[Tameka Anderson]

Ha! This post is SUPER HILARIOUS! I am totally anal about grammatical errors and I understand every word (or not) that has been mentioned here. I despise people who are educated (did I spell that correctly) and yet they still use poor grammar, better yet, I HATE when someone who post anything online, whether its Myspace, or your space, and they do not capitalize the first word of a sentence, the word I, etc., now THAT gets under my skin.

My niece is a freelance writer in Chicago and she posted several blogs on Myspace and did not so much as capitalize the first word in her sentences. As a courtesy, I explained to her as a writer this is taboo and she went off on me! In her words, 'this is just Myspace, I don't normally write like this when I get paid, but this is just Myspace!' I politely told her that if she wants to continue her calling as a writer, I don't care WHERE you are posting it, whether Myspace, or the gas station bathroom space, spelling and grammar is very critical to a true writer!

Whew....I can breathe now, just had to vent a little.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by tlangley

Ok, maybe this isn't Speech related, but one of the most annoying grammer errors (and you know you've seen it before) is using "your" as "you're". Urgh! Microsoft Word can accidentally 'mis-correct' your document; so check it carefully.

I have noticed many people write 'their' when they should be writing 'there' and vice versa. One person I know always uses 'seen' instead of 'saw'. I seen this great movie...Yikes!

I am always amazed when I receive correspondence for my boss. The spelling, grammar and punctuation is really bad.

[synclair]

My personal pet peeve is the misuse of the apostrophe. Many people put 's on the end of anything they are attempting to make plural--I read a joke recently that the new definition of apostrophe is "here comes an s".

That's not even accounting for the other examples provided about those who can't distinguish between it's and its, or your and you're.

[Jodith]

Ohhh...pet peeves in writing and speech. You just touched off some of my very worst annoyances.

Not typing out complete sentences. Please, it's not that hard. If you type so slowly, then take a typing course. *laughs* My husband and I are gamers so we run into this constantly when playing MMOs (Massive Multiplayer Online games). In our guild in EverQuest II, one of the requirments of membership is, "Must type in complete sentences".

Another huge, massive pet peeve is "nucular". Listen, folks, there's only one "U" in nuclear. Learn to pronounce it please.

Typing in either all caps or no caps. It's so hard to read. I agree with the first commenter. If you want people to actually read what you write, use common structure and punctuation. Even if it's only on MySpace. What if a prospective employer googles you and finds your sloppily written MySpace page? It's becoming fairly common for prospective employers to do so.

*sighs* There, I feel better now.

[Byrdymush]

Speaking of president - is "freer" a word? He used it in his State of the Union address earlier this year and I believe I heard McCain use it a few weeks later in a speech.
If something/someone is already free, can it/they get any more free? I could understand allowing or disallowing certain freedoms maybe, but "freer"?

Another peeve of mine has to do with double negatives. I'm not from around these parts (the south) and it seems like double negatives are a requirement for every sentence here. "I don't want none." "I ain't got none." "I don't got no more apples."
It is like nails on a chalkboard for me. My poor 4 year old daughter is constantly being corrected... "I don't want ANY."

[Jodith]

Prospective, folks. If you are talking about a boss you will be working for he is your prospective boss. Not perspective. Perspective refers to the angle at which you look for something.

More people make this mistake, both in writing and orally, and it just drives me crazy. But then, I can't figure out if affect is a noun or a verb *laughs*.

[Awenninger]

Venting_Bitch: I have had the opposite experience with abbreviated words. I am 22 and generally do not abbreviate my words, even in SMS. I am a lover of language and like to give each word the attention it deserves. However, my coworkers, who are all older than I am, constantly use abbreviations and smileys in instant messages and even in company-wide e-mails! Even the CEO does it and he is 42. Perhaps it is his way of proving that he is still hip. I still do not abbreviate my words but I do feel out-of-synch with the company culture when I send out e-mails full of non-abbreviated words and get e-mails back that say " k thx =) "

[LibraryILS]

Years after graduating from journalism school, my skin still crawls, hackles rise and eyes bug out at the use of 'held' relating to meetings, funerals and such. I still have flashbacks to the newsroom in college of my adviser stalking around in his Earth Shoes, proclaiming "A meeting is an intangible object and therefore CANNOT BE HELD".

[Phyllis]

Axed is the one that yanks my nerves. It is pronounced with an s, not an x, asked. When my husband tells me about someone who axed a question, I ask if there was much blood.

[Chrissy Scivicque]

Hmmm....LibraryILS, I might have to disagree with your Earth Shoes wearing adviser. "Held" - as far as I can tell - is not reserved soley for tangible objects. It is the past tense version of the word "hold". I can hold my temper. I can hold a grudge. I don't believe it's incorrect to have held my temper, or a grudge - both intangibles. And I also don't believe it's incorrect to hold a meeting. According to free dictionary, one of the 10 definitions of "hold" is to "cause to take place" as in "I'm going to hold a yard sale" or (past tense) "The race was held in Texas". Neither the yard sale nor the race are "tangible objects". Rather, they are events, just like a meeting. I think events can certainly be "held".

Ok. I freely admit I'm a geek.