What grammatical quirk do you overuse?

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: chronodekar

Originally posted by: AreaCode707
LOL

I hate voicemail with a passion and for a while had my voicemail message set to, "I don't check my voicemail often so if this is urgent please email me." That ended when the CPO (chief people officer, I know it's a dumb title) called my desk when I was away.

THAT is the kind of that that fits me. I think I'll customize my mobile ring-tone with it. (or something similar.. if it's cheap enough)

Tell us, how long did you get away with it ?

Probably 8 months to a year. Nobody but the exec cared because I was extremely fast at responding to email, always carried my laptop with me.

 

[gorcorps]

Ellipses... I put them in random places where I think they're necessary... In retrospect they rarely ever are.

 

[shortylickens]

Used to be profanity, especially when I was in the Navy.
When I got out it was made clear to me that it either offends people easily, or at the very least it makes them think I'm unprofessional. Never cared much about offending people but I do take my career seriously. Made efforts to stop.
Now I'd say my worst problem is ending sentences in prepositions.
But fuck 'em, what do I care, right?

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: loki8481
I use ellipses too much...

Same here .

Originally posted by: jagec
"This led to an overuse of semi-colons in my writing; which, I believe, isn't actually a bad thing, but which is somewhat distracting."

"but which" ... "but it"

Originally posted by: n yusef
Parentheticals make you sound unsure of yourself. I would rewrite your second sentence as, "As long as they're not overused, parenthetical statements aren't a problem. Similarly, commas are not inherently wrong, but if they're misplaced it can make the whole sentence look messed up."

I usually will use them to infer a side-statement (which is the whole point of 'em) or sometimes put something in that I may consider obvious but others might not.

Originally posted by: Kadarin
I never do it myself, but I absolutely hate when people use constructs like ne and ur to replace perfectly good words like any and your. To do so is to loudly proclaim to the world that you are a fucking idiot.

So I assume things like "ne1" for "anyone" really grinds your gears. Whenever someone says something like, "ne rouges out thur?" in WoW and I'll say, "Why do they have to be Night Elves?" Oh, I'm so witty .

Originally posted by: BoomerD
to help sort out a monster list:
There were citizens from Bangor, Maine; Hartford, Connecticut; Boston, Massachusetts; and Newport, Rhode Island.
OR
We had four professors on our committee: Peter Wursthorn, Professor of Mathematics; Ronald Pepin, Professor of English; Cynthia Greenblatt, Professor of Education; and Nada Light, Professor of Nursing.

In that case, it's being used because there's already a comma in some (or in this case, all) of the elements of the list. If you kept using commas, the list would become quite odd and much harder to understand.

 

[palswim]

I tend to stubbornly stick to my side of questionable rules, and base my interpretation on what works best for me. It's a very self-centric way of thinking, I know.

• When indicating the possessive of a singular noun that ends in 's', I keep the apostrophe-s construction (instead of dropping the 's'). E.g. For goodness's sake! I stole Chris's bike.
• With quotations, I add punctuation on the outside if the text I quote couldn't stand alone without it. E.g. He went to go "drop a deuce". By "nice", do you mean ugly?
• Many times, I would rather reconstruct my sentences into unfamiliar forms than end them with prepositions or use the passive voice.
• I also over-use semi-colons and parentheses.

On a side note, I can't stand unmatched parentheses! The programmer side of me simply cannot let that sentence compile!

 

[UglyCasanova]

I constantly say "f*ck a duck"

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: jagec
It is grammatically, socially, and morally wrong to separate your sentences with a single space. Two spaces is the BEST way of ensuring that it is easy to resolve two sentences for fast readers such as myself, as well as providing a more natural pace for everyone. After all, when speaking, do you not use a longer pause between sentences than you do between words? And if you feel that readability is an unnecessary part of the written word, or indeed that pacing is something which only matters in speech, then I suggest that you pick up a copy of Moby Dick and tell me that proper pacing and appropriate sentence length are unimportant.

Actually, people rarely speak in sentences.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: palswim

• With quotations, I add punctuation on the outside if the text I quote couldn't stand alone without it. E.g. He went to go "drop a deuce". By "nice", do you mean ugly?

Ugh, I don't usually like punctuation on the inside of quotes, but I do it anyway to be proper . However, if I think that the punctuation may mess up the understanding of the quote, I will add it on the outside.

 

[silverpig]

I use the ellipsis a lot too. I attribute it to something of a nervous tic. My fingers just have to be typing something while I figure out how to start the next sentence so they just hit the period key a few times.

 

[imported_Imp]

", but" and semi-colon.

 

[Leros]

I over use parentheses (just to add detail but its probably unnecessary most of the time).

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Eye makeup worts, like bastress, and Lotramint, oar spiel with homo nymphs (and close homo nymphs), ant sun tines aye due sill amiss takes within tent.

 

[nineball9]

Isaac Asimov averaged a book a month using an electronic typewriter, composing at 90 WPM. While other authors were using word processors and early personal computers, Asimov wrote "I cling (more or less in terror) to my electric typewriter." Though he had been writing about computers for many years, "I did it without ever knowing anything about computers in any real sense."

When Byte Magazine asked him write of his experiences with a word processor, he admitted he didn't have one, so Byte Magazine gave him a new Radio Shack TRS-80 II in 1981.

He wrote about his newfound toy:

"Second, revision is fun. My advisers are right in that respect. It is so easy to insert commas, for instance, that I have taken to inserting them every fifth word or so, whether I need them or not."

Like Asimov, I abuse the use of commas. Most of all, I'm just plain verbose.

Quotes from The Roving Mind (New Edition). Isaac Asimov. 1997. Prometheus Books.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: JujuFish

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: jagec
It is grammatically, socially, and morally wrong to separate your sentences with a single space. Two spaces is the BEST way of ensuring that it is easy to resolve two sentences for fast readers such as myself, as well as providing a more natural pace for everyone. After all, when speaking, do you not use a longer pause between sentences than you do between words? And if you feel that readability is an unnecessary part of the written word, or indeed that pacing is something which only matters in speech, then I suggest that you pick up a copy of Moby Dick and tell me that proper pacing and appropriate sentence length are unimportant.

Unfortunately for you, fusetalk doesn't account for two carriage spaces even if you did type two of them. It will only space them out once.

Au contraire, good sir.  It can be done.        Spaces are fun.

Doesn't work for me.

 

[Ramma2]

Irregardless is my favorite!

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Originally posted by: Ramma2
Irregardless is my favorite!

Irregardless of what?

((LMFAO, spell check legitimizes this non-word))

Zuni, your spell-checker is teh br0kez0rz

 

[LS21]

--s and ()s

i abuse the shit out of them

 

[vshah]

I can't think of any.

 

[zerocool1]

ellipsis and ending a sentence with a preposition.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

There's some stupid person that puts spaces , in between commas. It's so damn ugly and makes me want to puke. Not to mention she wrote a paragraph with like one sentence and 5 commas. Ugly commas too.

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: edro

Originally posted by: zzuupp
Ditto on the ellipses...

Word...
They fvckin rock!

I do... the same.

 

[yllus]

I way, way, way overuse dashes.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: yllus
I way, way, way overuse dashes.

No way!

I'm a big fan of this little guy --> ; Most underrated and underappreciated piece of punctuation out there.

KT

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: Farang
Whatever it is called--that is, whatever you call it--when you do this.

dashes?

I use ellipses too much... I also border on straight-out valspeak too much IRL; I think I had too much exposure to too much Clueless, Wayne's World, and VG at an impressionable age.

Ellipses eh? I really only use them online... I've never used them in any written assignment.

 

[preslove]

You're moms a slut.