Pet Peeves, Part 2
A LONG time ago, I blogged about a few of the recurring grammatical pet peeves I often find when proofreading content (or just driving along the road looking at signs and billboards). Call me a grammar snob if you want, but that’s what happens when you edit articles and read millions of printed words through the years. And to think, I was not a big fan of English class back in high school.
Anyway, I was reminded of one of those pet peeves today while proofing a brochure for one of our regular clients. At one point, when referring to multiple medical doctors, the content used “MD’s who have more than…”. Where’s the error there? Well, in the apostrophe, of course!
You mean you didn’t see it? That’s probably because this is one of those dreaded grammar mistakes that has become so common, it is now widely accepted and overlooked. Spell that out. You would never say: “Medical Doctor’s who have more than…”. But for some reason, people feel the need to use an apostrophe before the “s” when it follows capital letters, acronyms, or numbers. The worst offender probably comes when people refer to entire decades, like this:
“Interactive marketing technologies, interactive games, and interactive advertising were not around in the 1970’s, were barely explored in the 80’s and 90’s, and now are all the rage in the 2000’s.” (By the way, how are we supposed to refer to this decade? Some important person needs to decide).
You don’t need the apostrophe in that case. You can simply say 1980s, 1970s, or those wacky 60s. I know it looks strange, but you’ll get used to it, I promise.
(And I won’t even get into the restaurant sign down the street from DDA boasting that “The Secrets Out!” Gets me every day on my drive home).
Here at DDA, we all have our specialties, and those all include our own little pet peeves. While the copywriters fret over grammar mistakes and sentence structure, the animators, videographers, programmers, and graphic designers all have a mental list of issues that pop up on a regular basis. And when you’re dealing with so many types of interactive advertising and marketing materials — including interactive games, media, websites, videos, and quizzes — those pet peeves surely pop up more and more often.
So, whether it’s a misplaced apostrophe, an annoying line of Javascript code, a frustrating video frame, or a recurring glitch in a 3D animation, the experts here at DDA are ready and willing to overlook those pet peeves and get to work on your latest interactive marketing strategy, whether it’s a new website, video, piece of custom software, or even an exciting new game.
Contact us today to see what DDA’s (correct apostrophe!) talented professionals can do for you!
Entry by: Steve