Apparently I stickle.
That's what I was informed of by the Eats, Shoots & Leaves quiz.
I am OK with this. It's not bad to be a stickler when it comes to punctuation, grammar and spelling, and I got 100% on the quiz.
It's not totally inherent, to be sure. When I am working quickly, hammering out a post in a few free moments, a "to" instead of a "too" will slip by, or a "your" instead of a "you're". That's out of working quickly, rather than not knowing any better.
Which is probably worse when you think about it - committing an error I know better than to do. For example, you'd never ever EVER catch me saying that I "should of" done something. I hate that one over all. So why is it OK for me to make the random mistake?
Because I'm human I guess, and I know that with some extra time and care, it could be perfect. It's something to strive for, and an easy one, too. I'll save that goal for when I'm really down on myself. For now, I've got other stuff to strive for, so I'm not "to" worried about the grammar and punctuation in this blog.
At any rate, you can take Truss' test here. And if you haven't read Eats, Shoots & Leaves, you should.
And yes, we're back from Austin and SXSW. I have some photos and stuff to share for sure, but I've got to work on this site first.
2 comments:
Love Truss! Another good book is The New Well Tempered Sentence. Oh! Also good is The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager and the Doomed. Both by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. (She's hot, to boot!)
I was corrected today for typing "new" when I meant "knew," and for spelling scalpel incorrectly.
I don't mind being corrected, but there is a tiny little itsy bitsy smug part of my soul that notices that the people who bother to correct my spelling never seem to have the balls to go after my comma splices and sentence fragments.
I stickle with myself (and I'm a lousy typist, which helps nothing). I stickle when I've read something that upsets me or causes me to feel otherwise disagreeable. When Mr Z ticks me off I'll spend hours editing his website for grammar and punctuation just to be bitchy. Otherwise, I don't stickle so much.
Blogging and reading letters written by my drunk little sister have served to make me a more accepting reader. I might notice a dangling particple or a misplaced modifier or a comma splice or an incorrect spelling, but I tend to chalk these errors up to one of three things:
1) the writer has developed a personal style
2) the writer has more passion than s/he has time for editing
3) the writer has joined me for a third martini
I like your writing.
You already knew that.
It's fifty-seven minutes past vodka o'clock. Join me?
Damn f*cking babies' bibs!
Apparently (comma) I missed a lot of school as a kid.
To this day (comma?) I must sound out Wed-ness-day inside my head before reminding myself (do I included 'that' hear? Here, I mean. H-E-R-E...stop putting dots, and how the fuck do I close this paranthesis??? Lots of question marks will cover my insecurity) there is only one 's' (<-comma) in Wednesday.
February is also difficult, and I was born in the effing month.
File this comment under drunkenly lazy personal style.
But thank goodness for your sticklerness. If no one held us to standards, my posts would be completely unreadable by now. (I've been tempted not to type using vowels.)
Post a Comment