The BEAST

Most people have a pet peeve or two. Y'know, something that's relatively minor, or doesn't bother many other people, but it drives you absolutely INSANE. One of mine, as you may have guessed, is spelling words incorrectly when they're so easy to look up. Another is lousy grammar, especially from a professional communicator. For example, a person who writes press releases should be able to properly assemble a sentence, don't you think? Or a journalist. You'd think that crew would know more than most. Of course, editors should catch their mistakes, because of course, there will be some, but editors are a dying breed, and journalists know this. Therefore, a little more care should be taken, especially if you're leaning heavily on the copy of a press release.

screengrab by AS

When AS sent this in, she assured me that this drives her NUTS. Actually, she described this as her biggest bete noir in the grammar world, which is a marvelous turn of phrase! That comma is absolutely unnecessary before James Franco. Here's an interesting article I found that describes this issue. Basically, if the identifier is identifying only one person in the WHOLE WORLD, then you'd use the comma. If not (more than one Academy Award nominee, natch), then there's no need. And yes, I'd also lose the hyphen.

I don't read Deadline, so I don't know their format, but nothing reeks of press release more than a movie title in all caps. Yick.

What about you guys? What's your grammar bete noir? Your grammar waterloo? What makes you crazy?

(Thanks, AS!)