Actively defending the passive
Armaan Mumtaz/Senior Staff
While it’s considered a good rule of thumb to write in the active voice, writing in the passive voice can have its benefits.
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Written vs. oral communication: Which is superior?
Armaan Mumtaz/Senior Staff
Communication itself is naturally prevalent in everyday life, and it can be divided into two categories: spoken and written.
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Alphabet soup: How the English alphabet got its order
Rachel Lee/Staff
The alphabet and its order affect us every day and, in many ways, organize our lives, but how did the alphabet end up the way it is?
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2 grammar rules to think about while injecting hormones for transition
Rachel Lee/Staff
When you’re going through the exciting, intimidating or mundane process of injecting for hormone replacement therapy, you may notice your mind wandering.
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Malapropisms und mich: The black sheep the German language never saw coming
Sometimes malapropisms purely spark confusion and a lack of cohesion and understanding, but there’s a sweet synthesis for me between malapropisms and the literalness of the German language.
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Can you fact-check whether North Korea is a ‘regime’?
Although copy editors can edit out blatant lies and ugly slurs in the articles we’re given, here are some things we don’t fact-check: framing and omission.
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The postmodern personalities of 6 punctuation marks
Punctuation marks are pretty objective in their purpose within the world of written (and spoken) language. But in an age dominated by the internet, memes and the universal need for speed, these marks have evolved into characters of their own.
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Giving UC Berkeley a bad name: The case against ‘UCB’
In June, a copypasta was born. A Reddit user pleaded, “Don’t say ‘UCB’ when referring to Berkeley” and faced near-instant meme backlash from students.
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Like word games? Try using the English language to crack codes
Originally used for military and personal secrets, cryptograms are puzzles that contain a short piece of text encrypted by a cipher. Here’s a short guide on how to crack them using trends in the English language.
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The regrettable opacity of toponymy
While language may seem to change rather quickly, toponyms, or place names, tend to last. People often care deeply about them, making them so entrenched in the culture of a place that they can outlive whole civilizations.
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