The (Mis)Printed Word
The other day I was trying to install a program, and the command prompt asked me to insert a "CD Disc" into the drive. A Compact Disk Disc??
My husband purchased me a small MP3 player for Christmas and decided to surprise me with it early this morning. I opened the package and read the manual. Page three states, "Is there a manual?" and proceeds to give you detailed instructions on where you can look up and download a manual if your player did not come with one. If it did not come with one, how would I go to page three and find these instructions??
What are some of your favorite errors, redundancies, or just plain silly or pointless statements that find their way into the printed word?
posted by Unknown at
8:35:00 AM
27 Comments:
Spoken like a true English Major.
One is "so therefore", which is redundant, and frequently used, often by folks near and dear. Another is "focus in". Focusing out sounds difficult to me. The use of "and" as in "try and find or whatever other word is the second half of the infinitive with the missing "to". I resolved not to be so critical, as it apparently upsets my family members, and here you have brought it out again. You really did not ask for this type of error, but once I started typing, these statements just appeared unbidden.
I see I am signed in on Dave's account, but this is not Dave. His criticisms fall in other areas.
But you are not criticizing a specific person or writing. You are speaking in general terms, which is legitimate and can be helpful if taken in the right spirit.
What you did is quite different from parsing Ashley's post by oh, I don't know, maybe questioning the sentence "My husband purchased me a small MP3 player..." I did not know Ashley was for sale, or that she is a small MP3 player.
Would it not be clearer to say "My husband purchased a small MP3 player for my Christmas gift and decided..."
Oh no! I am doing just what I get irritated with my sister for doing to my writing!
I don't mean to be critical Ashley. You happened to be available to make my point. Please do not take offense. I write similar unclear sentences all the time, especially in emails when it is not worth my time to read over the text and fine-tune my words.
ESCHEW OBFUSCATION
Yes, it probably would be more clear.
Sheesh!
Well, Russell...
At least we are not yammering about LINUX...
:-)
At least that would be interesting! :P
To you, no doubt. To me, BORING! I think there is nothing as interesting as the nuances of the English language. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Ashley, you got a lot of response of sorts. Anything useful?
Uncle David and Granny,
The placement of my indirect object might appear confusing to some readers, I suppose. :) I was really thinking about things that are funny to us lexophiles and bibliophiles, but some of the things you both have said make sense. There was a sign in Fort Smith one day that had a funny error on it and we photographed the error. I will try to find the image and post it.
Russell,
Sorry to start a discussion you do not feel a part of; I suppose if you were to talk about engineering or mathematics there would be those who would enjoy it but I would be lost. :)
But Ashley, just think! Now if we find a topic boring or too nit-picky we will know the very thing to say--sheeesh!
Ashley: My comment that included "more clear" was a little dig at David, not you. Even though "clearer" is a word, my understanding is that it is generally preferable(correct me if I am wrong, brother dear, as I am certain you will)to use the other phrase, "more clear". Or maybe it is the other way around. Whatever.
Of course you are correct, sister dear, because you are ALWAYS RIGHT!
As I say, it keeps me on my toes. I can go over two simple paragraphs 10 times and you will still find something to nit-pick!
Having said that, I thought it was preferable, or at least more clear, to insert spaces before the opening parens and after the closing one so they do not run into the body of text.
Also, I was always taught to place the punctuation mark inside the close quotes, although I have seen some argument lately for placing it outside in certain circumstances. Putting it inside never made sense to me as it makes the sentence appear to end and then have a close quote thrown in.
Those punctuation rules for parentheses always confuse me, so I probably get them wrong most of the time.
Sadly, I am not always right. We were burglarized again. It became sadly apparent that the person was most likely the one who has been doing all the great work in the house. So I am having trouble trusting my judgment, am irritated at the losses, and we just don't know where else we can find such a good worker.
I now see that you are correct in that there is no space before and after the parenthesis open and parenthesis close. As my friend says, I called myself putting those in there. Apparently I was wrong. And remember, it is not that I am never wrong; I just do not like to be wrong.
I have tried not to be "pickily competitive" with you since Betty's comment to that effect, but sometimes the urge is overwhelming.
Sister Dear
Follow-up on quotation marks, taken from From the Guide to Grammar and Style by Jack Lynch.
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/index.html
There is a difference between American and English (British) usage which can be challenging if you work for a global corporation with offices in London (as when I worked for Shell). I had to learn to spell and format the Queen's English. When I complained, the Program Director in London said they had it first...
Anyway, here is the quote from the Style Guide mentioned above:
In America, commas and periods go inside quotation marks, while semicolons and colons go outside, regardless of the punctuation in the original quotation. Question marks and exclamation points depend on whether the question or exclamation is part of the quotation, or part of the sentence containing the quotation. Some examples:
* See the chapter entitled "The Conclusion, in which Nothing is Concluded." (Periods always go inside.)
* The spokesman called it "shocking," and called immediately for a committee. (Commas always go inside.)
* Have you read "Araby"? (The question mark is part of the outer sentence, not the quoted part, so it goes outside.)
* He asked, "How are you?" (The question mark is part of the quoted material, so it goes inside.)
Thank you for the quote. That actually is helpful. Or is it actually helpful? Who cares? Certainly not Russell.
Carolyn
So sorry you were burglarized again. Where is Fred when we need him? The best HR Director ever.
You could change the locks and not give him a key, or leave a hungry pit bull in the house. Maybe some inexpensive video surveillance cameras.
The handyman I liked so well here was a total flake in his personal life. I never had any indication he was a thief and he did right by me except for when his wife kicked him out and he went back to Colorado without telling any of his customers. But he did not leave anything undone, so I cannot complain.
Russell and Richard could start a thread about the glories of Linux and the evils of Microsoft and the rest of us could respond with a collective SHEESH.
By the way, isn't that slang for Jesus which is taking the Lord's name in vain? But I digress...
Reminds me of my childhood in Topeka when Herb/Wilson and I would spend Sunday afternoons arguing if gee and golly were curse words and thus unacceptable utterances around Herbert and Elice. Don't remember the outcome, but I think we knew better than to say them in their presence.
The locks have been changed. We are confident that he has left the area, and besides, there is nothing hockable left to steal. Spellcheck says hockable is spelled wrong, but it also says that spellcheck is. I give up.
We never listened to Fred enough.
Daddy said all those words--golly, gee, gosh, darn--were slang for God and damn, and we couldn't use any of them.
You know life is really good when we have enough time, energy, and intelligence to have a thread like this. I love you guys!
My comment was somewhat tongue in cheek.
I didn't mean it as a euphemism for the Lord's name. I will never say it again.
BTW, have you nitpickers ever seen this site:
http://www.engrish.com/
Yall should love it.
For techies, here is a similar site:
http://thedailywtf.com/
Hey Russell
Lighten up. It's all in fun. Sorry if you were offended. You can use Sheesh all you want as far as I am concerned.
I am aware of engrish.com but don't think I have seen thedailywtf.com. I'll check it out.
Russell: Didn't take it that way.
David: As a four-year-old solemnly said when he saw a stiff cat under Richard's desk: "That cat is dead."
To paraphrase: "That dog is dead." And more's the pity--I still miss him.
Ashley: In the Marshall News Mess today: "Widow Lady Gets House Repaired" or something like that. Maybe all widows are not ladies, but they are all female, which makes it a redundancy, but not quite as bad, I suppose, as "widow woman".
Granny, I love the one from the paper. I cannot remember the teacher's name anymore, but I had one at Marshal Junior High that would give a quarter for each error found in the MNM.
Granny, Uncle David, and Russel, I enjoyed reading where you all were discussing cuss words. With the things that come out of people's mouths these days even in "polite" company, it is interesting to see what it was once like. Of course, I do like how one of my college professors says, "I use EVERY word in the English language, even 'expletives.'"
Uncle David, did I use punctuation correctly in the above paragraph?
Jami, haven't heard from you in a while! How have you been?
Russell, I have never heard of that site, but I'll look at it. By the way, I believe the word is y'all, not yall, but I could be incorrect.
The follow sentence came from a yahoo news article (full text at this address, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/bush):
"In Iraq, nearly 150,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, protecting the fragile democracy."
Redundancy anyone?
From an ad trying to sell a home: "going North on Towson turn right onto Atlanta then right on12th, 1th house on the left"
Since when is 1th a number?
This is a late one, from an email sent by Craigslist after posting.
IF YOU DON'T GET THIS EMAIL, CONTACT CUSTOMER SUPPORT AT . . .
Had I not received the email, how do you suppose I would have known to do that?
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