Avoiding ‘False Titles’: How Some News Publications Try Not to Sound Like New Publications

Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou in the film adaptation of “The Da Vince Code.” The novel begins with a false title.

A friend wrote to me recently with a question about grammar and style:

In someone else’s holiday house a few days ago I found myself reading The Economist of last week. In a page of brief news notes they referred to:

Goldman Sachs, an investment bank Rolls-Royce, an aircraft-engine maker Airbus, a plane manufacturer Netflix, an online streaming service Novartis, a drugmaker … and Pfize...