oh right, that's completely true -- that's a big point of utility for it. (and makes defining it as just "timely" sort of ... bad, actually.)
― nabisco, Thursday, 1 October 2009 00:31 (fourteen years ago) link
I thought it was even more wussy than "timorously."
― Beth Parker, Thursday, 1 October 2009 14:29 (fourteen years ago) link
so you know how everyone has that one grammar thing that they can't ever get right? your/you're, who/who, it's/its etc. well mine is effect/affect. can someone help me 2 understand :-/?
― baby girl lemme snrub up on you (J0rdan S.), Friday, 2 October 2009 20:41 (fourteen years ago) link
ha - who/that**
WHO THAT
― wH1N1 g. swinegarten (k3vin k.), Friday, 2 October 2009 20:43 (fourteen years ago) link
affect is usually a verb, ie "[x] affects [y]"effect is usually a noun, ie "[x] has an effect on [y]"
that's the simplified version i guess
― wH1N1 g. swinegarten (k3vin k.), Friday, 2 October 2009 20:45 (fourteen years ago) link
Copyeditors and Grammar Fiends, we that
― baby girl lemme snrub up on you (J0rdan S.), Friday, 2 October 2009 20:45 (fourteen years ago) link
thank u kev
it gets really fun when you realize that "to effect" can be a transitive verb meaning "to bring about" ie "obama hopes to effect change..."
also forms of "affect" can refer to emotions, ie someone's "affective state"
― wH1N1 g. swinegarten (k3vin k.), Friday, 2 October 2009 20:48 (fourteen years ago) link
UH so i'm doing a GROUP PROJECT *searches desk drawer for bullets* and this girl sent me this part of the project that she was responsible for. and it included this sentence (the project is about urban legends, ours is the bermuda triangle) (college!!):
Our conclusion is that the Bermuda triangle could be a supernatural but then the events having occurred in other similar areas is either aliens also or they shake the foundations of the legend.
― bighoos (steen) (J0rdan S.), Monday, 12 October 2009 02:43 (fourteen years ago) link
like....whaaaaatttttttt
for the record: i am in college
― bighoos (steen) (J0rdan S.), Monday, 12 October 2009 02:44 (fourteen years ago) link
That's fucking poetry.
― kshighway1, Monday, 12 October 2009 02:45 (fourteen years ago) link
college as in university?
― Not the real Village People, Monday, 12 October 2009 02:48 (fourteen years ago) link
Don't edit any of that. Just pass it in as is.
― kshighway1, Monday, 12 October 2009 02:48 (fourteen years ago) link
xpost
http://www.killahbeez.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/miss-teen-south-carolina.jpg
― bighoos (steen) (J0rdan S.), Monday, 12 October 2009 02:48 (fourteen years ago) link
yes, as in, you had to apply and be accepted to be allowed to take classes
― bighoos (steen) (J0rdan S.), Monday, 12 October 2009 02:49 (fourteen years ago) link
The semester before I graduated one of my friends and I found a draft of a paper written by a group of business majors that literally consisted of them outlining the manner in which they completed whatever set of tasks they were assigned to do. So there were entire paragraphs that consisted of shit like: "Then we sent each other the information over Facebook and decided to meet up. Jonny led the meeting and emailed us the minutes afterward. This was good. The project went well. Then AIM crashed and we lost half of the work so we had to talk over Facebook some more. That was bad."
― kshighway1, Monday, 12 October 2009 02:50 (fourteen years ago) link
man i wish i posted here when i was in freshman english - so many lolsome (but very, very depressing) peer review papers
― we beat so many gimp (k3vin k.), Monday, 12 October 2009 02:54 (fourteen years ago) link
scratch that, i'm glad i didnt post here when i was a freshman tbch
― we beat so many gimp (k3vin k.), Monday, 12 October 2009 02:55 (fourteen years ago) link
You'd be surprised how many *English majors* can't even write well.
― kshighway1, Monday, 12 October 2009 02:56 (fourteen years ago) link
( The English major thing came to mind b/c of this thread I'm posting to concurrently: The Useless College Degree )
― kshighway1, Monday, 12 October 2009 02:57 (fourteen years ago) link
I am one of these but it's really because I can't force myself to write perfectly when I realize that I'm posting to *ILX*
― dyao, Monday, 12 October 2009 02:59 (fourteen years ago) link
http://twitter.com/fakeapstylebook
― Alba, Thursday, 22 October 2009 14:35 (fourteen years ago) link
Here's something I've long been stymied by. (Fine, "by which I've long been stymied.")
We use a comma in "The millionaire wanted to ski, but he didn't have the proper apparel" because "he didn't have the proper apparel" can stand alone as a complete subject-verb sentence, right?
And, conversely, we don't use a comma in "The millionaire wanted to ski but didn't have the proper apparel" since "but didn't have the proper apparel" is all part of the same predicate beginning with "wanted."
But what if I were to say "The millionaire wanted to ski but not before noon"? Or "The millionaire wanted to ski, but not in the traditional sense of the word"? There's no subject following the "but," but there's also no verb. I feel like I probably punctuate these on a case-by-case basis, depending on how long or complex the sentence is (i.e., what's most readable). Anyone know if there's a rule, though?
― M. Grissom/DeShields (jaymc), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:24 (fourteen years ago) link
Aw, such a good candidate for the comma roundtable
I've noticed that in the UK the comma is usually left out of ALL of these. Why I'm not sure. ("Why, I'm not sure.")
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 22 October 2009 16:08 (fourteen years ago) link
Oh, I forgot about the comma roundtable!
― M. Grissom/DeShields (jaymc), Thursday, 22 October 2009 16:11 (fourteen years ago) link
Also btw:
If you’re a fan of my usage tips and Garner’s Modern American Usage…I have a favor to ask of you as a loyal reader: In the next few hours or days, would you please go to www.amazon.com or www.bn.com and buy one or more copies of the new third edition of Garner’s Modern American Usage as holiday presents? In fact, keep this gift possibility in mind through the end of the year, won't you?I need your help in sending a message to the major bookstore chains: they’re not stocking the book because they’ve told Oxford University Press that they consider usage guides a “defunct category.” It’s maddeningly unbelievable. Please help me show them that they’re stupendously wrong.Meanwhile, in the coming months you might ask about the book when you’re in a bookstore: ask the managers why they don’t stock copies, and encourage them to do so.If you’re curious to see what effect you’re having, watch the rankings on Amazon.com or Bn.com in coming days and weeks. We’ll be alerting the major chains to those numbers, and we want to get as close to the top 50 as we can. If you're trying to order and see that the book is labeled "out of stock," order anyway: the effort is also to ensure that the online booksellers keep adequate stocks.In return for this favor – it’s a grassroots effort – I’ll be happy to inscribe copies that you send to LawProse for that purpose, if you (1) include a filled-out FedEx airbill for returning them to you, and (2) suggest an appropriate inscription.Thank you for whatever help you can provide in this endeavor to show booksellers that the concern for good English is alive and well. Bryan A. Garner
I have a favor to ask of you as a loyal reader: In the next few hours or days, would you please go to www.amazon.com or www.bn.com and buy one or more copies of the new third edition of Garner’s Modern American Usage as holiday presents? In fact, keep this gift possibility in mind through the end of the year, won't you?
I need your help in sending a message to the major bookstore chains: they’re not stocking the book because they’ve told Oxford University Press that they consider usage guides a “defunct category.” It’s maddeningly unbelievable. Please help me show them that they’re stupendously wrong.
Meanwhile, in the coming months you might ask about the book when you’re in a bookstore: ask the managers why they don’t stock copies, and encourage them to do so.
If you’re curious to see what effect you’re having, watch the rankings on Amazon.com or Bn.com in coming days and weeks. We’ll be alerting the major chains to those numbers, and we want to get as close to the top 50 as we can. If you're trying to order and see that the book is labeled "out of stock," order anyway: the effort is also to ensure that the online booksellers keep adequate stocks.
In return for this favor – it’s a grassroots effort – I’ll be happy to inscribe copies that you send to LawProse for that purpose, if you (1) include a filled-out FedEx airbill for returning them to you, and (2) suggest an appropriate inscription.
Thank you for whatever help you can provide in this endeavor to show booksellers that the concern for good English is alive and well.
Bryan A. Garner
― M. Grissom/DeShields (jaymc), Thursday, 22 October 2009 16:17 (fourteen years ago) link
Huh.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/adaptiveblue_img/books/140_characters_style_guide_for_short_form/dom_sagolla
― jaymc, Tuesday, 3 November 2009 22:36 (fourteen years ago) link
The world needs a 208 page style guide on keeping it short.
― Large Hadron Collander (onimo), Friday, 6 November 2009 15:53 (fourteen years ago) link
Twitter exists so people can write books about it right?
― kshighway1, Friday, 6 November 2009 15:56 (fourteen years ago) link
When people abbreviate long words because they can't fit in a tweet . . . seriously.
― kshighway1, Friday, 6 November 2009 15:57 (fourteen years ago) link
http://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/twitter-wit-20090825-091341.jpg
― kshighway1, Friday, 6 November 2009 15:58 (fourteen years ago) link
"How are you going to monetize Twitter?"
"Have the people working for us put out shitty books!"
"Funniest Tweets of All Time"
srsly
― Large Hadron Collander (onimo), Friday, 6 November 2009 16:01 (fourteen years ago) link
Sorry, meant http://search.twitter.com/search?q=srsly
"this is seriously not good; I've been throwing up shit since last night. &srsly, what happened to my 'walls' ?! s'all gone now."
― kshighway1, Friday, 6 November 2009 16:03 (fourteen years ago) link
If I ever vomit and my walls disappear as a result, I promise you I will NOT tweet about it.
― kshighway1, Friday, 6 November 2009 16:04 (fourteen years ago) link
― kshighway1, Friday, November 6, 2009 10:57 AM (8 minutes ago)
seriously what?
― k3vin k., Friday, 6 November 2009 16:07 (fourteen years ago) link
you know abbreviated words have the same meanings as their corresponding full words, right?
Who needs full words!
― kshighway1, Friday, 6 November 2009 16:09 (fourteen years ago) link
I wouldn't want to read an edition of Crime and Punishment where every other fucking sentence had three abbreviated words in it.
Abbreviated words have the same meanings as their corresponding full words while having the added benefit of making the person typing them look like a fucking dunce.
― kshighway1, Friday, 6 November 2009 16:10 (fourteen years ago) link
grow down
― k3vin k., Friday, 6 November 2009 16:10 (fourteen years ago) link
stfu u 2
― TGAAPQ (Mr. Que), Friday, 6 November 2009 16:11 (fourteen years ago) link
<3 Q
― sarahel, Friday, 6 November 2009 16:13 (fourteen years ago) link
Talking of abbreviated words...
What is the correct abbreviation for 'committee'?
I think it's 'cttee' but it looks wrong and at 5/9 letters is a piss poor abbreviation.
― Large Hadron Collander (onimo), Friday, 6 November 2009 16:51 (fourteen years ago) link
(piss-poor?)