so don't ask if you don't want to know
Shameful Bobbsy
In that forum, good “SPAG” (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) is not just a suggestion; it’s actually required in the rules.
bobbsy baby, that acronym would be SGAP. C’mon dude, get your acronym explanations in order! I expect better from you!
I’ll admit right here in front of my bestest friends, I have a mental brick wall when it comes to its/it’s. Yes, I worked for a dozen years in the technical publishing business and some of them dedicated to pleasing the tech writer from Hell, Harold. I always use your or you’re and their and there in the correct way and have seldom let a misspelling pass my enter button. I do remember receiving a lesson from cavaticat regarding her personal issue with alot, but then again that wasn’t a word (phrase?) used in technical writing a lot. It with an s always always always stops me cold. Can’t help it. I often rewrite the sentence rather than get it wrong or look it up. Maybe I should make myself a sticky note?
I may be a spellwight, but I can’t consider myself a Grammar Nazi anymore. And gee thanks el_mcgruffle for forcing me to go back to that awful place and read more of that stupid woman’s self-gloriousness and losing my lunch. I’ll get you my pretty, and your little dog too.
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about 4 years ago
Get her, Chandra!
about 4 years ago
It’s and its is actually quite easy.
“It’s” with an apostrophe ALWAYS and ONLY ever means “it is.” If you don’t mean “it is,” you mean “its,” which is the possessive form of the pronoun.
about 4 years ago
How sad is it that I did indeed write that on a sticky note and post it near my screen.
Don’t laugh, you’ll get older someday and you might be surprised at what starts to go first. Or second rather, I never did have math skills and what I did have are long gone.
about 4 years ago
Don’t feel bad, everybody has those little things that trip them up.
about 4 years ago
You made me start overthinking “it’s” and “its”, especially when you know that a possessive is apostrophed (Debbie’s lake, the lake’s shore, etc.).
So I began to get confused.
Thank for cavaticat!
about 4 years ago
*cough*
It has.
about 4 years ago
*rolls eyes*
It’s still a contraction!
about 4 years ago
Well, I could either claim the forum I referred to is the Kazakh State Theatre Technicians and Tractor Building Union and the acronym is for the phrase “Selignotanic Gestuphic Axomerangi Phlyxinc” which only translates to “Spelling, Puntuation And Grammar”….
…or I could put my hand up and say “Oooops”.
I’ll go with the latter!
Seriously, I don’t think even the most hardened “grammar nazi” has a problem with occasional mistakes. Everybody makes them and that’s why publishers have proof readers and newpapers have sub-editors.
It only becomes an issue when somebody is deliberately and consistently careless, then either defends their right to be “casual” or demeans genuine sufferers by claiming dyslexia as an excuse. This is usually followed by the traditional ritual “storming off” ceremony, closely followed by the equally-traditional “continuing to post” ceremony.
It’s only then that things take a nasty turn.
Well, then, or any time the Bullitzer prize winning freelance journalist Arwyn is involved.
Bob
about 4 years ago
Especially since the dyslexics seldom use that excuse. I’ve noticed that those who actually have that trait try not to hide behind it.
(My husband, for example. He utilizes me, instead.)
about 4 years ago
One thing that has been consistent in my time as a netizen: I usually make a spelling or grammar mistake in the same e-mail where I am correcting someone else’s spelling or grammar
. So nowadays, I try to ignore others’ errors. There is a listserv that I have belonged to for years, and there are certain people whose posts I delete without reading because I know they will be filled with errors.
BTW, my personal bugaboo is when people use “loose” and “lose” incorrectly.
Dani in NC