Important notice from the GRAMMAR POLICE. Plz read. This means you.

[Audrey]

Just remember, you can talk bad about Americans, as long as you make sense. Bitching about how American English is different than British English is what got you in trouble. Of COURSE they're different. DIFFERENT LANGUAGES, sweetheart. Did you notice how no one jumped down your throat for the "lazy and fat Americans" comments?

Or the "my darker-hued compatriots" butchering the language comment. I almost went for a smackdown on that one, but I was busy with other matters.

How many posts do you have to make to stop being a 'Noob'?  

Pescado, I didn't know you had visited our sunny shores.  I hope your 'experience' wasn't too bad.  Our local thugs are pretty hardcore and you don't always escape with your life.  

There's only a violent regime change, every OTHER month.

Sounds like there is a lot more wildlife roaming the streets, elsewhere, than there is in our game parks!!

'Stop posting'. Now, that would not be fun.

Has anyone seen an 'offering' from Canadian TV called 'This is Wonderland'?  It is about a new lawyer who gets thrown into the thick of the Canadian lower courts system.  It is so off-the-wall and portrays the court system in such a 'wacky' way compared to what I am accustomed to seeing in shows like 'Boston Legal', that it is difficult to believe that what goes on in those courts and cells is really true.  You would have to have seen it to know what I'm talking about.

That shit has got to stop. Now.

Excuse me? wtf are you implying?.

[Jelenedra]

Stop over-using the sarcastic quotes. If you're going to be proper about tv show titles, they're UNDERLINED.

[Audrey]

FYI, Jelendra, they were not sarcastic comments in any way, shape or form.  Everyone on here seems hellbent on bashing the hell out of me.  Maybe I deserved it, but I really don't get this poster above's aggression.  I have always used single quote marks for names of TV shows, so bite me.  

Oh, you know what, this is really becoming not fun.  I was trying to make conversation about a TV show which I really enjoyed and I get this shit.  You can all really go to hell.

[Jelenedra]

What Jordi said. Don't use them for everything. You were asked earlier in the thread to knock it out, Zazazu Reggikko was just pointing out HOW MANY FREAKING TIMES you used them in one post.

[Liz]

The 'frequency' with which Audrey sets off 'special' words with 'apostrophes' or 'single quotes' is an especially tedious affectation, given her 'claims' to be a linguistic/grammatical 'purist'.

[Jelenedra]

Yes, no grammatical reason to set off offering, experience, OR wacky; unless you were being sarcastic. So why, if they were not meant to be sarcastic, were you single quoting random shit?

[rohina]

Actually, Jelly is right about underlining TV shows - if you are talking about a specific episode of one show, it would go in quotes, but the name of the show is underlined.

[Jelenedra]

Episode title-wise, italics is a commonly excepted too, isn't it? TV show bold, episode title in italic?

[rohina]

Episode title-wise, italics is a commonly excepted too, isn't it? TV show bold, episode title in italic?

You let being right once go to your head. Italics are the same as underlining, so either is correct for the show title, but not both. Also not correct is quotation marks and italics. Bold is not a standard typographic indicator for titles.

[Jelenedra]

Ah, I was thinking of TV Guide print here. They bold the show title and put the episode name in quotes. I really shouldn't have expected TV Guide to be an indicator of grammatical correctness.

[soozelwoozel]

Bold is not a standard typographic indicator for titles.

I've seen Bold used for lots of TV show titles. The Guardian (UK newspaper) for instance uses this format in its TV guide.

ETA: Jelly may disparage tv guides as evidence of correct grammar usage, but presumably The Guardian has a style guide it adheres to throughout its publications. Perhaops it's not the best example, but it's lying open in front of me so it sprang to mind swiftly.

[Jelenedra]

I had seen it done, so I assumed (I know) that there might've been an exception for it. Perhaps it's merely how they chose to format their guides. *shrugs*

[CheritaChen]

This confusion is one of my irritations at the notion that every publication or academic entity must develop its own "style." I remember back in school we were told to use AMA style for our term papers. Then of course on the school newspaper we had our own style manual. Later I had to use APA style for my papers in psychology. The weekly free newspaper I briefly contributed to was a subsidiary-of-a-subsidary of the Tribune company, so they had their own style.

Most often, style is only relevant to person titles and names, or if needed, references. So, why is it that every freaking group on the planet seems to think it's perfectly acceptable to develop their own rules regarding bolding, underlining, italicizing, capitalization, and quotation? Can't they all just pick one fucking set of rules and agree upon it? Or does that not let them feel special enough?

[Zazazu]

What Jordi said. Don't use them for everything. You were asked earlier in the thread to knock it out, Zazazu was just pointing out HOW MANY FREAKING TIMES you used them in one post.

Am I on your mind, Jelly? It was Reggikko.

I've always thought of British English and American English as extreme dialects. More correctly, American English would be the extreme dialect of British English. As such, I'd as soon tease someone for typing "labour" as I would a Southerner for calling a bag a poke. They are all valid versions.

I lucked out. For almost all of my courses in middle school, high school, and college, we used APA.

[rufio]

It's news to me that they are different, different languages.  Italian is different, different language to Japanese, but US English and UK English have the same intrinsic base, except the US has chosen to go in another direction with some of the spelling, notably the dropping of the 'u' in words such as labour.  I would love someone to admit that saying "I don't like ice-cream", said Jane. "Me either", said Dick,  is grammatically incorrect, yet this is something that is very prevalent in teen American speech (from what I have heard on TV).  

They are different dialects, and yes, this means they have different rules.  The line between what is a "different dialect" and what is a "different language" is actually rather fine at points.  See also AAVE, and Scots.

[maxon]

APA - I had to look that up.  mmmm.  I have to use my own university's referencing system for my PhD (nearly completed, submitting soon (please god)) but have to use Harvard at the university where I am currently teaching and prefer to use a bastardised version of Chicago which I have developed to suit myself (look, it makes sense to me).  I started using Chicago for preference after I submitted papers for publication to a couple of journals that use it.  Sigh.  Nightmare really and partly of my own making.

[reggikko]

The 'frequency' with which Audrey sets off 'special' words with 'apostrophes' or 'single quotes' is an especially tedious affectation, given her 'claims' to be a linguistic/grammatical 'purist'.

Yes, this is the source of my 'aggression'. It is 'irritating' to read a post that is 'littered' with 'misplaced' single quotes and 'errant' apostrophes. I don't think Audrey will be getting her shiny Grammar Police badge anytime soon.

[Jelenedra]

@Zazazu: You are always on my mind. *waggles eyebrows*

[Jack Rudd]

There is an important difference between paper and internet documents when it comes to underlining; an underline on a piece of paper cannot be indicating a hyperlink. For this reason, I would probably advise against the use of underlines for internet documents.

[rohina]

There is an important difference between paper and internet documents when it comes to underlining; an underline on a piece of paper cannot be indicating a hyperlink. For this reason, I would probably advise against the use of underlines for internet documents.

Well, this is true; it is also unnecessary to make print out web addresses in blue on essays and other documents. No matter how hard I poke the paper, it does not transport me to the relevant website.

[jolrei]

...it is also unnecessary to make print out web addresses in blue on essays and other documents. No matter how hard I poke the paper, it does not transport me to the relevant website.

You've tried this, have you?  I was waiting for any reportage as to its efficacy, before admitting anything.

[CheritaChen]

it is also unnecessary to make print out web addresses in blue on essays and other documents. No matter how hard I poke the paper, it does not transport me to the relevant website.

Ugh, another peeve of mine. Minor issue, yes, but everyone seems to just leave MS Word set to all its (obnoxious) default options, then they fail to clean up after its idiosyncrasies when printing out their crapola. I have to look at blue underlined garbage in official documents at work because of people's laziness. If one is trying to emphasize text that is to be typed into a computer interface, one may use a slightly different (preferably sans-serif) font for that text. But polluting documents with extraneous coloring and formatting is eye-abusive and lame.

[rohina]

...it is also unnecessary to make print out web addresses in blue on essays and other documents. No matter how hard I poke the paper, it does not transport me to the relevant website.

You've tried this, have you?  I was waiting for any reportage as to its efficacy, before admitting anything.

I generally try it as a comedy routine in class, to mock the retards who wasted coloured ink.

[Stitches]

Minor issue, yes, but everyone seems to just leave MS Word set to all its (obnoxious) default options, then they fail to clean up after its idiosyncrasies when printing out their crapola.

I find myself increasingly more frustrated each semester that my professors waste time explaining to students how to reset their default margins in MS Word to MLA standards.

I have also considering refusing to read any assignment that isn't in 11 pt. Arial font when I become a teacher. Death to serifs.

[soozelwoozel]

Minor issue, yes, but everyone seems to just leave MS Word set to all its (obnoxious) default options, then they fail to clean up after its idiosyncrasies when printing out their crapola.

I find myself increasingly more frustrated each semester that my professors waste time explaining to students how to reset their default margins in MS Word to MLA standards.

I have also considering refusing to read any assignment that isn't in 11 pt. Arial font when I become a teacher. Death to serifs.

Generally, we get frowned upon for handing in anything that's not Times New Roman. A few of the profs might let an Ariel or two slip by, but they tend to be the zanier ones, teaching Twentieth Century Dramatic Lesbianism or what not.

The bane of my academic life is footnoting. Or, to be more accurate, formatting footnotes correctly. I once neglected to put an author's first name in a footnote. Ruh-roh.