Rant

I haven't blogged in ages. And this isn't going to be a particularly interesting one.

A few weeks ago I decided to try and reduce my medication (anti-depressants) so went to the doctor to discuss it, reduced the dose and felt like rubbish for a few weeks. So I've gone back up onto the full dose. It hasn't kicked in yet.

So, here's a rant, because I'm feeling like ranting.

Grammar and punctuation:

Parentheses are to indicate a side note, you don't need to put a space between the bracket and the next word... ( e.g. ) that makes you look stupid. Would you put a space between your last word and a full stop? No, because you would look like an idiot.

Should've is 'should have' not 'should of' so don't say it as two separate words when you mean should've.
Off of isn't interchangeable with from.

When you use Word and right click for a synonym please understand that not all synonyms actually mean the same thing as the original word. For example: according to Word, Familiar is synonymous with recognisable, well-known, common, known, memorable, household, proverbial. These words don't all mean the same thing. If you don't know what a word means, you look stupid by inserting into an essay to make you look more intelligent than you are. "I am familiar with the sonnets of Shakespeare" is not the same as "I am memorable with the sonnets of Shakespeare." You'd be better off using a common word and looking unimaginative than using a word which doesn't make sense and looking like a complete idiot.

Etc stands for et cetera which is Latin for 'and so on', therefore it doesn't shorten to ECT.
Word and other computer software is very clever at flagging up spelling errors. Don't assume that it is always right: if you write colour and are from Britain... it's right, but Word may flag it up because Americans don't use a u in colour. Don't just accept everything that Word suggests as a correction. Think about it. And don't assume that if Word doesn't flag up a word it is automatically correct. If you write form but meant from, it won't flag it up, because form and from are both real words! If you write 'a letter arrived form London' instead of 'a letter from London arrived', you look silly. Proofreading doesn't take long and will stop you looking like a fool. If you are a teacher you need to make sure there aren't silly errors in your presentations. If you are teaching and your handouts include spelling mistakes like partnets instead of parents and chidlern instead of children, these should have been flagged up by your word processor... and you should have corrected them. If they weren't flagged up you should update your word processor, if they were and you ignored it or (worse still) checked it and thought you were right... should you be teaching?

An and a. 'A apple' isn't right in writing or in spoken word. 'An hotel' is. 'An historical context' is right. 'An hospital' is right. This is because historically 'h' wasn't pronounced, just like the k in knight, and so needed an an before it. It is generally accepted that h is a pronounced consonant now so you can use a or an.

Ellipses come in threes. Ellipses are dots used for emphasis, pauses etc. They only come in threes. You can use more than one set of them...... but they have to be in threes. So don't use four, or five, or seven.

Parenthesis, Ellipsis, Hypothesis are singular. An hypothesis is one educated guess. A parenthesis is one bracket. Parentheses, ellipses and hypotheses are plural. You cannot make an hypotheses. That is like saying you are making a guesses.

A verb is a doing word: running, jumping, flying, spelling.
A noun is a thing or an object: Paris, table, book, word, letter.
An adjective is a word which describes a noun: big table, thick book, long word, lovely letter.
An adverb is a word which describes a verb: quickly running, badly jumping, swiftly flying, competently spelling.
And these are what we have been learning with Year 2 at school. These children are 6 and 7 years old and seem to have a better grasp of the concept than many adults.

I know that we don't have to use most of these things every day and that, actually, if we get it wrong no one is really going to pick us up on it, but wouldn't it be nice to try to use our language properly?

Thank you, and yes, thank you is two separate words. Not one.