I recently went to a painting party. I had a great time and ended up with a beautiful picture, which I’m still not convinced I actually painted. While on a break, I noticed their scrolling information about future classes on monitors throughout the facility. I saw these two errors. Even if your business is not grammar, you have people reading everything you have there and, perhaps, making judgments about your business based on that. A review of these slides should have caught the mistakes.
Once again, my news channel comes through for me in the latest Grammar Giggle. This is proof that spell check is not all that you need to have quality work. You actually need to READ what you’ve written–in context–to make sure it is correct. “Sign” and “sing” all share the same letters, but mean completely different things.
Once again in an effort to be the first to report, a local news station left out some words in this headline that are pretty important.
I saw this on a news story last week. The name of the location they are talking about is Bearizona, but that sure got butchered in this story.
I caught this on a recent dinner out during a weekend with friends. I think the comma is unnecessary–it should be a period–and the wording at the end is confusing. Taken literally, I am encouraged to ask my server to purchase a gift certificate. So I would say “Dear Server, please purchase me a gift certificate” and the server would purchase a gift certificate and give it to me for future use. Perhaps it should say “Ask your server about purchasing one.”
My brother-in-law sent me this picture from a University restroom:
And just in case you don’t believe the sign is placed where you think it is, here is a wider shot:
Check out the updated article at ENCORE – The State of Capitalizing State
I need to clarify something in a blog post published in 2014 on Capitalization in Legal Documents. The capitalization of the word “state” is obviously very confusing depending on your preferred resource.
According to the Gregg Reference Manual, “state” should be capitalized:
Most other sources I’ve found disagree with Gregg’s first example and say that “state” should not be capitalized when used as a proper noun but is capitalized when used in place of a particular state or referring to a specific governmental body:
According to another favorite resource of attorneys, the Chicago Manual of Style, “where the government rather than the place is meant, the words state, city, and the like are usually capitalized.”
Another resource simplifies it as when you are using “state” as a common noun, you would not capitalize it:
But do capitalize “state” if it is part of a proper name
All resources agree that “state” should be capitalized when it is a party to litigation.
The only comfort in all this confusion is that obviously everyone is confused. In fact, in many recent U.S. Supreme Court cases, “state” is capitalized in different instances, which may be a holdover from style from the 18th Century when many common nouns are capitalized.
I have seen this sign every day for several weeks at a local car wash but had the opportunity at a stoplight to snap a quick (although nowhere near professional) picture. Yes, this sign–misspelled “holiday” and all–has been up for weeks.
I saw this notification on my phone while traveling recently during the “bushy” holiday season.
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