Getting Possessive Over Contractions

 I've seen apostrophes cause so many little catastrophes. Okay, yes I am being dramatic, but they can be tricky if you don't know where they belong and the proper use and meaning. typos happen quite often because of them so let's define a few. 

Now there's a good one right there. 'Lets' and 'let's' are different. Because based on 'its' and 'it's' we know that "it's" means "it is." But "let's" is actually a plural verb for let us "let us" while "lets" is singular.

But I would say the most commonly messed up words are "your" and "you're." I see this on the internet all the time. So many try to start a petty fight and they type, "your stupid." Their stupid what? "You're" is actually "you are," it's a possessive contraction describing a state of being. "Your" is just possessive. Not that I approve of name calling but at least you know if someone says "your stupid," you know that is incorrect because you don't have any stupid. You know it should be "you are stupid," so do them a favor and leave them a reply and remind them the word should be"You're*."

Online Errors

 Errors are so easy to make online.

I remember one instance I was reading a poem from a certain site, it was supposed to be 202 from Emily Dickinson. But in the title they made a mistake, it read "Faith is fine Invention." Once I saw that I sent them a comment and let them know they were missing an 'a' in the title that was included in the first line but not the title. That was a month ago and they have since fixed it. 

I decided to look for punctuation specific errors, and I'm realizing that most of the media I consume gets dumped if I can't understand it. But I have learned that 95% of memes are somewhere between using too many ellipses or not using any periods at all.  Of course there are points where it is necessary. But for the most part I agree with this post.

Not a single period or comma in sight, yet it is still readable. But once the story gets to two sentences or more it becomes necessary. 

But at the same time it can be a little ironic. You better have the best grammar and spelling ever if you plan to pick a fight over the internet. 

It's been taken so far that sometimes the serious posts become jokes.

This one is one of my favorites, the whole dramatic air of the post just tossed out a window. 

A more recent punctuation test given to the internet is this:

So choose your words and punctuation carefully. It can change whole ideals and societal constructs. 

The Elusive Email

Emails can be difficult to deliver the correct message and even receive a response. Depending on the setting an email can be as professional or as casual as the situation calls for. I would say A World Without Whom by Emmy Favilla explains the process best. In chapter 11 of her book, Favilla discusses the importance for being frank and too the point with emails. Lets be honest, when was the last time you got an email just for fun?

So for example, here is an email I sent to a customer service team after I only received half of my text book order. (Right?!) So this is the panicked email I sent them. (Spoilers, the other half came two days later and all is well.)

 

Hi my name is Ambri Miller, I ordered some books about a week ago and it says they're all here but I'm missing half my order.

Attached is a screenshot of my order. I'm still missing "Whereas" and "Typos." I need these books for class and I need them asap but the tracker doesn't show them anymore. 

Please let me know when you find them.

Thanks!

Looking at Favilla's list of greeting meanings, I do agree that I am trying my best to make this email as normal as possible, I wouldn't call myself the complaining type, so emailing a formal complaint is out of my usual league. Would I change it? Probably not, it's short and sweet and gets to the point. Which is also how the body of the email is. Nobody has time for generic niceties. Just say what's on you're mind, this is especially important here because what's the point of niceties among strangers? Who are they? This business email doesn't have to go there. 

Ending with a "Thanks!" as opposed to leaving out the exclamation mark probably isn't that big of a deal, but it did draw the necessary attention that the message needed.

Now this isn't to highlight just how wonderful my emailing skills are. After they got back to me and promised a refund, I definitely responded back after finally receiving my books with "I actually got my books, worry about the trouble."

(Inhales for 10 minutes.) I mean if they had never come they should be worried, but I meant to apologize. And I may be haunted by that email response for the rest of my life.

New Year New Meaning

 I said in my last post that language is constantly changing. So this week here's a couple words that have changed meaning or come into being in my whole 24 years of living. (Note: formal definitions listed definitions are found on google.)

1. Yeet - verb/ adj. (probably)

Lets start with one of my favorites. Yeet, is a word that came from a video on an app called Vine around 2015. It features a girl being handed an empty soda can and throwing it into a crowded staircase while exclaiming 'yeet.' Yeet is usually shouted when throwing something, but it has also evolved/ devolved into an excited word for 'yes' or 'let's go.' I've heard it used in casual cases such as: 

"Hey, I'm going to yeet over to walmart, want to come?" 

"Yeet! Let me grab my shoes." 

2. Canon- noun

a collection or list of sacred books accepted as genuine.

Honestly, I had to google the actual definition when I heard this in college because I learned the internet definition first. I genuinely thought it already had a meaning. When you say that someone is canon, it is usually referring to a couple in a story falling in love, and when they finally get together they are considered canon. I've also heard canon as referred to what is accepted to have happened in a story. Whether perhaps it did actually happen or someone came up a very plausible fan theory. It goes in hand with the image of 'ships.' Likely derived from 'relationships.' Again going back to a couples in a story, any possible dating relationships are considered ships, so when they finally end up together they become canon. It sounds a bit like pirate talk if you don't know the meanings. 

Writing What's Right

Today we're discussing the importance of questioning the dictionary. 

I took a class last semester about the history of the English Language. This class wasn't at all what I thought it was but I did learn that language changes locally, and that's why we have branches and accents from the same language. But today, when the world is so connected online, language is changing faster than ever. There's new abbreviations, new slang, new word definitions and it's changing rapidly. Now there's a million tiny differences that don't really matter, but they also kind of do. So which is it? Lets rapid fire some examples.

I once posted an argument with my Canadian roommate about whether it was correct to call them 'colored pencils' or 'pencil crayons.' And in the comments someone corrected me on my spelling of 'color' and said it was actually 'colour.' Which I supposed it depends on where you get your language. In both arguments neither of us were inherently wrong. We just grew up with different names for things and different spellings. I happen to live in America so I have that red squiggle under 'colour' but not 'color.' But we both spoke English. It's like 'gray' and 'grey' I've seen both. 

Spelling may differentiate between countries but commas seem to matter more in this cases because it can change the meaning. When you make a sort of exclamation statement like the usual example of "Lets eat Grandpa!" Versus, "Lets eat, Grandpa!" I wouldn't recommend eating Grandpa. But phrases like "Well does it really matter?" Versus "Well does it really matter?"

Capitalizing, when does it matter? Nobody seems to know, because nobody seems to care if you say 'french fry' but for some reason it can't be belgian waffles. Is it just the niche branding of the Belgian waffle? To people in Belgium even eat their own waffles? Because the French don't seem to care about their precious French fries. I understand the need to call it Kentucky Fried Chicken, it's a restaurant brand at that point. But then there's german pancakes. It seems that french fries are the only ones that get to break this rule.

But the thing that gets to me a lot is acronyms. When people use new acronyms, please tell us what it means first before using it repeatedly. I had a job making sandwiches in high school and I was so confused why everyone was going to the "Dijon Mayo Vinaigrette" to get their driving licences. (It took me a while of secret hunting to find out it was actually "Department of Motor Vehicles." Where did the 'O' go?)

It's changing so fast we have have entire dictionaries for slang now. The point is to be be as accurate as you can but language is changing rapidly so questioning language and the formality of the dictionary is important. There are rules with many things but consistency is key.

Getting Possessive- Who's House???

 Possessive Apostrophes. They can be confusing right? The one time the 's' doesn't make the word plural.

They show belonging, but they don't always belong.

Back in high school, my administration took orders for the new t-shirts. They raised a lot of money this way but apparently nobody asked the English department for help.

So on the back of the shirt it was supposed to say "Whose House?" And say "Our House!" on the front. 

But when they came in, just picture it, hundreds of shirts that read, "WHO'S HOUSE?" 

So now instead of declaring just whose house it is, it now reads "Who is house?" I mean, the enthusiasm is great, but that's a whole new sentence and meaning? Will we ever know who House is? 

What's funnier to me is just how many people the design had to go through and they only realized after it was printed. The committee that made the design, the student council, the principal, the student body, the actual printers making the shirts... 

So make sure if you're starting a business or undergoing a major project to get yourself a spell checker. Or just ask a friend, you could save a lot of money and some embarrassment. 

 

Edit-error-ial Awareness

 Like the title? It's my idea of a pun in the space of time between what is considered late evening and early dawn. 

But getting back to the topic of editorial grammar. There are so many typos and grammar errors in the world that I think we should raise some awareness for it. If we can bring that to the forefront of our minds, perhaps spells will not go unchecked. And people will stop writing "alot" when they really want to write "a lot." 

I've talked about a lot of my creative efforts in the past so this time as we go forward, lets talk about what makes the creative logical and sound.