Test Your Usage Skills

• Author: Bryan A. Garner
• Pages: 26-27

26 || ABA JOURNAL APRIL 2018

Test Your Usage Skills

Law review editors missed a few, so now we have this quiz for you

By Bryan A. Garner

Early each year, I collect for the

Green Bag the most eg regious gaes

to have appeared in the prev ious year’s

law reviews. The abundant findi ngs this

time around prompted me to create a n

English-usage quiz for the rea ders of

this column.

For each question, the law review

cited actua lly printed the incorrect choice. Whether

that’s the fault of the original aut hor or a law review

editor is an unans werable question for most of us; but if

you’re familiar with law rev iew practices, you’ll probably

agree that it’s fairer to na me the journal than the author.

One thing to keep in mind is th at language changes

over time, and what begins a s an error can ultimately

become enshrined as go od usage. The shift may take

centuries. Until that shif t happens, though, editors

generally do their best to comply w ith prevailing

literary usag e. With the questions in this quiz, the

language hasn’t yet come close to a ccepting the

“incorrect” choices a s standard written Engl ish.

The answers, of course, a re printed at the end.

But be disciplined! Try your hand at all the quest ions

before you peek (not peak) at the answers.

QUIZ

1. “Do civil rights law s impact the [(a) deep-seeded;

or (b) deep-seated] white racism that exist s in the

fabric of society?” (Creighton Law Re view) Extra

gae credit for not only bungling the phra se at issue

but also failing to hy phenate both the phrase and

the sentence’s other phrasal adjective , civil-rights

—as well as for using impact as a verb —and still

more extra credit for the mi xed metaphor involving

fabric (five bungles within 17 words).

2. “The State of Florida ulti mately spent $33,000

in sequestration costs a nd, [(a) all told; or

(b) all-tolled ], the trial cost t he Seminole County

Sherri’s [read Sh eri ’s] Oce $320,000.” (To ur o

Law Review) Extra cre dit for the orthographical

issue related to sheria lty.

3. “Similarly, publication notice is appropriate where

the class [(a) is composed of; (b) is comprised of;

or (c) compr ises] members less likely to use modern

communication technologies.” (University of

Pennsylvania Law Rev iew) Extra credit for

repeating the error five more times in t he article.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TERRI GLANGER

Bryan

Garner

on Words

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@BryanAGarner

Practice