Peevish

[sanpaku_backup]

I don't suppose it would reveal anything privileged to say, in a general way, that grading papers just happens to remind me of my least favorite writing homophones... encountered at all levels of the educational system as well as from company managers (my bosses) IRL:

"I found this course to be very affective."
"The leaders acted in there own self interests."
"The Soviet's were wrong." (So were "the American's.")
"This was something the U.S. could not except."

Writing again in a general way, I would mention that just happening to encounter such mistakes makes me want to hit myself in the head with a ball peen hammer.

But that has NOTHING to do with these papers.

Uh huh.

Comments

[ex-fauxpas266.livejournal.com]

The American's WHAT were wrong?

Auuuugh!

[flw.livejournal.com]

Frank is terrified. He doesn't want to use any punctuation at all. Frank will write like Ernest Hemingway. Frank will never indicate possession. When Frank sees "American's" Frank thinks "American is". Soon after, Frank think, "How do one indicate possession? Is it American's? as in The American's pen ran out of ink. Or is it that All twelve of the Americans' gold medals were returned promptly. I think both are right. Right?" You put the apo at the end when it also indicates plurality, that "s" is carrying a wide load. Why not just do what they do in Esperanto?

Re:

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

You have it correct above.

The problem is that the students are writing, "The American's walked down the street. The Soviet's chased them down and beat them up. The Iranian's got angry at them." This is being done so frequently that I am beginning to tear out my hair. I can't imagine why someone would indicate a plural with an apostrophe (unless it is reasoning with something like "He lived in the late 1800's." -- but that's why intelligent style books say you shouldn't have an apostrophe there, either).