Notes

1

“American Lingo,” The Atlantic, September 1970.

2

Speaking of civil engineer, see INSANE ASYLUM.

3

Let me rush at once to the confessional to acknowledge that in the first edition (1933) of a journalism text, Headlines and Deadlines, Robert E. Garst and I made this same point, but after we learned better we expurgated it.

4

John Erskine, “A Note on the Writer’s Craft,” Twentieth Century English, New York, 1946.

5

E. B. White, “An Approach to Style,” in The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1959.

6

See ELLIPSIZE in the Witchcraft in Words section.

7

As quoted in Writer’s Guide and Index to English, by Porter G. Per-rin. Scott, Foresman and Company, 1959.

8

Syntax, p. 459.