I hate official documents with simple grammatical errors. I hate ads with bad spelling. Products with "z" instead of "s" make my skin itch. I never buy products that claim to be "lite". It's one thing to send casual emails with friends or texting or even blogging but when you are inventing something for kids like "Silly Bandz" and using shitty spelling, I get pissed. And as a person with a "K" name, don't get me started about krazy substitutions of "k"s for "c"s. It's komplete krap. Anyway, read on...
Thursday 17 May 2007
kxx
1 comment:
i'm a retired teacher.
i used to work at a school where there was an epidemic of failure to use proper pronouns. you know the type. it comes over the intercom:
"anyone interested in the trip should see mr. gilbert or myself by the end of the week."
for a while, i used to just mutter under my breath about proper use of reflexive pronouns, but after a number of ears when one of these abominations came over the PA system, my lesson plan would come to a screeching halt and i'd clear the blackboard for an impromptu grammar lesson.
i was not an english teacher, so this was a very fine little bit of comedy. my students, however, knew how to use a reflexive pronoun or more specifically, how NOT to use one.
as for products with "fun" spellings, those spellings are registerable as trademarks, whereas standard spellings may not be.
and the number one reason to label a food as "lite" is because often the use of the word "light" subjects the manufacturer to certain legal requirements regarding nutrition or diet.
a "light" item might require that the product has a certain percentage of fat (salt, arsenic, what-have-you), but "lite" makes no such promises other than it must be "lite-er" than something, even if that something is only lead-enriched deep-fried salt nuggets.
what drives me nuts is professionally made signs on which it is evident that the signmaker did not offer the client even the courtesy of asking if he'd like his sign text checked for standard grammar and punctuation.
maybe the customer gets her sign the way she wants it, but the signmaker ought to at least ask if standard rules should be applied. if the signmaker is reluctant to tell the client that her punctuation is improper, it might be worked into the standard form:
"and would you like our complimentary spelling and punctuation check with that?"
the client maybe isn't fully literate (i do not need my plumber or my mechanic to know the proper use of punctuation marks any more than they need me to know the proper use of a torque wrench), but the signmaker should at the VERY least know how to properly punctuate signs and put together sign texts so that they're correct and offer that service as part of the standard package.
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