Posted by beardedlady on April 20, 2003, at 11:34:27
In reply to Corrections to corrections-- Beardy and Wendy, posted by medlib on April 20, 2003, at 9:58:36
> 1) There are no "comparitives", only "comparatives". (And, yes, I know that current correct punctuation requires commas and periods be placed inside quotation marks. I refuse to do so because it was once incorrect and still looks wrong to me.)
Whoops. Got me there.
> 2) There is still some controversy about when, and whether, to treat collective nouns as singular or plural.
There's not, actually. At least there hasn't been in my circles. The collective noun usually refers to words like committee. As in the following:
The committee vote Tuesday.
The committee votes Tuesday.There's no controversy about what comes after a preposition. "Of boards" is not the subject. Bunch is one (like group, number, collection, etc.), as in one bunch of grapes. As far as I can remember, it's always been just one.
> Since my son informed me that unsolicited advice or correction is *not* supportive, I try to focus on message content and let others point out writing errors.Actually, someone asked, which is why I answered. I hope you didn't find it unsupportive, as I didn't find yours unsupportive.
> Now, back to what I pretend is real life.---medlib
Well, this is what is real life for me. I teach graduate and undergraduate writing at a local university. It's my job to tell my students that BMWs doesn't have an apostrophe when it's a plural.I haven't read an error-free book, either, but it doesn't mean I wouldn't like to read one!
Have a great day, and thanks for the spelling heads up.
beardy : )>
poster:beardedlady
thread:220096
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20030404/msgs/220841.html