Month: September 2011

The Mighty Apostrophe

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Words are all around us. Whether it is print, online, or television, there is no way to escape the written word on any given day. With words comes proper English grammar. Unfortunately on any given day, it is possible to find a grammatical error. Or even two. Humans are not perfect and prone to mistakes. However, given the knowledge and sheer amount of technology available today, there seems little reason to have such mistakes. It is takes is a little knowledge, some proofreading, and maybe even a second pair if eyes to give any written copy the once over before it is sent out into the public eye.

Perhaps it is the rapid incline of social media or even abbreviations while texting that there seems to be a decline of what was once simple and often unseen grammatical errors. As the time changes a language often makes changes as well. We know longer use words like thou or thee. At one time contractions were not used. Even as new words and their usage emerge, we should hope that other important grammatical facets do not fall to the wayside.

One of most common grammatical errors that can be seen is that of the apostrophe and its use with a plural noun. Look at a flyer, a billboard, or some other type of advertisement. At some point you will see something such as:

1. Monday’s kids eat free!

2. Flat iron’s for $6.99

3. Four Family’s Home Affected By Recent Tornado

The problem lies in that sometimes it is easy to forget the rules and simply throw in an apostrophe just to be safe. However, in the case of plural nouns, the apostrophe is only needed if the noun is indicating possession.

To simplify, in the above examples, the kids do not own Monday. The sign is indicating there is more than one Monday that kids eat free. Therefore, all that is needed is an “s” at the end. The same is true for the second example. There is more than one flat iron at the advertised price.

What if the noun needs to be plural and show possession as in example three? The title would have been correct had only one family been affected, but the addition of ‘four’ tells the reader more than one family is involved. Family becomes “families” and because the word ends in “s” all that is needed is an apostrophe.

Anytime you write something that is going to be seen by more than one person, it never hurts to proofread. And more than once is a good start. When something is going to be seen and read by many people, you do not want to lose credibility because you made a silly error and overlooked it. Grammar checkers on your software program can not pick up apostrophe usage. It is up to the user to know the rules of proper noun plurals and possession.

Is Correct Grammar Outdated?

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Together with the democratization of mass media that has gone hand in hand with the spread of the Internet and related technologies, we have witnessed a drastic decline in educational quality and less of a focus on proper grammar and polished writing skills. Nevertheless, whether one uses correct grammar in one’s writing differentiates ignorant pablum from distinguished prose. Revising grammar in one’s work before publishing anything online or offline should be second nature for every writer. Learning English grammar rules is a lifelong commitment; basic principles, like never ending a sentence with a preposition or avoiding dangling participles, can be difficult to implement consistently even for prolific writers. In many cases, acronyms or foreign loan words are incorporated so commonly into the English language that many people forget their original meaning (hence references to the “SAT test” or the “soup du jour of the day”). Some fledgling writers intersperse informal language in formal writing: phrases like “y’all” or “ain’t” should be replaced with their standard English equivalents. Even writers with doctoral degrees in English make mistakes precisely because of the fickle relationship between formal written language and the informal spoken language that people use in regular contexts. One tool that writers should use religiously is online grammar corrector software to catch many hard-to-remember errors in their work. This can help prevent making the kind of simple errors that will influence readers to judge your writing negatively. However, learning the finer points of English grammar is necessary even beyond any software tool to ensure the highest quality output.