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. So, if you want BC BRANCH EXECUTIVE 2010–2011 to learn who feels that “The Internet is destroying our brains” and who feels that Chair Hugh Macdonald: our brains are coping very well, thank you very much, turn to page 14. And to learn [email protected] who thinks that “The English language is going to hell,” turn to page 23. Past Chair Karen Reppin: [email protected] One final note. We are still looking for someone to fill the role of BC branch social BC National Rep Theresa Best: chair (time committment: 2–3 hours a month). To learn more, please see the “Call [email protected] for Volunteer” listing on page 30 or contact branch Hotline Chair Tina Robinson: [email protected] coordinator Miro Kinch at [email protected]. Member Services Chair Marlene MacIsaac: [email protected] Happy reading! Professional Development Co-chairs Holly Munn, Tina Robinson: [email protected] Programs Co-chairs Michele Satanove, Margot Senchyna: [email protected] Public Relations Chair Jessica Klassen: [email protected] Secretary David Harrison: † “People by Andrew [email protected] Pierce,” Andrew Pierce, The Social Chair: (position vacant) Times, December 12, 2003, [email protected] www.timesonline.co.uk/tol /news/uk/article1041240.ece, Treasurer: Barbara Dominik accessed September 20, 2010; [email protected] Extracts from the Red Notebooks, West Coast Editor Co-chairs Matthew Engel, 2007 Cheryl Hannah, Hugh Macdonald: [email protected] A WCE staffer does research for “Hands off my language!” 2 WEST COAST EDITOR OCTOBER 2010 Contributors Contents Jennifer Getsinger (“The geologist’s plea: use the right time and place 04 Curios words, please!” pages 10–12) is a The “non word” quiz writer, editor, and geologist. She loves dark chocolate and metamorphic 05 Curios pet rocks, and she cherishes the A “non word” becomes a word companionship of Kitty (a.k.a. Oxford English Dictionary will not be printed again “Raccoon-Slasher”) while she writes poetry and edits scientifi c journals. “Correct English” leads to violence Earlier this year, Jennifer pulled together a manuscript of 66 of her 06 #$%&*!$ those bloody expletives! by Arlene Prunkl best poems to enter into the First Book competition sponsored by The Writer’s 08 A little more Austen, a little less Strunk & White, by Lorraine Meltzer Studio at Simon Fraser University. 10 The geologist’s plea: use the right time and place words, please! by Miro Kinch (“Creating and Editing Jennifer Getsinger Social Content” event review, page 30), is a writer and editor, 13 Hands off my language! working in both print and electronic The Internet is destroying our brains: media. She has written, edited, and produced publications for a variety agree; disagree; how to fi x your brain; fi nal thoughts of organizations, including the The English Language is going to hell: Canadian Social Services Employers’ agree; disagree; fi nal thoughts Association, the Faculties of Graduate Sources Studies and Medicine at UBC, and the Vancouver Writers and Readers 29 Etcetera Festival. Lorraine Meltzer (“A little more Austen, a little less Strunk & White,” pages 8–9) is a retired teacher of English and creative writing, an editor both formally and informally, and an avid reader. She is a member of the Alpha Connection book club and the Vancouver branch of the Jane Austen Society, as well as other interest groups. She can’t avoid editing, even if she wants to; errors just seem to jump out at her! Her dearest wish is to see literacy as a practice, not just as a slogan. Arlene Prunkl (“#$%&*!$ those bloody expletives!” pages 6–7) is a Kelowna- based freelance editor of fi ction and EDITORIAL AND DESIGN STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE nonfi ction. She enjoys few things more EDITOR AND HOUSE WRITER: Cheryl Hannah, [email protected] than ferreting out wordiness in all its COPY EDITORS: Jessica Klassen, Eva van Emden guises. PROOFREADERS: Christine Dudgeon, Eva van Emden EXECUTIVE CONTRIBUTORS: Holly Munn, Michele Satanove, Margot Senchyna DESIGNER AND PHOTOGRAPHER: Cheryl Hannah COVER: “The book plough #2” by Cheryl Hannah, August 2010 OCTOBER 2010 WEST COAST EDITOR 3 “Try not to have a good time … This is supposed to be educational.” QUOTES & CURIOSITIES Source: Lucy Van Pelt, from the Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schulz, www.allgreatquotes.com WCE /charles_schultz_quotes3.shtml, accessed September 20, 2010 Defi nitions “Non word” quiz 1. Being able to drive and refold a road map at the same time. We have a not-so-secret fondness for two things at WCE: 2. Your big toe. obscure vocabulary and quizzes. So, we felt a tiny frisson of 3. A pointless chat. elation when we learned that the Oxford University Press 4. A look that could kill, normally from a parent keeps locked away—in a vault, or spouse. if rumours are true—stacks of “non words” that have been submitted to the press but not 5. A waiter whose sole job is to offer diners deemed suitable for publication ground pepper, usually from a large pepper in the Oxford English mill. Dictionary. Some of these “non words” have languished in 6. The dance two passing people do when they the vault for hundreds of years. try to avoid each other but move in the same direction. Why are some words not deemed worthy of publication? 7. The language spoken by children on long Because a new word will not trips. be included in the dictionary until it “catches on.” To make 8. Surfi ng the Internet at work. the cut, there must be “several independent examples of the word in writing over a 9. The use of hidden buttons on a website to ‘reasonable’ length of time.”† trick users into performing actions they do not intend, such as revealing personal information To the right, 10 defi nitions. or switching on webcams. At the bottom, 10 words. The answers (and a complete list of 110. Fabulous. sources) are on page 31. † “Oxford dictionary shuns not so ‘faboosh’ words,” Reuters, Words August 14, 2010, The Gazette, www.montrealgazette.com/news Accordionated Nonversation Polkadodge /Oxford+dictionary+shuns+faboosh Clickjacking Optotoxical Whinese +words/3399449/story.html, accessed Faboosh Peppier Wurfi ng September 20, 2010 Fumb 4 WEST COAST EDITOR OCTOBER 2010 “Demobilized and unemployed [in the aftermath of World War I, J.R.R. Tolkien] was given a job working on the defi nition of ‘W’ words likewaggle , wake-wort and wampum WCE QUOTES & CURIOSITIES for the still unfi nished Oxford English Dictionary.” Source: Globish, Robert McCrum, 2010 A “non word” becomes a word As you’ve just learned (if you’ve taken 1979 book Weasel Words, regarding Edward VII’s coronation had the vocabulary quiz on page 4), editors the word “appendicitis”: to be postponed because of the at the Oxford University Press will removal of his appendix. make the decision to include a word in ‘Appendicitis’ was left out of the Oxford English Dictionary only if the OED, because the Regius Source: “Oxford dictionary shuns not so ‘faboosh’ words,” Reuters, it has generated “several independent Professor of Medicine at Oxford August 14, 2010, The Gazette, examples of the word in writing over a vehemently advised James www.montrealgazette.com/news/Oxford ‘reasonable’ length of time.” Murray that it was crack-jaw +dictionary+shuns+faboosh+words/399449 medical jargon that would not /story.html, accessed September 20, 2010 Here’s an example of the policy in last. The word was universally action, taken from Philip Howard’s adopted eleven years later, when Oxford English Dictionary will not be printed again Fans of print were dealt a blow curios when they learned that the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary will probably never be printed: it will only appear online. According to Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University “Correct English” leads to violence Press: “the print dictionary market is just disappearing, [sic] it is Did you hear about the English professor who was thrown out of a Manhattan falling away by tens of per cent Starbucks? Apparently, the hullabaloo was started by a dispute about “correct a year.” When asked if the third English.” edition—which has been the work of 80 lexicographers over the past Here’s the scuttlebutt.