Grammar Girl here. Last week was a tough one in the United States because there was so much

crime in bad news. We had the Boston Marathon bombings, the subsequent violent manhunt,

the rice and mailings, and an explosion at a Texas fertilizer factory. Although the language

issues seem minor compared to the tragedy as we watched unfold, there were some interesting

things that came up, and some readers specifically asked me to address them.

First, it's a great opportunity to talk about the importance and meaning of the words

alleged and suspect. Dean McGee on Twitter asked me about those kind of words. As I mentioned

in last week's show about style guides, the AP style book published by the Associated

Press is the best style guide for news reporters. And as I expected, the AP style book had great

entries on alleged and suspect and defamation in general. I watched the news closely last

week, and I could see the story is changing before my eyes. What seems to be fact one

minute can turn out to be wrong the next. People were incorrectly named as suspects in

the Boston bombings, and the person arrested in the rice encase was released, and now

police are investigating another man. That's why, until someone is convicted or has somehow

proven to have been the bomber, we say he is a suspect, and not that he is the bomber.

It was interesting to me that AP even recommends against modifying a person's name with the

accusation against such phrases as suspected murderer John Jones and alleged murder or John Jones.

Instead, it recommends separating the accusation from the person's name more by using phrasing

such as John Jones, suspect in the murder, and John Jones accused of the murder. It seems

like a minor distinction, but in the US people are presumed innocent until they've been

proven guilty, and we recognize that people are harmed when they're falsely accused. So I believe

the guiding principle is to consider what would be the least damaging way to present the information

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