It’s been a minute (as the cool kids say) since writer Émile Zola wrote his open letter “J’accuse…!” (published on January 13, 1898, in the newspaper L’Aurore) accusing France’s government of anti-Semitism in the trial and sentencing of Alfred Dreyfus for espionage.

I’m sure you caught the reference in the title above. In my case, however, I’m taking a stand not for a French army officer but for the English language and the writing craft…in refusing to submit to the increasingly widespread acceptance of:

…the use of the pronoun them to refer to singular antecedents. I know that some influential and otherwise principled people (I won’t mention any names so as to protect my boss, Steve Laube) have surrendered to this trend. And such constructions as “any person who uses his or her linguistic sophistication as a badge of honor, etc.” can be painfully awkward. And, sure, the binary “his or her” rubs some people the wrong way. Yes, yes, yes. But that’s just tough. Person is singular, them is plural. Fight me all you want, but I worked hard for my C+ in second grade English, so J’refuse…!

…the use of the phrase “begs the question” to mean “prompts the question.” “Beg the question” is a phrase referring to a logical fallacy, that of assuming the truth of something for which you’re trying to argue. Hard to follow, I know. And almost no one (other than scholastic debate teams, perhaps) ever uses “begs the question” properly. So please, please erase it from your vocabulary. When you’re about to say “begs the question,” just say “raises the question” or “prompts the question.” I beg you.

…the use of the word blog when you mean “blog post.” The word blog comes from the portmanteau “weblog,” coined in the 1990s. A blog is a website (or portion of a website) that features regular informative and helpful (one may hope) posts. What you’re reading right now is a “blog post” on a blog…that is one feature of the Steve Laube website. See how simple that is? You’re welcome.

Call me a Luddite, but while each of these errors (“errors, I tell you!”) has become so common that the wrong usage seems to be accepted, J’refuse! And I hope my writer friends will join me in this principled stand. If not, you may have to pardon my French.