The Song Fight Bulletin Board

tviyh wrote:

Denyer wrote:MC Denyer + Crapalot should be ...

or we could curtail this entire lenghthy discourse by changing to...

"MC Denyer + MC Crapalot"

If MC means Master of Ceremonies, would we be Master of Ceremonies Denyer and Master of Ceremonies Crapalot, or would we be Masters of Ceremonies Denyer and Crapalot?

jb wrote:Numbers up to ten are spelled out. Be very mindful of this rule. It's important.

Isn't that style-dependent? i.e. APA style would hold that to be true, but it's not a universal, is it?

reve wrote:

jb wrote:Numbers up to ten are spelled out. Be very mindful of this rule. It's important.

Isn't that style-dependent? i.e. APA style would hold that to be true, but it's not a universal, is it?

i was kidding a little. Chicago complicates the shit all up. Me, I go by what looks right in context-- 'cause i get paid for pragmatism.

Puce wrote:

j$ wrote: if you want to mark out the abbreviations it would M.Cs (which I grant you looks dumb).

As long as we're all being pedants: Abbreviated it would be M.C.'s. Like how you have a professor who has two Ph.D.'s.

Also, if there were multiple bands called Son Of Supercar, even without the abbreviation they would be SOS's, to separate the final "S" from the pluralizing "s". If both SOS's collaborated on a song, well, I can't imagine the ensuing ambiguity.

Actually no, it would be M.Cs. M.C.'s Crapalot would not only mean 'the Crapalot belonging to M.C' but also you can't have two punctuation marks directly next to each other, so the the more 'important' one would supercede the other. However this is all moot, as the apostrophe, where it is, is actually meaningless. Although this is based on The (London) Times style guide, so I appreciate it might be different across the ocean.

The plural SOS thing I would have to check. My natural inclinations would be to write 'There are two SOS collaborating this week' or some such.

I [heart] you.

j$ wrote:

Denyer wrote:MC Denyer + Crapalot should be MC's Denyer + Crapalot, since we are both equally MCs.

No it should be MCs Denyer + Crapalot. A plural does not require an apostrophe; or if you want to mark out the abbreviations it would M.Cs (which I grant you looks dumb). As you have punctuated it, it means an anonymous MC owns Denyer and Crapalot.



Johnny The Grammar Grandma.

My second grade math teacher denied the existence of negative numbers.

john m wrote:Regarding using apostrophes for plurals with letter or numbers:

I was checking my sister's (8th grade) English homework, when she was going over this particular subject. I was about to mark it all wrong, because she used apostrophes to pluralize Cs and 9s and so on. Then I looked at the directions at the top which explain how to do it correctly, and it states that using apostrophes to pluralize numbers or single letters is correct. That's what the kids are being taught today, folks.

Band names that create grammatical paradoxes, or which are simply too frikkin' long to frikkin' type (Neil Thrun I am looking at you) will henceforth be altered however FightMaster sees fit.

Gemini6Ice wrote:My second grade math teacher denied the existence of negative numbers.

It might be easier to do that, and risk alienating one or two kids, than to blow the minds of kids who have a hard time with the idea of borrowing, or who can't differentiate between a "d" and a "b". Tell me your 6th grade teacher only believed in numbers greater than 0 and I'll be appalled.

jb wrote:Numbers up to ten are spelled out.

I actually found out from my english instructor that if the number's spelling equals two words (or less), it should be written out. I personally find that a little too lengthy in some cases, though. This rule is particularly for writing essays and such, not necessarily for business or statistical types of reports.

Calfborg wrote:

jb wrote:Numbers up to ten are spelled out.

I actually found out from my english instructor that if the number's spelling equals two words (or less), it should be written out. I personally find that a little too lengthy in some cases, though. This rule is particularly for writing essays and such, not necessarily for business or statistical types of reports.

Here's my impression, for whatever it's worth. I've had a lot of caffeine and can't seem to keep myself from blathering on about this sort of thing.

In an essay you don't want your reader's brain to break out of essay-reading-mode into math-mode. If the fact of a 6 is important, rather than the fact that there are six, then use the numeral to get that across. Just as you would any set of options when writing. An object can be thrown, tossed, flung etc.

To be an artist is to make choices. Where we often fail is in the shallowness of our critical thinking. Everything's a choice. Let nothing be assumed. To put this concept in musical terms, 'cellists have a tendency to put vibrato on every note they possibly can, and the *same* vibrato on every note they possibly can. This is not the path to artistry, grasshopper! One should choose whether a note receives fast or slow vibrato, or none whatsoever. Good pop singers make that particular choice as a matter of course. Good writers should make similar choices.

Another 'cello example. Beginners use open strings. Advanced beginners, in a misconception of musicality, avoid them at all costs. Experts choose to use them or not, according to context.

In my regular life as a "technical" writer, I make such choices as a matter of craft rather than art. To be successful, the things I'm writing must lead the reader towards a specific result. So word choice is important. If I'm too clever, it's distracting. If I say 6 instead of six, it could be distracting, or be perceived as imprecise where precision (or the impression of precision) is required.

Blahblahblah turning head off now.

jb

jb wrote:

Calfborg wrote:

jb wrote:Numbers up to ten are spelled out.

I actually found out from my english instructor that if the number's spelling equals two words (or less), it should be written out. I personally find that a little too lengthy in some cases, though. This rule is particularly for writing essays and such, not necessarily for business or statistical types of reports.

Here's my impression, for whatever it's worth. I've had a lot of caffeine and can't seem to keep myself from blathering on about this sort of thing.....

jb

I agree with your idea of emphasis and circumstantial usage. It's ultimately a pretty shitty deal trying to put any 'official' rule on a grammatical element with so many different uses that are often dependent on preference.

Good talk.

Hm. My rule of thumb has always been "spell it out if the spelled-out words come to ten or fewer characters."

Calfborg wrote:

jb wrote:Numbers up to ten are spelled out.

I actually found out from my english instructor that if the number's spelling equals two words (or less), it should be written out. I personally find that a little too lengthy in some cases, though. This rule is particularly for writing essays and such, not necessarily for business or statistical types of reports.

I have to agree, however, that issues such as spelling out words are not grammatical issues, but stylistic choices. Thus, any rule will be a guideline. And, as we all know, if you have a good enough reason to do art a certain way, then do it that way.

jb[/quote]
I agree with your idea of emphasis and circumstantial usage. It's ultimately a pretty shitty deal trying to put any 'official' rule on a grammatical element with so many different uses that are often dependent on preference.

Good talk.[/quote]

what i heard on the spelling-out-numbers issue (which, again, is just another person's opinion) was that you should always spell out any number which is three digits or less ("one hundred"; "sixty-four"; "three"; but "1,000"). the exception to this, as i heard it, is if there is a list of numbers and some of them are greater than three digits, do not spell out any of them, for consistency.

Of course. Parallel style in order to show that you are aware of more than one word in your text at once. ^_^

tviyh wrote:what i heard on the spelling-out-numbers issue (which, again, is just another person's opinion) was that you should always spell out any number which is three digits or less ("one hundred"; "sixty-four"; "three"; but "1,000"). the exception to this, as i heard it, is if there is a list of numbers and some of them are greater than three digits, do not spell out any of them, for consistency.

Puce wrote:Also, if there were multiple bands called Son Of Supercar, even without the abbreviation they would be SOS's, to separate the final "S" from the pluralizing "s". If both SOS's collaborated on a song, well, I can't imagine the ensuing ambiguity.

The proper way to refer to them, of course, would be Sons of Supercar.

As an abbreviation it'd be SOSes.

From what I understand, sonofsupercar prefers to have their band name in lower case letters, and with no spaces between the words.

ROCK!

Glenn (DR FUNK)

And if there were another one spelled that way then it'd be sonofsupercars. But as an acronym it'd still be appropriate to spell it SOS/SOSes.