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Errors of usage

Semantic Drift

by Lionel Shriver,

Regarding the purported rules of English syntax, we tend to divide into mutually hostile camps. Hip, open-minded types relish the never-ending transformations of the way we speak and write. They…

Incoherence Abroad

by Carl Jensen,

From a letter to Mark Twain, postmarked October 1, 1879, from Carl Jensen, a customs officer in Stubbekøbing, Denmark. Twain’s annotation reads, “Preserve this remarkable letter.” Dear Mark Twain: Letters…

Dark matter

by Richard Lederer,

Don’t scare the shrimp

by Harper’s Staff,

Untitled

by George W. (George Walker) Bush,

Tense present

by David Foster Wallace,

Democracy, English, and the wars over usage

Dubya as a second language

by Sam Smith,

Dan, You’re No Strunk or White

by Dan Quayle, John Kenneth Galbraith,

Readings

by Harper’s Staff,

Trials of a word-watcher

by Charlton Ogburn,

A Boston girl

by Mark Twain,

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