Good grammar is very serious

[kenny]

4 Copy Editors Killed In Ongoing AP Style, Chicago Manual Gang Violence
NEWS IN BRIEF • News Media • News • ISSUE 49•01 • Jan 7, 2013

NEW YORK—Law enforcement officials confirmed Friday that four more copy editors were killed this week amid ongoing violence between two rival gangs divided by their loyalties to the The Associated Press Stylebook and The Chicago Manual Of Style.

“At this time we have reason to believe the killings were gang-related and carried out by adherents of both the AP and Chicago styles, part of a vicious, bloody feud to establish control over the grammar and usage guidelines governing American English,” said FBI spokesman Paul Holstein, showing reporters graffiti tags in which the word “anti-social” had been corrected to read “antisocial.”

“The deadly territory dispute between these two organizations, as well as the notorious MLA Handbook gang, has claimed the lives of more than 63 publishing professionals this year alone.”

Officials also stated that an innocent 35-year-old passerby who found himself caught up in a long-winded dispute over use of the serial, or Oxford, comma had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.


http://www.theonion.com/articles/4-copy-editors-killed-in-ongoing-ap-style-chicago,30806/

 

[AGBF]

I was so glad to read that at last this matter was receiving the attention it deserved. If people can kill each other over parking spaces or over cutting each other off on the highways, how could they possibly neglect to kill each other over the far more urgent issues facing society: such as whether to use the Oxford comma? When I read an "older" novel and see the possessive used appropriately (e.g. the Smiths' cat left the house), I find it heavenly. When my daughter uses an MLA handbook to write a paper for school I feel a slow burn that starts to enrage and madden me. Who dreamed up that booklet of filth? It must have been an illiterate who was in second grade when I was in graduate school. Where does one sign up for one of the anti-MLA factions?

Deb/AGBF

 

[JewelFreak]

Where do we sign up for bricks & bats to join the fray? I'm in, with the Oxford comma gang.

--- Laurie

 

[texaskj]

Gotta love The Onion, and yes, I realize "gotta" is probably not in any style book, AP or otherwise. (Even style book is up for grabs, one word or two? It depends.)
And then there's the eternal question for any copy desk...Does anal retentive have a hyphen? Again, it depends.
I've seen editors, copy and otherwise, nearly come to blows over style. Especially feature obits. Especially feature obits of newspaper employees.