Fewer words = more focus on your errors

This Twitter tweet makes Mr. Rewrite wish there weren't fewer dictionaries being sold these days.  

Here's the deal on fewer and less: 

Use fewer when emphasizing individual items -- that is, when dealing with a number that creates a mental image. 

Use less when talking about bulk quantities (e.g. wheat) or degree. 

In the case above, you can wrap your mind around the number of people representing the reduction in travel, so go with fewer.

An easier test: "Less people" sounds wrong, doesn't it? Please tell Mr. Rewrite it does. If not, send a complaint to your English teachers and parents.

Follow these links to see how many more articles on Google News go with fewer people than less people. That's usually a good guide.

It's worth noting that the organization posting the tweet above later corrected it, just as Mr. Rewrite amended this post about 10,000 times to remove embarrassing errors.

Mr. Rewrite finds he has fewer hours in the day for blogging, but he's going to try to keep this up.

These tweets are damaged goods

Glad LA's OK. Usage point: Quakes cause damage, not damages. Details:  http://tinyurl.com/r9m5sd.

Mr. Rewrite noticed quite a bit of carnage while checking tweets from quake-rattled Southland residents. Even the pros have trouble with damage vs. damages, however. One example: caused damages.

Mr. Rewrite is all over this Twitter thing. The problem is the 140-character limit cuts you

Diseased spelling

Garner’s Daily Tip: It’s MEASLES, not MEASLES. Not much media carnage: http://tinyurl.com/r4yvop.

You say matsah, Mr. Rewrite says matzo

Happy Lag Ba'Omer. In a timely post, Bryan A. Garner (cue angelic chorus) reminds Mr. Rewrite that matzo is a better form than matzoh, matsah, matza, matsa and the like. 

The Associated Press Stylebook lacks an entry on this topic, but in those cases it defers to the Webster's New World Dictionary, which joins Mr. Garner in preferring matzo. 

Follow this link for those with editors who didn't get the memo.

This is just super ...

As a rule, Mr. Rewrite takes no side other than standing for proper spelling, grammar and usage. This year's Super Bowl makes that a challenge, however, as Mr. Rewrite's hometown team is in the big game. 

In the interest of rubbing it in, he will note that he attended both the wild card and NFC championship games. Nyah, nyah.

Anyway, Mr. Rewrite checked out the potential Super Bowl misspellings this afternoon and came up a few media black eyes, starting with Pittsburgh. Too many of those paid to know better leave off the H, spelling it Pittsburg. The tally of woe is pushing triple digits, and it surely will be in the hundreds by game time.

There is a Pittsburg, but that's a community just outside the Bay Area.

So far, individual bucking for media misspellings MVP is Ken Whisenhunt, the Arizona Cardinals head coach. As of Saturday afternoon, 80-plus articles botched his name as Wisenhunt.

As for the players, Ben Roethlisberger has the most potential for media misspellings. But so far only a few dozen article botch his name as Rothlisberger. Keep an eye on Anquan Boldin as well. Anquan Bolden is showing double digits at present.

Mr. Rewrite will take Arizona and the points. Oh heck -- he'll show his true-red colors and take the Cards straight up.

Peck, peck, peck.

And now for something completely differant

Here's a highlight from a Yahoo! slideshow about the Alaska volcano that's about to blow its top. Fortunately, the air soon will be too full of dust for customers to make out the misspelling.

Enjoy the handful of Google News articles offering a differant spelling than the dictionary.

Blame Canada?

It took yesterday's miracle landing and rescue on the Hudson to awaken Mr. Rewrite from his slumber.

One too many of those paid to know better referred to the likely culprits as Canadian geese. These geese may well be Canadian, but the formal name, as Mr. Rewrite learned painfully during his years crunching copy, is Canada geese.

By Mr. Rewrite's informal tally, the broadcast media are most to blame here. The print media do pretty well, though Google News coughs up a few dozen erroneous references to Canadian geese.

It has nothing to do with geese, but Mr. Rewrite suddenly thinks of South Park's "Blame Canada."

This is EXCELLENT!

Here's a cake celebrating the 20th anniversary of an HONORS COLLEGE at a major U.S. university. Hey rama!

Oh c'mon, c'mon -- EMANUEL

The Obama administration is shaping up to be a fun one for Mr. Rewrite. As longtime visitors know, Mr. Rewrite takes no political stands. He just loves identifying widespread media misspellings.

Enter Rahm Emanuel. Or, as many in the media call him, Rahm Emmanuel. Or Rahm Emanual. Or Rham Emmanuel. Or Rham Emanuel. Or Rahm Emmanual.  Or Rham Emanual. 

As of Tuesday night, the media, as defined by Google News, were botching his Emanuel's name in nearly 500 articles.

Still, Emanuel is no Barack Obama, who as of Tuesday night was misspelled as Barak in a breathtaking 7,000-plus articles, more than doubling the highest number of media misspellings Mr. Rewrite has ever tracked. 

Here's a tip for those paid to know better: Look it up. Like other public figures, Rahm Emanuel has an official Web site. It's reasonable to assume it'll have the name spelled correctly.

Mr. Rewrite can't wait to see Obama's cabinet picks. May he suggest bringing over longtime misspellings champion Condoleezza (not Condoleeza) Rice? Her last push for Middle East peace has her misspellings way up of late.

 

Why honor just one veteran this week?

Mr. Rewrite salutes all veterans this week. Everyone should. So why do so many of those paid to know better celebrate only one? 

They don't celebrate only one veteran of course. They're just being sloppy with punctuation. 

For the record, Tuesday is Veterans Day, plural. Mr. Rewrite will rely on the U.S. Department of Veterans (plural) Affairs for the style. The Associated Press goes with Veterans Day as well.

Mr. Rewrite will forgive Veterans' Day, plural possessive, which is how he handles Presidents' Day. But Veteran's Day is wrong, wrong, wrong.

That makes it a little disappointing (but also a little fun) to see hundreds of botched references on Google News to Veteran's Day.