october 2010 WESTNEWSLETTER OFCOAST THE BC BRANCH OF THE EDITORS ASSOCIATIONEDITOR OF CANADA ’ DAMN YOU, ENGLISH LANGUAGE! PART II EAC-BC is a proud supporter of the serial comma Hands off! WEST COAST EDITOR October 2010 “‘You split an infinitive on The Nine O’Clock News.’ West Coast Editor is the newsletter of “‘I was under fire at the time.’”† the Editors’ Association of Canada, BC Branch (EAC-BC). It is published eight times a year. Views expressed in these —Exchange between John Simpson (BBC News world affairs editor) and pages do not necessarily reflect those Arthur Sale (Simpson’s English tutor when he was a student at Cambridge). of EAC or EAC-BC. Send questions Simpson was visiting his former tutor after returning from a tour of duty in or comments about the newsletter to Afghanistan.
[email protected]. PUBLISHER AND MAILING ADDRESS EAC-BC Bentall Centre Post Office, Box 1688 elcome to “Damn you, English language! Part II.” This month, we are Vancouver, BC pleased to feature articles by Arlene Prunkl (“#$%&*!$ those bloody V6C 2P7 expletives!” pages 6–7), Lorraine Meltzer (“A little more Austen, a little www.editors.ca/bc W less Strunk & White,” pages 8–9), and Jennifer Getsinger (“The geologist’s plea: BRANCH COORDINATOR use the right time and place words, please!” pages 10–12). Miro Kinch:
[email protected] We are also pleased to present the second of our two-part “Hands off my language!” WEBMASTER feature (pages 13–28). As we mentioned in last month’s issue, we spent the summer Margot Senchyna: doing research for the “Hands off!” feature, happy to have an excuse to wallow in a
[email protected] sea of conflicting opinions about the state of the English language.