Outraged ‘Grammar Vandal’ Starts Weblog
Librarians have a reputation for being, uh, precise and careful when it comes to certain things, like, oh, the use of language. I thought some of you might appreciate—and perhaps even relate to—one woman’s tale of irritation that led her to start a weblog about grammar. Boston Globe correspondent Danielle Dreilinger strolled through Boston’s expensive shopping district with Kate McCulley to show that
grammatical errors aren’t necessarily an issue of class. For more of McCulley’s corrections, there’s The Grammar Vandal weblog. I find her encounter with the Tufts University Police Department amusing because it seems like she’s using The Boston Globe article as a permission slip to put stickers on signs and do graffitti in an area that heavily discourages such practices because of gang activity. (One of the cities in which Tufts owns property is actively waging war on its gang problem. I’m not trying to say or imply that Tufts has problems with gangs. I know nothing about gang activity at Tufts.)
Blogging has made me much more conscious of my own grammar and spelling mistakes. I try to proofread everything carefully before I publish it, but, as you probably know, I don’t always catch all of the mistakes. I feel nervous linking to the weblog of someone who’s so outspoken about grammar, she’s likely to start correcting things on this weblog, if she finds it.
I wonder if she has already written to The Boston Globe to let them know they used an incorrect URL for her personal Web site. It’s great to see that the Globe is finally linking URLs in their articles. It would be nice if they used one that would work.
Addendum 8/5: Universal Hub carried a bit on the Grammar Vandal, too.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Hey J — thanks for the post! I appreciate it. Haha, that day at Tufts sure was interesting! I didn’t know about gang activity in the area. Is it Somerville? I moved to Somerville late last year and haven’t heard much about gang activity. Then again, Somerville is quite diverse and expansive — the neighborhood in which I live and in which Tufts is located is very nice; other areas of Somerville are considerably seedier.
In order to get to my site, you need to add the www. I need to speak with the GoDaddy people about fixing that.
Thanks again for reading and blogging!
July 23rd, 2007 at 5:36 pm
You’re a credit to the species! I just wanted to let you know that this subject was in an episode of an old show called “Barney Miller”. A man was arrested for vandalizing an ad on a city bus because the grammar in the ad infuriated him. It was very funny. You should check it out if you get a chance.