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Darkstone
Immortal
May 24 2012, 5:58pm
Post #76 of 187
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How many Aggies does it take to screw in a light bulb?
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Just one, and he gets 3 hours credit!
****************************************** The audacious proposal stirred his heart. And the stirring became a song, and it mingled with the songs of Gil-galad and Celebrian, and with those of Feanor and Fingon. The song-weaving created a larger song, and then another, until suddenly it was as if a long forgotten memory woke and for one breathtaking moment the Music of the Ainur revealed itself in all glory. He opened his lips to sing and share this song. Then he realized that the others would not understand. Not even Mithrandir given his current state of mind. So he smiled and simply said "A diversion.”
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Ataahua
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/ Moderator
May 24 2012, 7:25pm
Post #77 of 187
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I often use "There's" as a contraction for "There are". ... purely because increasingly more TV and radio journalists are confusing singular and plural, and these people use language for a living! They should get this basic one right! Just on this morning's radio a commentator said, "Where is the investigation? Where is the charges?" ARE the charges! ARE! (My tolerance for grammar flubs is low first thing in the morning.)
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..." Dwarves: "Pretty rings..." Men: "Pretty rings..." Sauron: "Mine's better." "Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded b*****d with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak. Ataahua's stories
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DanielLB
Immortal
May 24 2012, 7:34pm
Post #78 of 187
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Now it may just be me (and others from the UK may also like to point out their experience), but I never really remember learning "grammar". Luckily my supervisor applauds my writing (although you wouldn't have guessed it by my posts....), but I never remember learning when to use the apostrophe, the comma, sentence structure etc. To me, the way I write today is from reading academic papers - not from my school days. I remember doing spelling tests, reading books and writing passages/own stories, but only have very vague memories of learning the English language (and I'm only 23, so it wasn't *that* long ago). So maybe this is a problem. If I don't remember learning it, maybe schools are failing us (that's where the UK comes in, because I have no idea about other countries). On the other hand, it might just be. After all, I don't have the best memory and didn't really listen at school
Voting has begun for "The Lord of the Rings Character Elimination Game" Make sure you vote for your favourite characters!
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Darkstone
Immortal
May 24 2012, 7:57pm
Post #79 of 187
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I'm an old country boy. I'm *supposed* to sound ignernt! But they're paid money. They're supposed to be professionals.
****************************************** The audacious proposal stirred his heart. And the stirring became a song, and it mingled with the songs of Gil-galad and Celebrian, and with those of Feanor and Fingon. The song-weaving created a larger song, and then another, until suddenly it was as if a long forgotten memory woke and for one breathtaking moment the Music of the Ainur revealed itself in all glory. He opened his lips to sing and share this song. Then he realized that the others would not understand. Not even Mithrandir given his current state of mind. So he smiled and simply said "A diversion.”
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JWPlatt
Grey Havens
May 24 2012, 8:16pm
Post #80 of 187
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With so many jobs open in the media with print going blog happy, the internet in general, and hundreds of lousy channels on TV instead of just a few, most of it tabloid, the supply of available jobs must be too great and the so the qualifications and standards must drop to meet the demand. Ouch, look at that - a one-paragraph, run-on sentence. Shame on me. ;)
(This post was edited by JWPlatt on May 24 2012, 8:18pm)
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Annael
Immortal
May 24 2012, 8:19pm
Post #81 of 187
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reminds me of the argument against overuse of "very"
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I write these sentences on the board for my writers to compare: He was an honest man. He was a very honest man.
The way we imagine our lives is the way we are going to go on living our lives. - James Hillman, Healing Fiction * * * * * * * * * * NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Annael
Immortal
May 24 2012, 8:25pm
Post #82 of 187
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I read a lot of books & stories by Brits, so both sets of spellings look correct to me now. I also find myself saying "my family are coming to brunch" instead of "is" - "family" is singular in the US - and "I'm going on holiday" instead of "on vacation," etc., probably because of all the British movies I watch.
The way we imagine our lives is the way we are going to go on living our lives. - James Hillman, Healing Fiction * * * * * * * * * * NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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JWPlatt
Grey Havens
May 24 2012, 9:28pm
Post #83 of 187
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I'm aware UK uses "are" for collective singular entities, which I forgive. ;) But more of those bloggers in the US I keep talking about seem to be picking up the bad habit of thinking this is correct. They write, for example, "Google are a good company." Gah! Google is one company - singular. Maybe it's the spell checker, but what's really appalling is that they also don't seem to understand that the choice of "a" or "an" before a word is PHONETIC and they do not directly depend on the actual letter that begins a word. They will write "an unique..." Ugh. Far, far worse are actual professionals who speak and write "an historic..." Very common mistake. Now, for the Brits with the accent that drops the 'h' in fronts of words such that they say "'istoric," I suppose that could get an "an" but, well, that's just an abomination. ;)
(This post was edited by JWPlatt on May 24 2012, 9:31pm)
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DanielLB
Immortal
May 24 2012, 9:34pm
Post #84 of 187
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I hadn't realised there was a difference between are/is for the UK & US
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I'm aware UK uses "are" for collective singular entities, which I forgive. ;) But more of those bloggers in the US I keep talking about seem to be picking up the bad habit of thinking this is correct. They write, for example, "Google are a good company." Gah! Google is one company - singular. Maybe it's the spell checker, but what's really appalling is that they also don't seem to understand that the choice of "a" or "an" before a word is PHONETIC and they do not directly depend on the actual letter that begins a word. They will write "an unique..." Ugh. Far, far worse are actual professionals who speak and write "an historic..." Very common mistake. Now, for the Brits with the accent that drops the 'h' in fronts of words such that they say ''istoric," I suppose that could get an "an" but, well, that's just an abomination. ;) But then again, I wouldn't write "Google are a good company". I suppose languages are changing, and since the UK and US both speak English, it's not surprising they've become more mixed. I have to confess, I'm bad at putting an before a word starting with a vowel. I do check it's correct though ...
Voting has begun for "The Lord of the Rings Character Elimination Game" Make sure you vote for your favourite characters!
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dernwyn
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May 24 2012, 10:19pm
Post #85 of 187
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That the proper usage was "an historic", because of the soft sound of the "h"; and to always, always, use "an" before any word beginning with a vowel, regardless of how the vowel is pronounced. So those "old-timers" who use these conventions can't be blamed: they had it drilled into them!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I desired dragons with a profound desire" "It struck me last night that you might write a fearfully good romantic drama, with as much of the 'supernatural' as you cared to introduce. Have you ever thought of it?" -Geoffrey B. Smith, letter to JRR Tolkien, 1915
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DanielLB
Immortal
May 24 2012, 10:20pm
Post #86 of 187
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That's the reason I do it, because I was also taught to always use an before a word beginning with a vowel!
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Xanaseb
Tol Eressea
May 24 2012, 11:30pm
Post #87 of 187
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a brilliant database of eggcorns, so phrases that have been misused, but then are understood literally as they are by the person
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http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/ at least I think I'm right with my definition there. from the website: Eg.) : Youthamism ---> used accidentally to describe the euphanisms of youth. ie.)" I’d jokingly ’spaz out’ and rant that ‘Sheila’ is an Australian youthamism, but some one has removed large fonts from my arsenal. (rap music forum, Feb 26, 2008)"
Catch it, catch it, catch it! Dropped it... ... Join us over at Barliman's chat all day, any day! ________________________________________ Join the Lord of the Rings Character Elimination game! Vouch for your favourite -minor- book and film character so that they can enter the -major- characters level!
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Xanaseb
Tol Eressea
May 24 2012, 11:32pm
Post #88 of 187
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Daniel you are spot on, us UK-ers were not methodically taught 'grammar' per se.
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Yet IMO most of us are adept at it --but-- when pressed about all the technical vocab etc. surrounding it we're like: "Whaaa?" It's pretty crazy when I talk to my Polish relatives or my international friends who all know all these random terms within grammar. When they rant on about grammar etc. I just switch off hehe
Catch it, catch it, catch it! Dropped it... ... Join us over at Barliman's chat all day, any day! ________________________________________ Join the Lord of the Rings Character Elimination game! Vouch for your favourite -minor- book and film character so that they can enter the -major- characters level!
(This post was edited by Xanaseb on May 24 2012, 11:33pm)
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Xanaseb
Tol Eressea
May 24 2012, 11:36pm
Post #89 of 187
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Yeah I say "orientated" as do most British.... though things are -fast- changing with the highly highly Americanised (notice the -s- ;) :P ) new generation.
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I'm 19 and I've managed to avoid Americanisation (for the most part) however. Can't say the same for my little sister -__-
Catch it, catch it, catch it! Dropped it... ... Join us over at Barliman's chat all day, any day! ________________________________________ Join the Lord of the Rings Character Elimination game! Vouch for your favourite -minor- book and film character so that they can enter the -major- characters level!
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JWPlatt
Grey Havens
May 25 2012, 12:37am
Post #90 of 187
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So tell me, when you say "americanise" do you pronounce the last syllable like "size" or "nice?" And the quality of clothing that makes it fit your build, is that spelled "sise?"
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Xanaseb
Tol Eressea
May 25 2012, 12:53am
Post #91 of 187
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I'm not saying either's better than the other lol. Just trying to keep British English that's all :). Saying one dialect, accent or way of language is superior/inferior to another is frankly appalling hehe. American English a lot of the time is much more logical than British English lolol, but I don't care about that at all.
Catch it, catch it, catch it! Dropped it... ... Join us over at Barliman's chat all day, any day! ________________________________________ Join the Lord of the Rings Character Elimination game! Vouch for your favourite -minor- book and film character so that they can enter the -major- characters level!
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
May 25 2012, 1:32am
Post #93 of 187
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Did you hear about the Aggie terrorist?
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He tried to blow up a car - and burned his mouth on the tailpipe!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I desired dragons with a profound desire" "It struck me last night that you might write a fearfully good romantic drama, with as much of the 'supernatural' as you cared to introduce. Have you ever thought of it?" -Geoffrey B. Smith, letter to JRR Tolkien, 1915
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Gimli'sBox
Gondor
May 25 2012, 2:00am
Post #94 of 187
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Those are interesting! I've been guilty of a few of them but...
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Not all! One of my problems is saying "When it comes down to brass knuckles". Also I've had to totally train myself to say musical correctly. Some people I know say it "music-CAL".
Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing they evidently prefer. Good becomes great. Bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man who has known power all his life may lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength and knows compassion.
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JWPlatt
Grey Havens
May 25 2012, 2:23am
Post #95 of 187
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I just read a post elsewhere that correctly spelled the word 'despise.' Oh well.
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JWPlatt
Grey Havens
May 25 2012, 2:31am
Post #96 of 187
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I see amateurs and, shockingly, professionals alike misuse this phrase perhaps even more often then "could care less." The proper use is usually "despite." Despite: Even though In Spite Of: oppositional; angry or hateful toward
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Elizabeth
Half-elven
May 25 2012, 4:14am
Post #97 of 187
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...after a period and before a zipcode are so embedded in my fingers' muscle memory that I can't force myself to change, regardless of how many editors have taken me to task for it. And MS-Word even nags me about it by showing squiggly green lines to indicate that their superior grammar checker disapproves.
Is Tolkien a good writer, or amateurish and dated? Join the discussion of Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon by Brian Rosebury, now playing in the Reading Room! Elizabeth is the TORnsib formerly known as 'erather'
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Silverlode
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
May 25 2012, 4:27am
Post #99 of 187
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have a hate/hate relationship born of its dedication to admit only the most basic (and boring) forms and usages, though it's not quite as malevolent as the relationship I have with Word's tendency to reformat my documents without asking me even after I have painstakingly adjusted and saved said document. The world would be a less irritating place if more people had Word Perfect.
Silverlode "Of all faces those of our familiares are the ones both most difficult to play fantastic tricks with, and most difficult really to see with fresh attention. They have become like the things which once attracted us by their glitter, or their colour, or their shape, and we laid hands on them, and then locked them in our hoard, acquired them, and acquiring ceased to look at them. Creative fantasy, because it is mainly trying to do something else [make something new], may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds. The gems all turn into flowers or flames, and you will be warned that all you had (or knew) was dangerous and potent, not really effectively chained, free and wild; no more yours than they were you." -On Fairy Stories
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Magpie
Immortal
May 25 2012, 4:36am
Post #100 of 187
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but for what I do, I heart InDesign even more. I pretend to totally suck at Word (and I mostly do) so they don't make me 'design' documents in them. I even got the teacher who teaches Word (I work in a small college) in to look at a particularly vexing copy of a Word document I was supposed to send to print and even he couldn't manage to do anything with it. I had to send it back to the person who created it and tell them to whip it into shape and send it back to me as a pdf.
LOTR soundtrack website magpie avatar gallery ~ Torn Image Posting Guide
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