Discrn
The Apostrophe Protection Society — an organization dedicated to correcting misuse of the common punctuation mark — is shutting down, with its founder declaring that “ignorance and laziness” have won out over proper punctuation.
The group was started by journalist John Richards upon his professional retirement in 2001 in an effort to promote correct usage of the “much abused” apostrophe. Richards announced last Thursday that the society would be closing after 18 years. He admitted that people simply do not care about correct punctuation anymore. More
I was once in a college class in which the professor decided he had to explain the proper use of “it” so students would write their papers correctly. Used in the possessive, “its.” Used as a contracted verb, “it’s” with that apostrophe, too. The apostrophe used to replace the missing letter. There was a time when correct English writing was required in the business world, as well as the academic one. Now even correct spelling is gone, along with dial phones, and what else?
I mourn the demise of the word ‘too’ as well.
Bad grammar is my middle name.
I was schooled in South Carolina.
We were #49 in the country in ’69.
It’s apparent when reading posts that people have not been taught. Even at work people my age insist on making plurals possesive words. For instance, instead of tomatoes they write tomato’s.
They’re and their and there are another story. Ugh.
Tomato is I’m telling ya!
Nobody gonna tell me how to use a postrofy.
“We were #49 in the country in ’69.”
Only 8 more to go …
Right on. N’shiqu’a. And nobody is going to tell me how to use a colon correctly, either.
Not to worry, all those little nuisance symbols have been replaced by the infusion of ghetto speak into the language.
Know what I’m sayin?
Auto-correct is to blame for most of those abused apostrophes. I have to correct auto-corrects for changing plurals into possessives several times a day.
Thats too bad.
Just wait until they ban toilets!
I hate the ubiquitous air (” “) quotes too!
Its a travesty
When are they going to ban ampersands *, those cute little symbols that look like an asshole at least according to Kurt Vonnegut in his novel Breakfast Of Champions.
My favorite, a sign on a store saying, “Were Open.” So, what is it? Are they open? Or they were open but now they’re closed?
YES! Thank you, Anonymous. I too agree, wholeheartedly. One of my pet peeves.
Its use of its is getting so bad its hard to understand what its try to convey.
On the other hand, ‘tits’ needs no apostrophe.
The comma, needs protection too.
This appears to be serious enough that Congress should form a special investigative body to look into it! They could call it the Schiff’s,s”s!s?”s:s; gobbledygook committee!
“— is shutting down, with its founder declaring that “ignorance and laziness” have won out over proper punctuation.”
He may be right, I don’t know, and I don’t feel like researching the issue.
My favorite punctuation is the colon.
Sigh. I have SO MANY pet peeves with punctuation. It does take effort to remember proper punctuation, but you must learn the rules first.
In my past work with standardized student testing, I met with state DOE staff and their teacher participants. It always surprised me when some (not many) teachers told me that they do not bother to teach proper punctuation to their students according to the standards set by the state.
Woe to the poor students who have those teachers.
When typing text, one should use the “real quotes,” whether single or double, not the ones easily accessible on the keyboard.
“Real quotes” are the slanty ones.
To use “real quotes,” you must jump through hoops to insert them.
It is so often inconvenient to stop and do that, so I use the quotes on the keyboard.
I know it makes me look ignorant, but it’s actually my computer who is the ignorant one.
And punctuation with quotes should go inside the quotes.
I work in a highly technical field, the workers find and fix complex issues. Yet when it comes to explaining the work in the records; oh woe is us!
It was a weekly event just to go through records to correct them not just for grammar and punctuation errors but also for the proper noun names and descriptions of components.
In half of the records it’s (it was) nearly impossible to identify which actual part was replaced & it got to be so bad that I just gave up.
Long as they never get rid of the aster-dick!
The left has intentionally destroyed our schools. The GOPe/romneys/mccains/Boehners worked with them.
We are living with a generation of angry idiots.
Mayor Pete actually has a semi-colon because you could drive a semi truck into it.
Frank Zappa was onto this issue in his 1974 album “Apostrophe”.
“(This is the dog talkin’ now)
“What is your, conceptual, continuity?”
“Well I told ’em right then”, Fido said
“It should be easy to see
“The crux of the biscuit
is the apostrophe”.
https://www.davemcnally.com/song-lyrics/stinkfoot/frank-zappa/ .
Claudia DECEMBER 5, 2019 AT 10:41 AM
“In my past work with standardized student testing, I met with state DOE staff and their…”
Maybe if there had been a few bucks…
Sorry, the devil made me do it.
They’re not alone in surrendering to apathy – lot of that going around.