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*[ 13 September, 2007 ]

13 of the most “hilarious” quotation mark abuses [ The Snark, The Thursday Thirteen ]

I work in publishing..so occasionally, the grammar policewoman in me rears her ugly head. Mostly it’s the misuse of I and me. “She took a picture ofÂ Emily and I” ack! that just about kills me! i know, i know, i’m feeling the hypocrisy right now. i don’t use caps on my blog. occasionally, i misuse a word. My friend Orah called me out once for using the word two instead of too. but this place is a blog…and i write it quickly and don’t go back and check it…my grammar rules fly out the window.

one of my favorite grammar mistakes, however, is the all-too-often misuse of quotation marks. they are everywhere.

don’t you know:

so, i hereby give you my list of thirteen of my favorite misuses of quotation marks….and i highly recommend that you pick up this book:

10.

11. this one is abuse on sooo many levels…

12.

13.

Comments [34]

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LoriD said:

“Yikes”

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

sam said:

Oh, my biggest pet peeve is when I see a sign that say something like: We’re open Saturday’s – why the apostrophe? WHY? WHY? WHY? Drives me bat shit crazy!!

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

alison said:

Bwah ha ha! Since you often see quotation marks around a word or phrase that the writer is portraying as dubious, I wonder exactly what people aren’t supposed to husk if it isn’t really “corn”. I loved ‘Eats Shoots & Leaves’, but then I’m an editor and I’m funny that way. I hate the whole apostrophe to pluralize thing. I once took a kleenex and erased the second apostrophe from the white board in the cafeteria announcing “Today’s Special’s”. The next day it was back. Sigh.

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

Nadine said:

As my native language is NOT English, I hope you give me some “slack”!

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

Nancy said:

ooh, these make me “cringe.”

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

b*babbler said:

This just made my day. I, too, go a little crazy over grammatical errors. One of my favorites is the misuse of penultimate in place of ultimate.

And what is a “quality” instructor? It sounds like a few of my university professors.

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

andi said:

I don’t understand how some people use quotation marks. So very odd. And don’t even get me started on apostrophe abuse.

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

manda said:

I hate when people think that a lot is one word, and decide to type alot. jerks. Also, I randomly quote people all the time without referencing them. You know, like inside jokes and such. Anyhow, I hope people are not under the impression that I am using quotes for emphasis. I would be distraught. For instance, anytime I make fun of the word ‘ain’t', I place quotation marks around it so that people clearly understand that I am quoting someone else and not saying it myself. I never considered the fact that someone might think I was trying to emphasize my own use of the word, because clearly, emphasizing with quotations is quite obscene. I think I could partially deal with the quotations. However, I cannot deal with the a + lot=alot folks. That’s just out of control.

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

Mama Duck said:

ROTFL those are great!

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

Audrey said:

Oh my gosh, those signs are KILLING me! My fingers are positively itching for my red pen. How can people be so stupid?!

This totally reminds me of that episode of Friends where Joey didn’t know how to use air quotes.

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

hello insomnia said:

I can’t text message for this very reason. I don’t know how to abbreviate and writing U R instead of “you are” is against my nature.

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

Laural said:

There is a restaurant I often pass called the “Fiftie’s” Diner. (quotes and all). I sometimes wonder why sign makers don’t hire people to edit signs.
My biggest grammar pet peeve is the word “yous” as in “yous guys” – it drives me insane!

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

Rebecca said:

Have more “tea”!
Okay, buddy. We all know what you REALLY mean.

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

misty said:

oh my goodness… I laughed so hard… I am a user of air quotations, which my daughter makes fun of me for. This made me think of that though… are they implying it isn’t actually your car you get to keep, with the title loan? this was so funny…

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

haley-o said:

That’s hilarious! I never noticed people using quotation marks for emphasis. that’s TERRIBLE — spoken by a fellow grammar lover….

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

Haley said:

Hahaha I love the “Quality” one ;]

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

BlondeBlogger said:

LOL! I “love” these!

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

FENICLE said:

I’m awful at using those “things”!

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

jennie said:

Oh yes, I “hate” those too. I think I have some kind of special vision that allows me to see typos or grammatical errors, except for those words which I always misspell (including grammar and misspell, which certainly could be spelled incorrectly here.)

I especially liked that in the previous post you wrote about putting your car in “reserve” (AGAIN with the quotes). Unless I just skipped the part about reserve parking in drivers education. Haha.

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

jennie said:

did I say reserve parking? sorry, got my smarty comment all wrong.

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

~JJ! said:

I still haven’t “read” that book “yet”…I’ll “have” to get to it “soon”.

As “always” your 13′s “rock”!

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

Shannon said:

Please tell me you’ve been here: http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/

It’s great for a laugh.

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

thethinker said:

Even more than that, I hate the exchange of “u” for “you”, “2″ for “to”, “ur” for “your”, etc. Stuff like that makes me cringe.

[ 13 Sep 07 ]

aimee/greeblemonkey said:

OMG, OMG, OMG… I loved this!!! Punctuation and quotes are a MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR PET PEEVE ON MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can I just say to the blogosphere in general:

Punctuation goes *inside* the “quotes!”

Punctuation *DOES NOT* go outside the “quote”!

(And yes, several commenters even did it above)

[ 14 Sep 07 ]

Jackie said:

That “post” was painful. :-p

[ 14 Sep 07 ]

mamatulip said:

Damn. I cringed through this entire TT.

There is a used car dealership right around the corner from my best friend’s house and every time I drive to her house I am tempted to run over to their garage doors and do some editing. In huge letters it says: YOUR APPROVED!

Seriously, it drives me INSANE.

[ 14 Sep 07 ]

loren said:

I “wonder” what these “people” are “hinting at.” So many inuendos, not enough time.

And yes, apostrophe abuse drives me nuts, too!

[ 16 Sep 07 ]

Humor Girl said:

what the “hell”? “Who” doesn’t know how to use quotation marks?

[ 18 Sep 07 ]

Laura said:

Haha! This post was hysterical – I giggled all the way through it! It reminds me of Chris Farley doing the “air quotes!” on Saturday Night Live.

[ 19 Sep 07 ]

bazu said:

Hi, I just discovered your blog through this post, and I love it! I’m a teacher and a bit of a grammar freak myself, though I have to admit I’d never seen all these crazy misuses of quotation marks! Add it to my already existing pet peeves: the I/me confusion and the apostrophe/plural confusion. Eats Shoots and Leaves is like a bible to me, by the way.
Cheers!

[ 20 Sep 07 ]

kittenpie said:

What I love is how quotation marks are often used to imply that we’re just going to call it that, but it’s not really, so “stray” golf balls might have been knocked out on purpose, and your “car” is a pretty lame imitation of a proper vehicle. Hee hee.

[ 20 Sep 07 ]