23rd Mar 2004
Announcing Bruner Blog Proofreader Nazi Spelling Points
I was just ragging on Steve Hall for being such a miserable speller on his blog, and I suggested that he create misspelling points awarded to readers who bust him for his mistakes. I acknowledged that I, too, am a pathetic speller, but I ventured he’s worse.
Now that I say so, I wonder if it’s true. So, in the spirit of fairness, I hereby volunteer the same. Be the first to point out a misspelling, punctuation error, grammatical error or other language usage problem on this blog, and get a link on my side bar with a score for Proofreader Nazi Points (which I’ll create as soon as I start getting some). Effective immediately for anything displayed on my home page as of this post (i.e., dating back to the March 12 “Very Presidential” post; the archives are history, let it go).
This may seem like a self-effacing bid for greater accountability, but in fact it’s a shameless attempt to build community, get some comments and compel people to actually read my posts closely.
Ideally, someone would devise a script whereby this could be a feature spanning across the entire blogosphere, so people could compete to accumulate points for being the most anal readers of blogs everywhere, but I’ll set my sights meanwhile on the humbler ambitions of just being a more accurately spelled blog than Adrants, with the help of sniping readers.
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Who has more traffic?
Well, I wouldn’t have bothered with a comma after “i.e.”. It looks funny and I’m not sure it’s really necessary. But you probably could have done with a comma after “Adrants” to make it clear that the sniping readers belonged to you, rather than to Adrants.
Ahem. I’ll, er, get my coat….
ET, I will disregard your punctuation advice, because you’re British and worked for tabloids. My preferred punction reference, “The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager and the Doomed,” advises, “A comma is used after terms such as that is, i.e., e.g., and namely when they are used to introduce a series or an example.” The same advice is given by this Rice University punctuation guide. I will, however, give you credit for the comma after Adrants, which, although very, very anal of you, is probably right, and, besides, the point is to be anal. I’ll get the link up this evening, after my run.
As for you, Steve, bite me.
Great!
now you will change it to “Syndication”, won’t you! [XML Synication
RSDRSS 1.0RSS 2.0Atom] left part of your reborn blog…
Nice catch, McBuk, you’ll get a point, too. Is that Miki Buk or another BB reader with an eerily similar name?
I forgot you wrote American, rather than English, Rick.
obviously the lazy Hungarian blogger who got that point.
I acknowledged that I, too, and a pathetic speller, but I ventured he’s worse.
Shouldn’t that be “I, too, AM a pathetic speller. . . ?”
Also, shouldn’t it be “I ventured THAT he’s worse.”
2 for me, none for you.
Upon careful consideration (he writes four minutes after his original post) the phrase “I acknowledged that I, too, and a pathetic speller, but I ventured he’s worse,” could be rewritten as: “I acknowledged that I, too, am a pathetic speller, but I ventured that he was worse,” “I acknowledged that I, too, am a pathetic speller; but I venture he’s worse.” Silly uncle, don’t mix up the present and pass.
*basks in the glory of a 10th grade english knowledge base.*
Sonic Death Monkey (whom, do I suspect, is my actual 16-year-old nephew? how embarrassing), you get only one point for all of that.
The “and” should indeed be “am.” That’s your point. As for all the other stuff, the placement of “too” is optional, as is the use of “that” in the context you cited. As for the tense, I was reporting on an event in the past: I ragged on Steve (in his comments field on his blog), acknowledged (there) that I am a pathetic speller but ventured that he’s worse. All of that happened in the past, so I don’t want to change “venture” to the present. “Am” needs to remain present tense, however, because I *was* born a pathetic speller, *have been* one all my life, *am* one today and, in all probability, *will* die one in the future.
Perhaps reviewing the Bruner Blog for writing problems could actually be a fun exercise for your whole 10th grade English class (God help me, especially if they ever follow links to Maccers or Eurotrash).
Meanwhile, keep up the good work, kiddo! (Doesn’t that sound like an appropriately avuncular thing to say?)
Or Fleshbot.
March 22:
“an egaging narative style”
Oooh. A double header! That should be “engaging narrative”.
“Eternal Sunshine’s weekend openning was less”
That’s “opening”.
“I acknowledged that I, too, and (should be am) a pathetic speller, but I ventured he’s worse.” The tenses are right- but you don’t really need any of the commas exept the one after “Speller”. There is no need to break up dependent clauses even further unless you are asking people to be even more fastidious than your origional boast.
Better sentence: Although I aknowledge that I am also a pathetic speller, I venture he’s worse. (will also accept I reckon, s’pose, think, hazzard a quess, submit-he sucks and is dumb)
Jesus, I can see this was a gigantic fucking mistake.
Sue gets full credit and pulls decisively into the lead with three points.
Jay, just to goad you, you get no points. You may think there are too many commas, but there’s not inaccurate about how I used them. As for the “and” that should be “am,” Nephew Patrick already caught that, I just forgot to change it already.
Wow, I’m glad to see my family members (Jay is a step-brother) so enthusiastic about this exercise — they’ve all been after me about my spelling for years — maybe this will actually get Mom and Dad reading the blog with any regularity at last.
“but there’s not inaccurate about how I used them”
Should be “nothing inaccurate”??
Sorry, no relation, distance or otherwise.
DISTANT, damn.
Must be contagious.
Yeah, I’ve been meaning to make an amendment to the effect that mistakes in comments don’t count.
Siser Sue, pedantic update (which is the point, after all, of this whole exercise, no?): Nephew Sonic Death Monkey actually noted the “openning” one earlier than you (according to the handy time stamp on comments) in the comments of the post in question itself, which is the propery protocol, though I noticed that belatedly. Hence, I gave him one of your points and the two of you are now tied with two each.
I hope everyone notices that I’m actually keeping track of these points in the bottom of the left-hand margin.
“the dancefloor stomper”
I’m pretty sure “dance floor” should be two words.
Point 3 for me.
It’s in quote marks. That means, I copy and pasted it from Blondie’s site. It’s their mistake, not mine.
I’d tell you to get a life, but you have a good job and a wonderful family, so I don’t know what your problem is.
I had no life this week. I was at a conference in Utah.
You should have put “[sic]” after the mistake in the Blondie quote.
“No idea about the source of the accuracy”
Do you mean “No idea about the source OR the accuracy”?
Damn! I thought I got that one.
SDM, you did get credit for that one. Sister Sue, okay, I’ll give you credit for the missing [sic] just to shut you up.