Today's Grammar Pet Peeve

I might be one of the few folks in these forums who actually does this for a living. I find it amusing that I am seldom bothered by creative re-imaginings of spelling/usage/punctuation. In fact, because I edit student writing for a living, the absolute last thing I want to do is correct the spelling/usage/punctuation of another human being outside the classroom.

I do not have "grammar pet peeves." Instead, I see grammatical issues that I find very difficult to help students solve. They are:

1. pronoun/antecedent agreement ("Everyone has his or her book." The indefinite prounoun antecedent it the word "everyone." Although "everyone" appears to be plural (and in terms of referential language is, in fact, plural) it is treated as singular grammatically and actually takes the third-person (masculine and feminine--to avoid sexism) singular possessive pronoun.)

2. That/who errors (The word "that" is a demonstrative pronoun but can be used as a relative pronoun to begin a relative clause. The word "who" can be interrogative pronoun, but "who" is often used as a relative pronoun to begin an adjective clause. In spoken English (US), it is very common for "that" to supplant "who/whom" at the start of a relative clause. In written languge, the substitution can be quite jarring. In written English, it is "the people who sign the checks" not "the people that sign the checks."

Now do you see why correcting another person's grammar can be a problem?

It is not the correction, but it is the manner in which some choose to display thier expertise in grammer rules and spelling. I am a programmer and if i see someone doing something wrong I explain to them why it is wrong and I try and do it privately, not in front of the class. I find people that put down others to make themselves feel superior to be disgusting and creating more of a problem then actually doing anything to actually try and remedy the problems that they deem so offensive.

It is not the correction, but it is the manner in which some choose to display thier expertise in grammer rules and spelling. I am a programmer and if i see someone doing something wrong I explain to them why it is wrong and I try and do it privately, not in front of the class. I find people that put down others to make themselves feel superior to be disgusting and creating more of a problem then actually doing anything to actually try and remedy the problems that they deem so offensive.

Freudian slip or honest truth?

After all, it *is* all about syntax.

I usually try to avoid correcting people in regular forum threads. A post that is just nitpicking grammar or spelling is a pet peeve of mine also. There are exceptions of course, like when someone makes an especially amusing error. The nice thing about a thread dedicated to grammar and spelling pet peeves is that you can express those annoyances without making any one person feel bad. (Unless they are overly self-conscious about their bad spelling and grammar and declare that they're being unfairly persecuted, but you can't do much about people like that... except maybe give them a swift roundhouse kick to the head).

I thought Chuck Norris' roundhouse kick power was infinite?

"a pigment of my imagination"

Hey, those grammar errors are worthy of our president! He was raised in the great state of Texas, where the question is rarely asked, "is our children learning?" and where it is important to "put food on our family"



"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"—Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."—Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000

"The public education system in America is one of the most important foundations of our democracy. After all, it is where children from all over America learn to be responsible citizens, and learn to have the skills necessary to take advantage of our fantastic opportunistic society."—Santa Clara, Calif., May 1, 2002

I intentionally do mashups on a lot of my English because I actually speak Torleyese, which is somewhat pidgeon and part-pidgin as well.

It is not the correction, but it is the manner in which some choose to display thier expertise in grammer rules and spelling. I am a programmer and if i see someone doing something wrong I explain to them why it is wrong and I try and do it privately, not in front of the class. I find people that put down others to make themselves feel superior to be disgusting and creating more of a problem then actually doing anything to actually try and remedy the problems that they deem so offensive.

*snip*

1. pronoun/antecedent agreement ("Everyone has his or her book." The indefinite prounoun antecedent is the word "everyone." Although "everyone" appears to be plural (and in terms of referential language is, in fact, plural) it is treated as singular grammatically and actually takes the third-person (masculine and feminine--to avoid sexism) singular possessive pronoun.)

2. That/who errors (The word "that" is a demonstrative pronoun but can be used as a relative pronoun to begin a adjective clause. The word "who" can be interrogative pronoun, but "who" is often used as a relative pronoun to begin an adjective clause. In spoken English (US), it is very common for "that" to supplant "who/whom" at the start of a relative clause. In written languge, the substitution can be quite jarring. In written English, it is "the people who sign the checks" not "the people that sign the checks."

Now do you see why correcting another person's grammar can be a problem?

The one that really frosts my onions is when people say they are "loosing" a contest.

LOSING LOSING LOSING! YOU FRIGGIN' LOSER!!!!


whew. glad I got that off my chest.

I'd reccomend as a targa image (.tga) with 24 channels (32 channels is for when you're saving with an alpha layer).

... then I flattened it, saved it as a targa file, uploaded the texture into SL, and slapped it on the side of a flat retangular prim.

Anyway the above is nice for a simple vendor, but if you have a lot of items to sell it doesn't make sense to place each one in a seperate vendor.

For example, vendors that have buttons to click on or smaller windows with previews of preceeding and upcoming items are nice... but these vendors are at least 3 prims each, sometimes more depending on how they're built.

This allows someone to click on the box or object and purchase whatever it is you're selling for the price you've set.

But if you're selling just an article or articles of clothing, people will have to remove the box from their inventory, place it on the ground, then edit it to remove what's in it.

Content: This means On the other hand, if you click "content" then someone who clicks on your object to purchase will get everything in the box placed in a new folder in their inventory, but will not get the box itself.

I saw someone use the phrase "You reap what you sew." You reap what you SOW. SEW is to sew with a needle and thread and fix or make something.


I also hate it when people use commas when they shouldn't and apostrophes in the wrong places. I also saw a thread in General that made me want to smack the offender through the screen. They were using .!. punctuation in a strange way. It really bothered me, like fingernails on a chalkboard.