Gransnet forums

Pedants' corner

Sometimes the message is more important than the words

(18 Posts)
Butternut Thu 01-Mar-12 16:46:17

Just though I'd lob this into Pedants' corner. I like Steven Baxter's take, and he's funny, too.grin

www.newstatesman.com/blogs/steven-baxter/2012/03/important-looking-message

wotsamashedupjingl Thu 01-Mar-12 16:54:39

Oh yes. I really like that.

grannyactivist Thu 01-Mar-12 16:55:09

Oh, this is lovely Butternut. I love the word pedantitudinousness. smile
As a teacher of English as a second language I love the way that new words come into being or change their meaning etc., but I must admit that I am a bit of a pedant too; simply on the basis that the job of punctuation is to make things more easily readable.

jeni Thu 01-Mar-12 17:05:32

Like it

Granb Thu 01-Mar-12 17:07:59

Really enjoyed the article - thanks for pointing it out.

I don't know whether its because I'm a bit of a pedant but.....the way the word "insurgent" is used always makes me cross!

Carol Thu 01-Mar-12 17:11:13

Point taken, but I do enjoy a bit of pedantry smile

Annobel Thu 01-Mar-12 17:24:15

Unrepentant pedant - that's me!

Butternut Thu 01-Mar-12 17:45:08

I certainly enjoy a bit of pedantry, too, carol and annobelsmile, but I really felt for the greengrocer grin

wotsamashedupjingl Thu 01-Mar-12 17:51:12

I can't stand pedantry!!! grin

bagitha Thu 01-Mar-12 17:54:45

Thoroughly enjoyed the article, butty smile.

Hankipanki Thu 01-Mar-12 18:54:35

Good article butternut. Sums up how I feel about pedantry or should that be pedantitude.

JessM Thu 01-Mar-12 19:08:49

It's OK in its place , as long as people don't start being picky on Gransnet, outside this very special corner, that is.
I am cross eyed with pendantising my own work. aaaargh. tea/supper/dinner time!

em Thu 01-Mar-12 19:19:57

Were the mistakes in the article tongue-in-cheek/deliberate/unintentional?

bagitha Thu 01-Mar-12 20:03:18

Deliberate and tongue-in-cheek.

wotsamashedupjingl Thu 01-Mar-12 22:15:11

What, you read all of it?! shock

Greatnan Fri 02-Mar-12 07:22:35

Good article -yes, I read it all, but I speed read.
I do wince when I see poor spelling or grammar, but I would not dream of correcting what anyone wrote on a forum. I was fortunate to attend school in the days when we had lessons on grammar and I have a natural 'eye' for spelling (if you see a wrong spelling in my posts, it is probably a typo) but many contestants on the quizzes I watch appear to be unclear about the difference between nouns, verbs and the other parts of speech. Some of them are teachers, so it is hardly surprising that their pupils have problems.

Charlotta Fri 02-Mar-12 09:54:30

Its unreadable. I learned at Creative Writingg classes that you have to cut out unnecessary adverbs and keep your sentences precise enough to hold the reader's attention. All that just about an apostrophe.
If I had subjected this article to a newspaper or magazine then then it would have been returned.

Annobel Fri 02-Mar-12 10:05:09

True, Charlotta. Hemingway said (and I paraphrase): 'write as if you were sending a telegram and paying for every word yourself'. I used to rub this into my mature students - not always with conspicuous success.
Greatnan, I used to read a great many semi-literate job applications from young teachers with a very weak grasp of grammar and punctuation. And some of those were English teachers. Oh dear!