Werd Nerds

“You could feel the excitement in the room when a slide appeared with the heading ‘HYPHENS!’ The AP is dropping the hyphen in such terms as ‘African American,’ ‘Asian American,’ and ‘Filipino American.’ 

“[AP editor Paula] Froke credited this change to the eloquence of Henry Fuhrmann, formerly the copy chief of the LA Times, who wrote, ‘Those hyphens serve to divide even as they are meant to connect. Their use in racial and ethnic identifiers can connote an otherness, a sense that people of color are somehow not full citizens or fully American.’” 

—Mary Norris, comma queen, “Dropped Hyphens, Spilt Infinitives and Other Thrilling Moments at the 2019 American Copy Editors Society Conference,” The New Yorker, April 2, 2019.

• Editorial Comment: Punctuation is powerful. Proofreading symbols are playful.

PeezPix

Greenery

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“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard