Ultimate Unofficial Guide

[GulPlum <plumeski@yahoo.com>]

A question to those who've read this book...

Does my online experience of her poor command of English syntax, 
grammar and punctuation extend to the book? When I suggested to her 
that she could do with having her manuscript proof-read (rather than 
just beta-read by a fan which was her overture) she blew up at me and 
suggested that her command of English was second to none.  Of course, 
the message was written so poorly that I wondered what business she 
had attempting to analyze a book written in exemplary English. 

Whether this is down to JKR or her editors and proof-readers I don't 
know, but I don't think I've encountered a single typo, misplaced 
apostrophe or comma, or badly-structured sentence (despite some 
sentences being very complicated syntactically) in the four books to 
date. (Yes, there are a few Flints, but they're all written in 
textbook English.) :-)

I'm particularly touchy about those kinds of things and it's one of 
the reasons I gave up on reading Stephen King when I was about 16 
because I kept noticing typos and poorly-constructed sentences.

Incidentally, and I don't mean to talk down to anyone but I'm 
curious: do American schools not teach proper use of apostrophes any 
more? (In particular when to use "it's" -v- "its", and correct usage 
of "there/their/they're" or "your/you're".) Even in HPFGU I 
frequently find people who seem to be native speakers who appear 
never to have been taught the difference. 

I'll be brutally honest here: For instance, use of "The Durlsey's" as 
a nominative plural (viz. several posts on the mail list in the last 
24 hours, hence my pre-occupation with this issue at this very 
moment) causes me physical irritation. 

I repeat: I really, honestly, do not mean to make a personal attack 
on any HPFGUer, talk down to anyone, or to call anyone stupid. After 
all, if people aren't taught these things, they can hardly be 
expected to know. As I said at the top, it's a straightforward 
question: do American schools no longer teach these things?

(from my personal experience, all I ever needed to cover all these 
issues was one English lesson at the age of 8.)

-- 
GulPlum AKA Richard, who would like to apologise in advance for any 
offence anyone may have felt reading the above. ABSOLUTELY none was 
intended. 

(I would also like to apologise to those in the chat this evening for 
my sudden departure caused by computer problems, rapidly followed by 
dinner and being called out for several hours.)