I just finished packing one bag. Since we’re leaving in a few days, I decided that instead of waiting until the last minute and freaking out, I may as well get something started. I’ve been here two months and I’ve bought a few nicities for my suite and I don’t want to throw anything away that I don’t have to. Hopefully, I’ll get the rest of my bags packed tomorrow. Or enough packed so that I can mail a box to Kissimmee or maybe back to Dover.
The building next door is having problems with the fire alarm. The alarm goes off every five to ten minutes, but only for one to two minutes at a time. It’s a very shrill, trilling noise. I can understand the point of a fire alarm being annoying, but if this goes on all night long, I’m going to be quite mad. It just went off again. But this time it only went off for fifteen seconds.
Two of my coworkers were selected for promotion today! One of them definitely deserves it and I’m really glad for her. Howard, the second person is about as worthless as a fish on a bicycle. I guess he is a case of being in the company long enough and not screwing up anything that he’s just moving up. But it’s still frustrating for the rest of us who actually WORK. Howard is on the green team (I’m on the blue team), so his promotion doesn’t effect me in any way.
Okay, here’s a grammar question. What is the difference between ‘effect’ and ‘affect’? I thought ‘effect’ was correct, but apparently MS Word thinks that ‘affect’ is correct. I need to look them up. I don’t think that they are interchangeable; but maybe they are. I try to use the “cause and effect” rule when I get confused. If there is a “cause” then I have to use “effect”; otherwise I use “affect”. I might be wrong on this one.
And here’s a punctuation question. When did we stop using the comma when annotating items in a list? “The flag is red, white, and blue,” is what I was taught. But every day I see, “The flag is red, white and blue”. Is it correct to leave that last comma out now? It drives me crazy. Since I deal with multiple requirements all day long, I see this comma issue.
(Anyway) Ashley, Mike, and I are all on the blue team. And we’re all leaving for Kissimmee on Monday. Sandy is also on the blue team and she’s leaving also. However, her time is up here and she’s going back to Minnesota. Joey is the last member of the blue team to stay here. He’s sad that we’re all leaving him. I think that he’ll be coming down with us in a month or so. But Sunday we’re going to have a going away party.
And it’s another Friday night here. We didn’t go to OJay’s for dinner. We went to our regular steak place and that was nice, since we won’t be going there again. We all got chocolate chip cookies for dessert. They were sooo good! I don’t know why we never got them before. I wish I could have gotten some of them to go. But since I’ve been working out, I guess I don’t really need them.
And I picked up my last load of laundry this afternoon and I made a discovery. The laundry workers matched up all of my white socks by the letter on the bottom! That just made my day. You really don’t know. I wonder how long they’ve been doing that, or if I just got the one person who figured it out.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg)
Hi, Michael. I'm sorry I haven't commented much lately--I've been distracted in a major way, thanks to the Gov's proposed salary reductions for State employees. I have a number of co-workers who are going to be totally screwed if this is approved.
ReplyDeleteAnyway...
Affect vs. Effect: Affect is the process which produces a change; Effect is what happens. "The cold weather affected the crops, the effect of which was famine."
Commas in a series. Common (and erroneous) usage eliminates the comma before the word "and"--as in your example "red, white and blue." CORRECT usage places the comma before the word "and": "red, white, and blue."
The classic example of the necessity of a comma before "and" is that of a last will and testament. A man died, and the terms of his will were: "My estate shall be divided among my children: Tom, Dick and Harry." Tom, being a nefarious crook, interpreted the will to mean that he got half the estate while the other half was divided between Dick and Harry because that's how ol' Dad had it written: Tom on one side of the comma, Dick and Harry on the other. Dick and Harry, of course, hauled his butt to court. The court, however, agreed with Tom because of the presumption, effected by the placement of the comma, was that Dad wanted Tom to have half and //Dick and Harry// to each have a quarter.
I was always taught, both at DHS and at the Katharine Gibbs School, that one *always* places a comma before the word "and." And that is what I *always* do. It drives me crazy to not see one there; so when I'm editing a report, I put it in.
Have a safe trip to Kissimmee, and be safe while you're there!
Affect can also mean one's psychological state. If it is spelled this way it is usually a verb, unless it is used as the psychological state, which is rare.
ReplyDeleteThe comma thing - it is correct now to not use the comma like most of us were taught in school. It is perfectly acceptable to omit it between the second and third item. I remember taking a grammar class in college and learning from a book from the Oxford UP that is was now perfectly fine. I, however, still use it. It looks right to me and clears up confusion.
Love you!
With the comma situation, I always use the comma before the "and" -- even though it's now acceptable to omit it. My go-to website is Grammar Slammer. They say to use the comma to cut down on confusion.
ReplyDelete"Incorrect: The street was filled with angry protestors, shouting spectators and police.
(Leaving out the last comma makes it look like the police were shouting, too.)
Correct: The street was filled with angry protestors, shouting spectators, and police.
(Makes it clearer.)"
I also love Grammar Girl's website. This is her thought on Affect/Effect:
Affect
Affect with an a means "to influence," as in, "The arrows affected Ardvark," or "The rain affected Amy's hairdo." Affect can also mean, roughly, "to act in a way that you don't feel," as in, "She affected an air of superiority."
Effect
Effect with an e has a lot of subtle meanings as a noun, but to me the meaning "a result" seems to be at the core of all the definitions. For example, you can say, "The effect was eye-popping," or "The sound effects were amazing," or "The rain had no effect on Amy's hairdo."
I think everyone has explained the grammar and punctuation well. The only thing I wanted to add (in case you want to know for the sake of knowing) is that that *last* comma (the one we all seem to prefer - I know I sure do! - and which is now considered optional) is known as the "Oxford Comma". I, too, think it reduces confusion, and just plain belongs there. I've read way too many ambiguous sentences that resulted from ommitting it.
ReplyDelete