Writer & Editor
Unique means “one-of-a-kind.”
Something cannot be the most one-of-a-kind or very one-of-a-kind, as in the incorrect phrase “very unique.”
Something is either unique or it’s not.
You cannot modify an absolute.
Originally created by Mary-Agnes Welch, David Jón Fuller, and Julie Carl.
I’m going to tell you whether to use the word incredulous or incredible — but first, an explanation.
A few years ago, as a member of the style committee at the Winnipeg Free Press, I worked on a series of posts on misused words, grammar mixup and other style problems. Editor Julie Carl, reporter Mary-Agnes Welch, and I sent out what we hoped were helpful reminders and also took suggestions from other editors and reporters about stylistic errors they wished people would avoid. We called ourselves the “Word Nerds.”
We kicked around the idea of putting the pieces together in a collection of some kind, but our audience — the newspaper staff — had already seen all of them. Mary-Agnes and Julie have since moved on. I still think these are worth posting beyond the newspaper’s halls — because, let’s face it, there are word-nerds everywhere — so over the next while I’ll be updating this blog with some of the best ones. Hope you enjoy them.
