Turned Out OK
Spotted: 9/22/2016
Creator: Appalachian Memes
What’s wrong here? Let me count the ways:
- Under most style guides, numbers less than 10 should be spelled out. I changed 3 to three and removed the extra had.
- An ampersand (&) is almost never appropriate in regular text. The only real appropriate context would be a company name (as in Barnes & Noble) or in certain abbreviations (like AT&T and R&D). Otherwise, just spell it out.
- To maintain the parallel structure of the list, I changed school started to started school. That’s better, isn’t it?
- There’s no reason to use scare quotes around The Pledge. And on first mention, using the entire title is probably appropriate.
- It’s just a quibble, but I think onto works better than using.
- When using an ellipses (…) in the middle of a sentence, most style guides say you need a space before and after the punctuation mark.
- Sorry, folks, but multiple exclamation points (!!!) don’t necessarily create additional emphasis. Instead, they simply make your writing look more amateurish. If one isn’t enough, go back and revise the sentence to make it more exciting.
Here’s a revised version of the meme that just might be more literate than necessary for a group called “Appalachian Memes.”
