No competition

While UC Berkeley’s football team might not rival that of Stanford, its newspaper vastly outshines the miserable broadsheet our friends to the south unjustly call a news source. In a stunning feat of cooperation, The Daily Californian and The Stanford Daily produced a single special issue for Saturday’s Big Game. Read More…

The reason I love being a copy editor is because…

In one of his most well-known novels, “The Notebook,” Nicolas Sparks writes, “The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected.” It is truly heartbreaking: heartbreaking to see how atrocious the grammar is. The reason I read “The Notebook” is because I was drawn to its Read More…

The little things: account for count

I used to joke about not knowing or needing to know about math. Many grammar nerds do this, I think — “Addition? What’s that?” We like English, and everything else becomes insignificant in comparison. As far we are concerned, ellipses are not ovals but rather sets of periods. We know Read More…

Breathe and let breath(e)

When I was first informed that my responsibilities as copy editor include producing content for the online copy blog, I was slightly taken aback. I have to actually write something? I signed up to sit at a computer and correct articles, not sit at a computer and write about correcting Read More…

Comma plus conjunction

It has come to my attention that people often don’t know how to use commas properly, so I’ll point out a misuse that has been bugging me lately. See the sentence above? It contains two independent clauses separated by a comma and a conjunction (so). It’s a rule most of Read More…

‘Definitely,’ maybe?

I’m definitely concerned about some individuals’ inability to spell. The word “definitely” in particular seems to be a problem for many of my peers. We’ve all seen it. Maybe it’s someone returning a text: “I’m definately coming with you!” Perhaps somebody just posted a Facebook status about how some current event is “defenitely not acceptable.” In Read More…

The little things: all day, every day

Following some feedback from readers regarding my previous blog post, I will be starting a series of articles revolving around grammar. I can’t replace Strunk and White, mind you, but at least these posts will clarify some of the little things commonly overlooked or misused in our language. That being Read More…

A ‘mangy’ request from management

On our way back from a recent trip to L.A., my friends and I decided to make a pit stop a few dozen miles past Bakersfield. (I think we wanted to avoid the commotion that is the Bakersfield In-N-Out.) So around 2 p.m., we walked into a Taco Bell, one Read More…

More than a matter of length

It ought to be no surprise that I, a self-admitted grammar nerd, correct people’s verbal slip-ups — incorrect prepositions, past participles and the like. What really gets me, though, is when there is a mistake that I cannot address right away, often because it is written. After all, to whom Read More…

Military intelligence

I have a great deal of respect for many of those who serve our country in uniform, but I have nothing but contempt for the talentless individuals who write their advertisements, which evince little other than a failure to comprehend the usage of basic parts of speech: As any grade-school Read More…