Fun with Apostrophes (LONG)

[Anne <urbana@charter.net>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Melissa McCarthy" > wrote: 
> Our local newspaper is infamous for the grammatical mistakes in its
> headlines.  "Students happy their getting representation" (or 
something like
> that... "students happy their getting" something or other) is one 
of the
> more recent ones. 


This is one of my pet peeves ... people working "the slot" (writing 
headlines for a newspaper's copy desk) who misspell words and use the 
wrong word (their/there/they're etc.) I am frequently appalled at the 
number and kinds of typos that appear in American newspapers. It 
makes me think that journalism schools will graduate pretty much 
anyone these days. I do recall when I attended J-school in the 
early '80s, we had to pass something called the J.U.T. (Journalism 
Usage Test) in order to get into the journalism program. The J.U.T. 
seemed, to me, to be basic 3rd or 5th grade English usage - but 
apparently some people had to take it more than once in order to pass 
it <shudder>.

Anne U
(frequent spelling Nazi)