<p>The perennial problem is how to answer a question which is not the real question. How are you? from an acquaintance is not the same as How are you? from a good friend. The answer to the question depends on how much information you want to share. </p>
<p>Doing well, hangin in there, workin hard, I’m good… all are code for “You really don’t want to hear about my arthritis flaring up again, do you?” :)</p>
<p>Do you want a cup of coffee? No thanks–my arthritis is flaring up again, the roof is leaking, and someone just stole my identity.</p>
<p>I think my biggest error was saying “there lackof” instead of “lack thereof” for a long time. That was really funny. I sounded ridiculous in my e-mails. :)</p>
<p>I have a ritual to deal with “How are you?” I answer “Now and then.” </p>
<p>If queried, I point out that “How are you?” is a rhetorical question that has no answer and “Now and then” is a rhetorical answer that has no question, thus preserving parity in the exchange. Occasionally this evokes quizzical looks. Sometimes a stunned silence. Sometimes a pause and then a change of subject.</p>
<p>I don’t want a cup of coffee. I’m being good, which is different from “No thanks, I’m good.” But I have a bad case of insomnia.</p>
<p>“I’m good” is a frequently used expression in the Baltimore/DC area - I hear it every day at work. Everyone knows that it is not correct usage, but enjoys saying it anyway. The connotative meaning is “I’m finished, I need nothing else” rather than an answer to “How do you feel?”</p>
<p>In cases like that, I would say “No thanks, I’m fine.”</p>
<p>Well, since others have mentioned expressions/usages that irk them in student writing or speech, I will too, even though not spelling related.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LwtaThat_Versus_Which.htm[/url]”>http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LwtaThat_Versus_Which.htm</a></p>
<p>Explanation of when to use “that” versus “which”</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.uhv.edu/ac/student/writing/grammartip090704.html[/url]”>http://www.uhv.edu/ac/student/writing/grammartip090704.html</a></p>
<p>“affect” versus “effect” the best shorthand for this is to remember that effect=result.</p>
<p>Nuclear is pronounced ‘NOO-klee-er’ - students should think about the phrase “nuclear family.” </p>
<p>And (my biggest pet peeve about high school writing) never, never, never use “plethora” or “myriad” in an essay - done to death, as the saying goes.</p>
<p>Sorry if this has been mentioned. I ask “how are you feeling?” and they say “very well thank you”. I have an image in my mind of the person using their fingers, their sense of touch, to physically feel things and being good at it! Maybe it’s me but shouldn’t it be feel “good”? I could be wrong, writing was never my strong point.</p>
<p>Along with that vs which, it irks me to see one of them used instead of who or whom, like ‘people that like math’ vs ‘people who like math’. And people who use ‘whom’ when ‘who’ is correct because they think it sounds smarter.</p>
<p>words for some reason I have continuing problems spelling:</p>
<p>-gauge
-abscess
-embarrass…it just never looks right.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most irksome word is “amount” when applied to countable quantities. It’s a fairly recent usage. I cringe every time someone writes " a decent amount of students." Piles of students, anybody?</p>
<p>ha…just reread my post #249 … I also don’t like people using “their” instead of “his/her” like I did in second line ;)</p>
<p>I really hate small talk questions like “how are you” that you say to be polite when you know they’re going to have the same answers anyway, so I went through a phase where I decided to answer everyone’s questions with how I was actually feeling at that particular moment - hungry, cold, tired, bored, etc. Apparently, this annoys people. Oh well.</p>
<p>I saw somebody write “for all intensive purposes” the other day. Ok, maybe depending on how you say it it kind of sounds like that, and maybe you’ve never actually seen it in writing, but…just think about it in context. It doesn’t make any sense.</p>
<p>I absolutely hate it when I thank someone for something, or ask them to do something and they respond “no problem”. Of course it’s not a problem, I would never make a request that resulted in a problem for someone else. </p>
<p>I prefer it when people say “my pleasure” or some variation of “I’m happy to” or “it was my pleasure” or some such thing. Actually, in response to “thank you”, “you’re welcome” works perfectly too. But “no problem”??? Ick.</p>
<p>“Thank you for asking”</p>
<p>I hear this a lot at my office, but I don’t hear it in other realms. Though it seems polite and gracious at face value, I find that just under the surface there’s something nasty about this response. It’s as if the person you had posed a question to thinks you really didn’t care to ask. It also feels like it’s something people learn in corporate “leadership” seminars. Certain people seem to like to use it–others do not. It’s condescending–it’s a let-me-climb-up-a-rung-and-speak-to-you-from-on-high type of rejoinder. It’s implying that you were stepping beyond the bounds of appropriate questioning.</p>
<p>Does anyone else bristle at this response, or am I being paranoid? Anyone else being paranoid? just curious.</p>
<p>Thanks for listening!</p>
<p>Hmm…I’ve never had anyone say “thanks for asking” to me but I’ve probably said it to someone else at some point, or something really similar. What I’m really thinking in those instances is something along the lines of, wow, you noticed my existence and actually care enough about me and my well being to ask if I’m hungry and want to grab some food too, awesome! I must make sure to thank you for even bothering to think of me, and maybe you’ll actually do it again, too! I can see why you might think that’s rather pathetic, but I don’t see why it would be condescending.</p>
<p>I definitely do say “no problem” all the time though. =X I also say “sure” sometimes when someone thanks me for something because I feel like saying “you’re welcome” is overly formal…it’s also much shorter. The shorter it is, the more likely I am to say it.</p>
<p>I say “thank you for asking” all the time, but usually it’s a stall for time in response to some question that is outside of the regular bounds of the relationship - someone will ask how a colleague is doing, or how we may have faired after a hurricane, or how my daughter likes college or some such thing. I need a split second or two to decide how much I want to respond, depending on the nature of the relationship with the inquirer. So I’ll say “thank you for asking” and then come up with the version I want them to have. </p>
<p>The other day, I did ask a business contact how his daughter was enjoying her freshman year at Yale, and he responded with “thank you for remembering; she loves it…”</p>