Sunday, October 5, 2014

Nauseously Nauseated by the Whole Shebang

The more I read about grammar and punctuation, the more I learn what I in fact don't know (that I thought I knew), the more a sense of nausea wafts through my innards. This nauseating, nauseousness, of nauseativity, really has me confused. Does that mean I'm a nauseaholic? I better check my symptoms on Web MD when I'm done blogging.

Here is what I gather:

Nausea is the actual noun of the loathsome sickness to the stomach.
Nauseate is the verb that is the condition of being full of nausea.
Nauseous is the adjective that describes the thing causing the sickness.

Thus:

The smell of cinnamon doused pine cones in every craft store entrance is nauseous.
The smell of cinnamon doused pine cones in every craft store entrance makes me nauseated.

Then again I'm nauseated just thinking about whether I have a handle on this upset stomach thing, and I think I will just go with what my kids call it: pukey. Yes, I am still hopeful the pukey feeling will wan by the end of this course, and I will pass the final with no tummy rumbles.

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This grammar and spelling oversights for this week come to you from my daughter's class Power Point for science class. Oops!



The first slide contains the wrong verb form grown; it should be in the present tense as grow.

The second slide refers to Mr. Hooke incorrectly as people instead of person.
The last bullet contains restrictive material essential to the meaning of the sentence. The word that, with no comma, should be used instead of which with the comma. The second bullet contains a comma after the date; however, I'm not certain it is necessary because it is a short sentence. It makes sense without the comma.



2 comments:

  1. I just had to shake my head on your editing examples. I think it is pretty scary that the teachers that are teaching our children are making these kinds of mistakes. I wonder if it was just a "typo" or if they really didn't realize there was a grammatical error. That is why it is so important to proofread before posting anything! I know that I am guilty sometimes, but teachers should be extra cautious when trying to teach the students.

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  2. In the past when teachers have made a mistake on such things, they've pointed them out and have made it an example of "they should have taken more time to proofread." However, I'm not sure about this incident because my daughter was not able to attend school the day the teacher presented it in class. We all make mistakes. I noticed I've done so on the post now that I've read it over again. I agree there should be a higher standard if you're a teacher, but I also admire when a person can own up to their mistakes and make an effort to do better in the future. I am optimistic there won't be as many "oops" in future lessons.

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