ws

My wife is my proofreader. I wish she had time (and interest) enough to proofread my comments on RP because I let some stuff slip by here that are embarrassing. You should watch her read a book. She reads several every week and avails herself of self-published ebooks to find sufficient inventory to satiate her habit. Most of these are unedited and contain countless grammatical as well as spelling errors. Sadly, even books produced by the traditional publishers are letting things slip. It appears that they've laid off editors to cut costs. Spell check is not sufficient. Misuse of homonyms such as "to, too, and two" or "rain, rein, and reign" are not caught by computer word processing programs. Of all grammatical errors, the one I encounter most often (and has become one of my pet peeves) is the misuse of "me" for "I". "Me and Joe went to the store" is so wrong. Remove the "...and Joe..." and you should see what I mean. If not, you are beyond hope...

I belong to a couple of 'Net forums, and some of the stuff I see is absolutely appalling. The single biggest misteak I see is - its vs. it's. Spell check won't find it, since they are both proper words. I'm also seeing grammar and spelling errors in mainstream magazines. People just don't seem to care.

BTW, misteak was intentional, just to get a reaction check. :)

Following are two very costly examples of how critical it is be able to use and write our English language properly.

(1) Recently, a federal circuit court became involved in an appeal over the narrative in a police report, wherein the court was asked to examine the issue of a MISSING COMMA. In doing so, the absence of that comma changed the entire context of the sentence! The good guys LOST the appeal on the wrongful NON-use of a single, simple comma. Think about it.

(2) True story. Probably ten years ago, a $3 MILLION, 30-second commercial was aired during the Halftime Show of the Super Bowl. It was for and about NFLShops.Com. It featured Archie, Peyton, and Eli Manning. At the end of the commercial, the TV went to black, with a single sentence written across the screen. which read: The Manning's do all their shopping at NFLShops.Com. I picked up my phone and immediately called NFL headquarters and left a message for someone, anyone to call me concerning their commercial. The very next day, I received a personal call from the NFL's senior VP who oversaw corporate communications, e.g., Super Bowl publicity. I gave the nice gentleman a brief and diplomatic lesson on the incorrect usage of that one APOSTROPHE and the extremely common, but egregious grammatical error that it created. He was, shall we say, livid that a dozen, highly paid people who had approved the commercial were apparently bereft of any idea how or when to properly use a single, simple apostrophe. Think about it.