The Oatmeal on Grammar

I simply couldn't do this better myself, even if I had a kick-ass graphics background and a pet bear to help me with the pauses. I might even say the comic is perfect; however, I do realize it supposes that people can understand the term "independent clause."

For all of you who want to help others find their semicolon happy places, use this link to spread the joy.

How To Use A Semicolon--The Oatmeal

October 15, 2007 ASSistance needed

Meegs to Me: 12:34 PM

"Okay, miss english - I need your ASSistance (as courtney would say).

I'm an assistant editor for a communication journal and currently, I'm editing one of my professor's papers!! Its a bit intimidating. He's Chinese and so the language is a bit awkward. I'm having SUPER trouble with these two different sentences. Can you help?

Here we go:
1. "The Chinese as well are reluctant to talk about death; they tend to believe that talking about death may lead it to come soon." (this one, the 'may lead it to come soon' i think is awkward. i can't change the language TOO much, but need it to make sense.)

2. "Since its establishment in 1996, Tzu Chi Body Donation Center’s, located at the Medical School of Tzu Chi University, campaigning for body donation has become one of Tzu Chi’s on-going endeavors." (this one is giving me EXTRA difficulty, for whatever reason.)

So...whaddya think?"

Me to Meegs 1:37 PM

"Original Sentences
1. "The Chinese as well are reluctant to talk about death; they tend to believe that talking about death may lead it to come soon."

2. "Since its establishment in 1996, Tzu Chi Body Donation Center’s, located at the Medical School of Tzu Chi University, campaigning for body donation has become one of Tzu Chi’s on-going endeavors."

What I Says:
1. is actually okay, even though I understand where you get the awk feeling... but if you want to change it, I suggest one of these endings (or something similar):
'The Chinese as well are reluctant to talk about death; they tend to believe that talking about death' encourages it to arrive/appear/etc--OR-- draws its inevitable appearance [somehow] closer.

2. this sentence is over crowded. It needs to be either split up into two sentences, or re-subordinated somehow:

'Since the establishment in 1996 of Tzu Chi Body Donation Center, located at the Medical School of Tzu Chi University, campaigning for body donation has become one of Tzu Chi's on-going endeavors.'---but this even feels redundant (of course this would be one of it's on-going endeavors; it is the main objective of the organization, or so says the name, right?). Or, did he mean this last clause to be first, kind of a cause of the Center's existence, that this Tzu Chi means business about body donation, which is why it started the center in 1996??

sorry if my comments are just as confusing as your own thoughts on the matter of these.
ugh. editing is fun."

Big Girls Don't Use Plural Pronouns Where Singular Ones Belong

Okay. I can't stand it. Not only do I destest the saccharine tone of Fergi's voice and veiling the infantalization of the feminine with something that tries to show "independence"---and this is the benefit of the doubt---but the lyrics actually saying "I'm gonna miss you like a child misses their blanket" making me want to sharpen my battle axe. I think we can all agree that when one uses the article "a" with a singular noun behind it, like "child," that we must keep refering to it (notice the singular pronoun) as a singular noun. It does not suddenly spasm like a Gizmo into multiple beings. A child stays a child, or should. Fergi, I don't know if I'm spelling your name correctly, and frankly if I did know better, I'd misspell it on purpose. Someone like you doesn't reserve my respect. Not after this.

If you or someone you love has problems with pronoun-antecedent agreement, please, get help.