"We definitely came in knowing that Army was on a role."
Cringe!
"On a roll" means doing well.
"On a role" means you made a mistake!
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DOWN WITH CRIMINAL SENTENCES!!
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"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)
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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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2010
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May
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- Criminal Sentence 396: Alma Mater Uh-Oh
- Criminal Sentence 395: The Meaning of "The"
- Criminal Sentence 394: Unpositive Appositive
- Criminal Sentence 393: Less Lesson
- Poll Results 88
- Criminal Sentence 392: Quickly!
- Criminal Sentence 391: The Rhythm Method
- Criminal Sentence 390: HIPAA HIPPA Hooray (Boo)
- Criminal Sentence 389: Gone Fishing (for the corre...
- Poll Results 87
- Criminal Sentence 388: You'd Better Rite Right
- Criminal Sentence 387: Clothes Make the Dandy
- Criminal Sentence 386: Gender Bender
- Criminal Sentence 385: A Suspicious Sentence
- Poll Results 86
- New Grammar Girl Episode: Adverbs
- Criminal Sentence 384: Typo Trio
- Reader Question: Hyphen
- Criminal Sentence 383: Long Baseball Game?
- Criminal Sentence 382: I Love Des(s)ert
- Poll Results 85
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May
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3 comments:
What threw me before I even got to the 'role' was the use of 'Army' as if it were a proper noun. I would have said, "We definitely came in knowing that _the_ Army was on a roll." (unless, of course, the rest of the paragraph set it up differently...I can't imagine how, though :-)
In this case Army is correct because Cornell played Army. I guess they play Navy, too. I guess I should have said this was a sporting contest.
Ah! Yes, that does make sense. Thanks for the clarification!
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