You'll often find us walking up and down the halls with a red pen tucked behind an ear, resting in a shirt pocket or in-hand, always ready to lend a scribble or two to the editing process for our magazines and newsletters.
Though all of our publications have their own style guides, which help us answer specific questions as they come up, bad grammar is just bad grammar. Here are a few examples that really put us over the edge:
Lena: My big pet peeves are compliment/complement and reigns/reins. Under way is a big one, too. They don't elicit curse words or anything when I see them being misused, I just laugh to myself—and then correct them.
Bill: Confusing, misusing nominative and objective pronouns. Example: Tom gave the ball to Joe and I (he, she, we). Of course it should be: Tom gave the ball to Joe and me (him, her, us).
Steve: Contractions in written pieces. Why not just write it out?
Emily: "It's" and "its" drives me crazy. I can't stand it to see plural and possessive cases mixed up! Thanks to the age of texting, that seems to be more common these days. Also, dangling prepositions irritate me; I immediately have a compulsion to try to correct them. But if you really want to get me annoyed, make me read a sentence with a misplaced modifier. My brain always tries to make sense of it—until I realize the grammar error—and then it just makes me mad that I spent a nanosecond trying to figure out the meaning when the sentence was poorly constructed in the first place.
John: My pet peeves include: passive verbs, the use of a fictional word, towards.
Lisa: I don't like it when people use the word "enthused." I also think it is awful to have a preposition at the end of a sentence.
Jamie: I silently scream when people say, "Where are you at?" Seriously, ending a sentence with the proposition "at" is akin to stabbing me in the ear. Save yourself a bit of breath and just drop the "at," pretty please.
Unnecessary quotations (Joe's "BBQ" Shack) and misplaced possessives (no customer's allowed) are other grammar peeves that make me want to get out the Sharpie and go to town!
Although it appears as if I will silently judge, I will never, ever correct someone on his or her spoken grammar (unless asked). That's just rude. Plus, I never know when I might slip and throw in my own grammar boo-boo.
Megan M.: I am pretty judgmental when it comes to people—businesses especially—using poor grammar, but my No. 1 pet peeve is when folks use apostrophes incorrectly. I don't care who you are, you should know to write "I have four cats waiting at home" instead of "I have four cat's waiting at home."
Coming in at a close second is incorrect (and totally random) capitalization. I don't mind so much if someone forgets to capitalize a country or a language, but I can't tell you how many random words I see capitalized on a daily basis, most of the time on my Facebook friends' status updates. For example, instead of seeing "Megan doesn't understand why her friends make so many odd grammar mistakes," I'll see something like "Megan doesn't Understand why her Friends make so Many odd grammar mistakes."
Comments (7)
meanwhile v meantime.
Both local and national news outlets are constantly using these terms incorrectly. It is pervasive and it makes me talk to the TV.
For example:
"meantime, back at the ranch..." (incorrect)
or,"in the meanwhile..." (incorrect)
It should be:
"meanwhile, back at the ranch..." (correct)
"in the meantime, we'll go back to the ranch..." (correct)
And, the use of "irregardless" is also a BIG pet peeve. The negative prefix is illogical. It's "regardless" people!
Ahhhh.
Thanks for providing a place to vent.
Heh.
Posted by Jeanne Richardson | June 23, 2009 2:23 PM
Posted on June 23, 2009 14:23
Ohh, "irregardless" is a great one, Jeanne!
Another one along those lines: When someone has a light-bulb moment and exclaim that they have an "ideal"!
Posted by Summer Huggins | June 23, 2009 2:39 PM
Posted on June 23, 2009 14:39
Jamie, as someone born and raised in Chicago I can't help but end most spoken sentences in a preposition. "Do you want to come with" and "Where did you get that at" are probably two of the most common ones you'll hear me say.
However, I can assure you I do not write this way. At least not professionally. :)
Posted by Megan | June 23, 2009 2:48 PM
Posted on June 23, 2009 14:48
Haha. I promise I will never correct the spoken grammar of anyone--especially a Chi-town native. (GO CUBS! WHERE'S THE BEER (at)?")
Posted by Jamie | June 23, 2009 3:10 PM
Posted on June 23, 2009 15:10
"Enthused" reminded me of "incent, incented, incenting" as in, "We will incent him to work harder by offering him longer vacations."
Posted by Bill Hudgins | June 29, 2009 11:29 AM
Posted on June 29, 2009 11:29
I cannot believe this one isn't on the top of someone's list:
Your vs. You're
I don't think the concept is that difficult, but apparently a good portion of the rest of the world does. Keep you eye out for it, especially on Facebook on those stupid quizzes that tell you what kind of tree you are, or who you would be if you were a movie star. But it's everywhere and it drives me absolutely insane.
Posted by Patricia McGuinness | July 17, 2009 10:30 AM
Posted on July 17, 2009 10:30
Yes, Patricia, that is an excellent one! It drives me insane too.
Posted by Summer Huggins | July 17, 2009 10:34 AM
Posted on July 17, 2009 10:34