Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Punctuation Post by Jake Holt
Even though we have another self-proclaimed grammar nazi in our class this semester, I feel as though I have a tendency to be the same way. Certain grammatical errors drive me up the wall. It's surprising how often grammar is disregarded in day-to-day communication. The most common error I see is probably the improper use of 'less' in place of 'fewer.'
For example: "If we do this now, we'll have less problems in the long run." I hate that. I often bite my tongue though, instead of correcting. The next most common error I see is the spelling of definitely. "Definately, definetely, defanitely." Stop it right now, for the love of God. This happens in my texting conversations far more than it should.
The third one that I see time and time again is when the wrong forms of 'there', 'their' and 'they're' are used. There was once a girl that I was on the fence about dating. She was cool, but I wasn't sure at the time. One day, that changed. In a conversation via text, and without conscious effort, she used all three forms of the word in the same text message and they were all correctly utilized. I then married her.
Just kidding. It's shocking how impressed I actually was, though, which is kind of sad. I feel these perfectly executed grammatical feats aren't nearly common enough.
As much as I try to be as grammatically savvy as possible, there are still certain rules that trip me up from time to time. I encountered a few of these rules in our 50-sentence test. The one that made me think the most was the quotations-inside-quotations rule. That one is quite important for me to know, as I write short stories and screenplays often.
Also, the use of semi-colons seems arbitrary in a number of ways. As a result, I got a couple of those questions wrong. After taking this test, though, I definitely feel more confident in the ways of writing accuracy.
That being said, I'm 97.6% sure there are multiple grammatical errors in this very post that I've overlooked.
....Sigh....
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Oh my word you said it! SO accurate. The definitely and the theirs get on my nerves. I have to give a reading test to people when I interview them at my work. The reading test includes the word 'acumen.' Oh my goodness gracious the atrocities that I have heard when people try to pronounce that!!! It also includes the word 'fiscal' and people always say "physical." Drives me crazy.
ReplyDeleteThis was hilarious. I love the part about the correct form of there, their and they're, because that is a big problem for me. Really funny to hear that that is one of the reasons you married your wife though.
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