. . . The Bad . . .

A roundup of this month’s best and worst (well, mostly worst) sentences. There’s nothing egregiously wrong with most of these examples; the problem hinges on a single word that doesn’t quite work the way the writer intended. They’re dissonant notes that don’t even require a copy editor to catch — a simple read-through from a fresh-eyed colleague would have sufficed. Today’s blunders come to us courtesy of the Associated Press, which has the dubious distinction of producing all of the following.

An attorney defending a man accused in a failed plot to bring down a U.S.-bound jetliner faces a tough task pecking away at the government’s evidence in a case where the suspect was captured in a snap.

Are we looking for “chipping away”? It’s one thing to choose colorful verbs; it’s another to reach too far in attempting to coin a cute new phrase. And if the suspect was captured in the act, why don’t we say so? “Snap” is unnecessarily vague.

 Eyjafjallajokul volcano . . . chugged ash all over Europe for several weeks in an eruption that local scientist Pall Einarsson describes nonetheless as “small.”

Another verb gone astray. Trains chug, volcanoes . . . spew. Dump. Scatter. Whatever the volcano was doing with its ash, it sure wasn’t “chugging” it.

There are 30,000 fewer federal workers now than a year ago – including 5,300 Postal Service jobs canceled last month.

If “canceled” is supposed to be a cute nod to the Postal Service (which cancels mail), it’s not working. By the time the reader makes the connection, awkwardness (who’s ever heard of a job being canceled?) has already set in.

Hardliners still want more punishment against Ahmadinejad for actions viewed as political hubris.

Can punishment be directed “against” someone? Reword: “Hardliners want to punish Ahmadinejad further for actions viewed as political hubris.”

In a rare political spectacle of a visiting head of state on a field trip outside Washington with the U.S. president, both sounding boosterish about American industry, Lee said the trade pact “will create more jobs for you and your family.”

Seriously? “Boosterish”?

Russia . . . sent two strategic bombers on a mission to circumnavigate the islands last month – a move seen as a test of the new government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, which had just been launched six days before.

Technically I suppose a government can be “launched,” but the odd word choice draws attention to itself and throws the reader.

Just to prove I’m an equal-opportunity critic, let’s end on an example from the Times. Proving that writing about humor is rarely humorous, the Times offers this awful mouthful of a title for an article on Chinese dissidents using jokes and cartoons to get around online censors: “The Dangerous Politics of Internet Humor in China.”

Ha. Ha. Ha.