The Department of Condemnation hereby issue's it's Christma's condemnation against people who do not know how to use apostrophe's.
This is one of the department's big pet peeve's, and most anyone who know's me has heard me personally go off on this rant myself. It seem's that virtually no one know's how to use apostrophe's anymore. This is the latest example that has triggered this condemnation:
It's a story about a set of pyjama's sold by Mark's and Spencer (an upper scale department store in England) that read:
"Mum's dreaming of a quiet Christmas just like the one's she used to know!"
Yep, one apostrophe too many. I'm really struggling to understand this one. Knowing when to use an apostrophe is as basic as knowing when to capitalise words. If one were to write a sentence and Occasionally start randomly Capitalising Words, any six year old would see that as wrong. Or it would be German. (Thing is, we sometimes see people capitalising words mid-sentence as if it's a way to emphasise a point. But that's another rant.) But it's not the same with the venerable apostrophe.
The article point's out that this is not the first instance of a misuse of apostrophe's at M&S, and refer's to a similar ("Baby Giraffe's") faux pas. (In fact, they did call it a "silly mistake." It's not a silly mistake, is a grammatical epidemic.) They blame their buyers for not catching the errors. However, I myself have been in M&S as recently as six months ago and saw their own signage in the store with the exact same mistake.
But it's not just them but any means. There's a shop in Sheffield that offer "extra's" for their sandwiche's. Another sells "panini's". These mistakes are far to common.
And so we issue our condemnation, which shall surely be the first and decisive step in addressing this issue.
Comments (2)
Posted by Cale January 21, 2007 18:16
"These mistakes are far to common." Indeed they are. Indeed they are. Ha.
Posted by Demitri January 22, 2007 01:19
Dammit dammit dammit!!!
I read over that several times! Ah, you can't proofread your own material.
Now, I'm by no means above making mistakes. I think really there were two points to my rant. The first is that too many people make mistakes like that but are simply not aware of them. As in, one could point out such a mistake to some and they will still not see the problem (in particular with apostrophes, as ranted above). To get to the point where a sign or t-shirt is printed with mistakes like that means that many many people saw the text and did not see an error. And it happens a *lot*.
The second point is that in today's instant information mentality and "I'm a publisher because I have a pulse" (yes, I'm guilty of that too), the effort to spell properly and pay attention to grammar has gone out the window. I made a mistake above, but when I saw it I actually yelled "Dammit!" Too many people would not care or see what difference it makes, even if it was a mistake.
OK, I'm going to get off my soapbox now. Actually, no, I think I'll stay. This whole *site* is my soapbox!