Grammar Moses: Do brand names date us?

Last week's column on the genericization of such brand names as "Kleenex" and "Frisbee" stirred the passions of many readers.

Former English major Stephen Smart was among them.

"In the larger scheme of things, both the capitalization and the word fade from usage (I now say "plastic wrap" instead of "cellophane"); it's not because the copyright has expired," he wrote. "The public doesn't care about that. It's that capitalization looks clunky, and brand names date you, and they are confusing to younger and/or foreign readers."

Ah, but when one writes commercially, as I do, one ought to pay attention to such things. It's only fair.

You might think that Sea-Doo you're rooster-tailing around the lake on is a jet ski, but the good people at Kawasaki know there is only one manufacturer of Jet Skis - Kawasaki.

I admit I cringe every time we write generically about that type of conveyance as a "personal watercraft."

Perhaps we should amend that to be "gasoline-powered personal watercraft" to distinguish them from kayaks and tiny canoes.

People often confuse the Daily Herald with the Northwest Herald. It's not that we are similar newspapers (the other guy is printed as a tabloid, while we're a broadsheet) but because we have similar names and our markets overlap.

It's important to me and my company's well-being that people know the two newspapers are not interchangeable, so you'll forgive my sensitivity in the matter.

Back to Stephen: "I would rather just give up the ghost, become less dated, and say 'tissue' instead of the highly dated 'Kleenex.' I buy all my tissues from Aldi anyway - no Kleenex for sale there! Likewise, who needs to "Xerox" when you can just copy it, or use a copier or scan it?"

Stephen makes some good points here. I'd venture that most people who offer you a "kleenex" that isn't a Kleenex brand facial tissue are older than my letterman jacket. What youngsters would "xerox" something? It's not part of their DNA.

A Moses refresher

Stephen had another point to make, and I figure this is as good a time as any to remind people who haven't been reading this column for the four years I've been writing it what it's all about.

"Loved your column today - you always come up with ideas I have not considered. I would like to quibble with the theme of the column, though ... it seems to be written more for extremely fastidious journalists rather than for all lovers of correct grammar, and I would rather think of you in the latter category!"

This column sprang from a long-standing house organ on proper newspaper style. Before that, it was a weekly quiz for my direct reports. So there still is an element of that to explain why newspapers - specifically my newspapers across the state - do things the way we do.

I'm playing from my strengths here, which is why I rarely delve into the lexicons of auto mechanics and lawn care professionals.

I talk about adhering pretty closely in our own writing to what The Associated Press Stylebook says so there is consistency across what we produce and what we cull from wire services.

I'm reasonably expert on newspaper style, and perhaps that's why I'm no fan of the serial comma. Manuscript editors LOVE the serial comma. It's the gold standard in books.

"All lovers of correct grammar" includes many sects - the descriptivists and the prescriptivists, the poets and prose writers - and I'll never please everyone. I just hope that I please more than I rankle.

A few readers along the way have told me I don't take this stuff seriously enough and that I should stop trying to be cute.

Sorry, folks, if you want cute-free grammar advice, read a textbook. I write it because it's fun.

Or at least I hope it is.

Write carefully!

• Jim Baumann is vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.