There are very few tasks for which English majors are technically trained. This is not to say that a good many English majors aren't technically proficient, only that technical proficiency is not generally a requirement for studying topics such as Women in Literature, 17th Century Drama, or English Romantic Poetry, for example. There is an exception to this, however. Irony. Oh, you're no doubt familiar with the term, have heard it used countless times, and have probably even applied it yourself on occasion. But make no mistake: it's a highly technical term, and one that oughtn't be used unless you have some technical training or experience with it.*
By now you've guessed the topic of this issue's Writing & Style column. Irony. Not so much a full-blown technical dissertation, but rather an introduction, or primer if you will, on the use (and misuse) of the term. Before getting to an actual definition, let's start with Dumb-asses Who Misuse The Term All The Time. And by that of course I mean television newscasters and writers. Perhaps not "irony" or "ironic," but I hear the word "ironically" used on the news almost every single day, and to date I've never heard it used correctly. Really. Not even once.
Reporting on an apparent suicide story of a man who jumped to his death from a bridge (and this is just an example, not an actual story), a newscaster might say something like, "Ironically, the suicide victim was a construction engineer who helped build the very bridge he jumped off."
Or, better yet, maybe the guy's name was "Bridges" ... oooh, now wouldn't that be really ironic?
Nope, not ironic!
Odd, perhaps even inexplicable. Coincidental, yep (in the case of his name). Strange, interesting and sad, sure. But not ironic. In news rooms all over America I imagine a list of synonyms taped above writers' desks that includes Oddly, Coincidentally, Strangely, Interestingly and (incorrectly, ahem) Ironically. They need to take it off the list.
In a popular song by Alanis Morissette titled "Ironic" (ironic in an ironic sort of way) Alanis describes the term as being "like rain on your wedding day," and, my favorite, "like a black fly in your chardonnay." (!?) What the hell does that have to do with irony? Answer: nothing. Well, to Morissette's credit, such situations could be ironic, but we'd need a bunch more details to make such a determination. Rain on one's wedding day is not ironic in and of itself. A guy named Bridges jumping off a bridge, even a bridge he helped build, is not ironic either.
There are actually different types of irony. The simplest form to grasp is verbal irony, when words are the opposite of what they mean. A bald guy named "Curly" is a good example, or a license plate holder announcing, "Washington, The Sunshine State." A slightly more sophisticated version can be found in phrases such as "Kindness is the sharpest cut." That's ironic. Kindness shouldn't cut - it should heal, right? In situations where an act of kindness makes matters worse, and we've all experienced them, we confront irony. Growing up on a ranch in Montana, my family didn't have cable TV, and whenever we wanted to watch the tube, we usually had to fiddle with the antenna to receive one of the two TV channels available to us. On more than one occasion the family member who attempted to improve the reception would actually screw it up (ironic), which often resulted in another family member remarking along the lines of, "Oh, that's a lot better" (also ironic). In this sense, irony turns into sarcasm. And on a typographical note, italic text is often used to enhance verbal irony and sarcasm.
Perhaps now you're asking, "Is that all irony is - tall guys named Shorty and the witticisms of smart-ass couch potatoes in America's fourth largest state?" No, but it's a good start. Just having read this FontSite article, you're now over-qualified to work in a television news room.
In a general sense, you could define irony as the incongruity between expectations and outcomes, specifically when the outcome reflects the incongruity in a painful or poignant way. When one's actions achieve the opposite of one's intentions, the incongruity is unavoidable. You feel like the forces of nature have conspired against you.
The most technical form of irony is classical or Socratic irony, which has its roots in Greek drama. A particular character, known as an eiron, would play the role of the ignorant fool, tricking other characters into revealing dark secrets and details about themselves they ordinarily would not. In tragic irony, which also has its roots among the Greeks, the audience already knows the hell the main character is preparing for himself, and of course the main character, the tragic hero, is clueless until it all comes crashing down. Oedipus Rex is the classic example. For a wonderful, modern-day take on this classic tale, I highly recommend the film Jean de Florette and its sequel Manon of the Spring, directed by Claude Berri.
My advice on using the term: 1) Avoid using "ironically" if you can. It's a powerful term that makes for a really lame adverb (along with "hopefully"). 2) Consider whether you actually mean "oddly" or "coincidentally." If so, don't use "ironic" or "ironically."
Let's take another look at the story of the engineer who committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. How could that story be ironic? Perhaps if the engineer had designed some new feature for added safety, but instead resulted in a structural failure that killed or injured someone using the bridge. That would be ironic, maybe even enough so that it would fill the engineer who designed the bridge with so much anguish and remorse that he took his own life by jumping off his bridge.
What would someone say to such a chap? "Irony? You're soaking in it." (Boo! Hiss!)

*There are other technical terms used by English majors, such as "iambic pentameter" and "belles lettres," for example, but these aren't commonly tossed about by lay users of English.