There’s a church I pass on the way to school each morning that has one of those marquee signs. They change the saying on it every now and again. They’re sometimes witty, sometimes thought-provoking. I’m just always glad to see an active Christian church, so their attempt to communicate to the world encourages my faith.
But the latest change has me distressed: it has a terrible grammatical error in it.
Instead of “If… Then…”, the sign says “If… Than…” It seems like I have seen an increase in this particular error lately. It bothers me – especially on a sign that represents Christianity. Now I have to admit that I’m not perfect in this area. Even though I know the difference, I often swap ITS and IT’S when I’m typing too quickly. But if I were going to put a public sign up like this, I think I would be extra careful not to make any errors.
Maybe I’ll call them. I don’t like it when people call Christians uneducated. I wouldn’t want them to have any more excuse to do so…
Oh! Yes! Please call them!
Its the write thing to do to help preserve there dignity, and ares!
[Beth, you’d make a superb middle school writer there…you must hang with that crowd too, eh?]
Two days ago I made a comment on our local news website that someone needs to proofread their work. In one article they messed up were/we’re; there/their; and had several other errors. If you’re going to be a professional site, have someone proofread your stuff!
They probably have an answering machine – call after hours and start with the ‘encouraging my faith’ part. No one could get mad after that.
I don’t like proofreading things. Like when my friend asks me to go through something they wrote, I’m scared that if I tell them all their mistakes, they’ll think I’m calling them stupid, or at least trying to make them feel stupid.
http://splicd.com/LfagoEUenK4/1/3
(Lauren’s advice is perfect! Do that.)
I always told my students when learning inequalities … “THEN means next and THAN is used to compare. For example, I ate more pizza than you, then I threw up!”
It helped them to remember and we always had a good chuckle.
Yes. Call them!
My pet peeve is when people use “loose” when they mean “lose” (or vise versa). Loose means ‘not tight’; lose is opposite of win.