Apostrophes

They probably picked it up from all those CD's and DVD's released during the 90's. That my 2c's.

Pedantic's

Yes because the idea being conveyed isn't important only the the placement of apostrophes. :rolleyes:

gbee wrote: »

No, it's perfectly normal, there are children and Internet psychos who will argue with anyone, anyone on my ignore list is constantly in trouble with other posters too.

There are several tools to catch them out, language and its usage is one that is very well documented.

i agree tat tlkin liek dis is gernrly a bd sine.

But I don't think it's fair to claim that somebody who misuses the apostrophe can't have valid opinions or contribute to a discussion.

gbee wrote: »

Anyway, it's up to the poster, this topic come up a few times, a well written comment will always extricate better responses.

I certainly agree with this part. I wouldn't dismiss someone out of hand for language errors though.

Sometimes I won't bother to read a wall of text, and I certainly won't put myself through the effort of figuring out a post with no punctuation, but generally you're not going to have much trouble extracting the correct meaning from a post which misuses apostrophes.

It's worth remembering that some people have learning difficulties, but that doesn't mean they don't have worthwhile things to say.

I suggest some or other Mod starts a thread where posters can nominate the worst punctuation offenders and choose a winner..:D

I hereby undertake to finance the prize for the winner - a copy of the book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" by Lynn Truss.

I'd also recommend it as a good Christmas present for someone else or yourself.:)


Sample:

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.

"Why?" asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"Well, I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eats,_Shoots_%26_Leaves

Apostrophes are not very important, and there are not many occasions when their presence or absence obscures a sentence's meaning, but I still prefer to see them used correctly. There are much more egregious language mistakes, however.

Those things over there are her husband's.
Those things over there are her husbands'.
Those things over there are her husbands.

Lenin Skynard wrote: »

I often find myself reading threads where good points are being made and good arguments are going back and forth. Then someone starts splattering apostrophes everywhere to pluralise things and I can't be bothered to take the person seriously anymore.

Am I alone on this? Do you take someone seriously when they're arguing a point yet they seem to lack basic education in the English language? I skip a post as soon as I see a dodgy apostrophe and I'm wondering if I have a problem and need therapy.

This is your own problem really. If you are willing to shut yourself off from people who, by your own admission, are expressing good ideas and interesting arguments then, it's only you who will miss out.

If you're happy with that.....coolbananas.

If you're not..............it's therapy time.

Either, way, I, won't, be, taking, your, posts, seriously, anymore,.