How to make your writing gooder

[baileytc]

There have been some interesting articles lately about language, specifically about spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

From the NY Times, which has seen the quality of its own copy editing decline precipitously in recent years: The Price of Typos. The author posits that bad spellers "see through" misspelled words to the ideas behind the words.

Comments

[disharmonia]

The one that's been driving me nuts, as of late, is people using 'perceptible' instead of 'perceivable'.

Also, people using 'petted', 'patted', and 'shined' as the past tense versions of those words, instead of 'pet', 'pat', and 'shone'.

Commas and apostrophes I fail on. I comma that shit up like Jane Austen.

[baileytc]

Hey! Long time no chat! I'll give you a call this weekend

I'm with you on "shone" vs. "shined" but not on the others, unless I'm misunderstanding you. Are you saying that "I pat the bunny" is correct while "I patted the bunny" is not? "I patted the bunny" is correct, as is "I petted the cat" vs. "I pet the cat" if you're talking about something that occurred in the past.

Dictionary.com says "perceivable" and "perceptible" are synonymous. "Perceptible" is used more often in everyday speech.

[disharmonia]

This may be a British vs. American thing, because I never heard the words 'patted' or 'petted' growing up. 'pet' and 'pat' were the past tense versions, while 'pets' and 'pats' were the present tense. In the first person, 'I pet the cat' would be talking about something in the past, and the present tense version of that sentence would be 'I am petting the cat.'

"I sat down and pet the cat" is correct to my ear, while "I sat down and petted the cat" sounds kind of ESL.

As for 'perceptible', I've never heard that word in my life, until very very recently, and it's driving me nuts @_@ It's even worse when I hear people say 'imperceptible.' I'm always like "ha ha ha, good one. ...wait. Are you serious? ಠ_ಠ"

And re: long time no chat. Yes! I am housesitting, the last couple of weeks in August. We should hang!

[baileytc]

Huh. Must be British-speak issues. You've really never heard "perceptible"? I find that bizarre. "Perceptible" is a quite commonly used word, as is "imperceptible." "Perceivable" sounds and looks strange to me.

Dictionary.conm has "petted" as past tense of "to pet": http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/petted. Same goes for "patted" as past tense of "to pat."

I'm around all month. When does your housesitting gig start?