Posted by medlib on April 20, 2003, at 9:58:36
In reply to corrections, posted by beardedlady on April 19, 2003, at 13:49:57
Hi y'all--
I've done a fair amount of editing and proofreading over the years. And having long ago passed both "uppity" and "obnoxious" in the minds of most, I'll risk butting into this learned discourse.
1) There are no "comparitives", only "comparatives". (And, yes, I know that current correct punctuation requires commas and periods be placed inside quotation marks. I refuse to do so because it was once incorrect and still looks wrong to me.)
2) There is still some controversy about when, and whether, to treat collective nouns as singular or plural. I vote with Tabitha and Wendy on this one. I was taught that collective nouns regarded as plural usually are preceded by the article "a/n"; those regarded as singlular are preceded by the article "the". (Objects of prepositional phrases referring to collective nouns are always plural and not relevant here). The distinction is made, as Wendy stated, on the sense, or context meaning, in which the collective noun is used. So, it's possible for the same collective noun to be plural in one sentence and singular in another. All this would make "There're a bunch of other boards..." the correct phrasing.
Since I learned these things in olden days, before "progress" apparently rendered correct grammar and spelling irelevant to writing, I checked with my first alma mater on current usage. (I know of no other institution so ...er, obsessive about trivialities and irrelevancies. I wonder if they're still trying to catalog the Internet?)
Since my son informed me that unsolicited advice or correction is *not* supportive, I try to focus on message content and let others point out writing errors. I just think of all such mistakes as typos or ADD generated. In that spirit, I concluded that Dr. Bob's phrase in question must have been an attempt to be colloquial--which he managed about as well as I do humor. And, because it's been at least 2 years since I've read an error-free book (I read 3-4/week), it seems unreasonable to hold PB to higher standards. Are proofreaders now an extinct species?
Now, back to what I pretend is real life.---medlib
poster:medlib
thread:220096
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20030404/msgs/220819.html