A Rule We Break Often
The rule is that we should put modifiers as close as possible to the word they modify. Rodney follows that rule here, hence the humor; we often break the proximity rule, and I’ll bet you did when you read the comic:
After all, “Bart” is closer than “Sir Rodney.”
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A Figure of Speech Common in Classical Greek, Occasional in English
Greek is highly inflected, far more than English, so for classical Greek, word order is pretty flexible, and poets liked to use this figure of speech. It’s called chaismus. It means using a phrase twice, once in reverse order. Here’s an example in English. Only two words, but that’s English for you.
A Really Bad Mistake
I can see putting quotes around a Sale! sign in a grocery store, but an automatic apstrophe before an “s” at the end of a word means you’re not paying attention. “Gets” is a plain old third person singular verb—no apostrophe! It’s in the caption at the bottom. Don’t do this!
Another Reference to a Tech Writer Motto
Last panel in the second row. Her dad says it. Maybe he’s a tech writer.
You can look up other references to tech writer mottos in the search box on the right, including “RTFM.”
Quotation Marks for a Long Quotation
Most folks know to put a quotation mark at the beginning end of something they’re quoting, such as this: He said “Merry Christmas” with a scowl on his face.
But what about a loooong thing you quote? Like more than a paragraph? The rule is you put a quotation mark at the beginning of each paragraph, but at the end of only the last paragraph.
I recently read an article by a professor of history about the 19th amendment to the US Constitution. She quoted the 15th amendment, and got the punctuation right:
The new amendment was patterned on the Fifteenth Amendment protecting the right of Black men to vote, and it read:
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
“Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American from heathercoxrichardson@substack.com for August 26, 2023. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-26-2023
The article is worth a read. Sorry, no comic for this one.
