plain english

[dakegra]

Today I was on a Plain English for Clearer Writing course at work. Enormous fun, and extremely interesting.

I was given the nickname 'Apostrophe Dave', as I spotted a couple of things other people didn't, including a couple that others missed, including the trainer.

He pointed me at this BBC test: http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/punctuation/apostrophes/game.shtml

(second one on that page), and said that the level 3 test was hard.

Naturally I tried it when I got back to my desk, and scored full marks.

Right, your turn. How did you do?

Comments

[sirenity.livejournal.com]

See? All that reading HAS done you well. =)

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

hee! Am clever, secretly.

[alibee.livejournal.com]

Full marks, woot woot!

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

do I get a cookie?

[alibee.livejournal.com]

No, I mean I got them too! WE MUST SHARE THE COOKIE.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

mmm, cookies. Even half a cookie is better than no cookie.

Quick! before the kids find out we have cookies!

[alibee.livejournal.com]

Kid The Bigger has figured out how to climb a chair to get onto the kitchen counter to find cookies. Life is OVER.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

you're done. Both of mine have figured out how to do that *AND* where the secret cookie hiding places are.

[peeeeeeet.livejournal.com]

Huh. Apparently "it's not" is an INVALID contraction of "it is not". News to me. And Tom Jones.

[martinoh.livejournal.com]

And martinoh...

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

Me too.

[miss-t-ide.livejournal.com]

And me!

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

Apparently 'it's not unusual...'

[genevra.livejournal.com]

That was supposed to be hard???? I weep for humanity.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

indeed. You did all three tests on the who owns what? test?

[genevra.livejournal.com]

I just went straight to level 3, and the fastest on the timed one. No point in doing the easier ones...

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

ah, I didn't do the timed one. :-)

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

You've completed level C
of the Skillswise Apostrophes
quiz and have scored:
10 /10

-------------------------------------
Are you really surprised that your friends are scoring well? Those all seemed quite obvious to me.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised by you lot. You're all:
a. smart,
b. ridiculously well-read, and
b. jolly attractive human beings.

Hmm. The one I did had 15 questions at level 3, I'm sure.

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

Well, there's a quiz and a game, and I tried both.

The game is where we all seem to have chosen "it's not" when it was looking for "it isn't" as a contraction for "it is not".