One of the really cool grammatical rules that I learned about this week was the Suspensive Hyphenation rule in which a number will still require a hyphen even if it is not immediately followed with the cause for the hyphen. It dawned on me that I tend to write incorrectly once or twice a day when I should actually be using this rule. At my work, we have protection plans available in either a three-year or five-year range. When I am communicating with customers, I tend to leave out the hyphen on the first option, but I add it on the second option. For example, I have been known to ask, "Would you be interested in extending the life of the appliance with either a three or five-year protection plan?" As you can see, I should certainly be using the hyphen after the three as well as after the five. This sort of made me smile when I learned about this rule as I knew that I could immediately put it to use in my daily life.

Another error that I do not necessarily make myself but I often see in writing is not spelling out numbers if they are below 10. Many of my coworkers tend to fall for this error at work and it sort of peeves me, but I am what you would call a "Grammar Nazi." It does not make much sense for me to be one, as I am by no means an expert, but I do tend to notice small things such as this quite often. Anyway, I feel that I am very good with following this rule, as it has been instilled in me by my high school English professor. I also often find it on labels for products. I understand that they are not necessarily concerned with grammar and they are strategically focused on advertising, but it still sort of funny to see. Literally, as I am writing this post, I picked up the nearest product to me, which is a can of "Airwick" air freshener and it falls for this common error. It lists, "Lasts up to 1 hour," right on the very front of the fan. Although I believe that they will be just fine without correcting this error, it can be argued that their credibility is not as in-tact as it could be.