Need Grammar Help

wyo-cat · Post by **wyo-cat** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:07 am

Here's one for you one spacers - why do I have to hit space twice on my phone and tablet to bring an auto period?

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:15 am

Because grammarians make phones?

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:16 am

Puerco wrote:
UAEebs86 wrote:
threenumberones wrote:
Another random one, sort of related, that is often overlooked. Slides or document bullets also need punctuation.
Even if it's not a complete sentence? I am never sure on that one.
Never, ever punctuate an incomplete sentence on a powerpoint slide.

Never, ever make Power Point presentations. Period. Have respect for the audience.

pokinmik · Post by **pokinmik** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:26 am

wyo-cat wrote:Here's one for you one spacers - why do I have to hit space twice on my phone and tablet to bring an auto period?

When you do that it adds the period and then brings the cursor back to one space to start the next sentence. Hitting space twice is just the most convenient way to automatically add a period. Your phone and tablet are all about the one space and they'll accept nothing less, nothing more.

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 3:11 am

gumby wrote:
Puerco wrote:
UAEebs86 wrote:
threenumberones wrote:
Another random one, sort of related, that is often overlooked. Slides or document bullets also need punctuation.
Even if it's not a complete sentence? I am never sure on that one.
Never, ever punctuate an incomplete sentence on a powerpoint slide.
Never, ever make Power Point presentations. Period. Have respect for the audience.

Okay, but do you have a better option? Flip charts or something?

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 3:54 am

Prezi

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 6:56 am

Has to be something blessed by corporate IT, sadly. So, Powerpoint it is!

rgdeuce · Post by **rgdeuce** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 11:52 am

Full time, full-time. 3-year-old, 3 years old. Blonde, blonde, Fiance, fiancee..Blah.......

Yet the one that ALWAYS kills me is Wal-Mart. I have to look almost every time.

catgrad97 · Post by **catgrad97** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 6:19 pm

My managing editor just corrected me in front of the whole newsroom that there was no hyphen in off-season.

He's been wrong so much, I don't even know how to correct him anymore. So I just shut up.

UAEebs86 · Post by **UAEebs86** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 6:27 pm

This could have gone in several threads.

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 2:17 pm

rgdeuce wrote:Full time, full-time. 3-year-old, 3 years old. Blonde, blonde, Fiance, fiancee..Blah.......

Yet the one that ALWAYS kills me is Wal-Mart. I have to look almost every time.

Former colleague and Wildcat wrote this. Includes "Wal-Mart." Seems the company itself has two spellings.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... story.html" target="_blank

Like the part about "mic." If it's "mic," why not "bic?" (for bicycle) Why email but x-ray?

We used to go round and round on this stuff. Ultimately, you have to settle on something and then be consistent. Then change when you look out of step.

You can drive yourself crazy determining what is "right."

P.S. He uses more hyphens that I would.

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 2:19 pm

Puerco wrote:
gumby wrote:
Puerco wrote:
UAEebs86 wrote:
threenumberones wrote:
Another random one, sort of related, that is often overlooked. Slides or document bullets also need punctuation.
Even if it's not a complete sentence? I am never sure on that one.
Never, ever punctuate an incomplete sentence on a powerpoint slide.
Never, ever make Power Point presentations. Period. Have respect for the audience.

Okay, but do you have a better option? Flip charts or something?

When folks come in to talk to the editorial board, we ask that it be a conversation, not a presentation. Some print out their PPs, and hand them to us.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 2:42 pm

When you end a sentence with something in quotes does the punctuation go inside or outside the quote?

EOCT · Post by **EOCT** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 2:58 pm

Gumby, love the goal of "conversation". Talking "with" instead of "to".

Ideal with both large and small audiences, though many presenters find the approach threatening.

But if it's a presentation that has desired action written all over it, I like a power point for graphs and charts and the points of the presentation in short, short bullets. McKinsey & Co style. Ideal=one word salient points. No narrative or descriptive stuff.

Also recommend a few pages of the points with no more than a few bullets per page for the audience to make notes on. Then pass out a clean package of points, graphs and charts at the conclusion.

I find the enemy of presenting info, calling to action, etc. is detail. It wants to dilute the important stuff, and you can always get it to the audience afterword anyway. And if you put detail in a package up front for the audience to "follow" as you present, the audience to a person will be reading and not listening/watching as you deliver your amazingly wonderful message and have your thrilling "with, not to" conversation with your lucky audience.

Two cents. Okay, probably a penny.

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 3:04 pm

azgreg wrote:When you end a sentence with something in quotes does the punctuation go inside or outside the quote?

Depends on the style manual.

AP Style – “The period and the comma always go within the question marks. The dash, semicolon, the question mark and the exclamation point go within the quotation when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence”

Have to keep looking it up myself. Often get it wrong.

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 3:07 pm

EOCT wrote:Gumby, love the goal of "conversation". Talking "with" instead of "to".

Ideal with both large and small audiences, though many presenters find the approach threatening.

But if it's a presentation that has desired action written all over it, I like a power point for graphs and charts and the points of the presentation in short, short bullets. McKinsey & Co style. Ideal=one word salient points. No narrative or descriptive stuff.

Also recommend a few pages of the points with no more than a few bullets per page for the audience to make notes on. Then pass out a clean package of points, graphs and charts at the conclusion.

I find the enemy of presenting info, calling to action, etc. is detail. It wants to dilute the important stuff, and you can always get it to the audience afterword anyway. And if you put detail in a package up front for the audience to "follow" as you present, the audience to a person will be reading and not listening/watching as you deliver your amazingly wonderful message and have your thrilling "with, not to" conversation with your lucky audience.

Two cents. Okay, probably a penny.

In lieu of decent pay, we are rewarded by not having to endure business presentations.

Longhorned · Post by **Longhorned** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 4:10 pm

gumby wrote:
azgreg wrote:When you end a sentence with something in quotes does the punctuation go inside or outside the quote?
Depends on the style manual.

AP Style – “The period and the comma always go within the question marks. The dash, semicolon, the question mark and the exclamation point go within the quotation when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence”

Have to keep looking it up myself. Often get it wrong.

I've never written for a publication that follows the convention of placing punctuation after the quotation mark. That's a shame because it makes no sense. It also doesn't make sense to cite a source before the period, but every publication I write for does.

For example:

John Poon even goes so far as to claim that "all curvature in Hellenistic temples reflects the single-axis protraction of a graphically-constructed arc" (Poon 2011, 179). Still, there are no calculations to confirm the conformity of ordinates to elliptical rather than parabolic curvatures, leaving open the possibility of catenary-based techniques (Haselberger 2014, 31).

Whereas this makes sense:

John Poon even goes so far as to claim that "all curvature in Hellenistic temples reflects the single-axis protraction of a graphically-constructed arc". (Poon 2011, 179) Still, there are no calculations to confirm the conformity of ordinates to elliptical rather than parabolic curvatures, leaving open the possibility of catenary-based techniques. (Haselberger 2014, 31)

Daryl Zero · Post by **Daryl Zero** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 4:50 pm

Longhorned wrote:
gumby wrote:
azgreg wrote:When you end a sentence with something in quotes does the punctuation go inside or outside the quote?
Depends on the style manual.

AP Style – “The period and the comma always go within the question marks. The dash, semicolon, the question mark and the exclamation point go within the quotation when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence”

Have to keep looking it up myself. Often get it wrong.
I've never written for a publication that follows the convention of placing punctuation after the quotation mark. That's a shame because it makes no sense. It also doesn't make sense to cite a source before the period, but every publication I write for does.

For example:

John Poon even goes so far as to claim that "all curvature in Hellenistic temples reflects the single-axis protraction of a graphically-constructed arc" (Poon 2011, 179). Still, there are no calculations to confirm the conformity of ordinates to elliptical rather than parabolic curvatures, leaving open the possibility of catenary-based techniques (Haselberger 2014, 31).

Whereas this makes sense:

John Poon even goes so far as to claim that "all curvature in Hellenistic temples reflects the single-axis protraction of a graphically-constructed arc". (Poon 2011, 179) Still, there are no calculations to confirm the conformity of ordinates to elliptical rather than parabolic curvatures, leaving open the possibility of catenary-based techniques. (Haselberger 2014, 31)

Your bottom style is the style I use for my legal writing.

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 11:02 am

He's ogling your bottom style. Careful.

rgdeuce · Post by **rgdeuce** » Tue Dec 22, 2015 1:02 pm

gumby wrote:
rgdeuce wrote:Full time, full-time. 3-year-old, 3 years old. Blonde, blonde, Fiance, fiancee..Blah.......

Yet the one that ALWAYS kills me is Wal-Mart. I have to look almost every time.
Former colleague and Wildcat wrote this. Includes "Wal-Mart." Seems the company itself has two spellings.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... story.html" target="_blank

Like the part about "mic." If it's "mic," why not "bic?" (for bicycle) Why email but x-ray?

We used to go round and round on this stuff. Ultimately, you have to settle on something and then be consistent. Then change when you look out of step.

You can drive yourself crazy determining what is "right."

P.S. He uses more hyphens that I would.

Yep. Corporation is Wal-Mart, store itself is Walmart. Decided to make it easy and use the hyphen in all cases. I still have to look every damn time though

rgdeuce · Post by **rgdeuce** » Tue Dec 22, 2015 1:12 pm

Longhorned wrote:
I've never written for a publication that follows the convention of placing punctuation after the quotation mark. That's a shame because it makes no sense. It also doesn't make sense to cite a source before the period, but every publication I write for does.

For example:

John Poon even goes so far as to claim that "all curvature in Hellenistic temples reflects the single-axis protraction of a graphically-constructed arc" (Poon 2011, 179). Still, there are no calculations to confirm the conformity of ordinates to elliptical rather than parabolic curvatures, leaving open the possibility of catenary-based techniques (Haselberger 2014, 31).

Whereas this makes sense:

John Poon even goes so far as to claim that "all curvature in Hellenistic temples reflects the single-axis protraction of a graphically-constructed arc". (Poon 2011, 179) Still, there are no calculations to confirm the conformity of ordinates to elliptical rather than parabolic curvatures, leaving open the possibility of catenary-based techniques. (Haselberger 2014, 31)

Here is an example:

Jacob has three siblings: Mary, 37, resides in Tucson and is an accountant; John, 32, resides in Phoenix and is a "hustler"; and Chris, 25, resides in Los Angeles and works in construction.
-or-
So you are telling me your day consists of sleeping, smoking marijuana, eating nachos, and "spanking the monkey"?

UAEebs86 · Post by **UAEebs86** » Tue Dec 22, 2015 1:18 pm

What kind of a name is Poon?

scumdevils86 · Post by **scumdevils86** » Tue Dec 22, 2015 2:06 pm

UAEebs86 wrote:What kind of a name is Poon?

Best friend's roommate in college married a chick named Poon.

Longhorned · Post by **Longhorned** » Tue Dec 22, 2015 2:12 pm

UAEebs86 wrote:What kind of a name is Poon?

Thank you. I hadn't expected anyone to read further.

Daryl Zero · Post by **Daryl Zero** » Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:15 pm

I say, throw grammar off the train.

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Tue Dec 22, 2015 5:55 pm

Daryl Zero wrote:I say, throw grammar off the train.

She'll break her colon and slip into a comma.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Tue Dec 22, 2015 8:25 pm

When to a or an.

Daryl Zero · Post by **Daryl Zero** » Tue Dec 22, 2015 9:55 pm

gumby wrote:
Daryl Zero wrote:I say, throw grammar off the train.
She'll break her colon and slip into a comma.

I'm sure it will only be a semi-colon.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Tue May 31, 2016 10:54 am

New topic. Is it proper to end a sentence with an abbreviated word such as etc.?

rgdeuce · Post by **rgdeuce** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 12:43 pm

Not sure if that is addressed specifically in the AP Stylebook (was too lazy to dig too much for you), but based on some other rules, yes. For example, you always abbreviate junior and senior, before and after death, etc. There, I just did it. You will be fine as long as you are using abbreviations your reader(s) will quickly recognize, another AP rule.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 12:55 pm

rgdeuce wrote:Not sure if that is addressed specifically in the AP Stylebook (was too lazy to dig too much for you), but based on some other rules, yes. For example, you always abbreviate junior and senior, before and after death, etc. There, I just did it. You will be fine as long as you are using abbreviations your reader(s) will quickly recognize, another AP rule.

Cool. Part 2: How do you punctuate the end of the sentence?
A) End the sentence like this etc..
or
B) End the sentence like this etc.

catgrad97 · Post by **catgrad97** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 1:22 pm

B). Never waste periods. Same rule applies to a.m./p.m. and other abbreviations.

Anyhoo.................

rgdeuce · Post by **rgdeuce** » Thu Jun 02, 2016 9:50 am

What catgrad said.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Mon May 06, 2019 6:42 am

Proper use of the # symbol. Do you put a space between the word and # or between the # and number. Ex:
Part# 123456 or Part #123456

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Mon May 06, 2019 6:53 am

The latter.

“Insert tab #12 into slot #147.”

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Mon May 06, 2019 7:05 am

I've been doing it wrong for decades.

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Mon May 06, 2019 7:11 am

azgreg wrote:I've been doing it wrong for decades.

Not to worry. I’m sure people just think you’re quirky and fun loving.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Mon May 06, 2019 7:20 am

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Mon Sep 21, 2020 6:38 pm

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Mon Sep 21, 2020 7:17 pm

I like his hat.

scumdevils86 · Post by **scumdevils86** » Mon Sep 21, 2020 7:17 pm

azgreg wrote:

This is perfect

dovecanyoncat · Post by **dovecanyoncat** » Mon Sep 21, 2020 7:51 pm

Fuck sake
Fuck's sake
Fucks' sake

I vote for the last: "for the sake of all Fucks."

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