Ahhhhhh, stop typing that!

[Bront]

But at least that, while obnoxious as all get out, makes some amount of sense. I can understand how some people would see it as extra emphasis.

The quotations thing, though, just floors me. (In addition to being blatantly wrong by all rules of grammar.)

I'll still take that over zero punctuation paragraph boy

 

[Mouseferatu]

I'll still take that over zero punctuation paragraph boy

Urk. *shudder*

Yeah. Few things will make me just totally ignore a post (or e-mail, or whatever), but that's one of them.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'll still take that over zero punctuation paragraph boy

Ah, the bastard child of ee cummings and William Faulkner...I know him.

But I have a friend? Who only uses question marks? And writes his sentences in odd fragments? And it is hard to read? Without chuckling? Especially when I edit his advertising copy?

 

[Asmo]

Peace & Luv, Liz

lolz!

Asmo

 

[Mouseferatu]

But I have a friend? Who only uses question marks?

I've heard people who talk like that, but I can't fathom anyone writing that way...

 

[TarionzCousin]

I lived in New York City for two years, and it was a constant source of amusement/frustration to see improper grammar and misspellings on signs, advertisements, TV commercials, etc. One block from where I lived a bodega sold "Magerzines." I went in and asked for a magerzine and they had no idea what I was talking about.

They had the word misspelled on their storefront canopy for years and had never noticed.

I want to have it stamped on my forehead for others to read.

Exactly how I feel!

After college, I used my degree in English to correct advertisements sent to myself and my roommates and return them to the senders with a note indicating how much money they owed me. I would mark up the copy in red pen and try to refrain from snarky comments. One friend called me the "Grammar Cop." I have since written several dozen short articles for three employers as the "Chief of Grammar Police," so I have managed to get paid to correct other people's mistakes.

 

[Jeysie]

Peace & Luv, Liz

lolz!
Asmo

Don't give me an ironic "lolz" *too* quickly. The short short version of the explanation is that I don't toss around the word "love" lightly in regards to other people. Therefore, the "love" part of "Peace & Love" seemed too forward to me when I adopted it as a signature, so I changed the spelling to "Luv" to make the sentiment seem more a general well-wish and less personal.

Call it a collison between personal hang-ups and an attempt at precision of communcation of sentiment.

Peace & Luv, Liz

 

[Hijinks]

Grocery stores in the Pacific Northwest USA all have the "X Items or Less" line in their stores. Of course, everyone here knows that this is grammatically incorrect, right?

I saw an ad in Walmart that said how "nutritional" bananas are. I mentioned to the deli guy that they might want to change that to "nutritious," and he just gaped at me. Ah well.

My pet peeves are:

* Writing one huge paragraph .. I won't read it. Break it out if you want people to read it.

* KWIM. This apparently means "Know What I Mean" but take away the K and replace it with a Q and it's a slang term from the Victorian era for a woman's hooha. So whenever I see KWIM, I say the naughty word in my head - I can't help it - and it squicks me out. I've tried to break women on my boards of using it, but they don't get it.

 

[kenobi65]

I saw an ad in Walmart that said how "nutritional" bananas are. I mentioned to the deli guy that they might want to change that to "nutritious," and he just gaped at me. Ah well.

This is related to what Dannyalcatraz posted about the signs misusing the apostrophe.

What gets me is when you see (allegedly) professionally-created signs that have obvious spelling or punctuation errors on them.

Walking to my car from the train station last night, I passed a taxicab that had, on its back window, the sign, "Driver's Wanted!"

Then, while driving home, I passed a dry cleaner. This dry cleaner changed hands a few months ago, and the new owners (a chain that owns a half-dozen dry cleaners in the area) had some big vinyl banners made, to hang on either side of the big marquee sign, probalby until they could afford to replace the sign.

On one side of that sign, the banner tells me that they will "proffessionally clean" my clothes. On the other side, the banner tells me that they will do this using "Environnmentally safe" ingredients.

:weeps:

 

[Dioltach]

As a translator/editor, I come across a lot of weird stuff. But one of the things that gets me most here in the Netherlands is that everyone thinks that their English is perfect. And fair enough, their spoken English is better than most and good enough to get by, even in business meetings. But their written English is all the worse for their thinking that it's good enough.

I once edited a CV of a chap who said of his language skills, 'I speak perfect English and rather French.'