PSA: Affect/Effect

5*Mom

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 3:22 pm

oliveoil wrote:

I believe very strongly in the Oxford comma!!

And I am very much opposed, against and averse. I am a comma minimalist.

5*Mom

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 3:24 pm

zaq wrote:

The downed power line had an impact on some power customers: they were without electricity overnight.

Aargh! That should be a semicolon!! Banging head

I love me my semicolon.

mommyla

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 3:25 pm

princessleah wrote:

You know what really bothers me? All of your JUDGEMENT! Terrible ladies, really terrible.

Please, please tell me that was intentional Very Happy

(It's judgment)

water_bear88

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 3:41 pm

5*Mom wrote:

zaq wrote:

The downed power line had an impact on some power customers: they were without electricity overnight.

Aargh! That should be a semicolon!! Banging head

I love me my semicolon.

I also love the semicolon; she did, however, use the colon correctly.

Per my copy of The Elements of Style:

Quote:

Join two independent clauses with a colon if the second interprets or amplifies the first.

pause

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 3:42 pm

MagentaYenta wrote:

This is an ok thread. I'd prefer to hear your views on the Oxford comma. I've seen some bloody online battles over it's use.

its

MagentaYenta

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 4:19 pm

pause wrote:

its

Brownies

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 4:31 pm

mommyla wrote:

Please, please tell me that was intentional Very Happy

(It's judgment)

I don't know where princessleah is from but in the UK they are both accepted. (Though apparently "judgment" is preferred for legal usage according to my very brief Google search.)

princessleah

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 7:18 pm

Brownies wrote:

I don't know where princessleah is from but in the UK they are both accepted. (Though apparently "judgment" is preferred for legal usage according to my very brief Google search.)

Sorry for any misunderstanding, I'm from the US and was being entirely snarky, sarcastic, and intentional. Check out my Oxford comma!

Frumdoc

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 7:44 pm

I find it entertaining most of the time.

Strept, pardum, these make me laugh.

"Should of" makes me cringe.

The ridiculous errors that are made by assuming something which is commonly said is spelt a certain way when in fact it is a completely different word, such as the famous "Walla" that people fight over the origin of (Arabic slang or Americanised french voila), or others which I can't remember now, those are presumably ESL or educational issues.

Autocorrect is responsible for many odd transcription errors, especially of hebrew transliterated words like shabbat.

I'm not up to speed with grammatical niceties, and there are differences between American, Australian, British and Canadian spelling and grammar, both formal and colloquial, that may be misinterpreted as errors.

What I find impossible is the endless paragraph written in some version of textspeak with appalling sentence construction that has almost no punctuation but reports speech without differentiating who said what or where the speech begins or ends and where the feelings start or what happened when and who said what to who and whose fault it was when that simcha invitation got lost but really she thought they didn't really want her 2b there cuz she nvr rlly bonded with the older sis and her dh but got on rlly well with the sil and bil but mayb they think maybe she hates them cuz when she saw them she was talking on the cell so maybe they thought she ignored them but it wasn't delibrat cuz there was masiv crisis she had to run to top doctor in country cuz somewun sed it was serious maybe machla but not in the end but she never saw them sil and bil and their ssil again and she heard from wotsssap that maybe they think she is bettr than them cuz of buying a bettr stroller but rlly it was a gift from my fil and mil and gfil and gmil cuz they think its safer than the one the sil have but but she never got to explain but they never sent an invite to the barmitzvA but I sent invite to mine 2 yrs backand they sent $40 gift but evry1 else sent $80 so I woz a bit u no wotevr u cheep mebbe they hv big $prob but dont think cuz they just bort fancy car and I no he earns plenty nice monny but we judt moved so msybe it was the wrong address but they have the old address and maybe dh shud call new ppl ask if they got invite 4 us but then maybe I will seem despret and they new ppl will laugh and and anyway maybe I shoudnt of wanted to go cuz it is mikva nite and no babysitter but she duznt wont to make big broygis.

zaq

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 8:59 pm

5*Mom wrote:

Aargh! That should be a semicolon!! Banging head

I love me my semicolon.

No, zaq most assuredly did NOT write that. Zaq quoted the entire section from the website. Zaq did not read it word for word because Zaq already KNOWS how to use affect and effect correctly in ALL their various permutations.

But the colon is in fact used quite correctly in the quotation. It is used as an introduction to call attention to a summary, explanation, or appositive.

My colleague acted out of character: she spoke respectfully to the boss.
The doctor was perplexed: the patient showed no signs of illness.
This year I will do something different for Purim: I will dress up as myself.
The storm had an effect: people were without power.

As opposed to:

My colleague acted out of character; she is usually insubordinate as can be.
The doctor was perplexed; the nurse was not.
This year I did something different on Purim; next year I will go back to my usual programming.
The storm had an effect; the resulting mildew had an even greater one.

PinkFridge

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 9:21 pm

I was going to cut princessleah some slack and suggest she came from another galaxy (where they must have different characters for leia, or however you spell it).

Zaq, I'm impressed. And I really understand your pain, though I don't share it.
I'm willing to cut people slack as far as
- typos
- lack of knowledge
- difficulty typing due to device they're using
- possibly, other.

Personally, (even) I make mistakes. And for some reason lately I'm transposing or using the wrong or an inferior word a bit much. I'm trying not to worry ;-) Though I love decent writing, which definitely includes proper use of its and it's, as much as the next imamother.

I will say, as someone said upthread, people, please do consider smaller paragraphs. (Spacing between paragraphs helps too.) Especially if you're not going to use caps. (We will not shun you or block you for caps. At least most of us won't.) Somewhat organized thoughts will definitely get your post read by more people, and may get you the input you need.

youngishbear

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 11:40 pm

Oy, Frumdoc... I just finished plowing through your post. It is so on target it's barely even funny LOL

Notsobusy

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 11:51 pm

Thanks for the great laugh, Frumdoc!

Laiya

Fri, Jul 10 2015, 12:05 am

zaq wrote:

In your examples, the colon is correct; the semicolon is grammatically correct, too.

And, just for fun: Dilbert.
http://dilbert.com/strip/1994-06-08

Brownies

Fri, Jul 10 2015, 1:53 am

princessleah wrote:

Sorry for any misunderstanding, I'm from the US and was being entirely snarky, sarcastic, and intentional. Check out my Oxford comma!

Hehe lol ok!

And frumdoc, your post had me laughing out loud! Unfortunately I usually stop reading that kind of post after about 3 lines...it's too much like hard work to continue!

JMM-uc

Fri, Jul 10 2015, 2:29 am

Frumdoc, that was hilarious! And so difficult to read.
Smile

penguin

Fri, Jul 10 2015, 3:15 am

Quote:

Oy, Frumdoc... I just finished plowing through your post. It is so on target it's barely even funny Laughing .

I was just coming to disagree. I only laugh out loud about twice a week here. You get one of my awards.

How about "for all intensive purposes"?

Frumdoc

Fri, Jul 10 2015, 3:37 am

penguin wrote:

Quote:

Oy, Frumdoc... I just finished plowing through your post. It is so on target it's barely even funny Laughing .

I was just coming to disagree. I only laugh out loud about twice a week here. You get one of my awards.

How about "for all intensive purposes"?

I pressed send and then hoped I wouldn't offend anyone, it was truly in jest!

I love the Intensive purposes, will try to think of others.....

Iymnok

Fri, Jul 10 2015, 4:31 am

Frumdoc, I believe that was the first time I actually read through such a paragraph. You are so on target. I'm sometimes tempted to quote such a paragraph and insert random line breaks.

Grammatical question; when is the dash (-) appropriate?

gp2.0

Fri, Jul 10 2015, 8:44 am

My Achilles heel is which/what. I'm tempted to always use which, but apparently half the time what is more appropriate.

Which page is it on?
What page is it on?

Which sink is for dairy?
What sink is for dairy?

To me, which always sounds better so I can never tell when it's wrong and when it's right.