That strikes me a potentially dangerous knowing the penchant of some prescriptivists to complain about the most ridiculous constructions. What think ye?
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
That strikes me a potentially dangerous knowing the penchant of some prescriptivists to complain about the most ridiculous constructions. What think ye?
I just posted this:
Let’s start here:
“hey, I spotted this error, now you know so you can fix it”
Needs to start with cap “h”, then period (not comma) Cap “n” to stop run-on sentence.
I find it arrogant and would likely point out those non-errors (such as ending sentences with a preposition) that we talk about all the time. What a waste of time.
Isn't it the truth, Proof? The prescriptive editor I deal with is the one who says "amendable" instead of "amenable." It's a little bit of epicaricacy on my part that I've never pointed that out.
Many years ago I wrote to Steve Allen, the comedian, about his book Dumbth, since the title page, copyright, blurb, and front title all had different renderings of the actual title. Needless to say, he failed to acknowledge the error. Perhaps because the subtitle was "81 Ways to Make Americans Smarter." The 82nd would have been to hire a proofreader.
On the news today, one of the candidates for governor of Virginia (an ordained minister) has written a book. One of the words in its title is "Commandment" but it is misspelled "Comandment" on the front cover in huge letters. It's correct on the back cover.
Which brings me to the question, Proof...how why have you chosen Proofreader for your name? You've probably mentioned it before, but I've just forgotten.
BTW, I love Muphry's Law, arnie, and I am going to use it! Just today I was talking to our prescriptive editor who was criticizing her colleague for being too prescriptive when editing her writing. Being politically correct, I said not a word - but boy was I thinking epicaricacy-like!
I'm having fun at work at the moment being ultra-prescriptive. The head of our agency is sending out a series of individual letters to stakeholders that he is personally signing. He's let it be known that he doesn't want to find any 'grammatical mistakes' in them. I've been asked to proofread them before they are given to him for signing, and I can usually find something to criticise changes to suggest.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Slightly off point but I hope in keeping with the title, on the same day two different people asked me the same question (in different circumstances) and I thought of this way to answer, if I had he nerve.
Do you think just a skirt makes you fat? I believe it would take more than that. If you added some weight, I am sure you'd look great. But, for now, you are bony and flat.
I am glad you didn't have the nerve. [Speaking of which, I've never really thought that phrase "having nerve" or "getting on my nerves" made much sense, physiologically speaking.]
