on the naming of names

professional norms… what are they for

Let’s say I think a book critic—we will call her Mary Lamb—mostly produces bad work for Mother Goose, the paper for which she writes. There are a number of ways I could choose to express this opinion of mine if I wanted to do so.

If I wanted to do it in the way you’re supposed to, I could say:

• “a lot of book reviews are bad now,” or

• “the Mother Goose book review section is pretty bad,” or

• “there’s a book critic I think is bad right now, and they…,” or

• “I really think it’s bad when reviews do [something Mary Lamb often does].”

All of the above would be—I think—considered the professional way of speaking about my problems with Mary Lamb’s work for Mother Goose.

If I wanted to make a big outsider splash for myself as a bold teller of truths, on the other hand, maybe I’d write something like the following:

• “Mary Lamb’s careerist dishonesty represents everything wrong …