From the directions to a game my daughter got for her birthday:
"If the pyramid falls, you loose."
Way to teach those young ones good spelling.
"Lose" means not win. "Loose" means not tight.
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DOWN WITH CRIMINAL SENTENCES!!
Posts
"The Writer" Magazine Column
In 2009 and 2010, The Writer published 20 online columns and one print article of mine. These essays covered everything from semicolons to wordiness. The full text of all 21 are here on my blog!
Criminal Sentence Rap Sheet
- Blatant Self-Promotion (6)
- Books You Might Like (If You've Already Read Mine) (2)
- Capitalization (11)
- Dumb Mistakes (60)
- Encounters at Stores (2)
- Facebook account (1)
- Grammar (220)
- Grammar in the news (11)
- Grammar in Unexpected Places (2)
- Grammar-Related Articles (1)
- Guest post (2)
- Guest-written Episodes for Grammar Girl (73)
- National Grammar Day (2)
- poll picture (1)
- Poll Results (172)
- Punctuation (163)
- Questions from You (21)
- Questions to You (1)
- Rewriting Practice (1)
- Spelling (213)
- Style (65)
- Tips (2)
- Truly Criminal (2)
- weirdness (11)
- Word Choice (46)
- Wordiness (12)
- Writer Magazine (22)
- Your Own Criminal Sentence (1)
About Me
- The Sentence Sleuth
- I'm a copy editor and writer. I wrote The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier: How to Solve the Mysteries of Weak Writing, published in 2006 and now available in paperback. In 2007-2008, I wrote "The Sentence Sleuth" column for Writer's Digest magazine.
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2008
(193)
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July
(20)
- Criminal Sentence 67: How Much Is That Burger?
- Criminal Sentence 66: Hyphens Help Avoid Ambiguity
- Criminal Sentence 65: A Phrasal Verb Workout
- Criminal Sentence 64: If "Only"
- Criminal Sentence 63: Give "the Ability" a Rest
- Criminal Sentence 62: Another Naughty Nominalization
- Criminal Sentence 61: Doubly Not Proofread
- Criminal Sentence 60: Another Faulty Comparison
- Criminal Sentence 59: But Sometimes Spell Check Is...
- Criminal Sentence 58: Who's or Whose?
- Criminal Sentence 57: Why You Can't Rely on Spell ...
- Criminal Sentence 56: Em Dash or Colon?
- Criminal Sentence 55: Vague To The Max
- Criminal Sentence 54: Who's Unconscious?
- Criminal Sentence 53: Lose or Loose?
- Criminal Sentence 52: Oh No!!!!
- Criminal Sentence 51: Dumb Typo
- Criminal Sentence 50: Palette or Palate? (Or Pallet?)
- Criminal Sentence 49: Annoying Little Hyphens
- Criminal Sentence 48: Tricky Parentheses
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July
(20)
4 comments:
I just read an excerpt from a letter that I thought you would appreciate:
"Your client can, at his soul cost, begin his audit at any time during regular business hours."
That's one audit I wouldn't be able to afford.
That is hilarious!!
In Criminal Sentence 52 you said "only one exclamation point is necessary." But then again,immediately afterward you've used two. Any afterthoughts or emphasis?
Anonymous, I guess I should follow my own advice!! (I mean, advice!)
:)
Will try not to overdo the exclamation points!
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