I earn my daily bread as a professional copy editor, among other things. That means I nitpick for cash, and just in case you’re wondering, no, there isn’t much cash to be made from picking nits. My slogan could be that immortal exchange from the Robert Redford film Sneakers:
Redford: “It’s a living.”
Woman: “Not a very good one.”
Anyway, doing this particular job has made me extremely sensitive to the general lack of correct grammatical usage that pervades our culture. I’m not talking about the way people speak, which is informal and colloquial by nature and thus not something I personally think is worth fretting over. I’m referring instead to the downright painful mistakes I constantly see on signs, menus, advertising, and the business documents I review — media that is professional in nature and should therefore adhere to the rules.
For some examples of the sort of thing that drives me crazy, check out this humorous collection of egregious errors that were observed along the boardwalk on Coney Island… which, as someone once pointed out, is not actually an island…
(Incidentally, the frequent misuse of the possessive apostrophe-s to make nouns plural is my greatest editorial pet peeve. It makes me say, “Arg.”)
If you haven’t already, check out Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. It’s an extended rant on the misuse of punctuation, especially the possessive apostrophe. My latest pet peeves are the confusion of “which” and “that” (it burns my up just to think about it) and the substitution of “I” for “me” when the pronoun is used as a direct object, indirect object, or the object of a prepositional phrase (for example, “Dr. Ellenson punched my friend and I in the face for using poor grammar. I’m an idiot.”). There. Now I’ve said it.
I must be honest: I am occasionally guilty of the “which” vs. “that” error, but I try, as Obi-Wan would say, to be mindful of it.
One of the folks I work with has that book — I keep meaning to borrow it.
It’s a hoot for weirdos like us.
Ah, we’re not weird, are we? Just because we care about those squiggly little things that go between phrases, those whatdyacallums, commas?
We’re right became we care. We’re weird because we enjoy it.
One more thing . . . my favorite sign, which I saw outside a restaurant in Barstow, CA:
“No shoes,
No shirts,
No pets,
No service.”
(Note the correct usage of “which.”)
Next time I’m hungry in Barstow, I’ll be sure to bring my dog with me… 🙂