Grammar Police - Graduate School

[britrock88]

1) Any of the three statements can be correct depending on the circumstances / context of the conversation.

2) For ?s and !s with ""s -- where the mark goes depends on whether the mark belongs to the quoted thing, the sentence at large, or both. I'll use a couple examples with the book title "Absalom, Absalom!"...

Have you read "Absalom, Absalom!"?
Last summer, I read "Absalom, Absalom!".
I really enjoyed "Absalom, Absalom!"

The only rule that isn't totally intuitive is that when the tenor of the sentence matches the mark of the quoted thing, you let the mark for the quoted thing stand in for both the thing and the sentence.

[sabotai]

"I read" = past tense
"I have read" = perfect tense
"I'd read" (assuming it's "I had read", which sounds weird to me as a conjunction.) - pluperfect (aka past perfect) tense.

I wouldn't use the pluperfect to simply tell someone that I have read the specified book, but the perfect and past are both fine. You would use the pluperfect if you were telling a story about something that happened in the past, and you having read the book occurred even further in the past.

"The professor asked me why I didn't know the answer, but I told him that I had read the book but just didn't remember that part."

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by britrock88

1) Any of the three statements can be correct depending on the circumstances / context of the conversation.

2) For ?s and !s with ""s -- where the mark goes depends on whether the mark belongs to the quoted thing, the sentence at large, or both. I'll use a couple examples with the book title "Absalom, Absalom!"...

Have you read "Absalom, Absalom!"?
Last summer, I read "Absalom, Absalom!".
I really enjoyed "Absalom, Absalom!"

The only rule that isn't totally intuitive is that when the tenor of the sentence matches the mark of the quoted thing, you let the mark for the quoted thing stand in for both the thing and the sentence.

Thanks to both of you.

If you a title in the middle of sentence, do you use a comma (another discussion point we had)?

For example:
I really enjoyed "The Great Gatsby," but it was short.

Or is it

"I really enjoyed "The Great Gatsby", but it was short.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

I really enjoyed "The Great Gatsby," but it was short.

IIRC, this one.

[britrock88]

Yup.

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by Matthean

IIRC, this one.

I was right!

Does it apply to movie titles as well?

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

I was right!

Does it apply to movie titles as well?

Correct.

[Suburban Rhythm]

[cuervo72]

This is a really great non bias assesment.

This is a really shitty sentence.

[albionmoonlight]

I've never encountered this:

Slash: Not Just a Punctuation Mark Anymore - Lingua Franca - The Chronicle of Higher Education

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I've never encountered this:

Slash: Not Just a Punctuation Mark Anymore - Lingua Franca - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Skip to 1:06. That's what reading some of those examples is like.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I've never encountered this:

Slash: Not Just a Punctuation Mark Anymore - Lingua Franca - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Maybe the caffeine just hasn't kicked in yet for me, but I guess I'm not understanding how writing out the slash instead of using "/" is actually linguistically different.

I'm also amazed that in this Twitter age of chat speech and using as few characters as possible to communicate that kids are actually deciding to write out the word "slash" instead of using the symbol.

[dawgfan]

Dola -

My current grammatical pet peeve (and I'm sure it's been covered in this thread) is folks using "of" where they mean a contraction of "have", i.e. "I should of consulted a dictionary".

It just astounds me that people make this mistake. I get the phonetic cause of it, but I have to wonder what is going through the heads of folks that write those mistakes - do they never stop to think "why would I actually say 'should of' - what does that actually mean?"

I've been seeing a lot of this one lately.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Dola -

My current grammatical pet peeve (and I'm sure it's been covered in this thread) is folks using "of" where they mean a contraction of "have", i.e. "I should of consulted a dictionary".

It just astounds me that people make this mistake. I get the phonetic cause of it, but I have to wonder what is going through the heads of folks that write those mistakes - do they never stop to think "why would I actually say 'should of' - what does that actually mean?"

I've been seeing a lot of this one lately.

I share the pet peeve, but I wonder -- are people who who say it the correct way really aware of why it's "have" and not "of", or are they just better about remembering it? I mean, I get that there's a form of the verb that's "have consulted" -- what is that, the past participle? But I'm not really sure why "have" isn't simply extraneous, and we don't just say, "I should consulted a dictionary" except for the fact that it sounds weird.

[Ajaxab]

http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id...ng-report-says

I sincerely doubt that Kizer said that Mayweather had a "dominate performance." I see the dominate vs. dominant error in my students' writing, but ESPN's editors should do better.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Ajaxab

ESPN's editors should do better.

I think this properly lands into the basket of "fool me once, shame on you, fool me six zillion times, shame on me."

[nol]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Maybe the caffeine just hasn't kicked in yet for me, but I guess I'm not understanding how writing out the slash instead of using "/" is actually linguistically different.

I'm also amazed that in this Twitter age of chat speech and using as few characters as possible to communicate that kids are actually deciding to write out the word "slash" instead of using the symbol.

I'm going to guess that this also has to do with Internet/programming speak working its way into popular culture. I can imagine the need to write out "slash" to differentiate it from the division operator.

Here's one that's I need some clarification on: when you have a list of compound modifiers ending in the same noun, would you write it like "The class consists of eighth-, ninth-, and tenth-graders," or add the noun each time?

edit: also imagine that I thought of a better example where the modifiers themselves aren't sequential and writing something like "the class consists of 8th-10th graders" wouldn't be an option.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by nol

Here's one that's I need some clarification on: when you have a list of compound modifiers ending in the same noun, would you write it like "The class consists of eighth-, ninth-, and tenth-graders," or add the noun each time?

edit: also imagine that I thought of a better example where the modifiers themselves aren't sequential and writing something like "the class consists of 8th-10th graders" wouldn't be an option.

I have no rule to which to point, but I tend to list the adjectives and then finish with the noun.

So I would say/write that "we went to the Farmers's Market and bought red, green, and golden apples." I would not say/write, "We went to the Farmers's Market and bought red apples, green apples, and golden apples."

Again, I do not know the rule on this, but the first sentence is tighter, not confusing, and I cannot think of a reason that it would be expressly forbidden, so I would go with it.

[britrock88]

Suspending the end of the compound is acceptable. Clarity is king.

[JPhillips]

From the same article on NBADraft.net:

and his team grasping for air on the road

the best news for his next level valuation has been his conscience effort to facilitate for teammates

[NobodyHere]

How R this thred nine pageses,?

[dawgfan]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoot...-dominate-unit

[stevew]

I can't believe that the sign wasn't fixed before it was finalized. It sounds so wrong if you say it out loud.

[lungs]

Help a dumb farmer:

small portion of people is smart

or

small portion of people are smart

[Ronnie Dobbs3]

Portion is the subject and is singular.

Perhaps best, though, to rewrite and avoid: "Few people are smart" or "Some people are smart."

[sabotai]

My google-fu gave me this: (spoiler alert: RD3 is right, although one source does say you can use either)

The Grammarphobia Blog: Portion control

I'd third what RD3 and the link says. Rewrite it to avoid that issue.

[lungs]

I was actually looking to correct a person that was chastising another about using poor spelling.

[dawgfan]

Saw another instance of this yesterday - using "common" in place of the intended contraction "c'mon" (for "come on!"). (Fake) example:

"You really though Frank Haith was an upgrade from Mike Anderson? Common guys!"

[QuikSand]

That's awful.

[britrock88]

Well, I'm chuckling because "Common guys!" could be an appropriate, if slightly odd, response in its own right.

[QuikSand]

I don't recall if this has been posted here (likely by me), but...

"Whether or not" -- this phrase can be directly replaced by the single word "whether" with zero awkwardness in about 90% of its use. Do so.

[QuikSand]

Attention, please.

There's a word "rein" in our language. It's not the same word as "reign" or even "rain." Look into it.

That is all.

[Barkeep49]

I really feel like people in this thread need to reign in their rein of terror on those of us for whom grammar is not natural.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

I really feel like people in this thread need to stand in the rein to reign in their rain of terror on those of us for whom grammar is not natural.

FTFY

[TRO]

Felt this needed to be in this thread too.

[nol]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I don't recall if this has been posted here (likely by me), but...

"Whether or not" -- this phrase can be directly replaced by the single word "whether" with zero awkwardness in about 90% of its use. Do so.

Hadn't looked at this thread in a while, but I passed this test with flying colors last night:

I feel like I'm living in the Shanghai noon sequel and if you have to ask whether that's a good thing. . what are you doing with your life?

— N. O. Lang (@nolang) July 21, 2014

[stevew]

I suspect 1/4 is correct but 1/4th is not?

[Izulde]

Just woke up (ironically to go take a math placement test in a few hours), so not fully alert, but what immediately struck me is that you would write it out as one-fourth or one fourth, depending on if it's being used as an adjective or noun.

So it's probably easiest to do it that way.

[Ryno]

I got a flyer from Ashley Furniture today. On the front is "your invited to our exclusive friends and family event". I'm not sure if the "your", the lack of capitalization, or the lack of punctuation is worst.

[Grover]

I am going through some closed files for my company, scanning in the originals and making digital copies of everything. On numerous statements the billing 'summery' is included. My eye twitches every time I see this.

[sabotai]

The word "whence" means "from where". Whenever someone says "back from whence it came", what they are actually saying is "back from from where it came".

The correct usage is "back whence it came".

[dawgfan]

Nah, that usage has been common for a long time and is acceptable:

"Although sometimes criticized as redundant on the grounds that 'from' is implied by the word whence, the idiom from whence is old in the language, well established, and standard. Among its users are the King James Bible, Shakespeare, Dryden, and Dickens: Hilary finally settled in Paris, from whence she bombarded us with letters, postcards, and sketches."

[stevew]

I retrieved my MAC Card from whence it was left on the ATM Machine

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Nah, that usage has been common for a long time and is acceptable:

"Although sometimes criticized as redundant on the grounds that 'from' is implied by the word whence, the idiom from whence is old in the language, well established, and standard. Among its users are the King James Bible, Shakespeare, Dryden, and Dickens: Hilary finally settled in Paris, from whence she bombarded us with letters, postcards, and sketches."

Fuck that! I'm bringing it back! And Shakespeare was the Stephenie Meyer of his day!

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by stevew

I retrieved my MAC Card from whence it was left on the ATM Machine

You're dating yourself using MAC...

I've caught myself saying that a few times on trips and have gotten some odd looks. "Pardon me, would you know where the nearest MAC machine is?"

[lighthousekeeper]

I know this isn't grammar, but thought this would be as good a place as any to rant:

ESPN article from today (emphasis mine):

At 36, Beltre is 303 hits away from becoming just the ninth member of baseball's 400-home run, 3,000-hit club. Every single member of that little club -- Stan Musial, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, etc. -- is in the Hall except for Rafael Palmeiro.

This bugs me every time. Don't say stuff like "...for the very first time in Major League history (since 1969)..." or other similar tricks. (In this case, the addition of the word "single" is just an added slap in the face.)

[dawgfan]

How do you suggest presenting that instead? I'm not aware of it being incorrect to use phrasing such as "everything...but" or "all...except".

[QuikSand]

Shakes head sadly over the continuing apostrophe holocaust here and elsewhere.

[JPhillips]

This was the opening line to a paper I graded this week.

One of the first things that comes to peoples mind's when you say rent is aids and drugs.

I don't think I've ever seen as many problems in a single sentence.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

This was the opening line to a paper I graded this week.

One of the first things that comes to peoples mind's when you say rent is aids and drugs.

I don't think I've ever seen as many problems in a single sentence.

"So when did you decide to give up teaching?"

"Well, there was this paper back in late 2015 . . . ."