United Federation of Planets Jun 9, 2011 at 2:29 pm

New Grammar Glossary

Courtney Ferguson
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Comments

1
The most annoying grammar and syntax errors that I encounter while on the Internet include: overused semicolons, improperly used colons, and confusing i.e for e.g.

Most of my mistakes, though, are inadvertent spelling errors. If blogtown featured an option that allowed you to edit your comments, it would solve many of these annoying issues. In general, all commenters should read (or reread) Strunk and White; it the bestest!


Čẖüñđƴ on June 9, 2011 at 2:56 PM Report this
2
Metaphwhores--Chill out, descripty pants.
TSW on June 9, 2011 at 3:01 PM Report this
3
Narcolipses is great!

I overuse em dashes - forgetting that the pauses in my brain's cadences are - very - imperfectly transmitted by them.

(Clearly passive voice is not something that I am bothered by)

Sorry I don't have a snappy name for that - "Dashes to Dashes?" "Complete Dash-hole?"
Commenty Colin on June 9, 2011 at 3:02 PM Report this
4
There should be a word for when you notice someone has not used the correct order of bracket symbols.

I volunteer "being an asshole".
Ben Coleman on June 9, 2011 at 3:08 PM Report this
5
How about "colipses",,, you know,,,

(BTW,,, I studied "Theatre Arts" in the "Theatre Building" at a major Midwestern university. It's not just a British spelling.)
Steve R. on June 9, 2011 at 3:12 PM Report this
6
I am totally guilty of overusing exclamation points. I guess that makes me an exclaim jumper.
Courtney Ferguson on June 9, 2011 at 3:15 PM Report this
7
Courtney: Either that or a bang masher.
Ben Coleman on June 9, 2011 at 3:22 PM Report this
8
How about "punctulexic," i.e. the habitual mis-ordering of punctuation adjacent to quotation marks and parentheses because it just looks weird to put the comma inside the quotation mark and makes it look like the speaker made a shatner comma even when they actually did not? Even though Strunk and White says to?
on June 9, 2011 at 3:25 PM Report this
9
arbitrary Capitalization.
Alison Hallett on June 9, 2011 at 3:28 PM Report this
10
@ Alison cRapItaliZation
Commenty Colin on June 9, 2011 at 3:30 PM Report this
11
Dash-inine?
Denis C. Theriault on June 9, 2011 at 3:33 PM Report this
12
Yes! I was just gonna say Exclaimitis C or Mono Exclaimosis!!

Also, "something" that "bothers" me is mis or over "use" of quotations. "Ahem!"

These people have Quotiovascular Disease.
TSW on June 9, 2011 at 3:33 PM Report this
13
CrApiTaliZation

now the big letters spell CATZ.

my work here is done.
Alison Hallett on June 9, 2011 at 3:34 PM Report this
14
How about homophone problems, esp. they're their there?

My term "homo-boners" weirdly hasn't caught on the way I'd hoped.

Let's try "Therrors," instead.


Commenty Colin on June 9, 2011 at 3:36 PM Report this
15
Don't be silly Courtney, I'm better than you for completely different reasons.
on June 9, 2011 at 4:57 PM Report this
16
I think Slate or Salon had a story about how putting punctuation after the end quotes is well on its way to becoming the new norm. This just makes more sense to me personally.

I also tend to overdo it with the em dashes - which are not supposed to have a space before or after the dash unless you are British - though I don't give a fuck because spaces look better and I am too lazy to use the actual em dash character anyway.
on June 9, 2011 at 5:04 PM Report this
17
And remember, it's gay, not gey.
Todd Mecklem on June 9, 2011 at 7:09 PM Report this
18
Picky, but "theater" isn't as common in America as one might think..."Theatre" is used almost exclusively in Europe (English speaking) but it's almost interchangeable here, with most "established" companies using the "re" ending. The OED (consider the source) dismisses the "er" spelling as a variant..so nyah nyah.
El Stunto on June 10, 2011 at 7:25 AM Report this
19
OK GUISE I GET IT!!! Gah! You know you can just tell me when I make all these errors as we go along...double gah...

(Punctuation, to me, is the evil-est of the necessary evils...).
amazonfemme on June 10, 2011 at 8:24 AM Report this
20
evil-est? Created by Evil-Werner-Erhard?
Todd Mecklem on June 10, 2011 at 9:59 AM Report this
21
Courtney!! I notice that you often use "read:" instead of "i.e." such as in this post. Why do you do that? Why do other people do that? Is it really a thing? Did I miss something in my otherwise glowing career in the west Texas public education system?
Art_A on June 10, 2011 at 1:51 PM Report this

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