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Tricia Moore
02-13-2012
09:59 PM ET (US)
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Is this sentence using "whom" grammatically correct?
Mr. Jones is helpful in assisting students whom are poor readers.
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Bookninja  11-21-2005
10:03 AM ET (US)
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Grammar on the can
A week or so ago Anansi sent me a copy of Grammar to Go. At first I was slightly offended. I mean, what has been implied here? But I threw it on the back of the toilet anyway, in case anyone got bored and wanted a looksee. Damn, it's one of the most interesting little minute books I've ever read. (You know, those books you read when you have a "minute".) I think everyone should have it in their can. And the best thing about it is that Pete is over there in sunny Vancouver singing "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" It's a win-win situation.
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Bookninja 09-14-2005
10:04 AM ET (US)
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Grammar diagramsGertrude Stein loved it and you will too! More fun than Latin, more challenging than monkey bars; here's a step-by-step course in diagramming sentences. This'll imporve your writing or keep you happily out of our way. I promise. HomeEdited 09-14-2005 10:06 AM
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Bookninja 06-20-2005
06:45 AM ET (US)
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The Anti-Truss
The case for poor punctuation and slang: Weeds in the Garden of Words: Further Observations on the Tangled History of the English Language.
In a counter-argument to Truss's book, which sets out to preserve the traditional conventions of grammar, Kate Burridge, professor of linguistics at Monash University in Australia, even calls for the apostrophe to be dropped. "When I suggested on radio that the possessive apostrophe should be dropped from the language because people get it wrong so often, you would have thought that a public flogging would not have been a severe enough punishment," she said. "I received hate mail, and letters from the apostrophe support group, though not all of them used the apostrophe correctly."
God, that sounds hot. The Apostrophe Support Group. I bet their AGM turns into a big orgy every year.
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Bookninja 03-29-2005
11:33 PM ET (US)
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"Marketing are bad for brand big and small. You Know What I am Saying? It is no wondering that advertisings are bad for company in America, Chicago and Germany. ... McDonald's and Coca Cola are good brand. ... Gates do good marketing job in Microsoft."
Are you getting all the grammar checking you paid for?
Krishnamurthy, a professor of marketing and e-commerce at the UW's Bothell campus, isn't convinced that the software giant is doing everything it can -- and he supports his point with eye-catching examples.
He has crafted and posted for public download several documents containing awful grammar. Depending on the version and settings, the Word grammar checker sometimes detects a few of the problems. But it overlooks the majority of them -- skipping misplaced apostrophes, singular-plural inconsistencies, missing articles, sentence fragments, improper capitalization and other problems.
As artificial intelligence goes, grammar checkers are pretty stupid. And yet they never fail to amaze me. I mean, how does it KNOW? (Every day I become more like my dad. Lately I've been staring at the blue light flashing on my gigabyte ScanDisk memory key and just saying, "How does it DO IT?")
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Bookninja 06-17-2004
10:01 PM ET (US)
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Why No One Cares about Lynn Truss's ColonAs most of you know, Crouching Ninja Peter is a word nerd of the highest caliber. Pretty much daily he sends me withering emails about my posts, and he can get quite rough (the latest an unapologetically terse line tacked on to the end of an otherwise civilized email - BTW: "fete" not "fet"). So when Truss's book was coming out, Pete spent all night in line outside a local bookstore (alone, of course) only to find that the book was so basic it was useless to him. Same situation for this fellah. And he believes no one else who matters will really learn from it either. Some people botch their punctuation because they lack a proper education, typically because they lack sufficient money to acquire one. Some of them botch it because English is their second language, and you never know your second language as well as your first. But the bulk of them don't know because they don't care. I wish they did, but they don't. And unless they plan on earning their living as writers, it isn't likely to hold them back very much, if at all. So why did everyone buy it? Because it's the latest talisman to ward off the stupid cooties. HomeEdited 06-17-2004 10:10 PM
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Bookninja 06-12-2004
09:38 PM ET (US)
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Comma Chameleon
At last: something in depth about Lynn Truss's phlegm.
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Bookninja 04-08-2004
10:30 PM ET (US)
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All Trussed Up
Mistress Lynne, the Dominatrix of Grammar, rehashed in the NYT.* "Now what? Well, Ms. Truss disputes the idea that the written word is passing out of vogue. If anything, we do more writing than ever, thanks to e-mail. But she regards much of this as not writing, and not even typing — just sending. The dash — that all-purpose way of stringing random thoughts together — sometimes to incoherent effect — may be widely used "because it is, simply, easy to see." If that explains its popularity now, why did it also hold such great appeal for Emily Dickinson? Perhaps because, in a critical observation that Ms. Truss cites, it symbolizes "the analogical leaps and flashes of advanced cognition.""
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Bookninja 01-07-2004
10:08 PM ET (US)
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The Colon: A Debate
Academics ponder the use of their colons... in titles. Of course they do.
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Bookninja 12-29-2003
09:00 PM ET (US)
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First Books on Grammar and Dictionaries, Now a Book on the Alphabet
Can things get any better?
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Bookninja 12-15-2003
09:10 PM ET (US)
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The Punctuation Backlash Begins
The Guardian goes after Eats, Shoots and Leaves.
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Claude Hoddam-Boullejalka
12-06-2003
09:00 PM ET (US)
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I've just ordered Eats, Shoots and Leaves. If it's as good as it promises to be, I'm going to order more copies and give them to my colleagues for holiday gifts. Horrible prose stylists, the lot of them.
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Bookninja 12-05-2003
10:46 PM ET (US)
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Do We Even Need the Apostrophe?
More on the whole punctuation controversy stirred up by Lynne Truss.
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Zed 12-04-2003
08:28 PM ET (US)
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Oh c'mon, Ninja, this is the Grammar Catchall. If we can't be nerdy here, where can we be.
Gosh darn cool kids with their cool talk. N'hoy glavin!
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Bookninja 12-04-2003
05:57 PM ET (US)
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By the power vested in me as a ninja in the State of Canada, I hearby grant each and every one of you a Life. Please spend it wisely.
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Zed 12-04-2003
04:50 PM ET (US)
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Does anyone know the one about bear in the bar who gets arrested for substance abuse?
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