Grammar notes


WITH Covid and staff shortages becoming the default excuse for poor service and faulty products it is sad to see the malaise spreading to the world of publishing. Errors there are so visible and so irritating to readers. For publishers they are so difficult and costly  to correct.  In specialist areas, editing shortfalls can bring onerous penalties and litigation. Not all that long ago even the merest typo was a rarity. Now, at least a couple or so such errors can be expected in the average bookshop-bought volume. Regardless of how well-established and accepted is the publisher. And all bets… Continue reading

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Things are not going to change. All you poor sensitive souls out there, and you seem to multiply by the day, will simply have to accept my continuing rudeness. There will be no apologies if what I write upsets you. Grin and bear it, turn the other cheek, tweet away on Twitter, fulminate on Facebook,  do whatever makes you feel better. But it will make no difference. You will not stop me; I am going to continue placing a FULL STOP at the end of my sentences. This is in defiance of such academics as Canadian linguist Gretchen McCulloch, who… Continue reading