6.29.2003
6.26.2003
It seems that all of the wanna-be journalists are flocking to the Blogosphere.
The Pennsylvania Gazette
This one is masquerading as a newspaper, doing the typical blog thing and just regurgitating news that we can find on other websites. But this guy tells it in his own words.
"The Supreme Court reversed its own decision seventeen years ago, in a 6-3 decision, on the constitutionality of laws banning homosexual sodomy."
Of course, he means "from seventeen years ago." Else he is deciding to give us retro news, perhaps to fit his colonial newspaper motif.
"I deduce that yes, in principle, no, in practice."
This one just threw me for a loop. I get what he means, but come on, finish the sentence. It's bad enough to be lazy and have to steal news from other sources just to make your news site, but at least have the energy to complete a sentence.
The Pennsylvania Gazette
This one is masquerading as a newspaper, doing the typical blog thing and just regurgitating news that we can find on other websites. But this guy tells it in his own words.
"The Supreme Court reversed its own decision seventeen years ago, in a 6-3 decision, on the constitutionality of laws banning homosexual sodomy."
Of course, he means "from seventeen years ago." Else he is deciding to give us retro news, perhaps to fit his colonial newspaper motif.
"I deduce that yes, in principle, no, in practice."
This one just threw me for a loop. I get what he means, but come on, finish the sentence. It's bad enough to be lazy and have to steal news from other sources just to make your news site, but at least have the energy to complete a sentence.
Thanks to Rob for catching my own grammatical lask. It has been corrected, and my knowledge updated.
I hang my head in shame.
I hang my head in shame.
6.24.2003
Here are two minor infractions.
Bloughts
Sometimes it's the little things that get under your skin.
"Partly out of curiosity, because I did not know how he looked like."
It seems that this person is thinking of two things at once, and managed to meld "how he looks" with "what he looks like." I find that it helps if you read your sentences back to yourself out loud. Try it. The mistakes will jump right out at you.
"Normally compliments make me feel light-headed, especially when it comes from a girl."
Thinking singular and writing plural. "Compliments" is plural, therefore "they come from a girl." Or the other way around. I think the author subconsciously gave away the sad facts of his life. He only got one compliment from one girl, ever, but is hopeful to receive more in future. At least he beats my record.
To be fair, this site was generally well written.
Bloughts
Sometimes it's the little things that get under your skin.
"Partly out of curiosity, because I did not know how he looked like."
It seems that this person is thinking of two things at once, and managed to meld "how he looks" with "what he looks like." I find that it helps if you read your sentences back to yourself out loud. Try it. The mistakes will jump right out at you.
"Normally compliments make me feel light-headed, especially when it comes from a girl."
Thinking singular and writing plural. "Compliments" is plural, therefore "they come from a girl." Or the other way around. I think the author subconsciously gave away the sad facts of his life. He only got one compliment from one girl, ever, but is hopeful to receive more in future. At least he beats my record.
To be fair, this site was generally well written.
At first I thought that this website would be hard to maintain.
..::..Nothing At All..::..
But they just make it so damn easy. You have to look at this one. Personally, I think the text should be changed to purple so that it would match the prose. Here's a quick sampler for those afraid to dive into the pool of prosaic pontification.
"What's my status?. rendered in a blender, for tonight I'm mixing emotions in a paper cup filled with part Gasoline and part forgetting you. I used to be alive but I died the night you loved me. so rescue me from this deep pool,bend down and give me mouth to mouth, let me gasp for air, let me look at you when I open my eyes, then leave me to sink to the bottom."
It must be German gasoline, else why capitalize the word? Ah, poetic license. This one should be suspended.
I think you need to be at least one hundred years old and dead in order to write good poetry.
"so anyway besides the obvious sucktitude of the entire throbbing foot dibocle, things are still going as good as they can be expected."
Here's some good advice to any potential bloggers. Type your rant in a text editor (e.g. Microsoft Word) and use the spell check function. Then just copy and paste the text into your blog. It's only an extra fifteen seconds. In this case it might be an extra fifteen minutes, but would be worth the effort.
And it's "well." Things are still going as "well" as...nevermind. It's hopeless.
..::..Nothing At All..::..
But they just make it so damn easy. You have to look at this one. Personally, I think the text should be changed to purple so that it would match the prose. Here's a quick sampler for those afraid to dive into the pool of prosaic pontification.
"What's my status?. rendered in a blender, for tonight I'm mixing emotions in a paper cup filled with part Gasoline and part forgetting you. I used to be alive but I died the night you loved me. so rescue me from this deep pool,bend down and give me mouth to mouth, let me gasp for air, let me look at you when I open my eyes, then leave me to sink to the bottom."
It must be German gasoline, else why capitalize the word? Ah, poetic license. This one should be suspended.
I think you need to be at least one hundred years old and dead in order to write good poetry.
"so anyway besides the obvious sucktitude of the entire throbbing foot dibocle, things are still going as good as they can be expected."
Here's some good advice to any potential bloggers. Type your rant in a text editor (e.g. Microsoft Word) and use the spell check function. Then just copy and paste the text into your blog. It's only an extra fifteen seconds. In this case it might be an extra fifteen minutes, but would be worth the effort.
And it's "well." Things are still going as "well" as...nevermind. It's hopeless.
6.23.2003
Why must people go over the top with punctuation?
Sanity Check
Punctuation: the most functional and simplest aspect of grammar.
"As I search around for interesting stuff to write about this country, I cannot help but feel attracted like a firefly to the one hot and bright issue burning today, and that is......Affirmative Action."
As if the tension of a standard ellipsis was not enough, this guy decides to invent the double-ellipsis. Yes, there are six dots there.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, with all due respect.....welcome to racism from the government!!"
And this is the next sentence. He decided to shorten his double-ellipsis, saving future users of his new punctuation valuable time and space by dropping one dot. And a single exclamation point does not suit his needs. Shouting is not enough. Yelling is unsatisfactory. He must scream this sentence. A single exclamation point is all Solid Snake needs, ergo, there can be only one!
"I agree that minorities and oppressed class of people have to be given chance to rise up in society etc, but there is a fine and clear line between genuine government policies and policies that over time exist just to satisfy vote banks and images!"
Even the Rosetta Stone cannot help to decipher this garbled mess of a sentence. Seasoned cryptographers estimate that the Mayan Codex shall be cracked long before this blog is understood.
Sanity Check
Punctuation: the most functional and simplest aspect of grammar.
"As I search around for interesting stuff to write about this country, I cannot help but feel attracted like a firefly to the one hot and bright issue burning today, and that is......Affirmative Action."
As if the tension of a standard ellipsis was not enough, this guy decides to invent the double-ellipsis. Yes, there are six dots there.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, with all due respect.....welcome to racism from the government!!"
And this is the next sentence. He decided to shorten his double-ellipsis, saving future users of his new punctuation valuable time and space by dropping one dot. And a single exclamation point does not suit his needs. Shouting is not enough. Yelling is unsatisfactory. He must scream this sentence. A single exclamation point is all Solid Snake needs, ergo, there can be only one!
"I agree that minorities and oppressed class of people have to be given chance to rise up in society etc, but there is a fine and clear line between genuine government policies and policies that over time exist just to satisfy vote banks and images!"
Even the Rosetta Stone cannot help to decipher this garbled mess of a sentence. Seasoned cryptographers estimate that the Mayan Codex shall be cracked long before this blog is understood.
I don't know what this blog is about.
/\LITER.arity
But this sums things up well enough so that I don't have to do a whole number on it.
"Reading takes so much depleted energy from the lazy."
I took their logic for truth, and stopped reading.
/\LITER.arity
But this sums things up well enough so that I don't have to do a whole number on it.
"Reading takes so much depleted energy from the lazy."
I took their logic for truth, and stopped reading.
This blog won't always be about the vagaries of grammatical error.
Buzz Machine ... by Jeff Jarvis
Mr. Jarvis sets a fine example of impeccable English.
"I couldn't care less."
Just perfect. And his critique of Harry Potter is very fine. Check him out.
Buzz Machine ... by Jeff Jarvis
Mr. Jarvis sets a fine example of impeccable English.
"I couldn't care less."
Just perfect. And his critique of Harry Potter is very fine. Check him out.
I've been reading various blogs for some time now. But since I am now engaged with this little venture, I decided to scour the web for a blog which I could flog.
Online Journalism Review
I decided to start with this little piece. It's an article about the most influential blogs. Written by Mark Glaser for USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review.
The first thing that struck me was the description of Glaser near the top of the page.
"Mark Glaser scours the Web for tasty tidbits of online journalism news[.]"
You don't say. So he essentially looks for news news. This is the kind of post-modern activity that leads to redundancy. And while he may actually be a journalism journalist, could not the editors have found a more elegant way to present this fact? A further search of his other articles reveals that he mostly reports about blogs. It seems that blog news would be a simpler, and more accurate, way of describing his job detail. But then, who wants to be a blog reporter. I'd much rather chase after online journalism than poor old blogs, or even worse, Weblogs.
This fluffing up of simple things is pandemic in modern society. There are no more secretaries. All have been replaced with administrative assistants. Janitors are now maintenance technicians. Few are content to work an honest job. And those who are satisfied need to dress up what they do, perhaps out of embarrassment. This dressing up of language is a dangerous activity. Not to say that the meanings of words should be immutable, but that changing a perfectly useful description in order to disguise what it really means is damaging to The Mother Tongue. It leads us down the path of deceit. It takes us a step closer to the edge of truth. Journalists -- even online journalists -- should care about such things.
And since I don't know who I'm throwing a stone at, as I can't be certain who wrote that wonky description, I'll take a little jab at Glaser himself.
"That's really a vague idea, but that gives me latitude to be wrong just enough to bring your catcalls and counterarguments."
And just where he brings these catcalls and counterarguments is never stated. One suspects that he takes them out for a few drinks or to the park. Or even to work, where he can show them how he's an important online journalism journalist.
Online Journalism Review
I decided to start with this little piece. It's an article about the most influential blogs. Written by Mark Glaser for USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review.
The first thing that struck me was the description of Glaser near the top of the page.
"Mark Glaser scours the Web for tasty tidbits of online journalism news[.]"
You don't say. So he essentially looks for news news. This is the kind of post-modern activity that leads to redundancy. And while he may actually be a journalism journalist, could not the editors have found a more elegant way to present this fact? A further search of his other articles reveals that he mostly reports about blogs. It seems that blog news would be a simpler, and more accurate, way of describing his job detail. But then, who wants to be a blog reporter. I'd much rather chase after online journalism than poor old blogs, or even worse, Weblogs.
This fluffing up of simple things is pandemic in modern society. There are no more secretaries. All have been replaced with administrative assistants. Janitors are now maintenance technicians. Few are content to work an honest job. And those who are satisfied need to dress up what they do, perhaps out of embarrassment. This dressing up of language is a dangerous activity. Not to say that the meanings of words should be immutable, but that changing a perfectly useful description in order to disguise what it really means is damaging to The Mother Tongue. It leads us down the path of deceit. It takes us a step closer to the edge of truth. Journalists -- even online journalists -- should care about such things.
And since I don't know who I'm throwing a stone at, as I can't be certain who wrote that wonky description, I'll take a little jab at Glaser himself.
"That's really a vague idea, but that gives me latitude to be wrong just enough to bring your catcalls and counterarguments."
And just where he brings these catcalls and counterarguments is never stated. One suspects that he takes them out for a few drinks or to the park. Or even to work, where he can show them how he's an important online journalism journalist.
6.22.2003
The Internet Grammarian is an unauthorized journal devoted to the protection of the Mother Tongue on the Blogosphere. Our language can be written and even spoken correctly, even beautifully. We do not demand beauty, but bad English cannot be excused or tolerated on the Web. The Internet Grammarian will expose and ridicule examples of jargon, faulty syntax, redundancy, needless neologism, and any other kind of outrage against English.
The above paragraph is a playful reworking of the opening words from The Underground Grammarian, a print journal begun in the late 1970's by Richard Mitchell. This blog is my attempt to continue, albeit tongue in cheek, the tradition of that wonderful journal. It is also my way of preserving the memory of Richard Mitchell, who passed away at the end of 2002.
Please go to The Underground Grammarian where you can read all of Mr. Mitchell's work.
For those who don't give a flying buttress, this weblog will be a place where any and all blogs are subject to critique regarding their use of the English language (i.e. The Mother Tongue). It shall all be done in good humor, so if I rake you over the coals for some egregious error or minor grammatical infraction, please take it the wrong way.
Our motto is and shall remain, "Warning! Rape of the Mother Tongue will be punished!"
The above paragraph is a playful reworking of the opening words from The Underground Grammarian, a print journal begun in the late 1970's by Richard Mitchell. This blog is my attempt to continue, albeit tongue in cheek, the tradition of that wonderful journal. It is also my way of preserving the memory of Richard Mitchell, who passed away at the end of 2002.
Please go to The Underground Grammarian where you can read all of Mr. Mitchell's work.
For those who don't give a flying buttress, this weblog will be a place where any and all blogs are subject to critique regarding their use of the English language (i.e. The Mother Tongue). It shall all be done in good humor, so if I rake you over the coals for some egregious error or minor grammatical infraction, please take it the wrong way.
Our motto is and shall remain, "Warning! Rape of the Mother Tongue will be punished!"
This is a test post. Proper blogging will commence upon successful viewing of this post.
