Opera to Firefox

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Sparky said:
How about spotting hyperbole? Get a brownie for that too?

-Sparky
Click to expand...

Hyperbole is in the eye of the reader.

While the "loose"/"lose" error is sufficiently grating to
prompt a post pointing it out, what triggered my comment
was the defense by Florestan which contained some truly
egregious errors.

Of course, it's quite common for me to make an error
when pointing out one made by someone else.
 
Kram said:
Not for the Americans I know. The period is after the quote marks because
it is only a single word that is being emphasized, it is not actually a
quotation. It just happens to be the symbol we use to emphasize a
particular word or point.
Click to expand...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences

According to this excellent article in Wikipedia, the "British" or
"logical" method of quotation is favoured by programmers, among others,
because the "American" method can change completely the meaning of a string.

Regards
 
And, by the way, using "loose" for "lose" is becoming
epidemic among the less-careful (or possibly the marginally-
literate) these days, joining apostrophe-abuse in the top
of the list of errors which degrade the message that a
poster is trying to deliver.

Correcting such egregious errors is a service to the community.
Click to expand...

And who will correct the egregiously erroneous manners of those who
correct others publicly? It's just so damned rude.

There are plenty of people on usenet who would be too afraid to post if
their posts were criticized for grammar and spelling. Yet the grammar
police just can't resist.

Chakolate

--
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick
society.
--Krishnamurti

I accept private emails to chakolate AT allvantage DOT com, and I will
never knowingly violate their privacy.
 
Florestan said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences

According to this excellent article in Wikipedia, the "British" or
"logical" method of quotation is favoured by programmers, among others,
because the "American" method can change completely the meaning of a
string.
Click to expand...

Hello Florestan,

IMO that article is a far cry from excellent. It does however note:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences#Punctuation

"In fact, the British style is often the de facto standard among
Americans for whom formal or professional writing is not a part of their
daily life."

IOW - *occasionally* the article gets something right. . . ;)

FWIW - using quotation marks for emphasis is discussed in "The Columbia
Guide to Standard American English" by Kenneth G. Wilson. see:

http://www.bartleby.com/68/40/4940.html

Apologies for prolonging this discussion.

Susan
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Mike said:
If you use American grammar you're incorrect.
Click to expand...

<waving frantically> I agree! I agree!! I agree!!!

"American grammar" is an oxymoron.

Ranks right up there with "military intelligence".

Grammar? I ain't got no steenkin' grammar. . . ;)

Susan
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Learn some punctuation first. Then, try correcting mistakes witch are'nt
obvious even to the one's who make them.
Click to expand...
If you were referring to the full stop (period) outside the inverted
commas then it is you who needs to learn some punctuation.
 
If you use American grammar you're incorrect.
Click to expand...

It is the American grammar which is incorrect. The only time that the
period should be used inside quotation marks is when the quotation
marks are around a complete sentence. If that is the end of the entire
sentence to be grammatically correct according to the rules there
should be an additional period after the quotation marks but this is
normally considered redundant. The Americans (USA) modified this rule
in their abysmal education system to stress putting the period always
inside the quotation marks.
 
And who will correct the egregiously erroneous manners of those who
correct others publicly? It's just so damned rude.

There are plenty of people on usenet who would be too afraid to post if
their posts were criticized for grammar and spelling. Yet the grammar
police just can't resist.

Chakolate
Click to expand...

Perhaps, if more people complained, the quality and tenor of posts
would rise, maybe even dramatically.
 
On 25 Apr 2005, David wrote
It is the American grammar which is incorrect. The only time that
the period should be used inside quotation marks is when the
quotation marks are around a complete sentence. If that is the end
of the entire sentence to be grammatically correct according to
the rules there should be an additional period after the quotation
marks but this is normally considered redundant. The Americans
(USA) modified this rule in their abysmal education system to
stress putting the period always inside the quotation marks.
Click to expand...

As I understand it (I could be wrong on this, of course), the US
practice of placing final punctuation inside quotation marks regardless
of meaning had nothing to do with the education system: it was a
typographer's convention from the days of lead type, which ensured that
the block with "." didn't get dropped/lost/damaged during printing.
 
Yup :) but when someone writes about "loosing their children" it calls
to mind "Let loose the dogs of war." and conjures up an image of
ill-mannered brats. . . at least it does for me. :)

Susan
Click to expand...

I resemble that remark! ;-)}}}
 
Susan said:
Hello Florestan,

IMO that article is a far cry from excellent.
Click to expand...

Hello, Susan,

Maybe I exaggerated a bit. I tend to do this with Wikipedia articles. :)
Anyway, I'm not a competent judge on such matters, so I'll take your
word for it.

Regards
 
IMO that article is a far cry from excellent.
Click to expand...

Quite. Using Wikipedia as a standard or reference is a more
fundamentally egregious error than any of the grammatical ones I see
here.

Wikipedia, ISTM, was devised by someone with an impish sense of humour
as the best possible means of spreading fallacies. Kudos - it's
working well.
 
Mike said:
The period should come before the end quote marks. Just fyi.
Click to expand...
I've just got to add that in Oz a period is what a woman gets each
month, we use the word fullstop. It's very hard to get used to seeing
the word period all over the internet :)
 
On 25 Apr 2005, miskairal wrote
Mike Andrade wrote:
-snip-

I've just got to add that in Oz a period is what a woman gets each
month, we use the word fullstop. It's very hard to get used to
seeing the word period all over the internet :)
Click to expand...

You could have said it was "bloody hard to get used to". :)
 
Quite. Using Wikipedia as a standard or reference is a more
fundamentally egregious error than any of the grammatical ones I see
here.

Wikipedia, ISTM, was devised by someone with an impish sense of humour
as the best possible means of spreading fallacies. Kudos - it's
working well.
Click to expand...

LOL.
 
I've just got to add that in Oz a period is what a woman gets each
month, we use the word fullstop. It's very hard to get used to seeing
the word period all over the internet :)
Click to expand...

You are correct. However, the fullstop is also called a period since
it is intended to denote a pause, that is one in speech not in sexual
relations. ;-)}}}
 
Semolina said:
Quite. Using Wikipedia as a standard or reference is a more
fundamentally egregious error than any of the grammatical ones I see
here.

Wikipedia, ISTM, was devised by someone with an impish sense of humour
as the best possible means of spreading fallacies. Kudos - it's
working well.
Click to expand...

There was a relevant exchange recently. It started with an article by a
former editor of Encyclopedia Britannica:

The Faith-Based Encyclopedia

This elicited many replies, among which an aptly named one:

The FUD-based Encyclopedia

All links are here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia#Quality

Regards to all

------------------------
This message has been checked for egregious linguistic errors dangerous
to the community with "The New Fowler's Modern English Usage", 3rd
edition, ed. R. W. Burchfield, OUP, 1996, The acknowledged authority on
English usage.

------------------------
All references in this message have been checked for fallacies and
egregious factual errors of various fundamentality with the
"Enclyclopaedia Britannica CD, 1999 Standard Edition, International
Version", As knowledge grows so do we(TM)

------------------------
WARNING
The Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 Security Center has detected
that your antifallacious software has not been updated since 1999. Your
computer is not properly protected against dangerous fallacies that may
have been concocted in the interim. Please click here to update your
software and protect yourself against the newer fallacies:
http://www.britannica.com/
 
When a Windows XP user asks how to fix a problem they've recently
started having with their PC my first response is to use System Restore
to roll it back to a point just before the problem started. I've found
the majority either don't know how to use it, don't know what it does,
turned it off because it uses too much disk space and virtually all say
that Microsoft's Help file is not very helpful to which I'd agree.
However it is one of the best utilities Microsoft has ever written and
works extremely well.

Using System Restore is a straight forward, step by step help guide
explaining how to use it with a minimal amount of disk space, what it
does and how it works. System Restore can return your system to an
earlier state if problems are caused by a program you installed,
malicious web sites, recovery of deleted files even after you've emptied
the Recycle Bin, a corrupted Registry as well as many other common
problems. By using it regularly you'll always be able to fix a problem
in minutes. The article is available for viewing online and as a
downloadable Help file (.chm) for installation on your PC.

http://camtech2000.net/Pages/System_Restore.htm
 
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