(no subject)

[auntiemeesh]

I've been reading fic.

It pains me, what some people do with grammar and spelling. The one that's been bugging me most lately is lead/led. For some reason, there's been an epidemic lately, in fic, of people using lead as a past tense. It hurts to be cruising along through a really well-plotted and pretty well-written fic and then suddenly crash headlong into the wall of lead.

Then there's the Case of the Misplaced Apostrophe. An unreasonably high number of people seem to think that an apostrophe is required any time an s is added to the end of a word. Why? Is grammar no longer taught in school?

Oddly enough, it often is not the person who announces she didn't get her fic betaed that is guilty of these mistakes. It's usually someone who gushingly thanks her awesome beta for being so fabulous, and then you read the fic and it is so full of grammatical errors that it doesn't matter how great the plot or story idea is, the whole thing is basically unreadable. *sigh*

/grammar rant

Right, well, that rant was going to be a lot longer but my crankiness got totally derailed. I just got flowers in the mail! How cool. Luckily they came with a vase. I used to have several vases but who knows what's happened to them between moving several times in the last few years and my habitual inability to not break nice things. They're still budded, but they're starting to unfurl and it looks like lilies, irises and one other type that my horticulturally challenged self doesn't recognize (I knew the others because there's a care booklet that shows the buds, but it doesn't show these). The whole thing smells soooooo nice and fresh. *breathe deeply*

Plus, Mal is in heaven chewing on the box they came in and he can smell the flowers, too. He's making all sorts of cute sniffing faces.

Comments

[shirebound]

He's making all sorts of cute sniffing faces.

Awwww. :)

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Rumor has it I'm getting a digital camera as a grad. gift, so soon I'll be able to actually take pics of the little darling to share with everyone. :D

[dreamflower]

Is grammar no longer taught in school?

Not really. Not the way it used to be. I don't think they've taught how to diagram sentences in *decades*, and I recently saw a post by a *teacher* that had several punctuation errors.

That said, sometimes I do end up putting in an " 's " when I don't mean to--my fingers get ahead of my brain. But that's why I proof-read.

Sooooo... who sent you flowers? (Nosy, aren't I?)

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I'm the first to admit that my grammar has gotten sloppy over the years. I frequently need to go back and change "it's" to "its" because I tend to put the apostrophe in automatically, but at least I usually catch it at the time. Proof-reading is so key, but a lot of these kids don't realize what they're doing is wrong, so proof-reading doesn't help them much.

Diagramming sentences - ugh! I hated doing that and probably couldn't do it to save my life now.

Flowers - one of my sisters sent them. Not a very romantic source, lol. But (one of my bad grammar habits - starting sentences with but or and) they're awesome nonetheless. :D

[ani-no-mouse.livejournal.com]

I may not be a romantic source, but I am a source that you can trust not be become a crazed stalker! So, as flower-senders go, I think I may just be ideal.

Plus I have Rudy's very cute face as my icon, so you get flowers and virtual puppy kisses!

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Virtual puppy kisses are love.

*sends you back icon-virtual kitten kisses*

[dreamflower]

When I got to college and was taking Koine Greek (New Testament Greek), and the spring before the class, anyone who was signed up to take it in the fall had to take remedial sentence diagramming if they had not learned it in school. I was one of three out of twenty-one who did not have to do that.

Starting sentences with "but" or "and" is not bad grammar, it is simply a stylistic choice, and not considered proper in *formal* writing--such as business writing. But I think it is perfectly all right in fiction. 8-D

[ani-no-mouse.livejournal.com]

You might want to check that box. You were supposed to get a small box of chocolates as well as the flowers and the vase!

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I meant to thank you for the chocolates as well but realized after I'd sent the email that I forgot. They look very, very yummy! I'm saving them for tomorrow (I think there will be enough for everyone to have one), that way I won't be pig-like and eat them all up in one go. :D

[ani-no-mouse.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a plan. I didn't want Mal to find them. I don't know whether chocolate is toxic for cats, like it is for dogs, but it would be a shame to use your kitty as the test case.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought about Mal and the chocolate. I was more worried about him getting at the flowers, which I've placed up high (he's getting better at jumping every day but the mantle is still well out of his three-month old reach). I also took the box away from him, in case there were any leaves in it. But so far, he's shown no interest in the chocolates.

[whtmtnwmn.livejournal.com]

How nice to have someone in your life to give you chocolates, flowers and not demand you allow them to stalk you! LoL

I'm with ya. I know I'm far from a perfect writer, but spelling errors, in particular, make me come to a screeching halt.
=D

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I think I've only ever had two guys give me flowers and none give me chocolates. Men are pretty useless, sometimes.

[whtmtnwmn.livejournal.com]

LoL!

Yes, I've found that to be true too.
=D

[fell-beast2.livejournal.com]

Nobody learns grammar anymore. Half the people in my high school were practically illiterate. Sigh.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

It's so frustrating!

[beanpot.livejournal.com]

The Grammer Girl podcast is amazing. I have most of them and it's nice to double check stuff or for clarification on stuff I never really thought of before. I swear it should be on everyone's required reading list.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I'll have to check it out. :)

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I was taught at home for a few years and when I went to school,found I was about the only one with some formal grammar education.It was only in German classes we were taught about parts of speech ect.When I went to college in the late 70's, I took a course on the structure of English and was the only student with some prior knowledge!

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

That's really a shame. I was lucky enough to go to a really good school K-9 and we diagrammed those sentences until the cows came home. I don't remember how to do it any more but I know I did learn it all, once upon a time. Now my grammar use is more intuitive and there are times when I have to stop and double check the rules for something to justify what I've done.

[b-briarwood.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Nothing throws you out of a fic like a jarring error. I don't claim to be a grammar whiz, but I try to make sure everything is correct. What I hate worse than the stories riddled with errors even after a beta are the stories where the authors proudly proclaim their lack of grammar or spelling skills. ARGH!

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I hate the ones where all post is all in lower case with no punctuation. How is that supposed to entice me to come read their stories?

[topaztook.livejournal.com]

No, grammar is no longer taught in school. People think I'm crazy when I correct the apostrophe thing in their written business communication. And my sister's *high school English teacher* tried to teach her that any sentence with the word "is" (like "She is six.") was passive voice. And even supposedly well-educated people really, truly believe that the past tense is "lead." It's eeevil.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

So frustrating!

[melilot-hill.livejournal.com]

I don't know about grammar in schools here, but basic maths seems to be a huge problem, judging by all the articles in the paper :-)

English isn't even my mother tongue, and I'm sure I still make loads of mistakes, but even I am put off by some of the grammatical errors I come across. One of the things that are most obvious to me, and a thing I seem to come across more and more often, is the switching of ie in some words, like neice in stead of niece. Maybe it's so obvious to me because "ei" is a completely different sound from "ie" in Dutch. Very annoying LOL

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I'm always so impressed with you, Anso and the others who are writing in a second language.

Heh, ei just looks so weird most of the time (except in weird, of course). I have a hard time with words like caffeine, which prove the exception to the rule, because even though they're correct, they still don't really look quite right when I'm writing them. :D