Mark Memmott

Along with dates, names and numbers, NPR journalists should add voice-overs to the list of things to double- or triple-check. Audio clips must match translations. Translations must be accurate.

NPR has decided to spell out and say on air the vulgar word President Trump reportedly used during a meeting on Thursday with lawmakers. Mark Memmott, NPR's standards and practices editor explains why the organization initially did not use the word, and why we are using it now.

A fascinating true-crime case and the shame of being well-rested: two of the stories recommended by NPR staff, using the #NPRreads hashtag.

In the week since a group of armed individuals took over buildings on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon, there's been a debate on social media and op-ed pages about what to call them.

They refer to themselves as a ...

For several years now, the emails have shown up within hours — sometimes within minutes — after NPR posts or broadcasts news about one Southeast Asian nation.

They would say something such as this:

Please stop telling us Myanmar is "also known as Burma." We get it!

...

There's been a "mass exodus of Syrians," one of NPR.org's headlines declared earlier this month.

President Obama said in August that the U.S. should boost domestic energy production and rely less on "foreign imports."

A state lawmaker in Illinois had a "temper tantrum," The ...

How much, if any, of the shocking sights and sounds should newsrooms report when two people are murdered on live television and the video whips around the world on the Web?

Alison Parker and Adam Ward, two local TV journalists, were gunned down while on the air Wednesday. ...

Editor's note: The headline on this post tips our hand. But just to be clear, we're discussing language that some readers don't want to hear or read, even when it's bleeped or not spelled out.

This question came up in the newsroom: Should an NPR journalist say during a podcast ...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

It's Independence Day. Let's take a break from parades, patriotic songs and pyrotechnics to think ...

#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and on The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers throughout our newsroom share pieces that have kept them reading. They share tidbits using the #NPRreads hashtag — and on Fridays, we highlight some of the best stories.

This week, ...

If you think the English language is going to hell in a handbag, you won't be happy as a clown after you're done reading this post.

On Saturday, we asked folks to send us examples of the "eggcorns" they love or hate. An eggcorn, as we reported and ...

Please pause if you're about to tell us our headline should say "spread like wildfire."

We intentionally slipped an eggcorn into that line — something we couldn't have done a week ago because, frankly, we'd never heard of eggcorns.

But thanks to Merriam-Webster, which included eggcorn among the ...

As NPR and other news outlets report about the hundreds of people killed this month when the ship they were on went down off the Libyan coast, the stories are referring to those who died as "migrants."

There's a case to be made that the word "refugees" also ...

As NPR reports about the crash of a Germanwings passenger jet and the deaths of all 150 people on board, one of the words editors are weighing carefully is "suicide."

Investigators have said they believe co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately flew the plane into a mountain in ...

Eight months after a notorious group of fighters in Iraq and Syria became regular characters in the news, NPR still begins most of its reports with words such as these:

-- "Self-declared Islamic State."

-- "Self-proclaimed Islamic State."

-- "The group that calls itself the Islamic State."

Some ...

Wednesday's attack at the Paris office of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo is thought to have been the work of killers who believe cartoons can be so offensive that they justified the murder of 12 people.

News organizations and people around the world obviously believe the opposite — that no ...

We asked for nominations for "most misused word or phrase," and they came pouring in. Weekend Edition listeners and NPR.org readers have many gripes about the grammar gaffes they see and hear every day.

From nearly 450 story comments, 500 emails and more than 900 Facebook posts we ...

You're ready to check out at the supermarket. There are only eight items in your cart, so you look for the express lane.

The sign above says "10 items or less."

Do you:

-- Head for the register without a second thought?

-- Rue the decline of the English language ...

Do you sigh when you hear someone begin a sentence with "so?"

Have you given up correcting people who say they're going to "lay down for a while?"

Are you curious about why NPR refers to the militant fighters in Iraq and Syria as the "self-proclaimed Islamic State?"

Starting today, ...

The Two-Way is just shy of its fifth anniversary, on May 13.

This blogger has written just over 9,700 posts for NPR — almost 9,500 of them for The Two-Way.

It seems like a good time to move on.

Next week, I'll be on vacation. When I return to work ...