In the tangled web on which we weave off of
Published by Becky S April 6th, 2005 in style & grammar, wtf?
It’s not good when your mother calls the soulless office park to complain about a grammatical error on your weblog. The phrase in contention concerns Wilbur, my favorite pig and the protagonist of Charlotte’s Web. I wrote that Wilbur tried to spin a web by jumping off of his manure pile.
According to Mrs. Moon Pappy, the phrase above is incorrect because it contains a “double preposition.” She contends that Wilbur should try to spin a web by jumping off his manure pile. Sheesh, it must be nice to retire and have a lot of time on your hands. I like the revision because it uses fewer words, but are double prepositions really a grammatical faux pas?
Also, it’s not really fair to nitpick about mistakes in the comments, since I’m often typing them quickly, as boss-across’s footsteps approach.
books mrs moon pappy style & grammar style & grammar wtf?
Well, this is one of them live-by-the-sword, die-by-the-sword situations. If you put your faith in the authority of Those Who Make Rules About English, then you’re sunk — it’s pretty much always verboten. Example:
http://cherylnorman.com/gg0502.htm
If you derive your rules from the way English is actually spoken by native speakers, you’re in the clear.
“There is never an excuse for poor grammar!”
At least that is what my 4th grade English teacher told me after I used the dreaded “ain’t”. I, of course, said I thought it ought to be a word - and apparently Funk and Wagnalls agreed!
So I say break the rules of grammar all you want and call it artistic license.
Well, I’m a professional editor, and I’ve never picked this particular nit. eesh. I think it may be an issue of idiom overriding brevity in some cases, but also just common usage — “off his block,” “$3 off the usual price,” “take a bit off the top,” but “get off of me!!”
Wow, a long comment with no insight to share.
apologies!
:)
Wow, I am honored that people “in the biz” chimed in here. Which is not to downplay the contribution of Glenn! Glenn, what do you do, anyway?
Writers should know the rules of grammar and then make intelligent decisions on when to break them. In this case, however, I didn’t even know there was a rule.
Hmmm…I tried getting to Mike’s link and then visiting acm’s site but no joy. What’s up with the Internet?
Me? I have a wonderfully boring job taking care of customer’s mailing databases and doing postal presorts and co-running the mailing department for a printing and direct mail company.
Run-on sentences rule.
My official title has changed a lot but I think they settled on “Database and Direct Mail Manager”.
Like I said, boring - but at least it gives me a bunch of time to goof off on the internet.
Databases are not boring…it is the data that is in them that are boring. Like Direct Mail for instance
Well Raul, I can’t think of any really exciting databases off-hand.
But you are very right about Direct Mail databases being boring!
Oracle is pretty exciting.