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September 23, 2010 at 4:41 pm #596465
jego_misiaParticipantI just read a newsletter from the WSJA & I really hate to say I’m disappointed with the spelling & grammar…not to be knit picky or anything but if you’re sending something out like that & other people see this, it doesn’t make you look too smart. Hope no one gets mad at me for this, but I felt it needed to be said…
September 23, 2010 at 5:10 pm #704190
QueMembernit picky.
Like lice and not like yarn.
Just sayin’ if you are going to be getting up on your spelling and grammar soapbox.
September 23, 2010 at 7:48 pm #704191
charlabobParticipantAnd there’s no way to describe the confused antecdents in this clause:
>sending something out like that & other people see this<
However, I agree with your point…
September 23, 2010 at 8:30 pm #704192
yeah-meParticipantWSJA ?
September 23, 2010 at 8:33 pm #704193
JanSParticipantWest Seattle Junction Assn.? Wall Street Journal Asia? take your pick, or make something up ;-)
September 23, 2010 at 8:53 pm #704194
KBearParticipant“nit picky.
Like lice and not like yarn.”
Just apply some pesticide and stay home from school. Oops! Wrong thread!
September 24, 2010 at 12:47 am #704195
redblackParticipantcharlabob: what’s an “antecdent?”
just sayin’. (this from the guy who never uses proper caps in email or posts.)
also, too.
September 24, 2010 at 1:14 am #704196
datamuseParticipantSeptember 24, 2010 at 1:14 am #704197
JustSarahParticipantHm, and I interpreted “WSJA” as Washington State Journalists’ (or Journalism) Association. I’ve no idea if such an organization exists. Clearly this is one of those situations in which using an abbreviation does not help matters. :-)
September 24, 2010 at 1:42 am #704198
johnnyblegsMemberWest Seattle Judo Association?
September 24, 2010 at 7:55 am #704199
jego_misiaParticipantWSJA= West Seattle Junction Association…
and to correct myself, what I meant is: sending out a newsletter in a condition that would make other people snicker while reading it doesn’t make them look too smart.
September 24, 2010 at 1:23 pm #704200
redblackParticipantdatamuse: thank you for making me aware of the existence of muphry’s law. pure gold.
September 24, 2010 at 8:24 pm #704201
YardvarkMemberjego_misia: I totally agree with you. People who snicker at grammer mistakes never look smart. Thanks for clarifying.
September 25, 2010 at 5:43 pm #704202
christopherboffoliParticipantYardvark: First, that’s grammar with an ‘a’
I’m sure it is not about snickering at mistakes. To me it is more about upholding a standard and protecting the necessary rules of our language. Everyone makes mistakes. I have degrees in English and Literature, have been writing from the time I knew what words were and yet I still make mistakes, typos, errors in grammar judgment and punctuation. English is a tough language, even for native speakers/writers.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the greatest American novelists, famously couldn’t spell. His editors at Scribeners used to joke that every time he’d submit a manuscript he’d find a new way to spell the word yacht. It didn’t make him any less of a genius. He was just lucky to have good editors who had his back.
I agree with the sentiment expressed by the original poster. I think publications/news organizations/advertisers, etc. do make themselves look bad when they put something out that is carelessly edited, especially in Seattle where we have such a high level of literacy.
Typos are monsters who hide amidst good, upstanding letters and do their level best to blend in with the scenery. You can read something a dozen times and not see them until they emerge from dark corners only after something is published. Typos are bound to happen to the best of us. But serious grammar mistakes are emblematic of a larger issue.
Having your grammar corrected can be somewhat humiliating. But I’d rather be embarrassed and learn the right way than to keep perpetuating a mistake.
September 25, 2010 at 6:50 pm #704203
charlabobParticipantAntecedent — that to which something refers. In the original post, I thought “that” and “this” were a bit unclear.
And no I don’t avoid ending sentences with prepositions in real life. IRL, I tend toward “ain’t” (which is a contraction, though I don’t know what the “ai” stands for.) :-)
September 25, 2010 at 7:37 pm #704204
christopherboffoliParticipantWhen Winston Churchill was once chided by a journalist, for ending a sentence with a preposition, he quipped: “That is nonsense up with I shall not put!”
September 25, 2010 at 7:48 pm #704205
datamuseParticipantI agree that it’s a good idea to try to spell things correctly. Mistakes can be embarrassing, sometimes.
September 25, 2010 at 11:14 pm #704206
WSBKeymasterI always appreciate evangelism on behalf of good spelling/grammar, but I’m wondering … amid all this, has anyone (the original post’er, perhaps) bothered to let the Junction Association know about the problem? We don’t get newsletters from them – we speak with WSJA administration fairly often in person – so have not seen the originally reported problem, but I am sure they’d like to know. Lots of contact info at wsjunction.org. When we make errors, we tend to get comments, e-mail, etc., and I appreciate that, so the mistake can be fixed. The newsletter might be replicated in online form somewhere and therefore fixable in at least some incarnation.
September 25, 2010 at 11:33 pm #704207
charlabobParticipantTo jack this thread just slightly, I looked up the derivation of ain’t and found out it comes from am not — which explains why I invented the word “amn’t” when I was a little kid and was relentless teased.
Even better, I found out there’s a whole book on “The Derivation of Ain’t.” http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080701020716AAyEcN4
So, all you frustrated authors out there, don’t despair. It must have sold at least 20 copies. What would YOU like to Bing?
September 26, 2010 at 2:21 pm #704208
KenParticipantReally Stupid Newspaper Headlines
http://deanhunt.com/dumb-and-dumber/
There are more in my collection but I got them by email and have not located the source yet.
September 26, 2010 at 2:24 pm #704209
KenParticipantSeptember 27, 2010 at 4:20 am #704210
JoBParticipantok..
i can put up with a little bad punctuation and misuse of words…
but i really miss content.
September 27, 2010 at 5:40 am #704211
inactiveMemberA tad belated, but still…hoping your Punctuation Day was grand!
September 27, 2010 at 1:24 pm #704212
redblackParticipantcharlabob: oh, i know what an antecedent is; i just don’t know what an antecdent is.
you know, one of the corollaries of muphry’s law is that the perpetrator of the mistake will often fail to see it, even after multiple editors and proofreaders explain it.
dood: thanks for that link. the haiku is priceless.
September 27, 2010 at 11:29 pm #704213
waynsterParticipantI’m not so much disapointed about spelling and gramer as such. Its when a email is sent about a subject and one gets no answer back I do know you get volumes of mail its the no replie when somethings do or should be other then that no issues
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