It no longer occurs to me to query the use of four-letter words, even when they are used gratuitously, as in ‘I missed the fucking bus.’ I used to be a prude, but now I am a ruined woman. We had a discussion in the copy department a few weeks ago about how to style the euphemism: Shall it be ‘f’-word, f word, f-word, ‘F’ word, F word, or F-word? I don’t like any of them. Fuck euphemisms. Get on the goddam fucking bus.

—Mary Norris, on copy editing poorly-written tweets, profanity, and “activating” hyphens.

• 5 Jul 2012