Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Numbers and Grammar
I've been a very bad blogger lately. I'm not sure that I've accomplished anything, but I sure have been busy not accomplishing it! I am my own worst enemy. For example, my company has a new fleet manager and we now have to enter our monthly business and personal mileage on line. We have to go back to Nov.1, when our fiscal year began. So I pulled out all my reports and my calculator, added up all the personal and business miles, entered the data for November and started on December. Ooops! December is not adding up. Aw, gee, I entered my beginning November mileage instead of my ending November mileage. Okay, call the 800 number and ask how to fix it. "Sorry, we're closed". Of course, it is 6:30 AM .... still, I'm up and working, why aren't they?!
Another New Orleans evacuee has been found murdered near Houston. This one was a 19 year old whose story appeared in the December issue of Seventeen. Here is how Seventeen wrote it up:
We climbed out of the dining room window onto the roof of a parked car that was right there, In the pouring rain we scrambled onto the roof of the house. Quiana and I looked at each other, terrified, and burst into tears. "How are we going to survive?" she said.
What if I never saw [my daughter] again? We hugged tightly, bawling.
Here is how the Houston Chronicle quoted her sister:
The pressure from the water busted the door down. The water was up to our necks so we had to escape out a window.
Seventeen's version struck me as patronizing, as though the girl was so unintelligible that they had to clean it up to a version that no one on earth would actually say. (In the pouring rain we scrambled onto the roof of the house? We hugged tightly, terrifed???? Come on, now.)
I used to be a purist about English, but I've mellowed, lowered my standards, or learned to appreciate spoken English, one or all of the above. (Although it still drives me totally insane when one of my children uses bad grammar.) I'm curious if I'm alone in this.
All quotes probably need to be cleaned up..er..a..um..bit, but with the er's and um's left out, people can be quoted pretty much as they spoke. Do you prefer direct quotes or cleaned-up ones a la Seventeen?
Do you notice the difference?
Do you even give a rat's patootie?
Another New Orleans evacuee has been found murdered near Houston. This one was a 19 year old whose story appeared in the December issue of Seventeen. Here is how Seventeen wrote it up:
We climbed out of the dining room window onto the roof of a parked car that was right there, In the pouring rain we scrambled onto the roof of the house. Quiana and I looked at each other, terrified, and burst into tears. "How are we going to survive?" she said.
What if I never saw [my daughter] again? We hugged tightly, bawling.
Here is how the Houston Chronicle quoted her sister:
The pressure from the water busted the door down. The water was up to our necks so we had to escape out a window.
Seventeen's version struck me as patronizing, as though the girl was so unintelligible that they had to clean it up to a version that no one on earth would actually say. (In the pouring rain we scrambled onto the roof of the house? We hugged tightly, terrifed???? Come on, now.)
I used to be a purist about English, but I've mellowed, lowered my standards, or learned to appreciate spoken English, one or all of the above. (Although it still drives me totally insane when one of my children uses bad grammar.) I'm curious if I'm alone in this.
All quotes probably need to be cleaned up..er..a..um..bit, but with the er's and um's left out, people can be quoted pretty much as they spoke. Do you prefer direct quotes or cleaned-up ones a la Seventeen?
Do you notice the difference?
Do you even give a rat's patootie?
3 Comments:
Actually, which story is correct? I saw the article in the paper too. It is sad and you wonder why she was out so late and who she was with. I feel for her child.
heh heh @ rat's patootie
huh?..lol
Post a Comment
<< Home