I really do get gleeful about looking up some grammar rule and finding an answer. When I was younger and newer to the profession, I’d get freaked out if I came up against something I didn’t know – especially if a boss or client corrected me. Now, I actually enjoy it. Because I know no one has 100% mastery of the wacky English language (and anyone who pretends they do is a great big Grammar Meanie - thank you June Casagrande) and I also know that in my many volumes of reference books or somewhere online – someone has already posed and answered the same question I have right at that moment.
Let me illustrate: Recently, I was wondering how one might create a plural of the word BlackBerry – not the fruit, the sexy PDA. Of course Strunk and White haven’t yet made a decision on that, but I actually found several online discussions on the topic and even a “ruling” in one of my reference books about pluralizing proper nouns ending in ‘y.’
In case you care, I went with BlackBerrys so as not to dilute the brand. And I really can’t properly express here how happy I was as I set out to find the answer and how equally happy I was to discover an answer that I felt confident I could explain and defend, if necessary (of course no one challenged me, but I was ready).
P.S. Please don't post comments telling me it's blackbirds. I know. It was a joke.
1 comment:
Interesting post. I recently came across this article The Neuroscience of Leadership, I think you would like it.(http://www.strategy-business.com/press/freearticle/06207) You seem to have a very well developed "error detection" (term from this article) skills. (Though we already knew you were damn smart) It is interesting to me how this skill of "error detection" is connected to the emotional center of the brain and your descriptions of how these "errors" made/make you feel - freaked out/gleeful.
I, on the other hand, have less emotional response with these errors. Particularly the literary or linguistic kind.
Like I have been wondering for years... when you have a person's name that ends in "s" how do you properly write it as a possessive?
Is is Doris's or Doris' house? Really, this I have wondered for years, but never looked up. I have always just written it as Doris' house and hoped I was correct.
I think this may be one of those skills more highly developed in the female brain, but I probably should not even speculate about that until further research is done.
OK, I have stayed up too late again.
Hope all is well in Washington, NJ
Miss you both-
Doug
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