Blog #6

Some of the words I mix up the most are lie, lay, laid, etc. I have never been able to fully understand which one is used in a certain tense and what differs between them. I found a very helpful grid on how to tell them apart:

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to memorize which version is used when, but finding pictures and helpful hints is very helpful. Something I also like to do when there are words I mix up or don't understand, is look them up. I compare their definitions and find examples of them used in sentences. Doing this helps me see the differences in their meanings and I am able to understand how and when they are used. 

The editing mistake I found this week was from a Yahoo article about the tragedy that occurred in Las Vegas on October 1st. The article had several misspelled words and they were all pretty simple words. In the section of the article I posted, you'll see that the first word, "is," should actually be "if." The second word, "told," should actually be "sold." I was surprised to see so many short words misspelled in an article that a lot of people probably read.

​

Blog #6, The Office Prank, by Julie White

Several years ago I worked with a serial snack eater. My co-worker, well known for popping-into-a-cubical and nibbling on open food containers without permission, needed to learn a lesson on proper food etiquette. Although I liked this goofy guy, my mischievous side started planning an assault. The idea must be brilliant, harmless, and funny. The hunt began for the perfect prank.

I stumbled upon it several months later. While tidying my desk one day I picked up an orange marker and decided to color a packing peanut. With delight the orange fuzzy peanut looked surprisingly like Cheetos. Now armed with the product, the execution would be easy.

The next day I placed on my desk a used Cheetos bag filled with the fake Cheetos, and waited. It didn't take long. Roger strolled into my office, we visited for a minute and he reached down and popped a few Cheetos into his mouth. He quickly made a face and spit them out. I laughed and laughed. To this day I'm not sure if I cured him or not, but I will always cherish the Cheetos prank.

A word that I struggle with is Compose/Comprise. Compose means something made up of other things, such as ingredients. For example, Cheetos are composed of Vegetable oil, Cheese seasoning, canola oil, malto dextrin, salt, whey protein concentrate, and monosodium glutamate.

The other word, comprises, means (takes in, includes) other things. Consider these sentence examples; "The whole is never comprised of the parts.", "Her speech comprised four major themes."

Although joking can be a lot of fun, copy writing and headline errors can do some damage. Worse yet, they can be embarrassing to correct. May we learn to comprise all our skills into great writing, editing and proof reading.

OWL is my favorite grammar site to use. The Purdue Online Writing Lab is functional and easy to navigate. The site is truly practical in assisting students with grammar mistakes. Any grammar or punctuation questions that arise can be answered using a website like OWL. The Purdue OWL website includes links to a wide range of resources for students. The site consists of tips for beginner writers on research, prewriting, writer’s block and paragraphing. 

Grammarly is another good resource for writers. The app connects to Microsoft word and opens within the program. Writers can use Grammarly to check for mistakes in spelling, punctuation, subject-verb agreement and modifier placement. The best part is that the app corrects hundreds of contextual errors for free.

This week I found a simple grammar mistake that repeated itself on a screen for hours. I went to a bar in downtown Salt Lake City with my husband and friends over the weekend. On the screen behind the DJ booth, the words read “folow us” with links to the social media platforms. The bar made a classic mistake that was on a loop for the entire room to see. I couldn’t stop laughing when my husband pointed out the mistake. I wonder if the creator of the slideshow was drinking before the job. How hard would it be to correctly spell the only 2 words on the screen?

Do the jive because we are already on blog number five.

I will admit, grammar sites have a sweet place in my heart. They have helped me many times when I've needed an example of a grammar rule or a simple explanation of a grammar rule. There are a few grammar sites that have worked for me and a few that have just confused me or given me the wrong explanation. A grammar site that seems to always lead me in the right direction is quickanddirtytips.com/grammargirl. Grammar girl has saved my papers and assignments from complete grammar destruction multiple times. Grammar girl explains grammar in a comical and understandable way. She has posted more grammar tips than I even knew existed. Odds are, if you have a question about grammar, she has already posted an answer for you. She has a great explanation of "whom versus who," "affect versus effect,""lay versus lie," and "which versus that." I'd highly suggest reading them if you are confused about any of those grammar rules.

Grammar Mistake:

Two grammar mistakes I came across this week were written on an online lecture on Canvas. The mistake themselves weren't terrible, but it made me think of something important. It made me realize that writing English is very different from speaking English. If the online lecture would have been a real lecture, the grammar errors wouldn't have even manifested themselves because there is no punctuation guiding spoken English. However, because it was written, the lecture needed to be adjusted accordingly. 

The sentence below that says, "Of course, for decades." isn't a complete sentence. It should have been rewritten like, "Of course, they were performing joint replacement surgeries in the past for decades."

The sentence below that says. "If so, use it!" is also an incomplete sentence. It could have been written as simple as, "You should use it." or even taken out of the paragraph.

Week five--stayin' alive...

This week I really learned a lot about some of the areas in grammar that trouble me. I always considered myself a very competent writer and editor, but this class has really brought me to my knees in humility! I hope that some of you have also experienced the humbling effect of this class, because it really can help you become a better writer. 

I have a very simple tip to share this week, which I am sure that many of you have already read or heard about. It's the me/I, who/whom tip. 

We all know that one person who says "She gave the gift to Karen and I" when really we all know that it should be stated, "She gave the gift to Karen and me." I learned back in middle school that in order to determine whether to use I or me in such a phrase, one should remove the other person from the sentence and see what it would need if it only involved you. For example, it is very obvious that "She gave the gift to I" is definitely incorrect when you strip it down to that, but it could be much more difficult to decipher when there is another name in the mix. 

I have also found it valuable when working with who/whom to replace the "who" or "whom" with a "he" or "him" respectively, or in the answer to the question. 

For example, "They didn't know who the bus driver was." I know to use who there instead of him, because he was the bus driver. One wouldn't say him was the bus driver. 

Alternatively, in the sentence, "I didn't know to whom I should give the gift," it is easy to tell you need whom because I should give the gift to him. I wouldn't give the gift to he. 

Anyways, I hope that as overused and boring as these tips were this week, they may have helped at least one of you! They've certainly been my saving grace. 

Happy editing! 

Kara 

BLOG NUMBER FIVE!

Hello fellow bloggers and communication editors! 

I am excited we are on week number five, and really excited for this new week coming up. This week I am talking about good grammar on the web. This is a great topic, because we live in a world where most everything we do is online or on some sort of device. If you think about our day-to-day lives, we tend to be on some sort of device with some sort of internet connection, for the majority of our day. While browsing on the web, there are certain places that need to be cautious about their grammar. The news and media are one of them. I read KSL often, and to my understanding they have great up to date news stories from Utah as well as some stories from the world. When or if they make a mistake, it is noticed because most readers notice (if they are aware of correct grammar). One other place that I notice grammar is on blog posts. I read a few different fashion and lifestyle blogs for pleasure, and there are more mistakes on them than I have ever noticed! I would have never known before this class, but I now know what the difference is between “are” and “is”, and when it is ok to say them.

One thing that I noticed this week, as I was creating a proposal I caught myself making a mistake. I did not notice it at the beginning, until I was having someone back check my work and she corrected it. I learned that if you are quoting someone, you put punctuation marks on the inside of the quotation marks. If you have parenthesis, than you put it on the outside of them.

Week 5

“Grammar Bytes!” is my absolute favorite grammar website. Their terms are what really helped me last week with some of our assignments. They also have super helpful exercises. I know when it comes to my kind of learning, I like simple. Hey, if I find a kid-version of an explanation, you best know that I am going to use it. This website puts grammar terms into understandable language to me. Sometimes when I’ve been reading “When Worlds Collide,” I feel like I’m staring onto a page where I don’t know what I’m reading, (but don’t get me wrong, sometimes it is very helpful). This is the website I go to if I really have a hard time understanding a concept. Dangling modifiers and parallelism was tough for me this week. Even after I finished the assignment, I still went back to their exercises. They are the best! If you’re looking for a nice place to study for the test this week, look no further than www.chompchomp.com. It’s called grammar bytes, but this is the domain name.

This week my boyfriend told me a story of his coworker using bad grammar. She was asking where he had been, and she said, “Where was you?” Learning subject-verb agreement will come in handy to you, my friend.