Another hyperlexic here! My family hates it when I HAVE to prove that my spelling or use of grammar is right and get out the dictionary or encyclopedia (and that goes for both English and German). Especially because they are Canadian and I am German (still a German citizen), and I am finding their mistakes. I can't seem to help it, I don't do it on purpose.
The first thing I notice when reading anything are the spelling mistakes, and I have to force myself to ignore them to actually focus on what is being said, not just on how it is said. It can be very annoying to me as well, I sometimes wished I could just 'turn it off'.
Uschi
Oops, overlooked the second page entirely, and saw it only when my post came up.
Debs, it would really be too bad if you would stop posting over something as trivial as this. I know I am hurt over little things sometimes, too, and tend to make a mountain of a molehill (this is what I am told, anyway). Unfortunately, Aspies are still human, and will criticize each other at times. One problem is, that some of us are perfectionists and have a hard time with overlooking other's mistakes.
Uschi
Related to the subject of apostrophes, does anyone have any firm opinion about whether AS should be Asperger syndrome or Asperger's syndrome? From a purely grammatical point of view either is OK: in the one Asperger is used as an adjectival noun (as in sports car), in the other the possessive form (as in Bridget Jones's diary) is used. However I was wondering if there is a rule about which medical conditions use an adjectival noun and which the possessive. I've noticed that diseases (e.g. Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's disease) always take the possessive. Maybe the adjectival-noun form is to be preferred for syndromes because it's easier to pronounce - you don't get the sibulatory sounds between the voiced possessive apostrophe-S and the softer unvoiced S of syndrome.
It may just be a matter of house style. Does anyone here work for a medical journal?
Imagine you making posts in French or Dutch...
Si je fais un poste en français, je ne souleverais pas d'objections si on ferait remarquer mes erreurs. Au contraire, je prefererais savoir.
Related to the subject of apostrophes, does anyone have any firm opinion about whether AS should be Asperger syndrome or Asperger's syndrome?
I think it should be Asperger's syndrome, actually.
As far as I know, "grey" and "gray" are both correct.
Cliché here: “When in Rome, do as the Roman’s do”
AAAAAGH!
Tipp-Ex kids fined for correcting America's missing apostrophes
They found 'emense' public mistakes, but making good two tiny errors cost them £1,640
By Megan Clay-Jones
Independent on Sunday, 24 August 2008
A bizarre campaign against grammatical incorrectness has landed two young Americans in deep trouble. The pair, Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson, who have roamed across America using marker pens and Tipp-Ex to correct bad spelling and grammar on less-than-literate signs, went a little too far when they amended a historic, hand-painted noticeboard at Grand Canyon National Park. They were arrested, given probation, ordered to pay a $3,035 (£1,640) repair bill, and banned from all US national parks.
The two are the somewhat nit-picking brains behind the Typo Eradication Advancement League (Teal), a sort of provisional wing of the Plain English Campaign. In March, it launched an Outreach Mission to correct grocers' apostrophes and spelling faux pas – coast to coast. Armed with only Tipp-Ex, chalk, and permanent markers, Messrs Deck and Herson travelled nearly 12,000 miles in 73 days, and identified 423 instances of signage marred by mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar. They made 231 corrections.
In Texas a firm called Wings announced it was "Now acepting application". There was a sign for "Dillettante" chocolate; posters referring to "recepies"; "cake's" and "birthday candell's"; signs that had the word "priveleges"; and a lot of "your" rather than "you're". An eatery in New York offered "chicken parmasan" salad, and a grocery, traditionally the home of the misused apostrophe, which called itself a "grocerry". They found menu boards advertising "today special's" and "capacino". A sign that warned "pedestrians use walks not roads"; a T-shirt shop missing the dash between the "T" and the "shirt"; an Army-Navy store offering a "hellicopter" helmet and a bullet "bandoleer", and a "Sweedish" berry drink. Mr Deck identified the correct use of the apostrophe to be America's greatest grammatical blindspot.
A star of local spelling bees as a child, Mr Deck set up Teal after attending his five-year reunion at Dartmouth College. He said: "I was speaking with some of my classmates who were becoming doctors and lawyers, and other people who could have an impact on the world and I started to wonder how I might be able to do that... fixing typos was what I came up with... I've always been aware of typos wherever I go [and] I figured that it was a national problem".
Soon Mr Deck had founded Teal, complete with a website, blog and a typo correction kit. The tour began on 5 March from Mr Deck's town of Somerville, Massachusetts, and led the pair through more than 20 states correcting public signs and "other venues where innocent eyes may be befouled by the vile stains on the delicate fabric of our language," according to the Teal website, jeffdeck.com. Asked if it had all been worthwhile, he said: "Certainly! There are a lot more people out there now carrying Sharpies [a brand of marker pen] around with them."
And Mr Deck and chums are collecting a fan base. One Ruth M Newton, for instance, wrote to the Teal blog: "Bless your heart for reassuring me that I am not the only spelling and punctuation nut left in North America."
At the Grand Canyon National Park, the men had found a 60-year-old sign with a misplaced apostrophe and a missing comma. They duly whipped out Tipp-Ex and pen, and made the corrections. They then spotted that "immense" was spelled as "emense". They were shocked, but stayed their hands. Mr Deck later wrote: "I was reluctant to disfigure the sign any further.... Still, I shall be haunted by that perversity, "emense" in my train-whistle-blighted dreams."
Despite their self-control, arrest and swift retribution followed.
But its raining has to be its.
Eh? The raining of it?
Tipp-Ex kids fined for correcting America's missing apostrophes
They found 'emense' public mistakes, but making good two tiny errors cost them £1,640
By Megan Clay-Jones
Independent on Sunday, 24 August 2008
A bizarre campaign against grammatical incorrectness has landed two young Americans in deep trouble. The pair, Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson, who have roamed across America using marker pens and Tipp-Ex to correct bad spelling and grammar on less-than-literate signs, went a little too far when they amended a historic, hand-painted noticeboard at Grand Canyon National Park. They were arrested, given probation, ordered to pay a $3,035 (£1,640) repair bill, and banned from all US national parks.
The two are the somewhat nit-picking brains behind the Typo Eradication Advancement League (Teal), a sort of provisional wing of the Plain English Campaign. In March, it launched an Outreach Mission to correct grocers' apostrophes and spelling faux pas – coast to coast. Armed with only Tipp-Ex, chalk, and permanent markers, Messrs Deck and Herson travelled nearly 12,000 miles in 73 days, and identified 423 instances of signage marred by mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar. They made 231 corrections.
In Texas a firm called Wings announced it was "Now acepting application". There was a sign for "Dillettante" chocolate; posters referring to "recepies"; "cake's" and "birthday candell's"; signs that had the word "priveleges"; and a lot of "your" rather than "you're". An eatery in New York offered "chicken parmasan" salad, and a grocery, traditionally the home of the misused apostrophe, which called itself a "grocerry". They found menu boards advertising "today special's" and "capacino". A sign that warned "pedestrians use walks not roads"; a T-shirt shop missing the dash between the "T" and the "shirt"; an Army-Navy store offering a "hellicopter" helmet and a bullet "bandoleer", and a "Sweedish" berry drink. Mr Deck identified the correct use of the apostrophe to be America's greatest grammatical blindspot.
A star of local spelling bees as a child, Mr Deck set up Teal after attending his five-year reunion at Dartmouth College. He said: "I was speaking with some of my classmates who were becoming doctors and lawyers, and other people who could have an impact on the world and I started to wonder how I might be able to do that... fixing typos was what I came up with... I've always been aware of typos wherever I go [and] I figured that it was a national problem".
Soon Mr Deck had founded Teal, complete with a website, blog and a typo correction kit. The tour began on 5 March from Mr Deck's town of Somerville, Massachusetts, and led the pair through more than 20 states correcting public signs and "other venues where innocent eyes may be befouled by the vile stains on the delicate fabric of our language," according to the Teal website, jeffdeck.com. Asked if it had all been worthwhile, he said: "Certainly! There are a lot more people out there now carrying Sharpies [a brand of marker pen] around with them."
And Mr Deck and chums are collecting a fan base. One Ruth M Newton, for instance, wrote to the Teal blog: "Bless your heart for reassuring me that I am not the only spelling and punctuation nut left in North America."
At the Grand Canyon National Park, the men had found a 60-year-old sign with a misplaced apostrophe and a missing comma. They duly whipped out Tipp-Ex and pen, and made the corrections. They then spotted that "immense" was spelled as "emense". They were shocked, but stayed their hands. Mr Deck later wrote: "I was reluctant to disfigure the sign any further.... Still, I shall be haunted by that perversity, "emense" in my train-whistle-blighted dreams."
Despite their self-control, arrest and swift retribution followed.
I think they'd find lots of spelling and grammatical errors if they came over to Australia. They remind me a little bit of a group called Buga-Up who were active here years ago when it was still legal to advertise cigarettes on billboards. They changed the wording to say that smoking was very bad and killed people and made them sick. I think there were a number of court cases and I haven't heard of them for a long time.
It certainly makes me very annoyed when people who should know better write things such as "the dog wagged it's tail". It is (it's) an incorrect use of the apostrophe which is to denote a contraction. Its isn't a contraction but it's is so what they are effectively saying is "the dog wagged it is tail", which is wrong wrong wrong.
I can pick up mistakes such as the one I said really easily and it annoys the heck out of me. Somebody who's writing an academic research paper certainly ought to have learnt to spell and punctuate properly.
They must be a lot stricter these days.
It's funny though and would make it hard to apply for jobs because our style guide suggests that we must always use the first person and active tense to describe our achievements. We couldn't say "it was required of me to do x, y, & Z" (well, we can but it isn't seen as terribly good) and instead are abjured to write "I did x, y, & z etc."
Sounds pretty naff to me.