The Queries Newsletter Is Back

I’m Carl Rosen, and I’m the copy chief at New York, which means my job is to oversee the magazine’s grammar and style. Along with a team of copy editors, I make prescriptive corrections and suggest changes to help writers communicate more clearly with the reader. My goal — and the most rewarding part of the job — is to help the voice of the writer come through in their copy. Language evolves, and so does the way I work (but probably not as much as you’d think).

I’m thrilled to be hosting an eighth edition of Queries: a limited-run newsletter about language and grammar for subscribers only. It’s a stylist’s paradise. For five weeks, starting on Wednesday, October 21, we’ll be diving into some thorny copy questions (the thornier the better) I’ve encountered while working on the magazine and plenty of other subjects that interest a word nerd like me (and that I think will interest you too). This time around, we’ll touch on New York’s list of “banned” words and how we empower our copy editors to make judgment calls in their day-to-day work.

And we need your queries! Ask me about grammar and style or (newish) terms that seem to be everywhere, send examples of how AI helps or hurts your own writing, and let me know what grammar rules should be emphasized in schools. Write to me at queries@nymag.com and your question might appear in an upcoming edition.

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