I pulled this out of my mailbox this weekend and noticed three errors before I even got back to my house. When the part of an advertisement intended to catch your eye has a glaring error, it really makes the company look bad. While they were consistent with their mistake, there was another anonymous placement of a comma.
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 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.
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.
Almost exactly a year ago, I posted a similar Grammar Giggle (Take a Peak At This) from a different local news station. It must be something about the season that brings this out in news stations. Again, peak is the top, peek is to look slyly at, and pique is resentment or to offend. I’m pretty sure they mean they are looking slyly at the Nutcracker (because they are behind the curtain).
Something that I see a lot in my daily proofreading is a comma before and. Apparently, the lessons in elementary school on serial commas or using commas in compound sentences have morphed into ALWAYS using a comma before the word and. Here are the tricks I use to help figure this out.
First, sometimes a compound sentence (which is a sentence of two independent clauses joined by a conjunction) is confused with a simple sentence with a compound predicate (the part of the sentence telling what the subject does or what is done to the subject or the subject’s state of being).
So when you have a sentence that reads:
Jamie was a paralegal and she was highly skilled in trial graphics.
you should read on each side of the and so you will read:
Jamie was a paralegal.
She was highly skilled in trial graphics.
Those are two independent sentences, so a comma is needed before the and when you make it a compound sentence.
Jamie was a paralegal, and she was highly skilled in trial graphics.
Where you have a sentence with a compound predicate, such as:
Jamie was a paralegal and was highly skilled in trial graphics.
there is no comma. You can’t say:
Jamie was a paralegal.
Was highly skilled in trial graphics.
so it is not two independent clauses.
When you are confused about whether they are independent clauses or not, read each part on either side of the and as if it were a separate sentence. If it is a complete sentence, then put the comma before the and. If the two clauses do not make sense as an independent sentence, then there is no comma before the and.
Here are some more examples to help you see this concept.
He needed to go to the grocery store, and he was going to meet James for lunch.
COMPOUND?
He needed to go to the grocery store.
He was going to meet James for lunch.
YES – NEEDS A COMMA.
He needed to go to the grocery store and was going to meet James for lunch.
COMPOUND?
He needed to go to the grocery store.
Was going to meet James for lunch.
NO – NO COMMA NEEDED.
The corporation filed its annual report with the Corporation Commission, and it paid the required fee.
COMPOUND?
The corporation filed its annual report with the Corporation Commission.
It paid the required fee.
YES – NEEDS A COMMA.
The corporation filed its annual report with the Corporation Commission and paid the required fee.
COMPOUND?
The corporation filed its annual report with the Corporation Commission.
Paid the required fee.
NO – NO COMMA NEEDED.
I hope this helps with some of the constant “comma drama” that you may find yourself in daily. Email [email protected] if you have any other “drama” that you would like to see as a topic of a future Proof That proofreading blog post.
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