Jeff Jarvis Gets A Grammar Lesson (Tsk, tsk)

© 2009 Stan Spire


Over at buzzmachine.com a CUNY (City University of New York) J prof named Jeff Jarvis disseminates his opinions regarding the state of modern journalism and media.

What irks me about some college professors is that they preach but don’t practice. One recent item by Jarvis entitled It ain’t over bugged me. No, not because he used the word “ain’t” in his title/headline. It was something else. Thus this comment:

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Stan Spire says:

July 11, 2009 at 1:29 pm

Take a look at your first sentence: “…since it’s 2000 high…”

“It’s” is a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” “Its” is the spelling for the possessive pronoun.

See http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000227.htm .

Obviously you are one of those commie hippie college professors responsible for lowering both English usage and moral standards.

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Of course, even a smartass like me can make a mistake, so I had to add this comment:

Stan Spire says:

July 11, 2009 at 1:42 pm

Correction: Make that your first paragraph, third sentence.

My journalism education trained me “good.”

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The second post proves that even a lowly un-famous blogger like yours truly does go back and proofread his material one more time.

Anyway, your typical J prof would’ve marked off a bunch of points if one of his students made the it’s/its mistake in an article.

So far no response from the prof. Maybe he’s been busy with a commie party meeting or some hippie drug orgy. But that doesn’t change the fact.

Remember: when using the possessive pronoun, it’s its.

Or the remnants of moral fiber that still hold society together will be torn apart forever.

And then I’ll say: “Ain’t that a freakin’ shame.”