When I introduced The Correctionists on Monday, I knew I was in for it. I figured that in talking smack about other people’s misuse of punctuation or spelling, I would likely make a fool of myself. And I did make a tiny mistake in my commentary on the The Franklin Mortgage and Investment Co.‘s drink menu. While spelling “available” wrong, they also missed an apostrophe in the drink entitled ”Bartenders Breakfast.” Is it one bartender, Monsieur, or more? You need an apostrophe before the S or after, to show possession. (Thanks to my wonderful readers for pointing this out. I was apparently blinded by my friend’s iPhone flashlight app which we used to take the picture in that very dark bar.)
The thing is, I am an English teacher. I do not expect people to write perfectly, spell perfectly, or even punctuate perfectly. My job security depends on the fact that they don’t. Since my children stole my brain, I have made countless mistakes myself. The issue I and other Correctionists have (Amy@NeverTrueTales, Kristen@Motherese, Kelly@TheMillerMix) is that misusage has become so pronounced, people have no idea what the rules are, particularly for apostrophes. Very few, it seems, believe the poor little half-circle deserves any respect at all.
It’s not that we Correctionists are waving our red pens and cackling. We are sad. We are flabbergasted. We want to set things right.
Apparently, so does my husband, the so-smart copyeditor.
In an email entitled, “the dangers of snobbery” (no capitalization), he made a PDF of one paragraph of Monday’s post:
Thank you, dear. I suppose I deserved that.
I am not a snob.
But I could use an editor.
And I still type faster than you.
*If you see a glaring punctuation, grammar, or spelling error, take a picture and send it in to The Correctionists! Help us teach the world, one blog post at a time.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
As I said to Amy on her post, I can’t participate for this very reason. My writing is full of errors, and for some reason my fingers always want to type an apostrophe in it’s, even when its use is wrong.
For a long time I was the Senior Editor where I work, but the thing is, I believe there is a huge difference between writing and editing. After I write a blog post, my husband always finds mistakes. If you knew him, you’d find this humourous. Sigh…such is life.
But your post made me chuckle and I appreciate what you ladies are up, and plan on enjoy every word as you go!
I’m an editor. But my own work…riddled with careless mistakes. It’s different if I polish something up for a presentation or an article, but one glance at my facebook or twitter accounts would show you any number of errors in spelling or grammar. Even my blog, which I read over quickly, never gets the kind of scrutiny that I give to my work. When I edited a newspaper, I lived in dread of the errors I would catch after – always after – the paper went to press. No matter how many of us looked it over a hundred times beforehand. To err, as they say, is human…but I love the idea of being a correctionist. We should strive for perfection. (Um, off to re-read my latest blog post one more time now. I have thrown down the gauntlet and the universe awaits its moment.)
I noticed the other error as well, but couldn’t get my phone to let me comment. :) I get where you are coming from and it is a good idea. I tend to make my mistakes by typing way too fast and I am terrible with spelling. Thank God for spell check! I mostly detest the misuse of words and the whole, “There, their, they’re” kinds of issues.
See, this is kind of what I’m afraid of. Now that we’ve banded together as a Force for Grammatical Good, we’ve opened ourselves up to closer scrutiny. But that’s okay, I suppose. I’m ready to invite criticism of my own work if our efforts mean even one fewer improper usage of there/their/they’re.
:)
Oh wait. Will I have to invite criticism of my own work?
Ha ha ha….LOL. :)
I’m considering leaving my husband for a so-smart copy editor. This post made me laugh. And on a related note, here’s a recent article about the use of the Oxford comma: http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/oxford-comma-dropped-by-university-of-oxford_b33357.
You can’t have him. Who would I get to edit my stuff for free? And unsolicited? And I really do need to tackle this Oxford comma issue. It’s so painful to see its abandonment, I’ve been ignoring the whole thing.
I wasn’t suggesting I would steal your so-smart copy editor! I was merely stating that I might need to find one of my own. Maybe I should convince my husband to switch professions. He’s dyslexic, so it might be interesting. Hehe. And I am a huge fan of the Oxford comma; when I first saw that article a while ago I ranted about it on Facebook. Is that sad/pathetic? I’m hoping not.
I need an editor or at least a second eye. I tend to overuse the word “that”. I told Amy I’d join in and can even use myself as a guinea pig.
This is hilarious. I’d have to retaliate, though, by drinking the last cup of coffee or hiding his Kindle for a week. And, in my unsolicited opinion, ellipsis points are just as good as an em dash … depends on the kind of emphasis you are going for. =>
PS: I keep hoping I’ll see an error to submit over here in Romania. Surely they get some leeway, though, for making English grammar mistakes. It’ll have to be a really egregious one, I guess. (That makes me a terrible person, doesn’t it?)
This made me laugh Jana. I appreciate this undertaking, but regretfully can only observe. My writing is full of errors. And to tell you the truth, I am a little nervous even typing this response. :)
So your husband is officially all sorts of awsome just for doing that!! I welcome you to stop by my site and view the attrocities that are my own personal punctuation rules. (I figure if I don’t know the real ones I will just make a set for myself and stick with it. If nothing else at least I’m consistent!!)
I should add – this is also why I tend to write my posts with a sort of poetic formatting – that way if anyone calls me out I can just declare “poetic license”!