Criminal Sentence 616: Scone on the Wall

An interesting idea: put a scone on a wall!

I think the company meant "sconce"!

Here was the question:

What's wrong with this sentence? "Citrines whose colors have been produced by artificial means tend to have much more of an orange or reddish caste than those found in nature."

Nothing	9 (13%)
Punctuation	22 (33%)
Spelling	19 (29%)
Grammar	15 (23%)

Congratulations to 29% of you. The spelling of "caste" should have been "cast."

Criminal Sentence 615: Good Speller Needed

From a LinkedIn post:

"Gostwriters needed!"

Hmm. Is that a new kind of writer?

Hope you all have a happy turkey day tomorrow!

Poll Results 160

The question:

Which sentence is correct?

The turban turned slowly in the wind.	29 (41%)
She earned more then $100,000 last year.	2 (2%)
It's not fare that you get more candy!	0 (0%)
I'll meat you at the mall.	1 (1%)
Two are correct.	10 (14%)
All are incorrect.	28 (40%)

Congratulations to 40% of you!

Here are the corrected sentences:

The turbine turned slowly in the wind.
She earned more than $100,000 last year.
It's not fair that you get more candy!
I'll meet you at the mall.

Criminal Sentence 614: Coupon for Free Grammar Instruction!

From a Web site:

"Using coupons from other sites or forums are not eligible."

Using this incorrect subject-verb agreement are not allowed! ("is")

Plus, this is a weird sentence. I would just state it in plain English:

"No coupons from other sites or forums."

Poll Results 159

The question:

Do you know when to use an ellipsis (...)?

Yes	18 (69%)
No	8 (30%)

I've recently seen ... a lot of extraneous ellipses stuck in the middle of sentences... A little bothersome!

Check out this Grammar Girl episode if you need a refresher.

Criminal Sentence 613: My Birthday Wish

From a blog post:

"Personally, I always fear the shorter revisions, they usually contain the most work."

As a favor to me on my birthday, please use correct punctuation:

"Personally, I always fear the shorter revisions; they usually contain the most work."

Thanks!

Poll Results 158

Here was the question:

Is something wrong here? "Everything else you've got here is set up or description."

Yes	16 (57%)
No	12 (42%)

Congrats to 57% of you. The noun "setup" contains no space.

Criminal Sentence 612: Dictionary Hours

Seen above a door at a restaurant:

"Busines Hours"

It wasn't handwritten; rather, it was one of those pre-printed signs about doors that must be kept unlocked during BUSINESS hours.

Criminal Sentence 611: Suspicious Spelling

I am hereby reporting "suspisious" activity!