[OfficeArrow]

Ghouls, and gremlins, and grammar demons, oh my! We're getting into the Halloween spirit here at OfficeArrow by banishing those pesky grammar demons that rear their ugly heads all too often. Read up on our latest contest and enter to win a fabulous prize.

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[dewoun]

I could list a host of grammar demons I see on a daily basis, but I will limit to just one- affect and effect. The effect that this post is going to have on me will be wonderful if it can effect my writing skills. How will this affect you?

[bparnell]

Originally Posted by OfficeArrow

Ghouls, and gremlins, and grammar demons, oh my! We're getting into the Halloween spirit here at OfficeArrow by banishing those pesky grammar demons that rear their ugly heads all too often. Read up on our latest contest and enter to win a fabulous prize.

View The Full Article

I know this person who always uses hope in place of help. She will say,"Sally hope with the dishes." I haven't had the heart to correct her. Another grammatical error is want and won't. There are many more but time contraints will have me end. So, good-bye!
Brenda

[dblaisdell]

Originally Posted by OfficeArrow

Ghouls, and gremlins, and grammar demons, oh my! We're getting into the Halloween spirit here at OfficeArrow by banishing those pesky grammar demons that rear their ugly heads all too often. Read up on our latest contest and enter to win a fabulous prize.

View The Full Article

There are a plethra of misued words, but my pet peeve is: its and it's. Also, physical instead of fiscal.

Donna Blaisdell

[mford]

Grammar demons that come to mind immediately are: The first is the use of "myself" as the object of a verb or phrase when there is no earlier reference to the writer in the sentence, and the correct word should be "me." The second is the use of "then" instead of "than." I politely pointed this out to one of my bosses a few times, but when the incorrect word kept popping up, I finally gave up and just changed it. Now I'm no longer in that job, and my guess is the person is still using the incorrect word. The third demon is plural possessives, which are confusing, but reference manuals and dictionaries were created to answer questions about grammar or usage, so why not look these things up when in doubt?

[JanetM]

Some of my pet peeves include:

1. Homophones: misusing they're/their/there (as noted in the article) and its/it's (as noted by Donna Blaisdell),
2. Tense: mixing the past tense with past participle (e.g., "We had went to the store" instead of either "We went to the store" or "We had gone to the store"),
3. Case: confusing subject and object cases (e.g., "He gave the information to Sam and I") or, even worse, subject and possessive cases (e.g., "Sorry I'm late; Sam and I's meeting ran longer than expected" -- I have seen that in writing from someone with a master's degree!),
4. Punctuation: using random strings of commas as a substitute for an ellipsis, especially when repeated in stream-of-consciousness style typing (e.g., "I'm going to the concert after work,,,,,and then tomorrow I'm getting my car washed,,,,Are you going to the BBQ at Sandy's place?"), and
5. Parallel construction: using different phrasing for items in a list (e.g., "The University emphasizes doing good research, supporting diversity, and you should always complete your paperwork on time").

Two grammar oddities that don't bother me as much as they used to are the Southern Reflexive Pronoun (e.g., "Here's you a soda") and the Southern Emphatic Past Tense (e.g., "He done ran away").

Janet Miles

[SheRex]

Here is one that I've been getting weekly now for about 6 months. The subject of the email pertains to positions that have become available for the current week.

"New Opens for the Week of"

For heaven's sake, opens is NOT a noun. I finally emailed the VP of HR and asked her to do something about it.

[jwells7032]

Originally Posted by OfficeArrow

Ghouls, and gremlins, and grammar demons, oh my! We're getting into the Halloween spirit here at OfficeArrow by banishing those pesky grammar demons that rear their ugly heads all too often. Read up on our latest contest and enter to win a fabulous prize.

View The Full Article

Oh, my gosh! A forum to air my pet grammatical peeve! Without a doubt my pet grammatical peeve has to be the extreme misuse of apostrophes with the letter s. THEY'RE EVERYWHERE THEY SHOULDN'T BE! You see them in advertisements, in books, and in almost everyone's emails. When did everyone forget that an apostrophe s after a noun denotes ownership, NOT a numerical value.

Gosh, this has been cathartic! ;>)

[marydsharpley]

Originally Posted by OfficeArrow

Ghouls, and gremlins, and grammar demons, oh my! We're getting into the Halloween spirit here at OfficeArrow by banishing those pesky grammar demons that rear their ugly heads all too often. Read up on our latest contest and enter to win a fabulous prize.

View The Full Article

One of my many pet peeves is using "your" instead of "you're." It makes me crazy!FONT="Tahoma

[lisalew118]

My pet peeve is the improper use of me, myself, and I.