STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Maddie · Coach

Grammar question! (halleybird?)

JoceyBaby23 · Gucci

I am pretty sure all of the these should be used without the "s".

blubirde · Chanel

JoceyBaby23 wrote:

I am pretty sure all of the these should be used without the "s".

I agree. According to dictionary.com:

anyways - nonstandard adverb

towards - Usage Note: Some critics have tried to discern a semantic distinction between toward and towards, but the difference is entirely dialectal. Toward is more common in American English; towards is the predominant form in British English.

forwards - variant of forward

NCshopper · Hermes

I'm pretty sure "anyways" isn't grammatically correct. I used to say that all the time, but "anyway" is correct.

halleybird · Hermes

in the US, all of those are considered nonstandard (which means wrong in most contexts). I spend half of my life crossing s's off of "toward" and "anyway" (dang kids...).

Maddie · Coach

Thanks, guys! That's what I had kind of thought, I just wanted to make sure.

laken1 · Hermes

Wow - great question Maddie - I never thought to ask my grammar questions here - how silly of me!

So Halleybird (or other English teachers / grammar experts) - I know there is a correct way to show a book vs a magazine vs a short story. I tried looking up "general grammar rules" & I couldn't find anything, well, without going through about a million googled items. So what is the correct way to show a book? Is it in italics? something is underlined, maybe magazine articles? Is there a good general website I can go to so I can see the rules for myself & not have to ask my teacher friends? I am forever or dictionary.com & would love a grammar source. As you can tell from my broken sentences & terrible punctuation (see, had to look that up for spelling) - I don't apply correct grammar to ST! But I am writing short stories & would like them to be somewhat correct.....

lynnie · Chanel

I think books are italics too. Short stories- maybe quotes?

Maddie · Coach

Hey, I know this one (I think)! Depends on if you want to use MLA or APA style. Though I was under the impression that underlining and italicizing serve the same effect and you should never underline if you can italicize.

This is an excellent book for grammar and lots more...

-- Edited by Maddie at 19:11, 2005-12-01

halleybird · Hermes

Maddie wrote:

Hey, I know this one (I think)! Depends on if you want to use MLA or APA style. Though I was under the impression that underlining and italicizing serve the same effect and you should never underline if you can italicize.

this is right. General rule - books, albums, movies, TV shows are italic. Short stories, poems, songs are in quotes.

PS -- If you use AP (newspaper style) everything goes in quotes, even books. Way to be confusing, huh?

-- Edited by halleybird at 19:12, 2005-12-01

Maddie · Coach

Ok, I have another question too. My English professor told me that parentheses always belong inside the period/exclamation mark/question mark.

Like this...
Hey, I know this one (I think)!

Not like this...
Hey, I know this one! (I think)

But I was reading some magazine (Details?) where they were frequently putting statements in parantheses outside the punctuation. I'm assuming they have a copy editor, so what's the rule?

NCshopper · Hermes

Alrighty smarty pants! I have another grammar question for you miss halleybird (or anyone else!) I e-mailed blubirde earlier in the week with this question, and we still don't have an answer, other than to just make up a word of our own for this phenomenon. Here's my e-mail to blubirde:

Okay, this whole situation made me think of you:
So today, my husband and I were driving home from Starbucks and we're waiting to turn left at a light, but the light is red. The car ahead of us keeps inching up until all the oncoming traffic is gone and then makes a left turn even though the light's still red. It wasn't until he was halfway through the intersection that we both realized his license plate read "ROADHZRD."

My first instinct is to say "Huh! Ironic!" but then I remembered your post about the shampoo ladies and the dog biting the mailman which is actually NOT irony, thus making the driver with the "ROADHZRD" plate making an illegal move not irony either.

So now my husband (who was an English major in college) and I are home, we've looked up IRONY in the dictionary (dorks, yes) and now the question is, what is it called when the dog bites the mailman or the person with a ROADHZRD license plate makes an illegal turn? Is there a term for that? (BTW, I explained your post about irony to my husband and told him "I really need to just ask blubirde" to which he looks at me like I have four heads.)

Naturally, I thought you'd have the answer. Any thoughts?

Seriously, I think this is one of those stupid things I might lose sleep over. :/

Any thoughts ladies?

Maddie · Coach

I'm pretty sure that's irony isn't it? Here's one of dictionary.com's definitions...
" An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning."
It seems to fall under that? Maybe?

halleybird · Hermes

Maddie wrote:

Ok, I have another question too. My English professor told me that parentheses always belong inside the period/exclamation mark/question mark. Like this... Hey, I know this one (I think)! Not like this... Hey, I know this one! (I think) But I was reading some magazine (Details?) where they were frequently putting statements in parantheses outside the punctuation. I'm assuming they have a copy editor, so what's the rule?

That's probably just the magazine's style, though it's a weird one. Parentheses are supposed to be inside the punctuation mark, unless they are complete sentences on their own. My only guess would be that they consider "(I think)" to be an aside, since it is technically a sentence, and thus stands alone apart from the original sentence. But even so, it should have its own punctuation, like this:

"Hey, I know this one!" (I think.)

Still, I don't like it.

NCShopper, I don't know what word you're looking for. I'd just say it was apt.

NCshopper · Hermes

Maddie wrote:

I'm pretty sure that's irony isn't it? Here's one of dictionary.com's definitions... " An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning." It seems to fall under that? Maybe?

Unfortunately, because the license plate that says ROADHZRD and he made an illegal turn, I don't think that's irony because by reading the license plate, it would be obvious that the person was a bad driver, so there's no contrast.

I guess apt is probably as good as it gets, but it just doesn't roll off the tongue, like irony does.

OR!!! Maybe it is irony, because although the guy's license plate says ROADHZRD, we didn't actually expect to witness him making an illegal turn.

Maddie · Coach

NCshopper wrote:

Maddie wrote:
I'm pretty sure that's irony isn't it? Here's one of dictionary.com's definitions... " An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning." It seems to fall under that? Maybe?

Unfortunately, because the license plate that says ROADHZRD and he made an illegal turn, I don't think that's irony because by reading the license plate, it would be obvious that the person was a bad driver, so there's no contrast.
I guess apt is probably as good as it gets, but it just doesn't roll off the tongue, like irony does.
OR!!! Maybe it is irony, because although the guy's license plate says ROADHZRD, we didn't actually expect to witness him making an illegal turn.

Haha, I totally wasn't thinking. For some reason, in my mind I'd decided that ROADHZRD and bad driving were opposites.

halleybird, thanks so much!

theotherjess · Chanel

NCshopper wrote:

Maddie wrote: I'm pretty sure that's irony isn't it? Here's one of dictionary.com's definitions... " An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning." It seems to fall under that? Maybe? Unfortunately, because the license plate that says ROADHZRD and he made an illegal turn, I don't think that's irony because by reading the license plate, it would be obvious that the person was a bad driver, so there's no contrast. I guess apt is probably as good as it gets, but it just doesn't roll off the tongue, like irony does. OR!!! Maybe it is irony, because although the guy's license plate says ROADHZRD, we didn't actually expect to witness him making an illegal turn.

I'm no expert, but I would think it would be ironic if his plate said something about him being a good driver.

blubirde · Chanel

Oh lord. You people are increasing my OCD and nerdiness level to the nth degree.

Maddie - as for the parentheses thing, in all my school and editing experience (and I hope this is right b/c I'm a huge fan of parenthetical additions to sentences AND I edit fictional works for publication), the punctuation belongs OUTSIDE the parentheses unless the parentheses contains an entire, seperate sentence. For instance:

He said (I think) that she was ugly. vs. He said she was ugly. (At least that's what I think he said.) See the difference? Unless it's a stand alone sentence, the punctuation goes outside the parentheses.

NCShopper - I STILL can't figure out a good word for either of those situations. I've asked everyone I know and no one can come up with anything. However I'm convinced there is a phrase out there that describes the situations. I just don't know it. If I have to spend the rest of my life figuring it out, I will!!!

laken1 - here's a good online site for grammar that I use when I get stuck on something. It's just very general information but it's useful. http://newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/ Another good site is http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/index.cfm. I use both when I'm contemplating an issue. Hmm... I wonder if there's an opposite to irony?? Oh! I'm off to look it up!