1) All Merriam-Webster products and services are backed by the largest team of professional dictionary editors and writers in America, and one of the largest in the world.
And “one of the largest” in the world…what? For a company that enjoys such a fine reputation, Merriam-Webster’s website is a hot mess.
2) Then you simply add any other pages you want such as a about us, products, testimonials, links or whatever you can dream up.
Oooh, you need a comma after “want” and a comma after “links.” But, wait, there’s more! The “list” portion is incorrect on a number of counts: 1) …such as an “about us” page, and 2) product listings, testimonials, links, or whatever….
3) As someone who is in danger of letting their Gold Card fall to the wayside, I wanted to find out how to make the most of the new points system.
Noun-pronoun problem: “someone” is singular, “their” is plural. And the expression is “fall by the wayside,” not “fall to the wayside.”
4) The Office of Statewide Prosecution said Friday the four defendants committed 10 thefts at popular retailers like Champs, Macy’s and Victoria’s Secret in Charlotte, Collier, Pinellas and Sarasota Counties. (from the AP via the Washington Post)
“Counties” should be lowercase. When you have multiple items like this, sharing what would be a lowercased noun if it wasn’t part of the proper noun, you lowercase that noun; for example, I live at the corner of Pine and Oak streets. Or, I attended Harvard and Emory universities.
And, yes, I know this is “newspaper style,” but I really do like that comma between the penultimate and final item in these two lists. That last comma is called a “serial” comma, and I’m a fan.
5) It really works to brighten her complexion and make her standout amidst a sea of neutral-colored dresses.
“Standout” is one word as a noun, but two words as a verb. I would have said “in a sea” to keep things simpler.
6) The frames for his handbags were crafted per order in Paris, France.
Paris, like London, Berlin, San Francisco, Chicago, Baltimore, etc., does not need the qualifier unless you are talking about “Paris, Maine.”
7) You can only imagine my excitement when I was lucky enough to discover a couple of articles from the 1960s where he was mentioned as “the best-kept secret”.
Quotations marks are always placed OUTSIDE periods and commas in American English.
8) Such a categorical statement coming from one of the most popular American fashion blogs is quite surprising, especially considering how often Purseblog features these celebrated American brands, and how many positive comments are usually being posted by their readers to reflect their relevance.
The problem here are the two “theirs” that come towards the end of the sentence. They present a challenge because they refer to different things: the first “their” refers to “Purseblog,” and the second refers to “comments.” Or maybe “features”—I can’t decide. If it’s “features,” I wouldn’t have used that comma after “brands.” See? Punctuation is supposed to make things easy to understand for your readers, and that’s not what happens here. Well, at any rate, if the first “their” refers to a company, it’s wrong, because companies are always singular and always an “it.”
9) Friedman’s Shoes was the place where a man seven-feet tall with a size 22 foot could buy shoes the way everyone else does — right off the shelf.
No hyphen in the height: the man was seven feet tall, but, the seven-foot-tall man. Here’s the rule: Put hyphens in a compound adjective that precedes the noun being modified, but no hyphens if the compound adjective follows the modified noun.
I also wouldn’t have used a dash there. I would have used a colon, remembering the “namely” rule for colon use. A dash completely separates the material that follows the dash from the rest of the sentence, so this dash is not correct because “right off the shelf” is necessary to understand the meaning of the sentence.
10) In 1998, the NBA lockout, hit many of their best customers in the pocket.
Never let a comma come between the subject and its verb, so that comma after “lockout” is incorrect. If you were using a descriptive phrase containing parenthetical information (which would have a pair of commas if in the middle of a sentence), that would be another matter.
Also, since “their” refers back to “Friedman’s Shoes,” that’s incorrect, since a company is singular and an “it”: In 1998, the NBA lockout hit many of its best customers in the pocket.
11) Our team of experts are available to speak to your organization at no cost.
Ouch. “Team” is a singular noun, and so this sentence should read “Our team of experts is available.…”
12) In fact, I happen to be on vacation right now! I’m spending some time up in Monterey, California with my family.
Here’s a place where you do need that qualifier (“California”) and, when you do use the name of a state, you’ve got to put a comma after it.
13) So if you’re still making the huge mistake of thinking that you’ll “never” be able to create the financial situation you really want…
Please. Why the quotes around “never”? Here’s the test: imagine you’re speaking to someone; during the course of the conversation, would you make an “air quotes” gesture when you were saying “never”? In this case, no.
14) Toastmasters International, “Where Leaders Are Made” is the world’s largest non-profit educational organization dedicated entirely to improving leadership and communication skills.
“Where Leaders Are Made” is parenthetical information, and so should be enclosed by commas. The trick to deciding whether or not your punctuation is correct is to see if you can remove the entire phrase nestled between those commas and still have a sentence that makes sense. In this case, you’ve got to have a second comma there, and it’s got to be in between “made” and the quotation mark. Those capital letters are okay, because that’s the organization’s slogan.
Also, “nonprofit” is one word, no hyphen. It’s “not-for-profit” that needs the hyphens.
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