Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Is There a Hyphen in Anal-Retentive?*

Oh my. I have just discovered snarky grammar blogs. How did I not know these existed? Thanks to Carolyn McCulley for opening my eyes. Much enjoyment to be had from just these two:

Apostrophe Abuse (my personal pet peeve--the visual equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard)

even funnier: The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks

Aaaand, each of these has several sidebar links to other grammar blogs. Dangerous. It is always fun to discover and commiserate with other anal-retentive grammar nerds.


*The title is not original. I heard it from a fellow word nerd who has a shirt with this saying. I found it hilarious :)

4 comments:

Jules said...

See, THIS is why I would rather call you than email. I always think if I am in a hurry and don’t have time to proof, you are going to read it with your editor's eye, cringe at every mistake and think I’m an "idiot." Although...if you don't know by now that I'm an "idiot" you don't know me as well as I thought. :)

Amy said...

Oh, not to worry! I just had a discussion about this with some people yesterday. We grammar nerds don't generally critique personal correspondence. I for one am glad to get an email or a note--I don't sit down to it with a red pen! It's the professional/commercial stuff that should be proofread carefully--that's what I expect to be correct, and find funny/annoying when it's not :)

Jules said...

Whew! That's a relief!

Anonymous said...

Dare I even let myself peek at some of those "snarky" grammar blogs?

I love meeting other grammar nerds. Kindred spirits, as Anne Shirley would say.

My Sarah was afraid to tell her Honors English professor that her mom was an English major, but she loves having a personal (and free) editor on every paper. It's my one little contribution to my children's college education.