By Annalisa Parent www.annalisaparent.com
In one of my writing lives, I write sassy columns about dating life. Today I’m here to sass about grammar.
Every writer has her pet projects, her grammar or syntax particularities, and her pet peeves. For example, one of mine is agreement. How many of you would have written “Every writer has their pet projects…” WRONG!
Now, look, I know you’re trying to be gender neutral and all. How kind and evolved of you, but grammar supercedes such kindness. You have a singular subject: you need a singular possessive adjective!
(Use exclamation points sparingly and only when absolutely necessary for emphasis.)
Here are a few more of my writing pet peeves:
As a DEscriptive grammarian, I found this article compelling, and absolutely hilarious! LOL
Cleverly written, as always.
As to MY linguistic pet peeve, ironically it’s over application of PREscriptive ideology. Haha.
Seriously though: Dictionaries.
They are not, nor ever were, intended to be an exclusive authority on the breadth and limitations of the language. They are a reference tool intended to explain the language. Just because it’s not in the dictionary doesn’t mean it’s not a “word”. If it conveys meaning within the language, and is in common usage: it’s a word. The shortcoming is in the dictionary, not the word.