[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Ultimate Unofficial Guide

[the.gremlin at verizon.net]

GulPlum:
"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 have actually found a few errors. There were some spelling errors, but also a left-out word, and I think I may have found a grammatical error. I could be wrong, I'd have to read the books again to find them. I don't know if this is JKR or just the printer or something. 

Also noticed that JKR like semi-colons. Found a lot of those.
    
"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 think it depends on your education, how much you paid attention in school, and where you went to school. I have friends who took regular English/grammar classes, who will ignore or don't care about the difference. Once you point it out to them, they say, "oh, okay, thanks."

OTOH, I am a grammar Nazi (and I tend to have grammatical errors in posts talking about grammar; irony for you), and my friends fear having me look over their essays. So it depends on a bunch of factors.

-Acire, who apologizes for those grammar errors that evilly (is that a word?) popped up in her post because she was talking about grammar.


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