Live and Let Di

Something New Everyday

Today I learned something new. Something that I've never given much thought to.

Now, without looking the words up, do you know the difference between a "foreword" (and would you have really known that it was spelled that way...OK Karen, we all know you would have) and a "preface."

Fascinating...for word geeks like me.

Di

Editor Needed - DESPERATELY!!!

Karen from verbatim inspired me to peruse craigslist for writing/editing jobs when what I REALLY need to peruse craigslist for is a new desk.

Although I am not in the market for any new jobs, this one caught my eye...

EDITOR NEEDED FOR TRAINING MANUALS

XYZ  Ministries, Inc. is in need of an editor.

We write and published our own training manuals and is in need of an editor.

We are looking for an individual with:

Execellent Writing Skills
Excellent Grammer/English Skills
Excellent Computer Skills

Now...take a moment and reread the third line...they desperately need someone soon!

Di

Singular Sugarland

Entertainment Weekly is one of my guilty pleasures. Good journalism joins pop culture. I love it!

However, I must get your opinion on something. Recently EW did a story called The Sugarland Express, about the country duo Sugarland. "Baby Girl," their beautiful song of a young woman's love for her parents and desire to make them proud, is a song that can make you cry as you are singing along. Here's a sentence from the article:

"...Sugarland have grown into one of the country's most successful and beloved acts."

Does that sound like nails on a chalkboard to anyone but me? While I have no dispute with a subsequent sentence that reads, "They've scored eight country top 10 hits..." because the "they", I feel, refers to the two members of the group, I can't understand the use of the plural verb with the singular band name.

Discuss.

Di

Baseball Boo-Boo (Part II)

I need your help here. My son disputes my contention that there is a grammar gaffe in the following:

Your input would be greatly appreciated as I hate to be contradicted by a 12 year old...especially if he is right!

Di

Baseball Boo-Boo (Part I)

Why is it that when I am absorbing blog fodder fast and furious, I simply don't have time to blog about all the stuff I see? Blogging has added a whole new dimension to my life, especially when traveling. The camera slung around my neck is less about capturing images of my children in front of iconic sights and more about photographing things with which to entertain (all two of) you! (Yes, I'm being a little martyrish about my readership...leave a comment every now and then so I know you are there!)

Yesterday my Dad, my husband, my son and I traveled about an hour from my childhood home to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame. My son was so excited about going that he willingly bounded out of bed at 7:10 a.m. I think it may have been one of the high points of my Dad's life...if you've read my stuff about my Dad before, you know that I failed miserably by being born a girl to a Dad who totally should have had a son...but I redeemed myself by giving birth to a boy who is devoted to his grandfather and just as much of a sports nut!

You know that I couldn't possibly spend 5 hours viewing a collection of stories, statistics and statues without finding a grammar rant or two. Included in the collection was the original source of the lyrics for Take Me Out to the Ballgame...so, yes, I have gone back a century for this one...

You may have to zoom in on this. If you click on the image, it will come up as a separate page and you can zoom in from there. Two errors...do you see them?

Di

Apostro-tastrophe - the next generation

***Don't forget to enter my Eight Below Giveaway***

They grow up so fast. Haley and Ana Mari have been friends since we moved to Fuquay Varina when they were about 9. Aren't they cute?

They stayed friends through Cotillion where they learned to wear gloves and how to dance. Still so cute.

And now finally in high school together, practically grownups!

But my proudest moment with these two came last night. We spent the day together shopping and running around. Then we decided to go out to dinner at the new restaurant in Fuquay Varina. Up until this restaurant opened a couple of weeks ago, the closest thing we had to fine dining was Applebee's. While we were waiting for a table, the girls looked at me and said, "Did you notice?" Notice what?

I've brought my daughter and her friend over to the side of appropriate apostrophes!

Di

Nothing to loose

Two people who share my disdain for the sorry state of grammar and usage in the English language happened to e-mail me on the same day, both inadvertently inspiring me to write.

Leigh (author of Flipper and Me and a fellow blogger on Mom2Mom) is dumbfounded that the confusion of homonyms and similar words has become practically accepted. We commiserated on the use of "loose" (rhymes with "goose") for "lose" (rhymes with "chews"). I was recently doing some work that required me to read college entrance letters from high school seniors and I found that the loose/lose confusion was rampant. It bothers me that the confusion exists in the first place. But what bothers me more is that these kids didn't feel it necessary to have their letters proofed before sending them to people they should be trying to impress!!!

Amy sent me an article from The Amateur Gourmet concerning dress codes in restaurant. I think she thought I would be inspired to weigh in on this matter, but what I ended up noticing was the poor usage in this phrase in one of the comments:  "if you'd like to be apart of what they are trying to convey, be apart of it." It should be "a part" instead of "apart."

This got me thinking about the people who use "alot" or, worse still, "allot" in their writing when they mean to convey "many." First of all, when I was growing up, I was taught that "a lot" was OK for the spoken word, but in writing, one should explore other words to convey the same meaning. Obviously, this was a rule that went the way of the serial comma, and I can handle that. But if you are going to use "a lot" in your writing, please bother to spell it correctly.

Maybe my concerns about the status of grammar and usage of English put me in the same category as the commenters in The Amateur Gourmet's Anti Dress-Code Violation article who insist that men wear suits and women wear dresses to certain restaurants. Maybe I am headed toward becoming part of the new older generation, steadfastly embracing the "old days" when good writing skills were required and people cared enough to proof their work before sharing it. Maybe I need to lighten up...

What do you think?

Di

More Decline and Fall of our Language

I know I've been really ranty-ravey about grammar and punctuation errors lately. But it really bugs me. I recognize that the fact that something bugs me does not mean that the world is going to instantly straighten up and get moving on fixing it. I'm not sure why that's true because it would be REALLY cool if the world acted that way.

I try to be understanding, considering the source of subtle grammar errors and punctuation faux pas. But when the source is a teacher of LANGUAGE ARTS, my normal saintly impatience is really tested.

Did they change the name of the course from English to the more generic Language Arts because they didn't want to commit to which language it was they were supposedly teaching?

In the sheet describing my son's end-of-year project, was the following:

The purpose of this project is for you to demonstrate your ability to express your thoughts, feelings, and opinions about a particular musical artist and a sample of their work.

I'm not even going to comment on the extra comma, the necessity of which I thought had been eradicated in some sea change of grammar teaching since I was in school. You know what it is. We've been here before. BUT FROM THE LANGUAGE ARTS TEACHER???

And lest you think that I am being way too persnickety about one teeny, tiny error, this was also part of the instructions:

If you are forbidden to go to your artists web site you need to pick a different artist or group.

There are two sort-of crescent-shaped thingies that I think need to be included in this sentence.

Please tell me. Be brutally honest. Do I need to just get over it? Is it too much to expect that a Language Arts teacher would set a stellar example of grammar and punctuation to THEIR students...sorry, couldn't resist! Oh...and click on the image above or here...because there really IS an interactive Punctuation Pyramid.

Di

The decline and fall of our language

I know I have to somehow accept that the English language, such that we learned it, is rapidly eroding. I recently read that some astoundingly large percentage of high school students have used emoticons in writing assignments. Our state writing test for 4th graders emphasizes colorful images and creative descriptions. Students are NOT evaluated on grammar or punctuation. LOL will soon be an acceptable part of speech...jumping right past the stage of actually needing periods to separate the letters. L.O.L. would just be too much work. I think that even that most famous of TLA's (three letter abbreviations), IBM, started with periods between the letters.

[Note to those who care: Are you aware that the term "acronym" is not appropriate to abbreviations such as those mentioned above. Acronyms are specifically abbreviations that form a word. Examples include: NASCAR, scuba and Fannie Mae.]

Now we are apparently eliminating extraneous spaces between words. Observe:

The rooms in which we live and the rooms in which we dine can now be indicated using just one word.

Maybe the removal of that space between "living" and "room" is why the are able to offer this "3 Pc Livingroom" so cheap!

Di

Apostro-tastrophe!

***CLICK HERE TO WIN A HARDCOVER COPY OF THE STONE GODS***

Consider this an homage to TEAL!!!

I just hope this cake wasn't made for the English teachers to present to the Principal! Kudos for the correct usage of the apostrophe in "it's."

Di

***Photo credit goes to my daughter, Haley, who managed to snap this shot while talking on the phone and finding things for me at Harris Teeter***