A Better Pencil
Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution
Dennis Baron
From Our Blog
There's been a lot of talk lately about what pronouns to use for persons whose gender is unknown, complicated, or irrelevant. Options include singular they and invented, common-gender pronouns. Each has its defenders and its critics.
Posted on January 6, 2016
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I love ebooks. Despite their unimaginative page design, monotonous fonts, curious approach to hyphenation, and clunky annotation utilities, they're convenient and easy on my aging eyes. But I wish they didn't come wrapped in legalese. Whenever I read a book on my iPad, for example, I have tacitly agreed to the 15,000-word statement of terms and conditions for the iTunes store. It's written by lawyers in language so dense and tedious it seems designed not to be read, except by other lawyers, and that's odd, since these Terms of Service agreements (TOS) concern the use of books that are designed to be read.
Posted on May 7, 2015
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By Dennis Baron Perhaps the highest-profile cases to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court this term are the two involving the definition of marriage. U.S. v. Windsor challenges the federal definition of marriage as 'a legal union between one man and one woman' (Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA], 1 USC § 7), and Hollingsworth v. Perry seeks a ruling on the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, a ban on same-sex marriage which reads, 'Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.'
Posted on June 23, 2013
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