Ha! I KNEW My Kids Were Wrong About This!

Parent Cafe
21

“anomander: Who even uses 2 spaces anymore? I was surprised that 1/3 of the study participants used two spaces, given they were college kids IIRC. I’d only expect that from people who originally learned on typewriters. I do also think using a fixed-width font very likely affected the results”.

Everyone who learned from someone who began typing back in the day, that’s who. My college kids learned to type this way and did so until demanded to change in certain settings by some people who don’t know how to do it correctly. :wink:

It looks so weird. Sorry. Sticking to the two spaces.

22

The real controversial question: Oxford Comma or no? :slight_smile:

23

Duh. YES!

24

@doschicos I actually mentioned it in my post on the first page. :slight_smile:

25

@skieurope Was that before or after your editing - one hour later, Mr. Moderator? :slight_smile:

26

After, but still 4 hours before your post. :slight_smile: @doschicos

27

Who goes back and rereads posts they already read to check for edits? Not me because CC takes you to where you left off but sure, you brought it up first. :slight_smile:

28

I had no idea there were two ways to end sentences. I am going to have to poll my four kids and see how they are doing it :-? .

29

There ain’t; there is only one proper way. :smiley:

30

I’m a two spacer. Ingrained habit from typing class a million years ago.

31

This should not be a debate.

I jokingly tell my students that there are really only two grammar things I’ll knock them down for: using an apostrophe when it isn’t needed and not using an oxford comma. They must believe me though because they rarely make the mistake in their papers.

After reading this thread, I should really add my third pet peeve: using “anymore” without a negative in the sentence.

Anyway, something interesting:

What any annoying font…

A lot of my proposals and abstracts are character based rather than word or page length. Extra spaces add up quickly :stuck_out_tongue:

32

[using the search function to see if I used anymore incorrectly] #:-S

33

Was a one spacer but my kids taught me to be a two spacer!

34

Always two spaces and always an Oxford comma (except for Twitter, as noted above)…happy to show my age this way!!

35

Yes, I think that court case has permanently settled the oxford comma question.

“Oxford Comma Dispute Is Settled as Maine Drivers Get $5 Million”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/us/oxford-comma-maine.html

36
What bothered me at the time (and still does) was that in addition to not using a serial comma, parallel structure is not used in the sentence:

It should be “distributing of,” IMO. But my native language is not English, so what do I know? :smiley:

37

I hate courier new. It’s how my citations from a legal research cite come and I have to change it every time.

38

Two spaces, check. Oxford comma, check. Parallel construction, mandatory. Legislatures are notorious for bad grammar, @skieurope, but in that example, shipment and distribution are parallel, which is how I would read the sentence (although then, I will admit, there is a missing conjunction before packing).

39

Just looked up what an “Oxford comma” is. Had never heard of it. Placed into Honors college lit class eons ago. Was taught no comma before the and, done it that way forever. Dislike it despite its removal of ambiguity in some cases. I will NOT use it!

btw- pet peeve of mine (among many) is the misuse of its and it’s. Just mentally see if you mean it is…

40

@AboutTheSame

However, in that case, shipment and distribution are not supposed to be parallel; packing and distribution are supposed to be parallel. At least that was originally meant, and why the law was since revised to read: