Like any good pedant, I find myself incensed at other people's poor punctuation and grammar. I therefore propose a Pedant's Punctuation kit - comprising apostrophes, question marks, speech marks etc. that the right-thinking amongst us can use to correct street signs, shop windows, notices etc. that until now would have required a paint brush or biro. The kit should also include a handy supply of tippex or similar in order to blank out the all to frequent over use of apostrophes where they're just not required.-- neilp, Sep 07 2003 (??) Guerilla Pedant's http://www.halfbake...Guerrilla_20Pedantsa toolkit for the Guerilla in you. [neilp, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004] Apostrophe Protection Society http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/Site to preserve and protect the apostrophe. [TeaTotal, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004] (??) punctuation only version http://www.letraset...?catid=3456&id=3461so close.. just too many letters [neilp, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004] Two Weeks Notice http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0313737/The first target... [dbmag9, Apr 17 2006] Two Weeks' Notice http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0313737/The second target... [Ling, Apr 19 2006] Further to UnaBubba's corrections:
Like any good pedant, I find myself incensed at other peoples' poor punctuation and grammar.
I therefore propose a Pedant's Punctuation Kit, containing apostrophes, question marks, speech marks and other such symbols, that the right-thinking among us might use to correct street signs, shop windows, notices, etc. that until now would have required a paint brush or ballpoint pen.
The kit should also include a handy supply of Tippex®, or similar, in order to blank out the all-too-frequent written instances of superfluous apostrophes.
The double "etc in a single sentence was, while not necessarily incorrect, getting on my wick.-- friendlyfire, Sep 07 2003 I would have written "people's" but what do I know!-- po, Sep 07 2003 You would have written "Teletubbies' ".-- FarmerJohn, Sep 07 2003 hey, they are illiterate. the writer of the series told me so herself.-- po, Sep 07 2003 I think of peoples as being the plural of people meaning a race or a tribe-- po, Sep 07 2003 I suppose you're right, [po], but that word's always bugged me.-- snarfyguy, Sep 07 2003 Aw, po - I was just about to give you credit for using capital letters and punctuation and then you missed your period again. <but seriously> There is a large gap between not writing well and writing in ‘bakengrish. </bs>-- Shz, Sep 07 2003 shz, I have only recently found the shift key. it was in the box where I found the google bar all those years ago.
i think it is a rebellious thang from having to write stuff out all sort of perfick all week so that the skool don't look rubbish you know what I mean!!!!!!-- po, Sep 07 2003 Sp: kno (as any fule kno).
If you're going to do it wrong, do it wrong right.-- egbert, Sep 07 2003 keep telling you eggy, less is more. I am reading absence notes ritten by children all weak.-- po, Sep 07 2003 Like any good pedants, they would have been finding themselves incensed at other people's poor punctuation and grammar.
Laak ada gaad fadahd...-- waugsqueke, Sep 07 2003 Not pikkin’ on ya po, it’s just that ya left an egzample. My point is that English is not necessarily a first language, and on the ‘bakery, it’s often difficult to discern the difference between the silliness of good writers, the writings of those who learned English later in life, and the writings of a 7 year old.-- Shz, Sep 07 2003 so which are you shz? :)
buggar am I pregnant again?-- po, Sep 07 2003 I was the silly one that looked like Sam Elliot.-- Shz, Sep 07 2003 //I'm pretty sure "people's" is correct, since "people" is already plural. I suppose " peoples' " would be the posessive of "peoples". //
sp: possessive-- Helium, Sep 07 2003 You know, at first glance I'd say that a pedant is a variety of pedophile. Especially when looking at the title of the Pedant's Anonymous idea.-- Eugene, Sep 07 2003 Like arrows at Help's Deep, I expect. (just watched the second LotR again...so dark...so violent...I wannna be a ranger when I grow up.)-- Eugene, Sep 07 2003 //Unfortunately, I believe that same mistake was made recently, by someone who read the word 'pedantic', as it applied to someone, in an internal memo and assumed it was an accusation of pederasty. Lawsuits flew, thick and fast.//
Argh! Just like the 'niggardly' episode. People lost their jobs over that! Man, that makes me angry!-- snarfyguy, Sep 08 2003 [UB]: I think it's more like ignorance, which has similar symptoms at times, but is not quite the same thing. You know, they could just look it up.
For someone to be corrected about one of these words and then say "Well, so-and-so shouldn't have used the word anyway, because it sounds like this other word" - that's just wilfully ignorant.-- snarfyguy, Sep 08 2003 Out of growing paranoia, I just checked the dictionary for the word 'ignorance'. I thought maybe the definition had been changed...
Apparently I'm ignorant, maybe uneducated, probably both. I just can't tell the difference between them...-- Tiger Lily, Sep 08 2003 I can hardly see my computer screen with all those little stickers all over it.-- oxen crossing, Sep 08 2003 It's neither lack of education nor ignorance. It's pure asshattery.-- Tabbyclaw, Sep 18 2003 anyhows, back to the idea. It's a good one! I presume that the punctuation pack would be supplied in sticker form?
The only issue I forsee, is that the punctuation pack doesn't fix the cause which, as other correspondents have pointed out, is education.
Could I propose that the pack comes with a badge for the pedant stating "I'm a punctuation pedant - I must help you understand where you've gone wrong". Thus, you can correct and educate.-- jonthegeologist, Sep 19 2003 i do this, except with a marker pen-- 0_owaffleo_0, Sep 19 2003 //Exemple gratia// Oh please! <Looks around for a red dot, but that being gone, slaps a big ‘exempli gratia’ sticker on UB’s anno.>-- pluterday, Sep 19 2003 You could have called it "Pedants Punctuation Sticker's". I remember once jokingly pointing out to a pub landlord (and boss at the time) that he'd missed out the apostrophe in "menus" on a notice board. Straight over his head. Is anyone else here pedantic enough to get annoyed about the "Got milk? We do" slogans? Are they doing it on purpose?-- DRstrathmore, Sep 19 2003 DrS ... am afraid I share your disquiet. I also get annoyed at the "5 items or less" queue in the supermarket. Surely it should read "5 items or fewer"?-- jonthegeologist, Sep 19 2003 Perhaps there should be a “five or fewer” queue for those who can count, and a “five or less” queue for those who can’t.-- pluterday, Sep 19 2003 the "five or less" queue should have nobody serving at it.-- neilp, Dec 09 2003 I like it, and if you haven't read 'Eats, Shoots, and Leaves' then this is a great idea, and go read it.
If you have, then this is still a good idea, just not so original.-- dbmag9, Jun 09 2005 thanks [dbmag9], I have read the first few chapters of the book, but found it to be sanctimonious and full of baby-boomer witticism. It's also worth noting that my post predates the book (which came out in November 6, 2003) by a few months (although the book was itself apparently lifted from a radio series).-- neilp, Jun 10 2005 It gets better as you go along. With regards to the radio series, yes, but it was her series to begin with anyway.-- dbmag9, Apr 17 2006 Those who don't know how to hyphenate will probably panic at the sight of a "third-world war" news headline.
"People's" is correct, but is this a kit for just one pedant?-- not_only_but_also, Apr 18 2006 //ever find yourself without apostrophes ? no more !//
Blank stickers should be included, to cover up the spaces that are in the wrong places.-- Ling, Apr 18 2006 ahem.
"The kit should also include a handy supply of tippex or similar in order to blank out the all to frequent over use of apostrophes where they're just not required."-- neilp, Apr 19 2006 Er OK, then:
Tippex should be included, to cover up the spaces that are in the wrong places.-- Ling, Apr 19 2006 Ahem //the all to frequent // sp. "all-too-frequent"-- coprocephalous, Apr 19 2006 "all to frequent" sp: too
how did you miss that?-- dentworth, Apr 19 2006 Hey! I was saying it first!-- dentworth, Apr 19 2006 Yeah, maybe, but you forgot the hyphen.Also, sp. "Tipp-ex®"-- coprocephalous, Apr 19 2006 also I don't like the use of "comprising". Thanks [friendlyfire] for fixing that.-- dentworth, Apr 19 2006 One of the most annoying things (at least in my opinion is when people walk off leaving a bracket open.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 07 2018 Yes, in the winter the wind blows in something shocking).-- 8th of 7, Apr 07 2018 Something about this idea seems very elitist.
A better idea, in my view, would be Pedants' Punctuation Stickers, which would be available to all pedants, and not just one of them.-- Wrongfellow, Apr 07 2018 Sticklers' punctuation pendants?-- pertinax, Apr 08 2018 random, halfbakery