Saturday 3 September 2016

Please leave my grammar alone!

For many years I wrote magazine short stories, and I still write the odd one. I'm used to names, punctuation and other things being changed on publication, and I don't mind too much, but in a recent story "I" is printed instead of the accusative "me" ("she hated letting my brother and I...." was in the published version. Horrors!). This is an abuse I really hate. Okay, I'm a pedant. But even pedants must have some rights....haven't we?

19 comments:

  1. Absolutely! Changing a text from correct grammar to incorrect must be considered a serious offense. (They should at least have to pay you double as compensation...)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your support, DT! Double pay - now there's a thought...

      Delete
  2. I was taught many years ago ( school presumably) that you should remove the other person from the sentence and see if " I "or" me" works. ie. She hated letting I….doesn't work at all. I corrected someone a while ago and got shot down and told that wasn't how it works . I guess there are exceptions to every rule.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope you stood your ground after being shot down, Frances?

      Delete
    2. It was a comment I made on a blog, and no I didn't. I thought that perhaps I was wrong….the writer could sometimes be quite " stroppy" and I didn't want to invite his wrath!

      Delete
  3. I, too, was taught to remove the other person, and to this day using "I" instead of "me" makes me cringe.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, that's one of my pet hates - I remember drilling it into me and I did the same with the children I taught using the method Frances mentions in her comment above. How annoying for you as it makes it look as though it's you who has made the mistake.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's what rankles, Wendy. That readers shoud think I wrote it that way. But maybe no-one will notice...

      Delete
  5. When I write for a customer (usually a directive or guideline on data protection or IT security; sometimes course material on the same topic), I don't want them to change anything at all, because everything I wrote is there for a reason. I know I am not perfect in either German or English, but I like to think that my spelling and grammar are good enough and does not really need much correcting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You've always struck me as a perfectionist, Meike?

      Delete
  6. The I, me thing irritates the life out of me. If its not broke why fix it?

    ReplyDelete
  7. It boils down to knowing when to use nominative case and when to use objective case. Your editor obviously doesn't know. It's a sad day when so-called professionals don't know their own language. Things are much, much worse over here across the pond; people practically revel in their ignorance.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I totally agree with you. I'd be seething, especially as it looks as if you are the culprit. Have you written your angry letter reply?

    ReplyDelete
  9. No, Maggie. I don't bite the hand that feeds me, although I'm tempted. They also remove all semi-colons, and I love semi-colons. Sigh...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Like Meike, when I wrote professionally every word was meant to be there and convey a meaning in context whether it was meant to be interpreted one way or, possibly, interpreted in more than one way (writing in a political context can be 'interesting' that way). I, too, love colons and semi-colons. We live in the great age of dumbing down. Unfortunately we, as a nation, excel at it.

    ReplyDelete