The Official Grammar and Style Still Matter on the Internet Thread
 

Despite popular belief, grammar and style are still important -- even on the internet. In this thread, we give style and grammar tips for better internet writing, for example:

Apostrophes do not make words plural. Apostrophes do not need to precede the letter s when it happens to be at the end of a word.

Don't ever write in all caps. Not even when you think you need to in order to place emphasis on a certain word. Let your writing do that.

http://ncowie.files.wordpress.com/20...ide-to-its.gif

Let me know if either of these pics don't show and I'll rehost.

Mmmm...grammar...:o

Proper grammar and spelling are sexy. Just sayin'.

(Note proper placement of an apostrophe to indicate that a letter is omitted.)

Make this a sticky!
(Note the use of an exclamation mark for emphasis, not all caps.)

One thing I love about texting and chatting online is that you can tell if someone has proper grammar and spelling. I think I have a crush partially due to the fact that this guy can spell "rehearsal" and says "anyway" instead of "anyways." :p

Commas have a variety of uses. They are used to separate items in a list, clauses, and coordinate adjectives. They're also handy when directly addressing someone. Note the phrase below:

There is no national FIJI website that calls itself FIJI BITCH. Proper placement of the comma would ensure the comment is taken the way you intended: "On their national website they call themselves FIJI, BITCH."

*Golf clap*

i was having a conversation with a friend and we were talking about hair. i said "mine is [whatever i said]" and she wanted to give me a huge hug for saying mine instead of mines. lol.
i'm also kinda picky when it comes to texting too. i shorten words like anyone else, but seeing things like dere and dat annoys me. ugh.

(is it bad grammar to not capitalize? i'm too lazy. :o:p)

This is why I'm marrying a journalist. He shares my love of good grammar and punctuation. And he knows AP Style. :-)

LOL

Eh, You also split an infinitive. Haha now I'm just being a jerk.

Yeah, I still write "too" in a text if that's the word I want. I don't care that "to" is shorter. It doesn't mean the same thing!

Yes, it's bad grammar not to capitalize. (It's also bad grammar to split infinitives, but that's another lesson for another day.)

At least you recognize which 'too' to use.

ETA: Jinx, Lucy! :)

i'm a rebel! :p

anyway, the misuse of to and too annoys me.

i also had to wiki splitting infinitives. oh well :D

I got into a pretty heated debate the other day as to whether the use of a split infinitive was incorrect. I strongly believe [see how much better that is than any alternative?] that split infinitives are fine and proper and have their place in good writing.

Ha!

Yeah, it definitely sounds better in many instances. I was just giving her a hard time.

There are also situations where it sounds better to sound a sentence with a preposition, even though that usually makes a part of me die inside.

Technically right: "To whom are you writing that letter?"
Technically wrong but sounds less snobby: "Who are you writing that letter to?"

The rule against split infinitives goes back to those who wanted us to speak English like Latin. As English is not Latin, it is a silly, silly rule.

I posted this link in another thread, but I think it belongs here, too.

Well English is heavily influenced by Latin via Romance languages, especially French. Though I wonder does German have the rule against split infinitives?

Oh good grief, no.

Harkening back to college German -- someone slap my wrist if I'm remembering completely incorrectly: In German, the infinitive only consists to one word. For example, machen = to make. But, some verbs have prefixes that are seperated from the verb in finite forms. For example, anfangen = to begin; but "Let's begin" is "Fangen wir an." (Literally, it would translate something like "start we out.")

Back to the thread: "Myself" is a reflexive pronoun, appropriate as an object of a verb when the subject of the verb is "I," as in "I wrote that myself."

"Myself" is not a substitute for "me," as in "The pledge class consisted of Damien, Lucifer and myself." Use of "myself" in this fashion does not, as some seem to think, make the writer sound more educated.

Apparently, I've been using em dashes incorrectly for a long time now. There should be no spaces between em dashes. I should have written "...and style are still important--even on the internet."

^^ Yup, German is crazy like that. They also might have a random verb (not just a prefix) at the end of the sentence. It would be something like, "We are going to the store to go" in English (with the infinitive verb "to go" at the end).

(Oops, that wasn't supposed to be pointed at Kevin.)

Ja ich mag Deutch, weil es verben an die Ende der Satze haben.

Yes, I like German, because it verbs ad the end of sentences has.

:cool:

I agree with this so much.

Lucy and RU OX Alum, isn't it the infinitive at the end of the sentence, with other verbs earlier to in the sentence?

Yep. That's what I was trying to demonstrate. "I like potatoes to eat." Ich mag Kartoffelen essen.

Sorry, that was probably full of errors but...eek!

I admit, I have a habit of writing in fragments on GC. I'll just start a sentence with "and" or "but" and I know it's wrong, but it sounds conversational and indicates pause. Sometimes I use use "..." or "---".

Co-sign on the bit about ending sentences with prepositions. I guess we've bastardized our own language to the point where correctness sounds stuffy.

The expectation for writing for Greek Chat is not the same level as MLA or APA, but it's definitely at a higher level than texting/IM etc. It is fun to pick apart the grammar/spelling of obnoxious posters.

Oh for SURE! It's especially funny when they talk about how smart and amazing they are. :rolleyes:

I'm glad I remember something from college. :D

But "I strongly believe" isn't a split infinitive; "I was led to erroneously believe" would be a split infinitive.

A split infinitive is the seperation of "to" and the rest of the infinitive form of the verb, as in "to boldly go where no man has gone before." The grammatically "correct" construction would be "to go boldly where no man has gone before."

Bah.

I can't even be incorrect correctly!

Oh, don't be modest. We know you were just trying to provide a teachable moment. :D

Translated: Y'all is crazy

Every mistake I make is just an attempt to help someone else learn!

And you the point with Latin and the split infinitives (as well as the Romance languages and apparently German) is that you cannot split infinitives because they are only one word. So 'people' decided that you shouldn't split them in English because it's impossible in Latin.

I'm sure this seemed like a good idea to someone... somehow.

Can anyone confirm for me whether or not the split infinitive is still condemned by the MLA style sheet? I brought this subject up again with the same aforementioned individual in my office; and he rests his case on what was apparently the MLA style sheet used by his English professor at Grinnell circa 1961.

Couldn't find anything but one site that stated that the MLA Writer's handbook didn't mention split infinitives as of 2006.

Looks like most style guides have dropped it though. I only own the APA book and it's the last edition.

Of course, if you call out the other person's poor grammar and spelling, they drag out the typical "this isn't a term paper" defense. I guarantee that 8 out of 10 of these people actually suck in the writing department.

Have you seen the Fake AP Stylebook? I get the t_witter updates. They're very silly.

I actually don't mind the label "Grammar Police," because I don't consider adherence to proper speech and writing guidelines to be a character flaw.

If you want to have fun with poor grammar and spelling, read some fan-fiction. It's often deliciously horrible.

<fan-fic hijack>
Be careful, if you end up in the slash fics or other distrubing adult ones you'll need to scrub your brain with steel wool and bleach just to get the images out of your head. Topless Robot does a weekly worst fanfic that is primarily very, very bad porn. Rule 34 is out in force.

</hijack>

This may sound weird, but one of my friends has been trying for the longest time to speak less "urban" and more proper (or as some may say: "talk less black").

There are only two things that bother me about his speech, though. Otherwise, it's fine.

First off, he likes to add "me" in randomly.
ex. "I'm going to get me a new shirt."

Also, he says "mines" instead of "mine." I don't blame him, though, because when I lived in the same area as him when I was younger, I was never taught that "mines" was not a word either.

I corrected this on a sign at a convenience store the other day. I just couldn't take it any more.