Note from a cranky editor

[JustKate]

I bow to none in my grammar curmudgeonosity (curmudgeonness?). I dislike incorrect it'ses intensely, as do we all. I adore finding mistakes and correcting them. But there is a right way and a wrong way to do so, yes?

I am part of a grammar listserv (yes, I am that geeky) and one member in particular frequently points out the mistakes of others, frequently preens herself on her superiority, all the while making mistakes herself, mistakes that she almost never acknowledges.

Everybody makes mistakes, including me, but IMO, you should not send out an email to your grammar geek acquaintances lambasting an online catalogue for one - one! - incorrect it's, generalize that complaint so that it becomes a lament on the sad state of grammatical literacy, point out how superior one's own grammatical skills are to the pathetic folks who used one - one! - incorrect it's, but include in that email a comma splice. I'm just sayin'.

That said, just the other day, I used aloud when I meant allowed. I caught it before it was published, and fortunately I didn't make the mistake while lambasting somebody else for his mistake. But everybody, me and my overly smug listserv-mate included, needs to remember these little lapses.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

^Same thing happened in an article I wrote. I wrote "all for not" instead of the correct "all for naught." Unfortunately, my brain fart didn't allow me to catch the error before the article went to copy. I'm certain the copy editor's head exploded for a moment when she read my mistake.

So the occasional mistake does happen. The trick is not to let it happen often.

 

[Kataaran]

A read a post title on another forum recently:

"What to where to a job interview"

I wanted to reply that it probably wouldn't matter, I didn't though.

 

[Lonemagpie]

I bow to none in my grammar curmudgeonosity (curmudgeonness?). .

I believe that would be curmudgeonliness...

Or possibly curmudgeonality.

 

[JustKate]

A read a post title on another forum recently:

"What to where to a job interview"

I wanted to reply that it probably wouldn't matter, I didn't though.

I see want used in place of what a fair amount, too. So it could have been even worse: "Want to where to a job interview."

I believe that would be curmudgeonliness...
Or possibly curmudgeonality.

I would say the fact that we are even considering the alternatives for the concept of "the state of being a curmudgeon" would qualify as curmudgeontastic!

 

[Christopher]

Well... if a surgeon is someone who performs surgery... then that which is practiced by a curmudgeon would presumably be curmudgery.

But seriously... I looked it up, and according to American Heritage, the word is "curmudgeonry."

 

[Myasishchev]

Just out of curiosity, why are "security" and "people" editorially and incorrectly noted with [sic]? Just because they aren't capitalized doesn't mean they are misspelled or misused.

Sic just means "as such," not necessarily "wrong." It usually is wrong when someone puts [sic] next to something, but not always.

BTW, it may be that the capitalized words were done so because they refer to tangible things - security, rights and even 'the people' are conceptual nouns, whereas a Militia is a tangible thing, as is a State (that could actually go either way), and as are Arms.

Just a thought ...

Interesting. Could well be. What about "affirmations," though--that's a concrete noun, or at least as much so as "Oath."

I got an email yesterday for an internship with a legal employer:

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS:

[...]

Strong, research and communication skills, both written/verbal.

So is that strong enough not to put a comma where it doesn't belong? Or would they simply prefer someone who is well-spoken, eloquent in prose, and good at arm wrestling?

 

[JustKate]

^

Maybe they mean strong as in "Strong enough not to get annoyed over unnecessary commas"?

 

[Greg Cox]

^

Maybe they mean strong as in "Strong enough not to get annoyed over unnecessary commas"?

That's not just unnecessary; it's wrong, and confuses the meaning.

 

[JustKate]

^ Strong statement, Greg.

Not that I'm disagreeing with you...

 

[S. Gomez]

^Or one could say: "Strong, statement Greg." Then it's your new nickname. Statement Greg.

 

[Greg Cox]

Sincerely, yours, always,

Statement Greg

 

[Christopher]

Sic just means "as such," not necessarily "wrong." It usually is wrong when someone puts [sic] next to something, but not always.

Yep. Putting [sic] in quoted text basically means "This is how it appeared in the original text, and it's not a mistake I made in transcribing it." So it is generally used to call out mistakes in spelling or grammar, but sometimes just for unusual usages that might be taken for transcription errors.

 

[JustKate]

But seriously... I looked it up, and according to American Heritage, the word is "curmudgeonry."

Well, that's a fabulous word, I must say. I shall look for an excuse to use it in a sentence in the very near future. Call it a little experiement in vocabulary geekery.

^Or one could say: "Strong, statement Greg." Then it's your new nickname. Statement Greg.

Sincerely, yours, always,

Statement Greg

Looks good to me. I mean, you're supposed to just put a comma where you pause, right? Right?

Kidding! I swear!

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

While we're on the subject, one frequently occurring error that's been bugging me lately is "sneak peak." It's supposed to be "sneak peek." It's an understandable error, but "peek" means a quick or surreptitious look and "peak" means a mountaintop or the highest point of a curve.

Also, it's not "free reign" but "free rein." Giving a horse free rein means letting go of its reins so that it's free to go where it wishes.

And one thing doesn't "jive with" another, it "jibes with" another. To jive is to speak nonsensically or deceptively; to jibe is to agree or correspond. To gibe, meanwhile, is to mock or heckle.

What bugz me more then NE thing is the lack of any kind of punctuation i mean poeple are on the internet all day long you would think that their typing skills would be somewhat passible but no there sentences just run on and on with nothing braking them up not so much as a comma or a period or anything WHATS EVEN WORSE IS TYPING IN ALL CAPS thats really played out too its not so bad here on the star track BBS becuz people tend to be a bit more intellagent but if you take a look at the comments on Utube or other similer sites their barely readible

 

[JustKate]

Breathe, Nerdius, breathe!

 

[S. Gomez]

So let's say that, hypothetically, I were to stand up, metaphorically, in this thread and pronounce myself a firm believer in the serial (or Harvard, or Oxford) comma.

Would I be shot in the head? Or whatever it is you grammar police do?

 

[TGTheodore]

Also, once a TV show, movie, or play has all of the actors hired it has been cast NOT "casted".

MAJOR pet peeve of mine.

I have a few mistakes I stubbornly cling to. I think refusing to captialize "internet" is going to be one of them.

My mission is the absolute obliteration of the semi-colon.

No reason for its existence whatsoever. Many more elegant and easier-to-read ways to accomplish the same thing. (see endash and emdash) Visually, reading a semi-colon is like stumbing over something on the ground. It ruins the flow of the content.

--Ted

 

[Maurice]

I don't know that it's been mentioned before in this topic, but another common mistake I see is confusing vane/vein/vain and waist/waste.

What a waist. It's all in vein.

...and Copywrite for Copyright.

 

[Kataaran]

... WHATS EVEN WORSE IS TYPING IN ALL CAPS ...

As a designer that's one of my major bugbears. I've just written a plugin for a website that that disallows uppercase sentences that are made up of ten words or more. It converts them to lowercase.