ATTN: Copyeditors and Grammar Fiends

I think that's what it is, yes. That's why the mum and dad analogy wasn't right.

Mike, John, and Martin's company

That's rather ambiguous, though, because instead of talking about a company that belongs to Mike, John and Martin, you could be talking about two people (Mike and John) and one company (which belongs to Martin).

Ok, RESUMES: Third person or First person?

I.e. do you write "performs research for litigation" or "perform research for litigation"?

why would you use third person for yr resume

kinda yeah what que said

"Perform research," but I hadn't really thought about it as first-person vs. third-person, it's just the convention.

Depends--what is it that's being resumed?

For talking about my current job, I tend to make verbs into nouns, so 'performance of' rather than 'perform' or 'performs'. For past jobs, it's past-tense, ie. 'led project x to completion' or whatever. I have no idea what kind of rationale might be behind this - it's just the way I've always done it.

why not just 'research for litigation'

I use lots of -ings in my CV. I'm so crap at grammar terminology I don't know what they're called. Gerunds? Present participles? Anyway - them.

"Please note that our unit is based in __________Offices (as per above address), and not ______________, to where your correspondence has been addressed. "

fuck's sake someone pls

"We have moved. Please use our new address: _____________"

hmp i'm trying to zing a snotty solicitor who wants a reply yesterday to letters he's sending to the wrong address tomorrow. redrafted it anyway.

ha, ok. "Wrong Addresses Never Knowingly Expedite Replies"

Further unctious correspondence, knowingly erroneous, receives silence

am i cray-zay to think that when people say "to coin a phrase" right after they've used a HUGE CLICHE that it makes no sense???

are they saying this on Opposite Day?

no unless EVERY DAY is OPPOSITE DAY

Is supposedly humorous acknowledgement of cliche-usage, no?

But does anyone now use it in its proper sense? I imagine it started to get used ironically, people eventually started to take the ironic meaning as its real meaning and bingo. I'm sure there are other examples of this, although I can't think of any right now.

When it's used after a massive great cliché I can read that as sarcasm, but it seems to be used at all points along the scale from genuine coinages through "I heard this last week, do you like it?" to all levels of cliché-dom that it doesn't seem to mean anything at all.

(like half of everything ever said, then, but it bothered me when I was younger because I wasn't sure if I might be misunderstanding it completely)

xp, Zelda Zonk probably otm

if people are that defensive about their usage of cliches perhaps they shouldn't use them in the first place JUST AN IDEA

this isn't really a grammar thing

what cliche are we talking about, for the record.

any cliche

but yeah i think people just basically have no idea what it means now, and i am astonished at how irritated this makes me. "to coin" is a wonderfully evocative verb!! keep your hands off if you don't know what you're doing

funny, i would almost say to coin a phrase is a cliche

that's true - if one used "to coin a phrase" in its modern, TOTALLY WRONG sense, one might feel obligated to continue stupidly tacking on "to coin a phrase" in some kind of recursive, infinite spaz reflex

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/concise.htm

where should I post something about when people say "I'm such an X geek!!!" or "I'm such a nerd for X!!!!" all the time wherein X is a subject of which they seemingly have only an elementary awareness/a superficial interest? it's here

Phrases you hate...

coldnrad

jeez, do you know someone who's mentored is a "mentee"? I would've guessed "mentoree."

those seem like they are both right?

yes, and also their first name is 'hugh'

Right, cos I'm an employeree of the company I work for...

but you're not employered by them

Ah, bless our wonderful language. I'm not really sure why this is an argument - there is no such word as mentoree (cf. tutoree).

Wiki says Mentee. And Wiki is always right, obviously.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentor#.22Mentee.22

You now have used the word "mentoree", therefore it exists, albeit tenuously. BTW, I have now used it, too. It burgeons apace.

(Hurrah! I legitimately squoze an "albeit" into a sentence. Time for a beer!)

I legitimately squoze an "albeit"

how is Thailand, anyway

I believe the correct word is "Mentos"

Haha WP: "The student of a mentor is called a protégé. More accurately, for the recondite, the protégé would be called the telemachus (pl. telemachuses or telemachi)."

I think that's weak-ass reconditeness though, should obv be telemakhos (pl. telemakhoi) for maximum pedantry.

All typos are not created equal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/apr/19/penguin-cook-book

that is fantastic

and probably not as spicy as it should be.

Can I get some suggestions for writing 'rock n roll' and its derivatives? (Rock and Roll feels pompous and unwieldy).

Rock'n'roll and thus r'n'r, is what I'm going for at the moment (no spaces, no caps). Rock 'n' roll looks stilted to my eye, even worse when it becomes r 'n' r.

Any takers for R'n'R, which presumably entails Rock'n'Roll? Dispense with the apostrophes entirely? That looks odd in abbreviation tho, I think.

God, I know it's a totally trivial thing, but it's really making my fingers itch.

rock and roll

^ agreed

in lowercase