Friday, March 05, 2010

Comma Chameleon and Grammar Limericks

OK, one last gasp for National Grammar Day 2010.

We offer two delights from Rob Reinalda, executive editor for Ragan Communications in Chicago. Rob goes by the handle word_czar on Twitter, if you're looking to follow new folks.

The company held a limerick contest. Here's a finalist we rather enjoyed:

I saw that my participle was dangling
My sentence thereby it was mangling
I tried not to pout
though it put into doubt
the perfection for which I was angling.


To get the whole scoop--and read the winner--check out the article here.

And for a useful story Rob wrote about the many uses of commas, check out this link. (Print the piece if you want to keep it as reference; Rob let us know these stories don't stay accessible forever.)

Speaking of commas, Barry Leiba sent along this real-life example of a missing comma:
"It is not because that mechanism is in a different document, as it should be."
Barry writes, "The problem is that it's missing a critical comma. And I bet the writer doesn't even realize that, and will wonder why his statement is misinterpreted. The comma should be after 'not'. Eats, shoots, and leaves."

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