Be safe, and capitalize correctly.

[meitachi]

Yo, alive here in the DC area. We got rain and winds and some downed trees and power outages but managed to avoid most of the flooding and damage. All my best out to those affected, but particularly in the New York and New Jersey areas. As my work requires close coverage of the news, I'm well aware of just how widespread and devastating Sandy has been. Be safe, everyone!

Speaking of my job, it also skews my perspective a little. I forget that not everyone has practically memorized major headlines that arise every day or care about all the subjects the news covers. College and law school made it really easy to live in a bubble of being unaware of the news, I remember. Now I'm the opposite! A bubble of being constantly aware of the news...

I'm also disproportionately upset over the fact that, from what I've read on the job, in online articles, and in fic, people seem to have given up proper nouns. It makes my soul cry a little bit.

You know "tea party" and "Tea Party" mean different things, right? The President of the United States is an official job title, as is Secretary of State. When did "so-and-so tea party candidate criticized the secretary of state and the president of the United States" become acceptable journalism? You know what else are proper nouns? Lower East Side, Brooklyn Bridge, etc. Lookin' at you, journalists covering Sandy. /squints

And in fic, it drives me crazy when brand names aren't capitalized: "red bull" is not the same thing as "Red Bull". I know, I know, the evolution of language and the genericization of brand names (which every company tries to avoid via trademark, hooray, law factoid!). I get it. I let things like "googling info" slide, and obviously no one cares about bandaid or kleenex anymore (except my spellcheck), but "life cereal" and "Life cereal"? Not the same thing. "Nike shoes," not "nike shoes" please. What. WHAT.

Is this the downfall of our society?

Yeah, yeah, sometimes I get hung up on the little things. But what have proper nouns ever done to you? :(

Comments

[rsadelle]

RE: googling: the search engine is capitalized, but lowercase is acceptable for the verb. Otherwise, I am very much in agreement with you!

[meiface.livejournal.com]

It's become that way, yes! Though it's really interesting because in my Trademarks class we read about how hard Google had been fighting the eventual verbing of their noun, essentially. They wanted people to say "I'll use Google to search that" rather than "I'll google that". But it was obviously a losing battle.

But companies like Xerox have fought and mostly won this, mostly by dint of suing people to ensure they say "copy that for you" rather than "Xerox that for you". (Or so our casebook said.)

[rsadelle]

Yeah, Google didn't manage to win that one. But, yes, I always use "Kleenex" in fic, and then it looks weird even though I know it's right.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

I was looking at the list of brand names that became genericized and among them are things like aspirin and escalator and laundromat (!) but despite how widespread the use is, technically you're right: Kleenex and Band-Aid are still brand names. Not that the rest of the world cares. /o\ But I suppose if someone wants to avoid the issue, they could just write "tissue" or "bandage".

...now back to being appalled at professional journalists for not capitalizing things like a tea party and republican party. :(

[rsadelle]

Ugh, professional journalists should know better than that. >:(

[rappakalja.livejournal.com]

i'm the exact same way--if i see something that isn't capitalized when it should be, i get so angry. it's ridiculous, and i feel like a crazy person, BUT THERE IS SUPPOSED A CAPITAL LETTER AT THE START OF THAT WORD PLEASE AND THANK YOU ok

[meiface.livejournal.com]

augh I know, right! I don't understand why you wouldn't! T__T

[altri-uccelli.livejournal.com]

I'm actually more irritated by the incorrect capitalization of words that should be in lower case. Like, "Stiles winced as his Dad looked suspicious." Or "He remembered that he'd first heard of werewolves in the Spring of his Junior year." Or "He decided to major in History."

Ugh. But I agree with you on the undercapitalization, too.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

Oh, that bothers me too! Incorrect capitalization all around, I guess. I've really noticed it in terms of mom and dad that people don't seem to know anymore when to capitalize it. When it subs in for a name, then it's a proper noun. Not otherwise. ;__;! "

[impertinence.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're okay!

omg proper nouns. The de-proper-noun-ing of stuff like Red Bull kind of weirds me out from the perspective of how thoroughly consumerism is embedded in our brains. IT'S SO WEIRD.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

My area was lucky! Just looking at some of the pictures in the aftermath are so horrifying. D:


I just don't understaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand why people don't love proper nouns anymore. :( EVEN PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS. Excuse me, did you even proofread that article before it went up on your site?!

[disorient-me.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear that you're okay. I've been hearing that New York was pretty badly hit, eep.

As for the capitalization thing--I'm not alone! Hooray! As a graduate with my B.A. in English, it's so frustrating for me to see that sort of thing. Don't teachers, you know, teach their students how to write properly anymore? I thought journalists were at least supposed to know better...

[meiface.livejournal.com]

Yeah, NY and NJ really seemed to get the worst of it - well, NJ in particular, but New York getting a ton of coverage because the city is huge and dense. Thankfully it seems like things are slowly returning to normal there. In NJ there are still people trapped in floodwaters even. D:

I saw a professional article today on a web site where the journalist wrote that a guy "handed off the reigns" to someone else. I just wanted to cry. REINS, DAMMIT.

[transitorial.livejournal.com]

so glad to hear that you're okay! this entire situation brings back some bad memories -_-

...okay, I know I can't really talk, given that I'm not capitalizing most things here, but...how can you not capitalize Red Bull/other proper nouns? that just bugs me.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

THEY ARE WRONG. I don't know why it's a thing that's happening, either. I would blame schools but, really, thinking about the entire system of our public education being broken in so many ways (tied to politics) gets me down.

[intomorning.livejournal.com]

It seems like the DC area got it a bit easier (?). Glad to hear that there weren't any issues for you re: flooding/damage.

Whoa, tea party vs. Tea Party. Really? I didn't know people used kleenex vs. tissues, but I know I use 'band-aids' instead of... 'bandages' (haha, blanked out on the word there for a sec). I can't see Nike shoes being SO ubiquitous that people write 'nike shoes'.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we were pretty lucky over here. You too, hopefully!

People are just wrong and it upsets me. ): Give proper nouns their proper amount of love!

[acornmama.livejournal.com]

I read this and laughed to myself about the grammar situation. But now I am laughing as find myself editing what I write. I always complain about the laziness of others when I am editing their stuff, but I know I am just as lazy. So now, I am watching myself write and laughing because everytime I see this post in my mind's eye.