This blog, like others before it, is devoted to incorrect grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes in all their forms.
Well, actually, it’s an assignment for my capstone undergraduate journalism course at the University of Florida. We had to create a blog and “write about any issue surrounding the world of journalism — especially as it relates to editing in all its forms.” I want to be a copy editor, so I decided to use this blog as my way of passive-aggressively copy editing real life.
This is for a class, so there will be weekly responses to assigned readings and discussions, but I’m going to try to make most posts dedicated to righting the grammatical wrongs committed every day in the world around us.
For my first example, I’m going to turn against the very resource making all this possible and draw your attention to the default title I left for this blog post: “Hello world!” with no comma. For shame, WordPress.
The entries will get better from here on out. I’m going to start carrying my camera with me around UF’s campus and Gainesville, and I’ll be documenting errors committed against the English language by uploading the evidence here. Short of taking to supermarket signs with a Sharpie and inserting my own apostrophes (which I’ve been known to do), I figured this would be one of the more helpful ways to make people aware of why certain grammatical practices are right or wrong. At the very least, hopefully my fellow grammar nerds and my Advanced Editing professor will get a kick out of this.
Tags: first entry, Hello world!
January 21, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Hi, this is a comment.To delete a comment, just log in, and view the posts’ comments, there you will have the option to edit or delete them.
Hi, this is Beth again. Even the default comment is awful! There should not be a comma between “just log in, and view.” Don’t even get me started on the comma splice in “view the posts’ comments, there you will have the option to edit or delete them.”
P.S. I’m going to assume that Mr WordPress (no period abbreviating “Mr.”) intended “view the posts’ comments” to mean he was, in fact, referring to more than one post, so his use of the plural possessive there is correct. It’s a long shot, but I’m feeling generous.