Sigh. Use the Nominative for Your Subjects
It’s we do things, not us do things. Just because you throw in some extra words doesn’t mean you can change that. Third panel.
Harrumpf. Get it right. Don’t be a Tareyton smoker.
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Who’s your Mentor?
Sometimes I repeat a lesson when I run into a good illustration of it. (Do a search on “mentor” in the search box in the upper right corner.) In this illustration, the cartoonist even got the accents right!
If you have a mentor, what are you? The mentee? No! You’re the protégé!
Yes, the pair is a mating of Greek and French, but hey, English is a pidgin language anyway, so it’s okay.
By the way, to get an “é,” hold down the Alt key while you type 233 on the numeric keypad. Sorry—I’m not sure how to do it on a Mac.
I Suppose He Got it Wrong On Purpose
Based on the aside at the beginning of the comic, he might be trying to be humble…
You see the mistake in the sign on his door, right?
If you Know the Rule, You’ll Get the Joke
I’ll spoil the comic if I tell you the rule first. Because you know the rule, but you didn’t think of it. So here’s the comic:
Did you notice that she put quotes around the title of the book? Remember sixth grade English?
- Book and magazine titles should be in italics.
- Chapter names and magazine article titles should be in quotes.
Basically, if it has its own cover, use italics. Anything else, put it in quotes.
Actually, I’m somewhat surprised that she used the correct punctuation.
He Didn’t Beg!
Perhaps the second-most common logical fallacy (after non sequitur) is “begging the question.” Well, maybe post hoc. Begging the question is when you use the thing you’re trying to prove as evidence for its truth. For example, someone asks whether you were speeding, and you reply, “Well, I didn’t get a ticket, did I?” Mostly people say “beg the question” because they heard the phrase in class when they weren’t paying attention, so that’s what they say when they mean “beg to ask a question.” They mean what the guy correctly says in the first panel:
When something stimulates you to ask a question, that’s okay; just don’t say you’re begging the question.
PS—a non sequitur is when two things happen together and you say that one thing is the cause of the other. And post hoc means “after this (therefore because of this.)” They are pretty similar.
