Ever since I started blogging I’ve been paranoid about making a big grammar blunder.
When I write a post, it’s common for me to have a second window open to look up grammar rules – like if a word is supposed to be capitalized or not, or hyphenated or not, or if a book title is supposed to be underlined or italicized.
Every grammar rule I ever learned was in 1994, in sophomore English class.
Thankfully, I had a great grammar teacher (Hi Mr. Arthur!), and most of the important rules have stuck with me all this time. The only problem, is that grammar rules change.
For instance, back then it was the rule that words made up of initials were made plural with an apostrophe “s”. Like CD’s, or DVD’s. Now I find out that the rule has changed, and if the name of the item is common enough, you don’t include the apostrophe. Like CDs or DVDs.
Then A-Rob tells me that it’s becoming less common for there to be two spaces after a period because Word automatically pads the space at the end of a sentence, so only one is required.
This sort of news is disheartening. What if the antiquated rules I live by are one day obsolete, and I become the laughing stock of the grammar planet?
My kids will one day read something I wrote and inform me that “‘lol’ is a proper noun now, Mom.” Just like when my mom would ask me, “are you going to put some blush-on on before you leave?” And I would say, “what the heck is blush-on, Mom? Isn’t it just called blush?”
I’m feeling distressed about this. Thankfully I have these links to cheer me up today.
Red, at The Girl with the Red Balloon, reminds us that There is No “I” in Marriage…or is there?
Amanda from Frugal Confessions has some good tips for Purposefully restraining your household income (in order to prepare for upcoming events, or unknown ones).
Baker at Man Vs. Debt brings us An Idiot’s Guide to Living with 417 Things. It’s about stuff, and minimalism, but even if you’re not into minimalism, this is still a good read.
Niki at Debt Free by 30 tells about her frugal enemy, laziness. Oh laziness, how I love/hate you, just like sugar.
Kris at Everyday Tips and Thoughts tells us how to behave so that she won’t want to smack us.
And back to grammar, if you have trouble knowing which words to capitalize in a title (I do, I do!), this article should help.
Happy Superbowl Sunday, and GO [insert your team here]!
Ironically, I spelled “balloon” wrong the first time I published this. Fixed now.
February 6, 2011 at 10:25 AM
The two space thing made me upset too. I am always in fear of huge editing mistakes. I know I have made them though, sometimes I go back and look at old posts and think that it is almost unintelligible, oh well. Thanks for the link. I am clicking on the grammar article now, thanks.
February 6, 2011 at 10:41 AM
Hello!
Thank you for the mention.
Boy…my readers LOVE to tell me when I have made a mistake, and I always look things up! I think I might brush up with a grammar class in the near future…
February 6, 2011 at 3:41 PM
i can’t fathom why anyone would ever put an apostrophe in CDs – it’s a plural! Unless you, of course, are referring to a characteristic of the disc – ie the CD’s album art.
February 6, 2011 at 10:38 PM
I know, I’ve been using the apostrophe like second nature for so many years, I only recently decided to look up if that was correct or not. All this time my CDs have been possessive. It’s a tragedy, I tell you.
February 6, 2011 at 7:05 PM
I thought the rule was always to not put an apostrophe in to pluralize, whether that’s abbreviations or numbers…
When I was on the middle school newspaper, one of the teachers broke me into the habit of two spaces after a period, and now my coauthors get annoyed because they’re all one-spacers.
February 6, 2011 at 10:36 PM
I promise I didn’t make the apostrophe rule up – and I did find on a grammar website where they said it “used to be common” to use an apostrophe in these circumstances. But maybe my English teacher was a little passe in teaching this rule himself.
February 6, 2011 at 8:55 PM
Thanks so much for the link! :)
Oh! WHY did you have to mention the two spaces after a period rule? I just got into an argument with a coworker last week about that. It’s so, so over. Typewriter rules have officially been retired. It probably bugs me a lot more than the average reader because, as a journalist, I was trained to spot those double spaces and remove one before sending our paper to the printer. But, yes, the rule is to only use one space, unless you use the typewriter font – uh, I think it’s the courier font but don’t quote me.
I re-read my posts at least twice before publishing. It’s one of my biggest fears, having readers point out typos/grammatical errors. More often than not, a mistake still sneaks in. :-/
February 6, 2011 at 10:34 PM
I’m going to miss using this rule. I like my double space, it’s just the right amount of breathing room. Boooooo.
February 7, 2011 at 6:12 AM
I still use double spaces. Doesn’t it make the sentences look more like sentences? :-)
February 7, 2011 at 10:37 PM
I agree. Maybe we can be hold-outs together.
February 7, 2011 at 8:53 AM
*chuckle* hard to imagine anyone sweating it out over grammar. but maybe it’s fairly obvious that I make up my own rules, underline sometimes, italics sometimes. but never more than one space after a period…too lazy to type two when one will do! ;)
February 7, 2011 at 1:38 PM
You are my hero. I never look up grammar. And I hate writing, so I just write whatever my hand can type when I feel like blogging. Yayy for superbowl, well in 2012 if the world doesnt come to an end. LOL
February 7, 2011 at 8:29 PM
I’m the worst (or is it worse?) at grammar. One time I published a post without giving my trusty editor (AKA my husband)the opportunity to look it over. He read the post through his email subscription and promptly called me on the phone. He pleaded with me to never ever ever do that again.
Recently as a gift afriend gave me a book on tapes on learning grammar!