"Its" been a while

Sorry it has been a little while since my last posting. Between work and crazy amounts of snow and other weather, it has been a little hectic.

Here are the results from the first poll:

2/3 of you feel that conjunctions in papers are never okay
1/3 believe that conjunctions are okay in moderation

I have always been told not to use them at all, but I also believe it relies heavily on the subject matter. A more casual academic paper may allow it. I also, obviously, believe they are okay when the subject matter is conjunctions. However, it is always important to ask your professor/boss/whoever you are writing for, and to understand that even just one conjunction turn a formal paper into a much more casual one.

 Speaking of conjunctions, I did,  manage to find an Ozark Grammar Goof on Valentine's Day. My boyfriend and I went to a singles charity event downtown, not knowing it was for singles (we found out the day of, called, and learned lots of couples were going so we figured it was okay). This was posted outside of it:

The "Its" drove me crazy. The event is the subject and the event is for charity, therefore it is or it's for charity. "Its" is possessive, like if you are watching a dog play outside and you say "Look at the dog go into its house." I always remember by thinking if you can say "it is" with the sentence and it makes sense, then use "it's." If the word is would not make sense, use "its."

I am going to keep looking around for local grammar goofs, hopefully one comes along soon. Happy reading!

THE Not So Super Super Bowl

Unfortunately due to the recent blizzard I have been unable to get around much to look for grammar goofs. Luckily, I decided to go to the Springfield News-Leader Web site and found something right away. Take a look at this sentence from the article "Pizza always wins on Super Bowl Sunday":

For sit-down pizza restaurants, Super Bowl isn't so super, since diners are likely to be glued to their seats for three hours or more, says Tony Gemignani, who owns both take-out and eat-in pizza parlors in Northern California, including the well-known Tony's Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco's North Beach district and the new Pizza Rocks in Sacramento.

Now this sentence has several errors, despite the fact that it actually appears to be grammatically correct. Most technical writers would agree that this sentence is too long and lacks clarity. There are no quotes at the beginning, which may be due to paraphrasing as opposed to a direct quote, but the wording afterwards suggests it is a quote.

However, the part that bugs me the most is "Super Bowl isn't so super." This part of the sentence is lacking an article, and could be fixed with changing it to "the Super Bowl isn't so super" or even "Super Bowl Sunday isn't so super." I am assuming this is a simple typo, but regardless, it is definitely a grammar goof.

By the way, there is one last day to vote, so don't forget to take my poll! Thanks for reading!