h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3256388.stm

I scored 9/10

The only one I got wrong was the one about TXT spk, (which, I might add, I'm quite proud of getting wrong).

Gawd almighty, I only got four. So the answer is "yes". Or is that 'yes'?

I got 7/10, including the TXT question (which worries me....). I know nothing about email shothand.

I got the its/it's wrong, which I do know; the "full stop" question; and the number of punctuation marks in the OED.

That should have been "shoRthand"....

Yes! Go for it!

I got seven right. I'd never seen that :- symbol for emails before, so I called it an error that the writer didn't delete. I also got the question about Shakespeare wrong. How would I know what Shakespeare thought about punctuation? Why should it matter? It surely wasn't standardised in Shakespeare's day, if the spelling conventions (or lack of them) are any guide.

I would quibble about the Santa Claus question. I think two of the answers would have been acceptable.

at 9/10 I should be considering the application too, shouldn't I?

I admit I just guessed the Shakespeare question and the l33t thing, but the Santa thing was obvious: if there are two subjects and no but/rather/although... then there's either a full stop or a semi-colon in between.

Sadly, I got them all correct, including the text messaging question. My only defense for that is that I have started using texting to nag my students who are behind on their assignments -- thus far, it's surprisingly efficient.

I'm only saying that I thought it could have gone either way. Maybe I'm from the "less is more" camp. A sentence, that has, too many, commas, doesn't flow, as nicely. (Egregiously gratuitous commas added for comic effect .)

Sub Editor's what are they?



* slinks off to lick his wounds with only 3 out of 10 correct *

It said I had 6 correct... but then it went on to say that the one question would be answered differently in the US. Well, duh... that's one of the ones I had wrong, because yes, we do it the other way here.

I guessed right on the Shakespeare question, but missed the OED question because that's not exactly in common US usage.

So... allowing for my "faulty" schooling in the "wrong" country...

I must own up to taking a stab at question 1, and I took an educated guess at the Shakespeare question, knowing that many words and terms now thought of as American (such as 'gotten', or using 'fall' for autumn') were in common British usage at the time of America's founding.

8/10.
I'd never seen :- as an emoticon either, and guessed wrong. I got Q2 wrong too because I couldn't couldn't make head nor tail of the original sentence, let alone punctuate it.

There are some things about punctuation that I'm not too fond of, even if I know the *correct* way to do it. The business of putting
the comma or period within the quotation marks, for instance. There just seems something terribly wrong about it.

Maybe I'm just

I've recently realised quite how hopeless I am regarding punctuation. It doesn't help that I often set myself huge traps by cluttering my sentences with umpteen levels of sub-clause.

There are certain 'rules' of grammar (what gives anybody the right to make these rules, anyway?) with which I tend to pick arguements. One is the business about "it's". Something belonging to Jane is 'Jane's' shouldn't something belonging to 'it' be denoted with an apostrophe-ess?

I often have heated debates with my dear father over such matters - he is a sub-editor in RL...

When I was in college a few years ago (this was after I had gotten my degree) I got stuck in the worst English classes in the universe.

At the beginning of a year one could take a test to determine if you qualified to opt out of taking the English credit. The first year, due to a clerical error, I started college a week after everyone else, so missed the test.

There were a few of us who were under the mistaken impression that we might actually learn something. Not a chance. We were stuck taking the course with a pile of people who never figured out the difference between an noun and a pronoun, and didn't know why they wouold need to know the difference.

The next September, I was looking forward to taking the test to avoid the same fate. They had several scheduled tests, all, with the exception of one, at times when I was in another class. The very last test was the only one I could attend. So, at the appointed time, I showed up at the room for the exam, with 20 minutes to spare.

Imagine my consternation when no one, including the instructor, turned up. Just a couple of minutes before the test, I discovered that it had been moved to another room. However, no one had bothered to post the change. In fact, the original notice had been removed.

I searched everywhere for the room, finally going to the English Department office. However, they were closed as it was an evening test. Of course, when I went to my instructor to complain, she said that there had been ample warning and it had been posted (which is hadn't, and I had been in the office earlier in the day to check the schedule) and they refused to consider a retest.

So, for another year, I was stuck taking a class with the very same people as the year previous, none of whom had figured out the difference between a noun and a pronoun. I was a little ticked off, needless to say. I was the only person in the class to get a mark over a B- (A+), the majority scraping by with a C.

I got 8 out of 10 correct, but of course the US-biased question was one I got wrong ... and the text speak one ... I had a *very* good grammar teacher!

I got 7/10. Not bad, considering I went to a school where we weren't taught grammar. Punctuation was the only thing I was ever taught in a formal way. Unbelievable. They wouldn't get away with that now...

BTW Gosho: the answer to your question *Yes, of course!*


F/b

i scored 8/10... i was quite surprised.

i don't think i'll be applying for sub-editorship anytime soon tho, i have precious little hootoo time as it is

maybe one day, tho.