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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (2166)	3/15/1999 7:26:00 PM
From: Edwarda	Respond to of 4711

Your example has a problem: You clearly intend someone with a grounding in the meanings of words to pick up the difficulty in the phrase "The affect he sought in his essay...." However, a person who studied clinical psychology will use the word "affect" to refer to emotional affect and will concede the point in the example you give. The essay might have sought to elicit emotional affect. (In other words, you could flunk a high-level pass.) BTW, "...the affectiveness of his argument..." Simply noted to ensure that you don't think I am asleep at the switch. Why don't you call MLA or Katie Gibbs and ask for a style handbook? Ask your applicants if they are willing to study it. If they say that they are not, they are out of the running. If an applicant went to Gibbs, the applicant is probably grounded in basic grammar. Note that I did not specify the sex of the applicant.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (2166)	3/15/1999 11:03:00 PM
From: E	Respond to of 4711

If you want a quick and dirty test to eliminate most of the applicants, I'd use lie/lay, then lay/laid, and phenomenon/a, and an incorrect antecedent or two. Even the NYT is rife with incorrect antecedents these days, and the NYer isn't exactly rife, but they aren't immune, either. I'd run a "with her and I" by him while I was at it. Have you noticed how hard it is to compose examples of errors you see constantly? The mind knows where it is when it's in their presence, but doesn't know exactly how to get there on its own.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (2166)	3/15/1999 11:57:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4711

The quickest and most direct shibboleth in the entire arsenal is a poorly placed apostrophe. An example would be it's misuse to denote plural's. Gawd that hurt

To: The Philosopher who wrote (2166)	3/17/1999 8:12:00 AM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4711

techstocks.com That post contains this surprising quote: <<I have read a good deal of your poems and I am deeply impressed by their spirit and also by the simplicity of and lucidity of your language. I consider the you a real artist untouched by the artificiality of the literary fashion of our epoch.>> And it suggested an obvious addition to your test: the ability to distinguish between number and quantity.