grammar

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Lawmaker's Rejoinder Begins With a Grammar Fix
New Target of Greene's
Wrath: a Fellow Republican
the rundown
Nov 30, 2021 10:45 AM CST

New Target of Greene's Wrath: a Fellow Republican

And GOP Rep. Nancy Mace fires back, first by correcting her colleague's grammar flub

(Newser) - GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina is making all kinds of headlines this week, some for getting caught up in a dispute between fellow lawmakers and some for TV appearances in which she was accused of being two-faced on COVID. The details:
  • Criticism: On Sunday, Mace criticized fellow GOP
...

We Have Depressing News for Grammar Nerds
We Have Depressing News
for Grammar Nerds
ICYMI
Dec 7, 2019 10:30 AM CST

We Have Depressing News for Grammar Nerds

Apostrophe society shuts down

(Newser) - If you find yourself texting about "Johns scarf" or "Shellys hat" because it's so much easier than switching to your phone's punctuation menu to add an apostrophe, congratulations, you're part of the problem: The Apostrophe Protection Society is officially shutting down. The society was started...

Teacher on Trump's Letter: 'OMG This Is Wrong!'

Yvonne Mason has a few writing tips for the president

(Newser) - Ever recoiled at the corrections scribbled on your high school essay? Now you can imagine how the White House felt earlier this month when its form letter was returned by retired teacher Yvonne Mason, the Greenville News reports. "I have never, ever, received a letter with this many silly...

Transcript's Missing Comma Costs Suspect in Court

Warren Demesme seemed to ask for a 'lawyer, dawg,' but court reads it as 'lawyer dog'

(Newser) - A Louisiana man being questioned by police in the sexual assault of two juveniles at one point said the following, per a police transcript: "I know that I didn't do it so why don't you just give me a lawyer dog cause this is not what's...

Drivers Win Overtime Appeal Thanks to Missing Punctuation
Dairy Drivers in Maine Are
Celebrating a Missing Comma
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Mar 19, 2017 4:00 PM CDT

Dairy Drivers in Maine Are Celebrating a Missing Comma

Court rules in their favor in labor dispute that came down to lack of punctuation

(Newser) - For instilling in us a love of language, we offer a shout-out to our English teachers, William Safire and Mary Norris . In that sentence, we're trying to thank our teachers plus those two grammar gurus. If you didn't read it that way, witness the importance of the Oxford...

SCOTUS Upholds Guy's Porn Sentence Based on a Comma

Punctuation is important, people

(Newser) - We already know punctuation saves lives . Now a Supreme Court ruling proves it also makes or breaks legal cases. Per Courthouse News Service , the high court on Monday upheld a prison sentence for Avondale Lockhart, who pleaded guilty in 2011 to child porn charges. He had been facing an eight-year...

French Outraged by Spelling Shake-Up

Officials changed the spellings of 2,400 words to make them easier for children

(Newser) - France is in uproar over reports that the official spellings of 2,400 words are being changed to make them less confusing for schoolchildren just learning the language, the Guardian reports. For example, "ognon" is now a fine way to spell onion in addition to the more familiar "...

Bob Dylan May Have Inadvertently Coined a Phrase

'I can't even,' he complained in 1966

(Newser) - "I can't even" may be a millennial catchphrase, but it seems Bob Dylan got there first a half-century ago. As Chris Willman points out in his Billboard review of the newly released Bootleg Series box set, the scene took place during a January 1966 recording session as Dylan...

Tiniest of Typos Looms Large on College Billboard

Yep, apostrophes matter, as the University of South Dakota has discovered

(Newser) - A University of South Dakota billboard erected east of Sioux Falls on Interstate 90 boasts that it's the "Best in the Dakota's," adding an apostrophe that shouldn't be there, the Argus Leader reports. The director of the university's marketing department tells the Leader that...

We're in the Midst of a Singular Grammatical Shift

It's all about the 'they'

(Newser) - Jane Austen wrote, "To be sure, you knew no actual good of me—but nobody thinks of that when they fall in love." But had she submitted that line to a modern English teacher, she would have gotten docked for grammar. Instead of "when they fall in...

Losing the Grammar Race: Trump Backers

Democrats' supporters make fewer grammatical errors: study

(Newser) - Can you guess which 2016 campaign supporters have the best grammar? Grammarly conducted a study on the comments left by supporters on the candidates’ official Facebook pages—seriously—analyzing them for grammatical mistakes. It turns out Donald Trump's supporters aren't making English great again: They made the most...

Lack of a Comma Has Big Legal Implications in Tenn.

Official uses grammar to make investigative records harder to get

(Newser) - How important are commas? Well, the lack of one is stopping Tennessee city councils from requesting investigative records from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Tennessean reports. In July, the TBI looked into the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old black man by a white officer in Memphis. In the wake...

Guy Who Made 47K Wikipedia Corrections Is Wrong

Crusade against 'comprised of' is unfair: newspaper editor

(Newser) - David Shariatmadari just can't go along with the grammar guy who's correcting everyone on Wikipedia . As a newspaper editor, Shariatmadari admits to having "grammatical bugbears," but the crusade by software engineer Bryan Henderson to eliminate every "comprised of" on Wikipedia is way over the top....

Plugin Wipes Out Wrong Uses of 'Literally'

Because that word is figuratively everywhere

(Newser) - Ruthless about grammar? Got Google Chrome? This plugin , highlighted at Yahoo , could figuratively solve all your problems. The "Literally" browser extension gets rid of the pesky incorrect uses of "literally" that litter the Internet, replacing them with "figuratively." According to the extension's developer, "that'...

Internet Invents a Preposition, Because Irony

Blogs, social media changing grammar: Megan Garber

(Newser) - Because politics. Because science. Because money. Remember when you'd need an "of" in these sentences? No longer, because Internet-speak, writes Megan Garber in the Atlantic . In short, the Internet has turned "because" into its own preposition (as language expert Stan Carey has pointed out ). For example,...

Rocker Gives Miley a Grammar Lesson

Sufjan Stevens writes open letter to Cyrus

(Newser) - Indie rocker Sufjan Stevens has a serious issue with Miley Cyrus. No, not with her twerking, her insistence on wearing as little clothing as possible, or her inability to keep her tongue inside her mouth. Stevens has a problem ... with Miley's grammar. In an open letter to Cyrus on...

'In da House': Music Industry Gets Its Own Grammar Rules

Guide aims to make songs easier to find

(Newser) - In today's sea of digital music, it can be tough for users to track down just what they want—particularly with all kinds of intentional misspellings, unusual capitalizations, and misleading credits. (Does Dr. Dre really perform on that clip, or was it a user's way of getting more...

Jimmy's or Jimmys? Feds Wage War on Apostrophes

Punctuation in place names spawns fight

(Newser) - Residents of New York's Adirondack Mountains have a bone to pick with the federal government. At issue: punctuation. A nearby mountain known to many as Jimmy's or James' Peak, but US officials won't stand for the apostrophe in the name, leading a local supervisor to grumble, "...

Obama's Slogan Raises Grammar Questions
Obama. Slogan. Infuriating. Grammar. Dorks.
in case you missed it
Aug 4, 2012 6:50 AM CDT

Obama. Slogan. Infuriating. Grammar. Dorks.

Is that period effective—or even correct?

(Newser) - President Obama's re-election campaign slogan isn't just "Forward"—it's "Forward." And that little period is causing quite a bit of controversy, the Wall Street Journal reports. First of all, there's the question of whether the period takes away from the slogan's...

Comma Drama Ends: Oxford Rule Stands

Grammar nerds rallied to defense of serial comma

(Newser) - Grammar fiends took a ride on an emotional roller coaster this week on news, erroneous as it turned out, that Oxford University was ditching its famous comma rule. (It requires a comma before the word "and" in a series: Not "a, b and c" but "a, b,...

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