so you might be a nerd when...

I freely admit, ok maybe not so freely admit, but I’m a nerd. I was just on bedfordstmartins.com, looking at Diana Hacker’s guide called, “A Writer’s Reference.” On this site there are writing exercises to improve any mistakes that you’ve been making. They have anything from exercises in grammar, punctuation and sentence agreement to researching and there is so much more. With everything you do, improvement comes from practicing. This site gave me a great opportunity to do that.

While I was on the site I saw this link, Language Debates. I’m always interested in a good debate so I curiously clicked on it. Up came a list of controversial language usages. People, much smarter and brighter than I, have clashed and torn at these subjects. Now, I have the pleasure to read the debates and figure out which side of the fence I sit on. For example, comma usage. When making a list do you put a comma before the “and” or do you leave it out? e.g.: “When I go to the store I need to get popcorn, milk, bread, butter, paper, pens, and pencils.” Or, “When I go to the store I need to get popcorn, milk, bread, butter, paper, pens and pencils.” See the difference? It gets harder when you look at a sentence like this: “They had brown, green, gray and blue eyes.” Are the eyes gray and blue or were some eyes grey and others blue? Personally I like to not have the comma. You might have to read it twice, but I don’t think that not having it takes away from the reading. What do you think? To have a comma or not to have a comma? Hmmm… what a writing quandary.

Check out all the different and fascinating language debates on Diana Hacker’s site. Here’s a link to a few:

Preface

Clichés

lie versus lay

that versus which

Oh and my fav "cliche" quote of the day is:

“Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.”      —Henri Bergson

- Megan A. Way