slemslempike: (Default)
slemslempike ([personal profile] slemslempike) wrote2009-07-20 01:41 pm
Entry tags:

Current annoyances

People putting punctuation inside quotation marks. I know it's the rule for North Americans, but it's wrong and people should be better.

Having to count how many "r"s different writers use for "grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl" (it's usually substantially fewer than that) because this easy-flowing, self-defining, reclaiming thing is ALL WELL AND GOOD, but I am all about consistency and standards and blanket rules that stifle all creative expression.

I'm HUNGRY and all my food is in my office.

[identity profile] slemslempike.livejournal.com 2009-07-20 07:26 pm (UTC)(link)
It is this sort of nanny-state thinking that has lead to the disappearance of appropriate punctuation from public signs, leaving the way clear for the rogue apostrophe to do it's* worst!

If the sentence inside the parentheses is incomplete, then no (like this). But if the sentence inside the parentheses stands alone, then yes. (Like this one.) Is that not the same everywhere? If everyone would just do it My Way then there wouldn't be this confusion.

*IT'S DELIBERATE. I knew that you would get this, but I couldn't stand the thought of leaving it unnoted in case a random passer-by came and judged me.

[identity profile] sinsense.livejournal.com 2009-07-20 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Your asterisked footnote made me laugh and laugh, thank you.

Right, obviously. That is how we roll as well. I think that's what the above commenter was saying, and I didn't quite understand what they were trying to get across. Righto, then (but you should all do it My Way, obviously).