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Topic: Grammar section
| Author | Message |
| wareaglegal | Posted – 4/10/2008 10:43:56 AM | show profile I think it might be worthwhile to start a forum devoted to grammar Q&As. I often drop in with a quick question and find helpful info. Sometimes it's easier than using AP ;-) |
| Homer | Posted – 4/11/2008 3:46:48 PM | show profile I wholeheartedly agree! Especially given the numerous grammar threads recently. Even as experienced writers/editors, we all still have occasion to learn something. Plus, it's a great way to vent over seemingly trivial bugaboos like "She's the girl that was wearing the blue dress." HATE that! Minor, I know, but it's the first one that popped into my head because I read it yesterday. It's my understanding that anytime you're talking about a person, it would be "She's the girl WHO was wearing the blue dress." (Sentence structure isn't ideal overall, but you get the point...) Any others? |
| elizabeth22 | Posted – 4/17/2008 6:27:23 PM | show profile commas I learned in school to use commas exc before 'and.' Schools teach comma before 'and.' it makes me nuts. I learned (and read in Ap and NYT): The book, the table and the car... They teach The book, the table, and the car..... |
| Mirage | Posted – 4/18/2008 1:04:18 PM | show profile Elizabeth, I have the opposite pet peeve! The serial comma (used in CMOS) is essential, to me, because it shows that all the nouns are part of the same list. "The book, the table and the car..." implies that the table and the car are one entity. (It's not the best example, but a list that includes nouns that could conceivably go together--food, perhaps, or colors--makes a stronger argument for the serial comma. I believe that every style guide except those used in newspaper/mag publishing advocates the use of the serial comma. (When I worked in mags, I was told that omitting the final comma was intended to save column space.) And, yes, I agree that a grammar section is a good idea! |
| Homer | Posted – 4/18/2008 4:30:28 PM | show profile And then there's the serial comma gone nuts. There's a certain regular poster here who puts a comma before an open parenthesis, i.e., "Commas, for me, (and I won't name myself) are loads of fun." Weird, huh? |
| writerandeditor | Posted – 4/20/2008 5:25:31 PM | show profile A grammer section would be great. |
| writerandeditor | Posted – 4/20/2008 5:25:58 PM | show profile Sigh. GrammAr. Can we have an edit feature as well? Or maybe I just need to shoot myself in the head. |
| sofisays | Posted – 4/21/2008 7:02:19 PM | show profile It's good to see you are human too! |
| Book_Foodie | Posted – 4/22/2008 12:10:49 PM | show profile | email poster Teaching grammar and writing I teach undergraduate (and the occasional law school writing course) English courses, and I witness the butchering of grammar on a daily basis. Commas are a problem in particular. I have a lovely and quite handy comma rule sheet that I hand out to my students (my law students seemed to have needed the most!), which I would be happy to share. ------ ?I PR things. People. Places. Concepts. [?] I make the crap into credible. I make the dull into... delicious.? |
| Book_Foodie | Posted – 4/22/2008 12:21:19 PM | show profile Sigh...editing My law students needed IT the most. I need another cup of coffee apparently. |
| mb_greg | Posted – 4/22/2008 3:55:41 PM | show profile | email poster Thanks to all for the suggestion. We're considering adding a couple new forums, although to be honest, grammar is probably not at the top of the list. What I would suggest for now is to post those types of questions in the Media Issues forum, and if the volume is high enough, we'll take that as evidence that maybe we should give grammar its own playground. ------ Greg Membership Director mediabistro.com |
