Brief usage plea
Re: "Build site will be inspected" (Monday 8A).
It could be another case of you-see-what-you-look-for, but I'm seeing far too many verbs used as nouns these days for my taste. Witness this from the Flat Branch on its temporary shutdown: "We are doing a small remodel for the pub after New Year’s Day."
The HEADSUP-L Accounting Division might be doing a breathe of relief, but the rest of us are doing a pound of the head into the wall. Please, let's put a sock on this one before the younguns start to think it's a good idea. That's a "building site" (and it'd fit just fine as "Building site to be inspected"). Verbs don't need a lot of work to become nouns -- "shut down" to "shutdown," for example -- but what they need, they need.
Q: So, how's the punctuation on the sports pages coming along?
A: You make the call!
... leaving a sour taste in the mouth's of many fans. (7B Sunday)
"Whether it was offense, defense or special teams, it didn't matter we just needed to stop them". (6B Sunday)
It could be another case of you-see-what-you-look-for, but I'm seeing far too many verbs used as nouns these days for my taste. Witness this from the Flat Branch on its temporary shutdown: "We are doing a small remodel for the pub after New Year’s Day."
The HEADSUP-L Accounting Division might be doing a breathe of relief, but the rest of us are doing a pound of the head into the wall. Please, let's put a sock on this one before the younguns start to think it's a good idea. That's a "building site" (and it'd fit just fine as "Building site to be inspected"). Verbs don't need a lot of work to become nouns -- "shut down" to "shutdown," for example -- but what they need, they need.
Q: So, how's the punctuation on the sports pages coming along?
A: You make the call!
... leaving a sour taste in the mouth's of many fans. (7B Sunday)
"Whether it was offense, defense or special teams, it didn't matter we just needed to stop them". (6B Sunday)
posted by fev at 11:15 AM
2 Comments:
Quick thought on sports:
We know your deadlines are tight. We know you want to do a good job.
You have to pick your battles, though. When you've got 15 minutes to get a story from the rim to the slot the prose is secondary. Make sure the grammar and punctuation are correct and then see how much time you have left to recraft the fourth graf.
Impact. I've seen it used incorrectly so many times I've actually forgotten if it's a noun or verb.
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