thought it might actually be … Continue reading →

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Language of Forecasting

Posted on May 27, 2009 by languageandgrammar

I’ve trained many young weather forecasters in my time, and I’ve always said that even the most accurate forecast is of no use if it’s not communicated well. On my weather blog (cloudyandcool.com), I’ve taken a look how well the … Continue reading →

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