From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Different subject now, you have been warned! [was: Re: [WSFA] Re: Has anyone read any good books lately?]
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 18:57:19 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 1:57 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Different subject now, you have been warned! [was: Re: [WSFA] Re: Has anyone read any good books lately?]

> At 12:33 PM 3/28/05 -0500, Ted White wrote:
> >From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
> >> At 10:22 AM 3/28/05 -0500, Mike B. wrote:
> >>
> >> >There are lots of other reasons to hate Outlook and it's lite
> >>
> >> You know, I think the internet causes brain damage.  At one time I
actually
> >> got "it's" and "its" correct all the time, but years of seeing it done
> >> incorrectly have seriously blunted my proofing skills...
>
> >As I have pointed out to countless people, countless times, "it's" means
> >"it is" and nothing else, ever.
>
> Are you suggesting that I didn't know that already or something?  I
thought
> my message pretty clearly indicated that I knew that?

And I was agreeing with you?

> My point was that what you see most often is what tends to seem "right",
> regardless of what really is right or whether you know better, and that
the
> internet is full of people who post it incorrectly frequently enough to
> start affecting those of us who really do know better.
>
> The same issue comes up with "they're/there/their", "here/hear" and
> "your/you're" too.  Oh, and "to/two/too" too...
>
> And don't get me started about adverbs.  They are disappearing slow but
> sure...
>
> [anyone who didn't see anything wrong with the prior sentence is now part
> of the problem...]

I've been a professional writer and editor for my entire adult life;
presently I proof and edit court transcripts.  The "it's" error is one of
the most common (but *the* most common error is the misplacement of
commas).   People have a problem with possessives, which they think should
have an embedded aprostrophe.  It's not just "it's," but also
"who's"/"whose" (again, the aprostrophe stands for the missing "i" of
"is").

Some of us have learned the rules well enough not to be swayed by internet
subliteracy.   Fifty million Frenchmen *can* be wrong.

(And, Madeleine, "there's 'a rat' in 'separate'.")

--Ted White