Spelling Errors: Stupid? Lazy? Or A-OK?

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by Gn2Dlnd

I see what you did their.

I walked into a book store the other day to tell the woman at the counter that the sign advertising "Dog Day's of Summer" didn't need an apostrophe. She didn't seem to be too bothered.

Unforgivable in a children's book store.

The problem of the abused apostrophe is endemic at this point. I see it absolutely everywhere. Even if someone questioned whether they should use the apostrophe, they would have only too look at their environment to have the wrong choice reinforced.

[Chernabog]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

The problem of the abused apostrophe is endemic at this point. I see it absolutely everywhere.

The one that irritates me the most is the difference between it's (conjunction for 'it is'.... just say the sentence using the non conjunctive form and see if it sounds right) and its (possessive).

But yeah... plural, means no apostrophe (i.e. two dogs). Singular possessive is apostrophe before the 's'. (i.e. that dog's bone). Possessive for multiple is apostrophe after the 's'. (i.e. those dogs' home). Yeesh not hard to learn.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

The problem of the abused apostrophe is endemic at this point. I see it absolutely everywhere. Even if someone questioned whether they should use the apostrophe, they would have only too look at their environment to have the wrong choice reinforced.

Wouldn't normally do this, but you used the bolded word incorrectly and exactly opposite of its meaning. Epidemic is what you wanted (spread throughout the environment as opposed to native or localized to a very specific environment).

Let's make this thread the "pointless pedantry" equivalent of the Sooo... thread or one of the random thoughts thread. The appropriate thing would be to post how I'm wrong and then we can argue over the detailed parsing of medical vocabularies spread into the vernacular.


As for the article I don't think it meant to say that the rules really are too difficult to learn but that obviously they are difficult enough that many people haven't learned them. And that by the time you are teaching college classes it isn't worth the distraction of responding to them to the detriment of the actual class. That ultimately, knowing whether something is an affect or an effect is not particularly important to understanding the proper application of carbon dating.

And I think the last paragraph in the article is the key one. He isn't calling for wholesale abandonment of spelling rules and willy nilly ad hoc redefinition of variants. Simply that there are some words so commonly misspelled that maybe it is time to stop wasting energy calling them mistakes and move on.


Finally, my most recent example of egregious apostrophes:



Egregious because it is unnecessary and contributes to the suggestion that there is fun in Modesto.

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Alex

Finally, my most recent example of egregious apostrophes:



Egregious because it is unnecessary and contributes to the suggestion that there is fun in Modesto.

A much needed, and appreciated, belly laugh for the day. Bwahahaha.

For the record, I am an atrocious speller and proofreader. This is why editors and proofreaders are needed!

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by Alex

Wouldn't normally do this, but you used the bolded word incorrectly and exactly opposite of its meaning. Epidemic is what you wanted (spread throughout the environment as opposed to native or localized to a very specific environment).

I suppose I wasn't aware that Canada and the UK were likewise having issues with apostrophe abuse. But I see your point. I was more focused on the fact that it meant it was prevalent and fully ingrained in the culture.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
en·dem·ic Audio Help (ěn-děm'ĭk) Pronunciation Key
adj.

1. Prevalent in or peculiar to a particular locality, region, or people: diseases endemic to the tropics. See Synonyms at native.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by CoasterMatt

Proper punctuation and capitalization is the difference between "I had to help my uncle Jack off a horse.." and "I had to help my uncle jack off a horse.."

How does punctuation help in this case?