Thread: Spelling and grammar nazis gather here!

Another I thought of another.

In August 2000, residents presented Newcastle City Council with a 381 signature petition asking to declare the streets of Oldmeadow off-limits to the trucks from Koondooloo Mine’s trucks.

I do not think the apostrophe is necessary as the Koondooloo Mine trucks serves as well and really inanimate objects should not have an apostrophe , but common usage seems to have changed on this.

Regard sPhilip A

Use of an apostrophe to abbreviate words as is (as's) described is poor or informal English and should not be used in formal writing. The same is true of any similar use of an an an apostrophe to shorten words as its use is not restricted to replacing the dropped i in is. For example in the informal terms can't, don't and wouldn't the apostrophe is used to replace the o in not and in should've the ha in have is dropped. If we continue to degrade language in that way where will we end up? do u c?

The correct use of the apostrophe s is to denote something being attributable or belonging to an individual. For example in the statement "DeeJay's grammar was always bad" it is the grammar of DeeJay to which we are referring.

Emoticons do not belong in formal text but certainly have a place on forums to avoid offending persons unknown.

The comma before and is termed an Oxford comma. The use of the Oxford comma has become more widely accepted in formal writing and is no longer considered bad English. It is strictly speaking an informality and should be avoided where possible. If you need to use the Oxford comma frequently you should really consider writing shorter sentences. Why? Because brevity is a virtue in formal prose.

My pet hate is not poor grammar, text speak or informality, unless the author is a professional writer like for instance a journalist whom should know better. My pet hate is the failure to use the correct spelling of too when describing the object of a sentence as being excessive or in addition to something else. Seldom does a day go by without this faux pas coming to my attention.

Well I guess that I have written enough to dig myself a large enough hole so that when someone who actually knows a lot about the English language shows up I will get a flogging, so to speak.