Retail stupidity...

[leoniedelt]

We went shopping this morning/afternoon for various things, a haircut for pumpkin, a visit to the dentist, etc. I just read my receipt. Honest to god i wonder how people ever made it out of secondary school making these kinds of mistakes...

Clicky for biggerness...


WHY do people sprinkle apostrophes like so much confetti ??
Its like 'ooh look, it ends in S, it must need one of those little things beside it...'

Okay fair enough, i leave them out when i'm typing. I can't be bothered with contractions most of the time though sometimes i remember. I dont bother with youre and dont and cant and its. But frankly, typing them without the appropriate punctuation looks better than tossing apostrophes around just to make yourself look more intelligent. If you're gonna use em, use em PROPERLY, or dont bother - it looks stupid with them where they dont need to be. Sunday doesnt OWN anything, therefore the possessive apostrophe is incorrectly used.

*headdesk*

Comments

[bibliophile1887.livejournal.com]

[leoniedelt.livejournal.com]

I can't see your reply, but your icon is spot on. Yes.

[lixa-turner.livejournal.com]

It's the same with "DVD's" and "CD's". You don't wrote "we're selling book's", so why would you with anything else?

[leoniedelt.livejournal.com]

http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/

Here's some help for the truly grammatically incapable out there...

[kilinka.livejournal.com]

Dear lord that's messed up.

And you think a store of all places would have a proofreader...

They may not own anything except our contempt ;)

May I *headdesk* with you?

[leoniedelt.livejournal.com]

Bingo.
Its a shop - i expect them to know the english language better than that...

[kilinka.livejournal.com]

Exactly, it isn't like they aren't surrounded by..um I don't know, labels for foodstuffs?

[liodain.livejournal.com]

You think that's bad - I work for a publisher, and the number of freelance professional indexers that don't know their alphabet, copy editors who have the apostrophe problem, and proof readers who can apparently barely read... is staggering. I swear I spend half my time correcting grammatical errors and I work in the bloody art dept!

[leoniedelt.livejournal.com]

I've always been a stickler for proper punctuation. I might not use it half the time out of laziness, but i KNOW how to. This is the intarwebs and you get by with things you wouldn't in a professional situation.

People who actually don't know the rules, try and get it wrong look like total tits.

[blasphemae.livejournal.com]

I know why it happens! Because the brain is retarded even if it's smart. We use contractions so damn much that our fingers/brains get used to using apostrophes a lot. :(

[leoniedelt.livejournal.com]

As an individual, I can agree.

But i'm talking about a business here - there are people paid to spot mistakes just like that on copy before it goes out, so i've no idea why that one escaped their attention.

[blasphemae.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah... when talking business, they should be more careful.

[the-terrible.livejournal.com]

Apostrophe misuse really frosts my flakes. It's getting to the point that I'm telling people about my books just to point out that I'm not only a self-published author, but one who knows how to spell, write and punctuate properly. And my message is, if I can do it, SO CAN YOU.

[leoniedelt.livejournal.com]

Woot! Tell me about your books. I'm so clueless, sorry.

[the-terrible.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry; I thought you were aware of them. ^_^*

I write science-fiction and fantasy. (I'd been granted permission to make a post in doctorwho about my sci-fi books since Doctor Who had some influence on my series, though no one commented on it.) My sci-fi series is called Captain Exetre and I so far have three books out, with a fourth that I'd be working on right now if I wasn't so tired. (It has a chapter done, at least.)

It's better if I just give you my website address so you can check out my stuff for yourself:

http://thebloodomen.com/ivan_henley/index.html

The web comics I write and draw are on that site as well.

Four of my fantasy novels and the three Captain Exetre books are all available on sites like Amazon and Booksamillion. I'm proud of my fantasy works, but Captain Exetre is the series I'm really pushing, because sci-fi is the genre I'm most comfortable in.