A blog that is entirely dedicated to "unnecessary" quotation marks (as if there were such a thing).
To the writers of The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks:
my fellow grammar enthusiasts - I salute you. Thank you for alerting us to the elusive double comma, the sketchy use of quotation marks in a logo and hand-lettered gradeschool signs that go against everything those poor 6th grade teachers are trying to get across.
- writergrl
hat tip: dittoheston
Friday, February 15, 2008
Ragan.com comes clean on proofreading gaffes
So funny -
Ragan is a firm specializing in communication training, analysis of communication, you name it. In today's email newsletter they distributed this story about unfortunate misspellings and typos.
Great sidebar, too:
Nobody’s perfect, not even the spell check
To help avoid grammar goofs we talked to Julie DeSilva, the director of editorial services at ProofreadNOW.com, a professional copyediting and proofreading firm. She suggested communicators run searches on these common terms the spell check might miss:
form/from
mange/manger (for manage/manager)
polices (for policies)
pubic (for public)
Sleight of hand not slight. Sleight means deceitful craftiness.
Hay is baled; water is bailed.
Interest is piqued not peaked.
Stocks fare well not fair well
Ragan is a firm specializing in communication training, analysis of communication, you name it. In today's email newsletter they distributed this story about unfortunate misspellings and typos.
Great sidebar, too:
Nobody’s perfect, not even the spell check
To help avoid grammar goofs we talked to Julie DeSilva, the director of editorial services at ProofreadNOW.com, a professional copyediting and proofreading firm. She suggested communicators run searches on these common terms the spell check might miss:
form/from
mange/manger (for manage/manager)
polices (for policies)
pubic (for public)
Sleight of hand not slight. Sleight means deceitful craftiness.
Hay is baled; water is bailed.
Interest is piqued not peaked.
Stocks fare well not fair well
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Best tool of the day - Percent Change Calculator
For anyone who is a non-numbers type and has to do anything resembling financial PowerPoint slides, consider this my little Valentine's day gift to you:
NewsEngin Percent Change Calculator
The best part -- the only line of extraneous text on the page says, "The fact that you need this tool will be our little secret."
Mwah! xxoo
NewsEngin Percent Change Calculator
The best part -- the only line of extraneous text on the page says, "The fact that you need this tool will be our little secret."
Mwah! xxoo
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Best misspelling of the day
Now - I'm not an awesome speller. In the 6th grade I was finally chosen to be in the spelling bee and I was the first one of everyone in my grade school - kindergarten through 8th grade - to have to sit down. The word that outted me? Access. I hesitated on the last 's,' tripped by the bright light of scrutiny. My shame is still acute.
Which is whyI think I perpetually look for others in the same situation. Taking the bus with JT to work, we stopped at the corner of State St. and 16th St. [Ed note - in Chicago, when giving cross streets, you always begin with the north/south street and then give the east/west street, i.e. "Dearborn and Harrison" not "Lake and Clark." You're welcome.] As passengers loaded on, bundled and booted from the weather, I read the signs posted in the corner shop, which appeared to be some kind of mortgage broker or financial services shop.
"Equity Loans" "Refinancing" "401k Rollover" "Business Financing" "Dept Consolidation"
Wait - what? Dept consolidation? On a professionally printed sign in a window. So, if someone is going to handle all the Ps and Qs of paperwork relating to your DEBT consolidation, shouldn't they be pretty detail oriented? And with the current state of the financial industry's reputation for overlooking details (and thus lending people money they can't afford to repay for homes which are overvalued to begin with) I'd think a start-up operation would have the brains to say "Hmmm, perhaps I should not hang this one and order a new sign."
See previous: http://writergrlsramblings.blogspot.com/2008/01/blog-post.html
Which is whyI think I perpetually look for others in the same situation. Taking the bus with JT to work, we stopped at the corner of State St. and 16th St. [Ed note - in Chicago, when giving cross streets, you always begin with the north/south street and then give the east/west street, i.e. "Dearborn and Harrison" not "Lake and Clark." You're welcome.] As passengers loaded on, bundled and booted from the weather, I read the signs posted in the corner shop, which appeared to be some kind of mortgage broker or financial services shop.
"Equity Loans" "Refinancing" "401k Rollover" "Business Financing" "Dept Consolidation"
Wait - what? Dept consolidation? On a professionally printed sign in a window. So, if someone is going to handle all the Ps and Qs of paperwork relating to your DEBT consolidation, shouldn't they be pretty detail oriented? And with the current state of the financial industry's reputation for overlooking details (and thus lending people money they can't afford to repay for homes which are overvalued to begin with) I'd think a start-up operation would have the brains to say "Hmmm, perhaps I should not hang this one and order a new sign."
See previous: http://writergrlsramblings.blogspot.com/2008/01/blog-post.html
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Voluntary simplicity
Moving in with JT a few months before our wedding, I had to confront a lot of stuff that I'd been hauling around from apartment to apartment as I wound my way up and down Chicago's neighborhoods and suburbs. While he had (and still has) a few boxes of things that are uncategorized mementos, photos, college papers, etc., he had a much easier time than I did with the process of clearing out old stuff in order to make room for "new."
I remember a quote, I think it was attributed to E.B. White re: editing, "You must kill your children." Meaning - when writing/editing, you tend to fall in love with a phrase or a plot point and you then begin writing around it in order to shore it up, make it useful in the context of the whole. These 'children' are too clever to be useful to the reader and must usually, despite your longing for them, be exorcised from the piece.
Cleaning out 10+ years of accumulated history is a lot like that: the fuzzy blue picture frame that holds a picture of friends you haven't talked to in three years, and have no desire to speak with again, really, is a child of your past. It looked "so awesome" on the wall of your first decrepit apartment, but now is forcing you to shore it up, with similar items from a similar era, a box and a square foot of space in which to store that box.
Insipirations:
Extreme Downsizing: How moving from a 6,000-square-foot custom home to a 370-square-foot recreational vehicle helped quell one family's 'House Lust.' Daniel McGinn, Newsweek.com, Feb. 12, 2008
Unclutterer.com
The Simple Living Network
I remember a quote, I think it was attributed to E.B. White re: editing, "You must kill your children." Meaning - when writing/editing, you tend to fall in love with a phrase or a plot point and you then begin writing around it in order to shore it up, make it useful in the context of the whole. These 'children' are too clever to be useful to the reader and must usually, despite your longing for them, be exorcised from the piece.
Cleaning out 10+ years of accumulated history is a lot like that: the fuzzy blue picture frame that holds a picture of friends you haven't talked to in three years, and have no desire to speak with again, really, is a child of your past. It looked "so awesome" on the wall of your first decrepit apartment, but now is forcing you to shore it up, with similar items from a similar era, a box and a square foot of space in which to store that box.
Insipirations:
Extreme Downsizing: How moving from a 6,000-square-foot custom home to a 370-square-foot recreational vehicle helped quell one family's 'House Lust.' Daniel McGinn, Newsweek.com, Feb. 12, 2008
Unclutterer.com
The Simple Living Network
Monday, February 11, 2008
Push - reality and humor
There's lots about my pregnancy that isn't hilarious. Or rather, it isn't hilarious in the moment, but hindsight softens the haze of hormones that I swore would never descend over me, and I can laugh about things like crying over the realization that, at 19 weeks, my feet disappeared from my visual field.
Just found a funny not-blog from a writer at Chicago mag, who with weekly updates, describes his reaction to his wife's pregnancy and all its attendant wackiness and learning. Give it a read - funny writing and, for any who are experiencing the miracle of life themselves, pretty poignant as well.
About Push:
A few years ago, Chicago's deputy dining editor and humor columnist Jeff Ruby, aka The Closer, learned that his wife was pregnant. For 40 weeks, Ruby kept a journal to chronicle the experience. Now, much to his wife’s dismay, he has released the journal on Chicagomag.com. "Not a single dumb argument or disturbing bodily malfunction has been omitted," he says. Push is not a blog, since the events aren't happening in real time (Ruby calls it a slog, "much like the nine months themselves"), but it is an extended flashback to the "most bizarre, scary, and humiliating nine months" of The Closer's life. (Note: you may notice the entries start at week 5. He decided to spare you the conception and the four uneventful weeks that followed.)"
Just found a funny not-blog from a writer at Chicago mag, who with weekly updates, describes his reaction to his wife's pregnancy and all its attendant wackiness and learning. Give it a read - funny writing and, for any who are experiencing the miracle of life themselves, pretty poignant as well.
About Push:
A few years ago, Chicago's deputy dining editor and humor columnist Jeff Ruby, aka The Closer, learned that his wife was pregnant. For 40 weeks, Ruby kept a journal to chronicle the experience. Now, much to his wife’s dismay, he has released the journal on Chicagomag.com. "Not a single dumb argument or disturbing bodily malfunction has been omitted," he says. Push is not a blog, since the events aren't happening in real time (Ruby calls it a slog, "much like the nine months themselves"), but it is an extended flashback to the "most bizarre, scary, and humiliating nine months" of The Closer's life. (Note: you may notice the entries start at week 5. He decided to spare you the conception and the four uneventful weeks that followed.)"
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