Paragraphs
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 196
Originally Posted by nomorecatering
Whats with this new trend in journalism
Where every new sentence is it's own paragraph.
Also, "it's", with an apostrophe, can only mean "it is" or "it has", nothing else. However, the possessive case, "its", never has an apostrophe. Not many people know that - particularly it seems, amongst PPRuNers! To verify, just type "it's or its" into your search engine.
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Cambridge, England, EU
Posts: 3,438
Originally Posted by seafire6b
Also, "it's", with an apostrophe, can only mean "it is" or "it has", nothing else. However, the possessive case, "its", never has an apostrophe. Not many people know that - particularly it seems, amongst PPRuNers! To verify, just type "it's or its" into your search engine.
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Out in the sticks in DE56
Age: 83
Posts: 559
Originally Posted by Gertrude the Wombat
Primary school English. So anyone who gets that wrong can't have done primary school English. So English can't be their native language, right? - wrong, it seems, as foreigners seem to be far less likely to get this wrong than people who supposedly have attended a UK primary school.
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Cambridge, England, EU
Posts: 3,438
Originally Posted by jimtherev
Sadly, from my observations, there seem to be many primary schools which don't teach primary school English nowadays. (Discuss)
I was once involved in an exercise to give a bunch of computer science students some real-world advice about looking for a job once they'd finished their degree. We happened to mention in passing that "of course you had to get that sort of grammar right" otherwise the CV would go straight from the in tray to the bin - recruiters can spot things like that at a glance without actually reading the CV.
These kids started looking worried, then one of them put his hand up: "please sir, nobody has ever taught us that stuff".
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: adelaide australia
Posts: 272
Possessive apostrophes do my head in. I wish i'd never learned the contraction.
So many possessive apostrophes have been misused and abused in signage that they stand out like a dog's bollocks and I have an almost irresistable urge to correct them.
So many possessive apostrophes have been misused and abused in signage that they stand out like a dog's bollocks and I have an almost irresistable urge to correct them.
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: England
Posts: 450
Originally Posted by gileraguy
Possessive apostrophes do my head in. I wish i'd never learned the contraction.
So many possessive apostrophes have been misused and abused in signage that they stand out like a dog's bollocks and I have an almost irresistable urge to correct them.
So many possessive apostrophes have been misused and abused in signage that they stand out like a dog's bollocks and I have an almost irresistable urge to correct them.
Moped Scroat's and the new tactics by the Met.... Ram Them
Join Date: Jan 1999
Location: England
Posts: 1,042
Originally Posted by gileraguy
Possessive apostrophes do my head in. I wish i'd never learned the contraction.
So many possessive apostrophes have been misused and abused in signage that they stand out like a dog's bollocks and I have an almost irresistable urge to correct them.
So many possessive apostrophes have been misused and abused in signage that they stand out like a dog's bollocks and I have an almost irresistable urge to correct them.
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 196
Discorde, by its very nature, written language must be more precise. These two statements (repeated from a DaveReidUK post), have entirely different meanings:
"Not forgetting the famous American example, regarding the difference between
a business that knows its shit, and
a business that knows it's shit"
"Not forgetting the famous American example, regarding the difference between
a business that knows its shit, and
a business that knows it's shit"
Join Date: May 2001
Location: south of Cirencester, north of Lyneham
Age: 75
Posts: 1,261
I had a manager - quite a telented engineer of about my age - whose written English was so appalling because of the mis-use of grammar that all of us in the group would have to ask him what information he really meant to convey.
Join Date: Jan 1999
Location: England
Posts: 1,042
Originally Posted by seafire6b
Discorde, by its very nature, written language must be more precise. These two statements (repeated from a DaveReidUK post), have entirely different meanings:
"Not forgetting the famous American example, regarding the difference between
a business that knows its shit, and
a business that knows it's shit"
"Not forgetting the famous American example, regarding the difference between
a business that knows its shit, and
a business that knows it's shit"
The purpose of language is communication.
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 196
Originally Posted by Discorde
If the sentence you quote was spoken to you you'd deduce the meaning from the context. If you're expressing an opinion in writing, then choose an alternative form of words so the meaning is clear and unambiguous.
The purpose of language is communication.
The purpose of language is communication.
When writing, I simply the follow the rule of imagining myself in the recipient's place. It's by no means limited to "expressing an opinion". It might equally be a report, an instruction, directions or a description - or even a just quick handwritten note. That maxim applies particularly when corresponding with people I don't know personally; it's then obviously important to use clear, concise and grammatically correct English. For instance, "the lady's handbags" or "the ladies' handbags" - prove that use of the simple apostrophe instantly informs specific detail - avoiding ambiguity, essential in written language. All that, yet without additional text or even "an alternative form of words", which would merely clarify what a missing apostrophe would have signified!
That's effective communication.
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Surrey
Age: 64
Posts: 185
Slight thread-drift,but I'll post here anyway,as we seem to now be talking about unambiguous communication.
I used to travel frequently to the Midlands.and used to return via M40 and A34.On the slip-road from the motorway,there was for years (perhaps still is),a sign which read: FOR A34 NEWBURY USE BOTH LANES.
Am I alone in thinking that the only way to comply with this instruction,would be to straddle the white lines in the centre of the road ? I really wanted to,but never did.
The substitution of the word 'BOTH' with 'EITHER',for the sake of only 2 additional letters would have spared me much anxiety.
I used to travel frequently to the Midlands.and used to return via M40 and A34.On the slip-road from the motorway,there was for years (perhaps still is),a sign which read: FOR A34 NEWBURY USE BOTH LANES.
Am I alone in thinking that the only way to comply with this instruction,would be to straddle the white lines in the centre of the road ? I really wanted to,but never did.
The substitution of the word 'BOTH' with 'EITHER',for the sake of only 2 additional letters would have spared me much anxiety.
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Reading, UK
Posts: 13,819
Originally Posted by ex82watcher
I used to travel frequently to the Midlands.and used to return via M40 and A34.On the slip-road from the motorway,there was for years (perhaps still is),a sign which read: FOR A34 NEWBURY USE BOTH LANES.
Am I alone in thinking that the only way to comply with this instruction, would be to straddle the white lines in the centre of the road ? I really wanted to,but never did.
Am I alone in thinking that the only way to comply with this instruction, would be to straddle the white lines in the centre of the road ? I really wanted to,but never did.
for the sake of only 2 additional letters would have spared me much anxiety
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Perth, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Age: 69
Posts: 846
There are those (my brother, for example) who sometimes seem incapable of speaking unambiguously, let alone writing unambiguously.
Even when prompted repeatedly they (he) can find multiple responses to express an answer to a simple question such that the it's never fully answered.
Absolutely infuriating. Yet, I don't think that he's doing it intentionally.
It may have something to do with previous exposure to politics and unionism.
Even when prompted repeatedly they (he) can find multiple responses to express an answer to a simple question such that the it's never fully answered.
Absolutely infuriating. Yet, I don't think that he's doing it intentionally.
It may have something to do with previous exposure to politics and unionism.
