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Apr. 14th, 2010 04:06 pmI've been getting a lot of publisher blurbs and media packs recently. My big lesson from them? I find I can't take so seriously the Famous Editor whose latest anthology is advertised with apostrophes in the wrong place.
It's dreadfully easy to put extra apostrophes in. I've found myself doing it, despite the fact that I know the rules and teach the rules. It's a copycat thing. I see "it's" so often, incorrectly used, that something in me doubts my own knowledge and I put it in my own text, incorrectly (mostly I proofread and fix it then, but just sometimes one escapes and does laudatory dances to its own wrongness). Still, I've seen it in blurbthings three times in the last twenty-four hours.
My first response in each and every case was "I'll wait and see about the book - I won't race out and read it." I don't know if the editor was involved with the blurb and if the editor was and doesn't know where apostrophes go, then their editing might annoy me. One I received last week had the book with it and the book was quite fine. Also, I've had an editor who gets apostrophes wrong all the time on the web but whose grammar and punctuation are perfect when they're in editorial mode. This is why I wait and see rather than declare "I shall never read this book."
When enough people make errors, of course, the errors become part of accepted English. They cease to be wrong. I don't want this to happen with apostrophes. They're powerful and cool and I just don't want them to fade. If they fade then some word order will change (must change) because the difference between plurals, possessives and contractions will no longer be quite so obvious.
Language change is perfectly normal. It happens all the time. That doesn't mean I have to always like it.
It's dreadfully easy to put extra apostrophes in. I've found myself doing it, despite the fact that I know the rules and teach the rules. It's a copycat thing. I see "it's" so often, incorrectly used, that something in me doubts my own knowledge and I put it in my own text, incorrectly (mostly I proofread and fix it then, but just sometimes one escapes and does laudatory dances to its own wrongness). Still, I've seen it in blurbthings three times in the last twenty-four hours.
My first response in each and every case was "I'll wait and see about the book - I won't race out and read it." I don't know if the editor was involved with the blurb and if the editor was and doesn't know where apostrophes go, then their editing might annoy me. One I received last week had the book with it and the book was quite fine. Also, I've had an editor who gets apostrophes wrong all the time on the web but whose grammar and punctuation are perfect when they're in editorial mode. This is why I wait and see rather than declare "I shall never read this book."
When enough people make errors, of course, the errors become part of accepted English. They cease to be wrong. I don't want this to happen with apostrophes. They're powerful and cool and I just don't want them to fade. If they fade then some word order will change (must change) because the difference between plurals, possessives and contractions will no longer be quite so obvious.
Language change is perfectly normal. It happens all the time. That doesn't mean I have to always like it.