I hear it frequently on tv, but it’s especially annoying (and disheartening) to hear it from newscasters who see nothing wrong with structures such as ‘There’s a lot of people standing in line.’

Makes me wonder if they would say ‘There is a lot of people standing in line’. Unfortunately, the answer is probably yes.

And as for no excuse to not use spell check, I say there’s no excuse for not checking one’s own work before publication or having it reviewed by someone else. I recently saw a headline that included the word ‘fair’ but ‘fare’ would have been the correct word to use.

There is no excuse for not using spell check anymore. OpenOffice is a free Word-Processing Program that includes spell check and even Internet Browsers now have a Spell-Checker as well. I know I love Firefox for it because I know there are some words I constantly misspell, and due to being in need of a more expensive, well made keyboard with better keystroke response, it has become my favorite feature.

Oh and another thing that irritates me is when someone uses Text-Speak in a non-chatroom or txt scenario. I try not to use it even though I have a mobile phone that does not have a QWERTY mini-keyboard. It takes a long time for me to send texts.

Would you believe that there really is an ABA (American Bar Association) style? I’m sure there are many style manuals out there that are so specialized that only a very few would know about them. I’m going to stick with Chicago and keep all periods and commas inside quotation marks.

It frustrates me; I see it in books all the time. It makes me feel like a jerk when teachers make us do the “trade-n-grade” thing, because I have to mark up my friends’ papers when their writing isn’t bad.

Also, if you’re a senior in high school and you spell “doesn’t” as “dosen’t” and “does” as “dose,” then you should die. Slowly. I don’t even care if that’s a fragment, because the emphasis is necessary.