Grammar Nazis ready? Take your test:

[Are_grits_groceries]

Red Pencils Ready?

http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/red-pencils-ready-4/

Results must be reported.

[Brickbat]

1. Got them all except No. 5.

But then, I'm a copy editor.

I have to say this cracks me up, because one of my favorite blood-pressure-raisers on Sunday is spotting all the typos in the Sunday NYT.

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. LOL!

How long does that take?

[Brickbat]

4. Don't get me started!

This is also one of my fave blogs:

http://www.nytpick.com/

[Are_grits_groceries]

6. heh! thanks nt

[DKRC]

34. You & my kid

She's the grammar-nazi in our house. When I gave her the link to the story about the girl denied her senior portrait in the yearbook, not only did she have a fit about the injustice, she was raving about the sloppiness of the journalist's presentation & grammar.
:rofl:

Emailed her this link & told her to get out her red pen ... :evilgrin:

[GoCubsGo]

35. Don't feel bad...

The NYT screwed up on that one, too. Not only should "archaeopteryx" be capitalized, it "Homo" and "Homo sapiens" should also be italicized (or underlined), as should all Latin genus/species references. I'm a biologist. It drives me nuts when I see the Latin names in regular type.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. That was fun.

Seven.

[Warpy]

5. I got all the ones they pointed out plus a couple of extras.

For instance, "may" implies permission; "might" implies probability.

There were others, but my pedant's cap is pinching and I already have a headache.

[damntexdem]

10. I wish I may, I wish I might.

But why won't they let the poor archaeopteryx be a bird? ;-)

And I don't like their use, or nonuse, of commas, either.

[Warpy]

11. The comma is my bete noir

and my sentences often contain a flowering of them. I generally reread after posting and have to edit to delete half of them.

I suppose the poor Archaeopteryx isn't a bird for the same reason bats and mosquitoes aren't, avian chauvinism.

[Ignis]

38. No kidding.

I've given up on expecting American journalists to use the Oxford comma, but couldn't they at least throw a single one in for lists of three or more items?

[Ignis]

37. This division is disappearing in modern usage, however.

May I say that it might be changing far too quickly? ;)

[blogslut]

7. Cool

Thanks for the link. I suck at grammar. When we divided sentences in school I shut off my brain.

[EFerrari]

8. I didn't realize "enormity" still carried the valence of wickedness.

I thought that had dropped out and left "very big".

[uberllama42]

24. I think there's a good case to be made

that because no one uses it that way anymore, that part has dropped out of its denotation. I don't think I've ever heard someone use the word "enormity" with the intent of conveying its traditional meaning. It's something that comes up in discussions of copy-editing and grammar rules, but I don't think we should be held to its old definition.

[AlienGirl]

25. I disagree; I still use it that way. nt

[EFerrari]

32. I've never seen or heard it used that way outside of Renaissance texts

and a couple of times when I cursed out my teenagers. lol

[damntexdem]

9. Got a couple. But I think that "enormity" is appropriate to Gen. McChrystal's mission.

It passes all moral bounds. ;-)

[Warpy]

12. I disputed that one, also.

[TlalocW]

21. When W. was installed in office

I remember reading a news story about Poppy Bush crying with joy at the enormity of his son following in his footsteps, and I thought, "Yep... He used the correct word without meaning to."

TlalocW

[MorningGlow]

13. I missed the "enormity" one

Got the others, though. Number 4 is a hot mess all the way around.

4. She doesn’t really explore the obvious corollary: extreme frugality implies someone, probably a woman, staying home and spending all their time on it.
:wtf:

[Are_grits_groceries]

14. Truth.

When they make no obvious sense, I go quietly away.

[AlienGirl]

23. That sentence just doesn't flow at all!

4. She doesn’t really explore the obvious corollary: extreme frugality implies someone, probably a woman, staying home and spending all their time on it.

Were I to rewrite it, I'd say this:

She doesn't fully explore the obvious corollary: maintaining extreme frugality requires that someone, probably a woman, must spend all her time and effort at home.

I got rid of "really" and replaced it with "fully" to improve precision, and then tried to re-do the rest of it in a less clunky way.

Tucker

[EFerrari]

33. As written, extreme frugality is shown to be expensive in a direct way

since someone is spending all her time on it.

[Burma Jones]

15. I missed number 3........

[pipi_k]

16. I guess I'm not as big a grammar nazi as I thought, thank goodness

For me, a sentence only needs to be intelligible and the words spelled properly.

:7

[Sinti]

17. Missed 2 and 3

In precise usage, “enormity” means “great wickedness” - However, I believe the general spoke correctly and the editor is just being overly kind :p

[RaleighNCDUer]

18. Well, there is an obvious problem with the comma placement in #6

Compare and contrast:

Gilberto Zaldívar, a co-founder of the Repertorio Español, New York City’s premiere Spanish-language theater company, died Tuesday at his home in Manhattan.

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

The way this is written it makes it sound like New York City's premiere (sic) Spanish-language theater company died Tuesday at his home in Manhattan.

[Adelante]

19. Tripped up on #8

8. Mr. Cuomo’s investigation seems to be moving closer to Mr. Hevesi himself and further entangling Hank Morris, Mr. Hevesi’s longtime political confidante, who was charged in March in a 123-count indictment with selling access to the pension fund.

For a man, make it “confidant.”

[AlienGirl]

20. Got all of them!

[Occam Bandage]

22. Missed #s 2 and 3. Think the "evil" sense of "enormity" is moribund. nt

[uberllama42]

26. I got 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 9

I was a copy editor for a year at my school paper, and know I'm senior editor, so I'm the go-to guy for copy-editing questions. It's difficult doing the New York Times because they have their own style, whereas we use AP style.

How the hell was I supposed to know that Archeopteryx is a genus rather than a species?

[MilesColtrane]

27. I only got 1,4, 7, and 9 correct.

Questions about #2: Isn't "take back all over again" redundant? Shouldn't it be one or the other?

[Are_grits_groceries]

29. I thought it was redundant. nt

[katkat]

28. another one

I missed #5, but what about

take back Helmand Province all over again.

[Blue_In_AK]

30. According to my Oxford dictionary

meaning 3 of "enormity" is "enornous size or hugeness," although it does note that "careful writers" use "enormousness" in this instance. I guess I'm not all that careful.

[supernova]

31. I got seven

There were a couple I felt were worded badly all around and rerwrote them without all the commas.

The "enormity" thing bugs me for another reason. I honestly couldn't tell if this was supposed to be a direct quote. If the General really used the word "enormity" then you have to leave the quote as is and use it this way: ... enormity < sic > ... to say that the editor knows it to be off usage, but that it is a real quotation and not a misuse of the person's words.

Gilberto Zalivar's obit is a completely awkward sentence. Just a personal tic, but I hate strings of phrases in journalism writing. This isn't Henry David Thoreau going on and on about every vein of every leaf on every tree. I'd rewrite it this way:

Gilberto Zalivar died Tuesday at his home in Manhattan. Mr Zalivar was a co-founder of The Repertorio Espanol, NYC's premier Spanish-language theatre company.


Good test. :-)

[yawnmaster]

36. I didn't do to good at this until after I saw the answers,

then I got them all.