Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

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porsche

Member Since

October 20, 2005

Total number of comments

670

Total number of votes received

3088

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  • November 24, 2005, 3:58pm

RE: log on vs. log in,
I couldn't begin to say why, but I tend to think of logging on as establishing an actual network or internet connection, e.g. dialup, or, as was mentioned in the old days, connecting to a time-shared mainframe with dumb terminals. If your not logged on, your terminal is a paperweight. You're not ON the network or ON the system at all. I think of logging IN as providing a username and password to get access to a particular area; a website, a shopping cart, some secure locality, etc. You can be ON, but not IN.
I won't swear to it, but I think you'll find this to be often true in common usage.

Capitalizing After the Colon

  • November 21, 2005, 7:02pm

Voltaire, are you implying that a colon cannot be used to join what would normally be two sentences? I vaguely recall such a joining as correct and proper as long as the colon is demonstrating some relationship between the sentences, but that semicolons should not be used to join two complete sentences.

“Tilting at Windmills”

  • November 21, 2005, 6:57pm

I would agree with much of what was said below, except that I think that Speedwell's metaphor is too narrow. It is used to describe any attempt or planned attempt at something that is clearly unattainable, dubious, or just plain crazy.

Spaces After Period

  • November 10, 2005, 6:36pm

I thought you'd all find this interesting. I saw a little dig against Microsoft below, but the truth is that when using Microsoft Word, you can set the grammar checker to use either one or two spaces after the period. The default is one, but you can change it to two.
I'm not sure I agree with what some of you said about variable pitch fonts used in computer word processors. Your logic is flawed. Usually, when a word processor changes the spacing between words, it makes the single space smaller than a letter, not larger. This would make double-spacing after a period more important, not less.
Personally, I double-space after periods most of the time, except in some informal e-mails and quick typed notes where it is simply a matter of saving time or space.

‘...’?

  • October 31, 2005, 2:09pm

You can also use an ellipsis to signify the passage of time, or a delay. The ellipsis was discussed at length on this previous posting:
http://www.painintheenglish.com/post.asp?id=482

How many thats?

  • October 27, 2005, 7:19pm

Ok, now I can use three "that"s:
"Now that I consider that, that that is important suddenly becomes obvious."
Maybe not the best sentence, but it works.

Assist in or assist with

  • October 27, 2005, 6:26pm

I agree but would like to be more specific.
"assists in" is followed by a verb.
"assists with" is followed by a noun.
It just so happens that drafting can be a verb or a noun, so both sentences make sense if only slightly different in meaning.

Present adverbs in past narrative

  • October 27, 2005, 6:14pm

I would agree with Matt. The "now", resolves a potential ambiguity. Compare it to "Three months after his father’s death, Dave was still running the shop."

How many thats?

  • October 27, 2005, 5:59pm

I noticed that everyone's examples are relying not on the grammatical use of "that" as a part of speech, but simply as a word. If I say, "where should I place that "that" in the sentence?", clearly the second "that" could be any word, and really isn't a proper use of the word "that". Yes, I know, the sentence is grammatically correct, but I could propose this sentence:

"I saw the word "that" written one hundred thousand times in a row, appearing as: that, that, that, that .... that"

There. I just used the word "that" one hundred thousand times in a row in a grammatically correct sentence. I could make it a million or a billion or arbitrarily large. I've solved the problem, but not very creatively or elegantly.

How about a more interesting approach? How many times can you use "that" in a sentence, where the word "that" is actually and properly functioning as the word "that" and NOT just as some arbitrary noun?

I can do up to two "that"s in a row:

"I am very disappointed that that is the best excuse you can come up with."

Can anyone get three? more?

off the mark

  • October 27, 2005, 5:36pm

Or, also may be from archery; missed the bullseye is off the mark.