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• apples and oranges (Score:1)

  by educated_foo (3106)

  Is is just me, or are there vast seas of difference between its/it's confusion and arbitrary latin-derived strictures about future tense and passive voice? The former is just a spelling error, and one way (whichever one its;) is misspelled. The latter are violations of rules that help with formal writing, but are rarely heard of otherwise, and are routinely violated in speech. The guy on the street has no idea what you're talking about (or no idea of what about which you are talking?) -- although he prob
  • Re:apples and oranges (Score:2)

    by gnat (29)

    Almost every "rule" is violated in spoken language (and anyway, who can hear the difference between "its" and "it's"? :-).

    That's okay for most people (less okay for professional orators such as politicians, not that I'm thinking of a particular jackass with his finger on the nukular button). In case it wasn't clear, I was talking about writing that I have to edit for publication.

    When you're writing, you have only the words to communicate with. And printed words are a very clumsy way to communicate (th
    • Re:apples and oranges (Score:2)

      by jdavidb (1361) on 2002.09.26 8:32 (#13319) Homepage Journal

      ++ on everything you said about the importance of correct writing.

      I come from the same state as President Bush. I remember my fifth grade teacher, Ms. Tanner, teaching us to say "nuclear," not "nucular." She had everyone in the class, even some particularly ditzy girls, say it properly. It has stayed with me since then. [Although I remember in sixth grade all the students in the fifth grade enriched math class saying they didn't remember fractions, so maybe I'm the only one who ever retained something he learned from year to year... sigh...]

      I love President Bush. He drives me nuts with "nucular." It's embarrassing. But I love him nonetheless.

      So why is Bush a jackass? Is it because his spoken grammar is poor? Is he truly less intelligent than you or me? Is it because he has beliefs that are different from yours? Has he got anything of value to offer? Have you flipped the bozo bit?

      --
      J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers

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      • Political thread (was Re:apples and oranges) (Score:2)

        by gnat (29)

        I think Bush is a jackass because all evidence I see points toward him being a brainless puppet for the Washington insiders who form his cabinet. He can't speak or think on his feet at all. The man's the public face of our nation at a time when international relationships are critically important to our future, and there are thirteen year olds taking public speaking classes who can do better.

        The Daily Show this week had an amazing clip, where he was just plain embarrassing trying to do the "fool me once