Ultimate Unofficial Guide

[psychic_serpent <psychic_serpent@yahoo.com>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "GulPlum <plumeski at y...>" 
<plumeski at y...> wrote:
> 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.) :-)

There have in the past been folks on the main list who criticized 
JKR's command of English, but for the life of me I can't recall the 
specific complaints now.  A search of the archives may net you some 
information on what some have found objectionable in her writing 
style.

I have only found a few odd things here and there in the American 
editions, and when I checked them against my UK editions I found 
that it was because of an awkward "translation" from British 
to "American."  So she really isn't to be blamed for that.  If there 
is some awkwardness in her British English, I need to bow to a Brit 
to sniff that out.  It looks fine to me.
 
> 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. 

Well, I don't know about "talking down."  But I do think you're 
making an assumption that the problem is with the schools in a given 
country rather than with the individuals involved.  As one of the 
people screening fanfiction for Fiction Alley (FA), I can testify 
that I see just as many British English submissions with incorrectly 
used apostrophes as American submissions.  (Plus we also get 
submissions from native English speakers in Australia, New Zealand, 
Ireland, Canada, South Africa, and from non-native English speakers 
in a number of other countries.)  No one English-speaking country 
has cornered the market on correct use of their native tongue.  

I do agree with you that incorrect use of apostrophes has become a 
rampant problem in many English-speaking countries.  At FA we 
finally classifed this type of error as an "Unforgivable," meaning 
that only a handful of this sort of error is necessary to doom one's 
submission.  Incorrect dialogue formatting/punctuation is another.  
(Don't get me started on the many ways people have managed to screw 
this up.)  The other Unforgivable is misspelling major canon 
characters' names to such an extent that it would be a heinous 
burden on our coders to correct the problem.  I have seen 
many "imaginative" versions of our beloved HP characters' names.  
Trust me.  You don't want to know.
 
> 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 also see this quite often in posts on the web.  I see it on our 
list and I see it on livejournals, blogs, and on large fanfiction 
archives where there is no effort made to screen submissions, or 
else those doing the screening are as ill-informed about correct 
grammar and punctuation as the authors sending submissions.  
Personally, I believe that the web is probably a more likely culprit 
for this bad grammar and punctuation than the schools in any one 
country.  While we did encounter (at FA) some folks who actually 
said their English teachers taught them the wrong way to punctuate 
dialogue (HOW did they become teachers?) there are so many people 
reading things online written in incorrect English, whether on 
mailing lists, bulletin boards or fanfiction archives, that they're 
having the incorrect forms reinforced in their minds instead of the 
correct forms.  

I will go out on a limb and say that most people posting to the main 
list probably do not have beta readers go over their writing before 
hitting the "send" key.  While we do have standards, which is to say 
we frown on netspeak and writing in all lowercase letters as 
a "style," among other things, once a listee is unmoderated, we need 
to trust him or her to proofread his or her posts and to be careful 
about the spelling, grammar and punctuation, on top of the canon 
requirements.  (When not adhering to these standards becomes the 
rule for that poster, and not the exception, he or she is contacted 
by someone in authority on the list.)  It's a not-inconsiderable 
bunch of hoops to jump through, and by and large I think our members 
do an admirable job.  I simply cannot read many things posted 
elsewhere, and I do not try.  

I also make certain that I do a lot of reading that is in actual 
books, newspapers and magazines, rather than on the web.  I have 
even seen terrible mistakes in online versions of newspapers, 
magazines, etc.  Perhaps because of the ephemeral nature of web-
posted news (often it isn't archived but overwritten by the 
following day's news) they don't take the time to proofread that 
they do at newspapers where they produce a printed copy (although 
I've also seen dreadful things in my local newspaper, the multi-
Pulitzer-Prize-winning Philadelphia Inquirer).

The humorist Dave Barry has often written his column as "Mr. 
Language Person," wherein he pretends to be a columnist answering 
readers' questions about correct English usage.  The answers he 
gives to the bogus questions are not at all correct, of course, but 
designed to poke fun at what many people seem to THINK is correct 
usage.  For instance, if a person wrote to him to ask him how to use 
apostrophes correctly, he would say, "All you have to do to use 
apostrophes correctly is remember one rule: an apostrophe is a 
warning that an 'S' is coming up right after."  [This is a 
paraphrase of something that has actually appeared in his column.]
Yes, I laughed the first time I read it, but I really do see many 
things written by people who seem to think this is the rule.  I see 
people conjugate verbs by adding an apostrophe and an 's.'  I see 
them pluralize this way.  There seems to be no pattern to where they 
were educated.  Sadly, I think some people out there are taking "Mr. 
Language Person" far too seriously...

--Barb

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Psychic_Serpent
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Barb