Year: 2009

October 12, 2009

Not Surprising, This Sounds Awkward

The other day at work I came across a strange construction: an author had used “not surprising” as a sentence adverb, as in “Not surprising, the data show that. . . .” I assumed it was simply an error, so I changed it to “not surprisingly” and went on. But then I saw the same […]

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Editing, Prescriptivism, Usage, Words 7 Replies to “Not Surprising, This Sounds Awkward”
June 19, 2009

Linguists and Straw Men

Sorry I haven’t posted in so long (I know I say that a lot)—I’ve been busy with school and things. Anyway, a couple months back I got a comment on an old post of mine, and I wanted to address it. I know it’s a bit lame to respond to two-month-old comments, but it was […]

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Descriptivism, Prescriptivism 8 Replies to “Linguists and Straw Men”
March 10, 2009

Reflections on National Grammar Day

I know I’m a week late to the party, but I’ve been thinking a lot about National Grammar Day and want to blog about it anyway. Please forgive me for my untimeliness. First off, I should say for those who don’t know me that I work as a copy editor. I clearly understand the value […]

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Prescriptivism, Rants 2 Replies to “Reflections on National Grammar Day”
January 27, 2009

Do You Agree That We Ask for Your Consent?

I just finished filing my federal taxes with H&R Block’s free e-filing (which I highly recommend, by the way), and at the end I encountered some rather confusing language. After submitting my return, I came to a page asking if I consented to let H&R Block use my information for marketing purposes. (I always wonder […]

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Semantics 5 Replies to “Do You Agree That We Ask for Your Consent?”
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