For those that don't know, Grammar Girl is a podcaster that talks about common grammar mistakes. It's pretty interesting because they are mistakes nearly everyone has slipped up on before, so it's a good listen. Sometimes she'll even talk about the origin of a particular word, and you'll almost always leave learning something new.
Now, I know what you're thinking. "But, Rusty, I freaking HATE grammar." Alright, I understand, but hear me out. In our field, almost all of us have to proofread or copyedit in some form or fashion, whether it's our own stuff or someone else's. In fact, everyone should browse the top 10 podcasts to see if there's anything they're not up to snuff on. Also, if you don't want to listen to her talk, you can simply read that episode's transcript.
What made me think of this today was a horrible ad in The Red & Black. I noticed it yesterday and today, and it may have been in there more days for all I know. Basically it was ad for apartments which read in HUGE print: "Athen's Best Student Living." Coincidentally, the most recent Grammar Girl podcast topic is apostrophe usage.
-Rusty
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2 comments:
Ha...that's pretty bad that the ad ran for a few days without anyone even noticing the typo. Poor grammar skills have long been one of my top pet peeves. We're all bound to make errors like this here and there. That much is inevitable. But it's the carelessness that kills me (when people don't even bother looking things up or double-checking what they have written). I think a little grammatical refresher course from Grammar Girl might do a lot of folks some good...
(I probably shouldn't have commented on this post if only for the fact that now I'm all paranoid of making mistakes of my own...wonderful.)
Two comments here ... the ABH has had, in every story about the cop who was stabbed at Kroger, the phrase "nearly stabbed to death."
Which, to me, means she was not stabbed at all. Which isn't true, she was actually stabbed nearly to death.
The second is on the audio link structure - it needs to be made clear how long each episode is. Is this a three minute piece? Or am I in for a 45 minute lecture?
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